While Animal Crossing can provide a soothing and slow paced experience that's rarer and rarer in the modern day, players should be careful considering a return to the franchise. Animal Crossing's gameplay, world, and general feel has enraptured countless fans since the Nintendo GameCube and promises to do so long into the future. Nintendo's life sim offers something uniquely wholesome and approachable yet endlessly playable, but possibly to players' own detriment.
Animal Crossing is a unique series that's served as a calming escape for weary players, but it can also gobble up hours of their time without a second thought. Animal Crossing is built on running small errands, doing chores, visiting friends and stores, and building things, all of which can end up taking a considerable amount of time to do. Along with stopping to smell the flowers of Animal Crossing, it can prove an unfit choice for those low on time or otherwise can't manage time well. Animal Crossing gives the player some fairly clear goals starting out (pay off Nook, build a bridge across a river, get to know the neighbors), but after the game's initial goals it's left to the player to decide what's next. Sometimes it can feel a little unclear when a player should stop since they can always come up with one more thing to do.
Animal Crossing's Extensive Content Makes It Hard To Put Down
For some players, the collection of wildlife and historical items such as fossils, fish, and insects is what keeps them from putting down the controller. Animal Crossing has hundreds of sea creatures and bugs ever since the first game and the libraries of fossils and critters only grows with each entry. Some of these creatures have extremely rare scenarios to find them in, only available during some seasons or rare natural occurrences, and may also be incredibly hard to catch meaning setting up the perfect scenario to find and catch these animals isn't the end for most players.Trying to fill out the collections even to 80% will find players investing enough time to make a modern MOBA jealous.
For other players, it's all about building and tailoring the game world to their liking. Between acquiring their favorite villagers, getting the best decorations for their house, building an island in line with their aesthetic, or even figuring out the best catchphrases for their Animal Crossing villagers, players driven to create the perfect world will find themselves always chasing the next possible item to play with. There are thousands of decorative items to dress a player's expansive home or village with, and some of them are even locked behind rare trader spawns, making the journey to the perfect home even more time-consuming.
All of these things make Animal Crossing sound like a wonderfully comfortable game, which for many satisfied players it is. But these same attributes are what also make the game hard to play for those that only have so much time to kick back and game. Players may think to themselves they can just pick it up for a bit and say hello to their favorite neighbors, but then they see plentiful weeds have taken over their haven, a new seasonal Animal Crossing event or item has shown up, a rare trader happens to be in town, and so on. Animal Crossing is a soothing experience, but can be too relaxing for its own good regarding players with strict schedules.