04/04/2016

Animal Crossing-New Leaf: Day 27


After nearly a month on a steady diet of New Leaf, the cracks are beginning to show.

I was truly delighted by the cherry blossom event, which I celebrated by wolfing down a bowl of real-life udon along with an unholy number of sakura-flavoured daifuku mochis and manju cakes; but after witnessing the blooming of these lovely pink blossoms, my interest for the game dropped dramatically. I had been impatiently waiting for that event for a couple of weeks; and now that it is finally there, I have nothing left to look forward to in the immediate future.

It certainly doesn't help that I've had a truly hard time finding something gripping to do during my daily play sessions for the last days. I didn't give up on my project to create the ultimate peach orchard, but I'm now questioning the whole purpose of that project. What will I do with these mountains of peaches? Sure, they look pretty and they sell better than the local cherry, but what will I do with the money? After having built two bridges, a fence and a fountain, I'm done with all the public work projects that interested me, and my house is already enormous with its two stories, so I'm not especially looking forward to expanding it again. New pieces of furniture appear very seldom in the local shops, so I can't even indulge in a home decoration spree. My fellow villagers are still fun and quirky, but their babbling is not enough to hold my attention. In a nutshell, I'm bored, and dangerously close to giving up on New Leaf entirely.

I guess this untimely boredom is partly related to the way I play New Leaf. I deprived myself from two of the greatest incentives to play that game, i.e. the collecting of insects/works of art/fossils through the Museum and the internet feature that allows players to go social and visit other players' towns. Of course, there was no way I could have proceeded otherwise, since I'm neither a completionist nor a social gamer—which leads me to the conclusion that this game may simply not be the right one for me. Let's face it, there is little in New Leaf that is bound to glue me to my 3DS screen once the thrill of the early stages has evaporated.

Don't get me wrong: I totally understand the game's philosophy, and I can even claim that I subscribe to said philosophy. The idea of a game that offers an atmospheric experience in a tiny sandbox game world and treats the player to a daily dose of unexpected little events is an alluring one, and one that is bound to attract me on paper; unfortunately, the translation of this concept in New Leaf doesn't quite satisfy me. There is simply not enough happening on a daily basis to keep me hooked, and the absence of any goal to pursue makes matters worse. New Leaf emulates the real-life feeling of waking up in the morning and wondering what the day will bring—only in a pint-sized world that's considerably less exciting than the real one. If I want to be surprised on a daily basis by unexpected little events, I simply have to get up and go on with my day; I don't need to open my 3DS and mill about in a teeny-tiny and oversimplistic game world. What I expect from a videogame is a goal to pursue and a game world that makes me travel and daydream, all things that are absent from New Leaf.

Of course, this may be just a phase; or it may be the surefire sign that I need to play New Leaf a little less frequently. What is certain is that I don't feel like playing the game right now, so I will leave it untouched for a few days and see how things evolve. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

2 comments:

  1. Sadly, I share your opinion. At the beginning, I was obsessed with the game, counting my working hours 'til I would be allowed to go home playing...
    Once I visited the island, the pleasure decreased, like if I'd seen it all, nothing much exciting after that.
    Thought, I did not played for a year now, I maybe should give it another try ^^

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    1. The thing is, you've literally "seen at all" after visiting the island, since there is no new area to discover after that. I remember that my interest started dropping roughly at the same point and never peaked up again after that, despite my attempts to rekindle the flame.

      I actually didn't touch Animal Crossing after writing that post. I didn't even feel like writing the obligatory "wrap-up" post, because my last hours with the game were so dull and anti-climatic that I didn't want to think about them, let alone write about them. I had fun with Animal Crossing, but when all is played and done, I really don't think it's the right game for me!

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