Nintendo Direct: Animal Crossing New Horizons!
Okay Okay so this Direct was AMAZING! So much new info!! And can I just say how much I still adore the graphics? The game just looks SO GOOD.
So to start off, you can choose from 4 different islands at the start of the game, and whether you’d like to play in the Northern or a Southern Hemispheres. Which is super neat since I could experience the other hemisphere through this game without having to travel! Lol
I’m also loving how the cherry blossom trees look, they’re just so cute and detailed! As I said in the picture above, you can now make flower crowns! This picture also shows another neat thing, that when you pick flowers, their stems stay behind so they can grow again! It’s a little thing, but I love it.
I also saw that you can collect seeds, mushrooms, and even fallen leaves in autumn, as well as collecting ornaments from shaken trees in winter! So neat. I wonder how you use the ornaments, maybe you can decorate your own tree in your house! That would be super cool.
When you arrive on your chosen island, two residents arrive with you, which I assume is random. You get a short orientation with Nook and the Nooklings, where they give you a tent. You can put your tent anywhere on the island, as well as choosing where the tents of two residents you arrived are placed! Which is new and awesome since they now won’t put their tents right in front of yours or ruins your layout! Lol
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Facilities
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Now on to the facilities of the island! First up is the Resident Services tent:
- Open 24/7, this building is where you buy and sell items, get advice, and use the DIY workbench!
- Once you learn some DIY recipes, you can craft the item on the DIY workbench!
- You can craft lots of items from the materials you find by following recipes!
- DIY Customization! You can take an item you’ve crafted to the workbench and change its look! You can choose from a few options, or add a custom design you’ve made yourself!
I’m super excited about the custom designs, I can’t wait to make some! It’s one of my favorite things to do in previous games.
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Next is the Airport! It’s such a cute lil airport, and I love the Dodos!
- This is where you go for local or wireless play!
- You can also visit other people’s islands!
- Up to 8 players can be on one island!
- The airport also has an in game postal service to send letters to residents!
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Special Services
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First of these is your Nook Phone! It has many useful apps for the new island adventurer: Camera, Map, DIY recipes, and Custom Designer. A few more will gradually be unlocked as well!
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Next, at the the start of each day, Nook will host an island-wide broadcast on the latest island events, advice, and more. To be honest, I’m a little worried that this might halt gameplay a bit, but as long as they aren’t very long it’ll be fine.
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Thirdly on the Special Services is Nook Miles! Nook Miles are rewards you get for doing little quests during your time on the island, like catching a certain kind or amount fish or bugs, saying hello to your residents, etc. You can use these accumulated miles to pay off your Deserted Island Getaway Package, and once that’s paid off, you can buy in game rewards from the Nook Shop Terminal, such as clothing and accessories, or things that can enrich your time on the island! These items include better DIY recipes, Nook Miles Tickets, Custom Design Pro Editor, new hairstyles, and so much more.
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Exploring & Dangers of the Island
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There’s still a few dangers like wasps and scorpions, so be careful when exploring your island or shaking trees! The clip showed that you get stung (as usual), or something worse where they show the villager passing out! My theory is that maybe you could get swarmed and stung so much that you pass out, but they didn’t show what happened afterwards. Maybe you wake up at your tent/house? Or do you wake up in that spot? We’ll just have to wait and see!
As you wander at night you’ll encounter different bugs and fish than during the day, and you might even run into Wisp the ghost!
Gulliver will also wash up on your islands’ beaches from time to time, so make sure to check on him when he does! He’ll need your help to get his destination!
If you get lost or stuck while exploring your island, you can pull out your trusty Nook Phone and call for the Rescue Services! The screen goes black and a text bubble appears, the operator says a few lines and then it drops you in front of your tent/house. From what it sounds like Resetti has gotten a new job as a rescue ranger, and I love it! It doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to be used for fast travel, but depending on when you get it, I think that’s what it might end up being used for, lol.
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Optional Extras
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Here are what they call Optional Extras, but for me, I’m definitely gonna be utilizing all of these features!
First, we’ll take a look at Building a House!
Even on a deserted island you’ll be able to get a loan from Nook (of course lol), and build your own house instead of living in a tent. You can freely design your house just like in Happy Home Designer! I love that they finally implemented this feature and I can’t wait to design my perfect house! You can see the room you’re designing from many different angles, and can grab many furniture items at once. Your house also has a storage space to hold items you’re not using at the moment, and you’ll be to expand and remodel!
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Next, we’ll take a look at the Nook Miles Tickets! With these tickets you’ll be able to travel to distant mysterious islands full of trees and flowers, and you might even see animal who’s also exploring the island! The islands you visit will also be different every time, and you can take home whatever you’d like!
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The third Optional Extra is Party Play! Up to 8 players can have a house on your island, and you can call up to 4 of them to play cooperatively! The player who called the others is the leader while the other 3 are followers, and you can explore the island together! You can also easily swap who’s leader. I always like this kind of local co-op in these kind of games, it sounds neat and I’ll definitely be playing with some friends! Any fish, bugs, or items found by followers will be stored in the recycle bin in the Resident Services tent.
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The last but not least Optional Extra is the Real-World Services in the Switch Online App! It’s called the Nook Link and you can scan QR code’s from New Leaf and Happy Home Designer and download them to New Horizons and you can also use the text/voice chat! This service will launch shortly after the game!
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Deserted Island Developments
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As your island becomes more developed, Nook will invite new animals, you’ll also be able to invite some yourself, and reserve spots for their new houses! Nooks Cranny, The Able Sisters, the Museum and the Campground will also be able to be developed! Super excited about this, I can’t wait to see more of them, especially the museum! It’s GORGEOUS. OMG the fossils and aquarium and bug exhibits are just SO BEAUTIFUL.
Nooks Cranny will have items for sale that you can’t craft yourself. The Able Sisters and Campground are the seemingly the same as in the previous games, but they look great!
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Resident Services will start out as a tent but can be expanded into a proper town hall building and will also expand the housing business so you can customize the exterior of your house and even relocate that or any of your facilities if you want! That sounds pretty cool.
Isabelle is back and is helping with services regarding the overall environment of your island, such as island evals (evaluations), island flag, island tune, and discussing residents.
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There will also be some familiar faces along with some new ones coming to visit from time to time, including:
- Labelle
- Saharah
- Harvey
- Celeste (who tells you about a magic wand)
- Daisy Mae (The new turnip seller)
- Kicks (who now also sells bags?? So cool)
- C.J. (New fishing tourney leader, guessing it stands for Chip Jr.)
- Flick (the new bug off leader, I love their design so much)
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Free Updates!
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There will be plenty of free updates going forward, including ones for seasonal guest animals and events!
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Further Island Development
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Once the island is “fully decked out” (not sure what the actual qualifier is), you’ll get a new app on your Nook Phone called Island Designer where you’ll be able to modify the island itself! You can make paths! Grass, dirt, stone, sand and even custom ones! You can get waterscaping and cliff modifying permits! Make new rivers and waterfalls!
OMG THIS IS SO COOL I’M SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!
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The last section of this direct was an FAQ, where they went over a few things that we knew already, like how many people can play the game locally together (up to 4 can play at a time, 8 can live on the same island), will there be a animal crossing themed switch (that was announced a few weeks ago now), and some things they didn’t go over earlier, like we now have confirmed Amiibo functionality for most Animal Crossing Amiibo figures and cards, and that New Horizons won’t support save data backup to the cloud, but in the case of a lost or damaged system they will allow you to retrieve a back save from the server. It was also stated that when visiting friends islands, you won’t be able to use certain tools unless you’re on their Best Friends list, so people can’t go around destroying your trees and such.
There’s also gonna be a special offer between Pocket Camp and New Horizons where you can get special items from each game! Follow @Pocket_Camp for more info on that going forward!
Nook would also like you to follow him on Twitter @animalcrossing since he’ll be regularly putting out more info on New Horizons until launch! Go give Nook more followers! Lol
That was an AMAZING Direct, and I can’t wait for it to launch on March 20th!!
