Arcticu Kitsu's blog

Heyo! I just acquired the “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” bundle through Best Buy, arriving by Canada Post. Purchased it because I was curious about New Leaf and wanted to get creative by adding in Busou Shinki characters into the game. Simple playful comical fun!

-> Arcticu Dream Address within; Arcticu daily play-through updated on a weekly basis, links within.

(All images taken with a Lumix GF1 – Pancake lens and the 3DS’s capture device.)

I haven’t played Animal Crossing before, only heard of it. I’ve heard of people’s nostalgic memories, game-plays, and similar that I simply had to try it out. Basically one having the ability to freely do as they desire while also taking command of a little village in a mayor manner was quite interesting. You also have the ability to partake in events whenever they come your way, as well as taking advantage of the patterns to customize your town to your liking.

Simple curiosity that eventually also caught onto how you can customize various parts of the game; the whole custom designs on town flag, town tune, outfits, furniture, and outdoor patterns. You can design things at the most basic level adding in a bigger replay value towards the game.

If I had to compare this game to something, it would be a simplified Minecraft and a simplified SimCity. I don’t want to use this, but also a Facebook application, but for the go. To me, it has that freedom mixed in with the collector’s vibe along with digging up fossils and ores; very simplified in a complex way. You catch bugs, fish, collect, exchange, and sell things as you would within Minecraft. Granted, I’m stretching the whole Minecraft example because you can’t dig underground, yet it somehow works the best as an example with the freedom.

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– Unboxing:

With the package arriving in an odd manner I was also startled by how small it was. Was startled by how it managed to fit in the tiny mail-box. Either way, I had my fun having Renge open up the package and to basically unbox it for me. Nice basic yet pleasing box to great you in a proper way. It has to with that price!

Not much on the Animal Crossing designs or info, just the basic “you’re the mayor” information and that the game is pre-installed.

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-> Dream Address:
5500-2168-7408 – Arcticu Town; Thanks for the visit!

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– Daily Play-Through:

All on Tumblr to keep things more simple for me. I’ll start switching to shortened dates when I happen to skip days due to real-life distractions and similar. Enjoy!

– Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 & P2 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 17 & P2 – Day 18 – Day 19 – Day 20 –

(Shall see a weekly-monthly update.)

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– The Birth of Arcticu!

Welcome to my little town of Arcticu! I hope you’ll enjoy your stay, pay a visit, or even follow me along as I attempt to transform my town into a Busou Shinki themed one, even with the limitations.

– WOOT! Arcticu is now founded! Started off by lining the plaza with red and white tulips I saw. Did as much as I could by catching bugs, exploring, saying hello to my villagers, and even had my fortune told by selling off the peaches. I eventually obtained Cherries from Izebelle for doing tasks and asking for advice.

Got stung by bees TWICE! I tried running into homes but couldn’t figure out how to open those doors. I would have missed both if I just knew the buttons! Even found myself the money rock, obtaining a nice amount for screwing over.

– Ruby has one awesome home! It’s like being in space, but where does she sleep? 🙂

– Nice! Found myself a nice clothing catch with the Samurai Outfit and the Pilot hat! Even obtained Steampunk Glasses for the bee stings.

I noticed that most of the town’s mayor-related duties were inaccessible because I had a visitor in town. That is a bit off-putting when my inventory gets stuffed from looting the scenery. Had to later boot my friend after the town-tour.

Before doing such, I ended up chatting up Gladys while waiting for my friend to return from an AFK situation. I came across many dialogues, most being fresh while some being familiar from watching too many WiiFolderJosh (The Fold) and GameXplain videos. I have to say that I’m surprised by the amount of dialogue these characters have written onto them.

With that, I’m hoping to show more as time goes by. This game is played in small sessions taking months and even years to play. It is an unending “life-sim” game in a vacation hot-spot.

I’m looking forward to attending the various festive events. I shall participate within each and every one, most specifically in “Naughty or Nice Day” within Europe region.

The weather is also a beauty! I started mine on a sunny day with it having the chance to turn cloudy, rainy, thundering, or even snowing during the winter. The seasons change real-time with your time from Summer, fall, winter, to fall and back again.

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– Final Thoughts:

From what I’ve seen and played this game is awesome! Well worth it! I know I only played one day, though I shall be using both other people’s Let’s Plays and my first day experience for these thoughts. It is a game played in a similar manner to Minecraft, and a game that is instead played in short-bursts, not lengthy ones. You can do as you wish, create almost what you want, while also collecting stuff in a similar fashion as collecting sports cards for your binder. This town is your slow-paced vacation, not your fast-paced game to act like a lemming by showing off how many kills you’ve scored.

You can decorate your town as you wish, same with the furniture, clothing, flag and etc. You’re the mayor! Everything is at your (comical) mayor mercy!

From the dialogue, music, interactions, clothing, insects, fish, home items, and etc, everything is numerous. Everything is detailed giving you something to look forward to each day. There are even festive events to have you unwind and to have fun with more items for you to collect and share. I had my fun catching bugs and fishing, as trivial as that sounds, it was actually quite entertaining. Having to flee from Bees after dropping their beehives from trees, and that awesome feeling you get for catching the right insect or fish. Little fun like that brings back a nice positive spin in place of kids and teens pretending to be special in PVP games. I love PVP (Battlefield) but people can be real pricks which takes the fun out of everything. This game adds that simple genuine fun which would turn into nostalgia later down the line

Everything compliments itself so nicely that it actually does feel like a vacation of its own at that. A fun vacation! Something to destress after a long day or having to deal with idiots all day long, fun for those having a hard time outdoors. Water those plants at night, build something fancy,  go fish, or catch bugs for the museum. With the four town ordinances I can turn my town into a nice green place to mimic Ottawa’s touristic call.

I do however have my gripes with this game. Nintendo didn’t do anything proper about the villagers notifying you or Mr. Nook, destroying or moving into a plot you didn’t want them to. There are also pattern restrictions, lacking pattern slots, limited places to build, and the 30 limit public works limit. You can’t even have multiple item storage with cabinets. My main issue being mostly with the town folks moving in wherever they please with a day notice, destroying things in the process. Late game also feels like a greedy Facebook gaming application with the limited Public Works and the 30 building cap.

The time-traveling issue is a big one because it takes the fun out of Animal Crossing, like-wise with people going Creative in Minecraft later crying that the game itself is boring. Your fault! I’ve seen people complain about their gaming experience being ruined with both and they have themselves to blame. I’m amused by Mr. Resetti detouring people from doing just that, even going as far as rotting Turnips for the game’s Stalk Market, in place of the real Stock Market.

I highly recommend this game to anybody willing to have simple quick fun while enjoying the little things adding up to a big enjoyable experience. Calling this game boring or similar just flags you as a boring individual, and incorrect at that. I’m not saying you have to like it or buy it, just that like with Minecraft one has to have an mind to enjoy this without a negative mindset. If you want to have fun, you will have fun without needing to force yourself. Of course AC isn’t meant for anybody, yet it can be played by everybody, if given the chance.

– In Short: It is a fun playful game that takes you on a vacation, even festive when matched up to real dates. Celebrate and party! Be creative in this vacation life-sim. I recommend this to people, adult or not.

– Fox Spirit Seal of Approval –

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– Pros:

– The freedom of doing whatever you want. Well, mostly.
– The dialogue is hilarious, numerous, and quite entertaining.
– The customization of outfits, town flag, town tune, furniture, photo-ops boards, and sign-boards.
– Great deal of customization and furniture variety to decorate one’s home. You can expand it at your own pace adding whatever you want.
– Able to have up to four museum show-pieces for your (best-)friends to visit whenever they visit your town. You can show off anything you’d like within the game, even paintings or similar.
– Catching bugs, insects, and fish is actually fun and entertaining.
– You can grow plants if you have a green thumb. Make sure the animals don’t destroy your garden!
– Having friends join you in multiplayer is a breeze. The train-station connects you to people locally and far away with a push of a button. Make sure to have wifi to connect with those individuals far away.
– Each animal remembers your interactions with them and others. They will also keep and show off your mail.
– Weather changes with your set time; Rain, cloudy, sunny, thundering, snowing.
– Four seasons changes with your set time; Summer, Fall, Winter, and spring.
– You can build snowman during the winter and win prizes.
– Animals can chip into your public works by donating Bells.
– DLC content for those looking to collect exclusives. “Gotta catch them all!”

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– Cons:

– Time-Traveling; Just like with Minecraft, I get highly annoyed when people find ways or excuses to “cheat”. I’m the type of person to enjoy a game in the style it was to played in; Waiting for events, projects to complete, and anything relating to time. Tempting, but no thanks! Resetti, come back!
– Not being able to nudge or move villagers to a more appropriate place. It appears Nintendo purposely allowed such to slip through to purposely annoy us Mayors, or simply lazy. We need the power to formally relocate our villagers. Needs to be patched before heading into a sequel. No excuses!
– Seems quite silly to have outdoor furniture only being able to be placed indoors and not outdoors in a garden or similar.  I would love to be able to place indoor furniture outdoors.
– Game feels like a greedy Facebook application when you have a limit on Public Works on 30. Needs to be raised to around 40with more public works options. It feels highly restricting.
– Limited dialogue in places. Understandable though with the type of game it is.
– Animals chip in only a little bit into your projects by donating Bells into them. Would be “better” if they chipped in roughly a quarter up to half the cost, not a small percentage.
– Town-hall flag & Station flag is square, not wide. No option to change it from square to wide, like actual flags.
– Fruits and coins don’t stack when you collect them off the ground. It clogs up your inventory swiftly, just like in Minecraft yet quicker.
– Accidentally going into the sell menu at the Nooklings when trying to get your fortune told. Would help if the option automatically went into the fortune-telling option when selecting the fortune cookies to purchase.

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– Things to Improve on and add:

This may end up being ignored by Nintendo but I would like to give my feedback on how to improve Animal Crossing. I do however want to force Nintendo into fixing an important issue of villagers on-top of other people’s projects by having an emergency patch to forcefully nudge villagers to a more appropriate location.

– DLC Public Work Projects:  This needs to ignore the 30 limit building cap to allow for uniqueness to be added. Towns start to feel the same.
– Villager Nudging: As the mayor you should be given the power to formally nudge an NPC’s home a few spaces over or elsewhere. It gets quite irritating when they move into places you wanted to or are building at; Mandatory patching needed!
– Town-to-town Mail: You should be allowed to mail other people, no matter how trivial it seems at meetings. It would make sense when contacting those offline.
– Outdoor accessories: There are some outdoors accessories you can place within your home that need to be placed outdoors in your town. Quite silly to have outdoor furniture which you can’t place outdoors.
– Sports: I noticed past games had a soccer-ball like feature only for it to be moved. Would be interesting if returned in a comical stadium manner for your town.

Sadly, Nintendo will take this as “ideas will be thrown in the garbage!” manner. Most of it can, not the villagers moving in where they please. That itself isn’t an idea but a desperate cry, begging, recommendation for them to fix such.

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Thanks for reviewing and hope you can assist me and other fellow mayors to improve our towns! Hope to see you in your own town in one way or another. Shall share more images at a later date, mostly on Tumblr and maybe even on a bi-monthly basis.

See you soon in Arcticu!