So this isn't really a review as much as it is just me droppin' bits about my experience with New Leaf thusfar. What I find most fascinating is how it's such a perfect culmination of what Animal Crossing had already achieved up to this point, for better and worse, and I'll explain what I mean about that in a minute, but also setting up future stuff as well.
You can see, within New Leaf, inklings of the camping mobile game and of course Happy Home Designer, which is really neat because it shows, I think, how far ahead Nintendo had planned this franchises future by then. It's also cool how it's built off it's predecessors, like I said, for better and worse. While I have no complaints about the original on the GameCube, I unfortunately have quite a few complaints about City Folk for the Wii.
Mostly, what I appreciate about New Leaf, is they've taken the concept of City Folk (a thriving business center filled with shops) and plopped it down into the original concept of Animal Crossing, which is simply being in a cozy small town. I didn't like the way the city aspect was handled in City Folk, it felt tacked on at best and forgotten about at worst, but the way New Leaf approaches it is perfect, brilliant, and works so much better. I also love the fact that there's a small second hand store IN the town, not among the other stores, which in my opinion, is basically the replacement for the town dump, which they seemed to have removed after the original game. I'm glad this flea market aspect exists, as it makes getting rid of things just a tad bit easier, and more fun because of the unique stuff you can sometimes find there.
I will say one thing, though, about New Leaf, which is that they really made it super easy to achieve monetary success. Perhaps it's because you're the mayor and thusly you NEED that money in order to work on public projects and whatnot, but with the addition of the Meow Coupons being able to be exchanged for (quite a bit, if you ask me) bells, the inclusion of the ever present bells falling from trees or out of rocks, and the fact that Re-Tail will give you, honestly, way more than anyone ever should for a goddamned mushroom, it no longer feels grindy. Animal Crossing used to feel like you really had to work for that money, to pay off your house or whatever.
But perhaps that's just a sign up how the times have changed too. Animal Crossing came out in 2002, and things were very different financially, and in the way people thought of finances. I'm in no way complaining or bemoaning or some other big level college buzzword for hating on the fact that New Leaf makes gaining currency very easy. If anything, it makes life a lot more enjoyable, WHICH IS WHY PEOPLE ARE PUSHING FOR UNIVERSAL INCOME TO BEGIN WITH. Because nobody should have to struggle and exhaust themselves simply to exist in a world they didn't ask to be born into. Anyway, the politics of fake video game currency aside, it was just another thing I noticed.
New Leaf is....tremendous. It really is. I always seem to get to stuff way after everyone else does, not in terms of popularity but in terms of actually engaging with it, and this is especially true with games because I am poor as SHIT, but in a lot of ways it helps. It helps being completely separate from a community churning out talking points constantly about the thing you're trying to wholly immerse yourself in and find out your own opinion of without being colored by anyone elses first. New Leaf is fantastic, and easily as good as the first, if not even better in some ways, and I never thought I'd say that.
I do have to point out I never played the original DS game for the franchise, but I hear it was just a watered down City Folk, so who knows, maybe I will, maybe I won't. Anyway, those are some thoughts on my time spent in New Leaf so far. I love Animal Crossing. It makes me feel so safe in a world that is absolutely terrifying.
