Animal Crossing: New Horizons has proven itself to be a massive hit for Nintendo, given that the game continues to blaze a trail ever since its release early this year. A few weeks ago, Nintendo happily announced that Animal Crossing: New Horizons was able to sell 22 million copies worldwide, which is definitely an impressive milestone for a game that is barely a year old.
Of course, much of the game’s appeal comes from its slow and relaxing pace that became an escape of some sort for some people especially with the many challenges the world is facing this year. However, there are still some features that players are still looking for in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, especially when comparing it to other games such as Marvelous’ Story of Seasons franchise.
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Although Animal Crossing and Story of Seasons offer players a relaxing gameplay experience, the focus of both games is different from one another with the former being a social simulator and the latter centered on tending a farm. However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has already laid the groundwork to introduce farming into the game, given that players can plant trees and flowers in their villages. Of course, a more in-depth farming experience would bring a new activity for players to get busy with every day, and it appears that this feature is already being considered by Nintendo.
Just last month, dataminers revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons may add farming in a future update. After sorting through the game’s files, they discovered some related to carrots, potatoes, squash, sugar cane, tomatoes, and wheat, suggesting that the ability to grow vegetables could be added in the game. Of course, players should remember that the existence of these files in the game doesn’t guarantee that a farming feature will be added soon, given that they may have considered adding the feature at one point but decided to scrap it altogether.
Another great feature that was introduced in recent Story of Seasons games is the ability to get a job outside of the player’s farm. In numerous titles, players can check out job listings from other villagers posted in a bulletin board. These jobs range from bringing them certain items and crops and performing some sort of service which is done by playing a mini-game. Of course, each job done would earn players some cash and improve their relationship with the quest giver. Although it is worth pointing out that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has the feature in some small capacity, most of which via requests from Tom Nook. However, it would be nice if other villagers in the game would also ask for the help of the player. This feature would add to the many activities players can do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and could be another way for them to increase their relationships with their neighbors while earning some extra bells for their troubles.
One of the biggest criticisms that Animal Crossing: New Horizons received when it was released last March is the inability for players to create multiple save files that would contain separate islands per save file. Although each Nintendo account could create their own character in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, each of them would have to play on the same island, given that Nintendo limits one island per console. Of course, this could be problematic for several people sharing a single Nintendo Switch, or those who fancy having several save files that contain different islands that sport a different theme.
In Story of Seasons, players are able to create multiple save files allowing those who share a console to have their own villages. Although the game will soon let players backup their save files via the cloud, it is unclear whether Nintendo would ever allow this feature on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, especially since the game has been selling extremely well and is also driving the sales of the Nintendo Switch itself. Nonetheless, it would be beneficial in the long-run for players to have the ability to create multiple islands on one device.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for the Nintendo Switch.
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