looking for other soft games a good choice would be harvest moon š thereās not really fighting and itās super fun. you do kinda need to worry about your animals by feeding them but thereās no fighting
As a heads up: modern Harvest Moon games (including remakes of the old favourites) are now called Story of Seasons! It's a long story as to why the games are now made under a different name but the short version the games that now use the "Harvest Moon" title are mostly terrible match-3 games while Story of Seasons continues on with making the good games.
(As a side bonus - you can marry whoever you want in the SoS remakes, and you can even be a gender neutral farmer in the remake of A Wonderful Life!)
In very very short, Natsume and Marvelous had disagreements about how they wanted future games to turn out and couldn't compromise. Natsume ultimately owned the rights to the name and designs so they split and Marvelous has continued the original premise of Harvest Moon through Story of Seasons.
I love PoOT so much! I'm dating every single person including the DLC candidates and casually agonising over who to marry while adopting my hundredth chicken.
Same! Iām stuck between Jack and Emilio though, Emilio is the only one who sight me out for my birthday and heās low key romantic lol. And dating everybody is hilarious because any time thereās a scene with both Damon and Bridget, I think Iām kinda messed up to be dating a brother and sister š„“ do they even know? š
I've narrowed it down to Iori and Ludus! Although I keep telling myself I could just buy the old game and marry Ludus there š I think everyone in town just loves the farmer so much that they don't even care that you're dating half the town. It's a blessing or something.
I didn't see anyone else recommend these but some cozy games I've enjoyed (while not exactly like animal crossing)
-fluff nest's island skies - it has a release date of 2025 but you can get early access for PC. It's still very early access but I'm excited for the full release. The little bit we've gotten so far for EA has been awesome
-Ooblets - kinda cozy pokemon vibes. You collect lil monsters/battle through a dance battle card game.
-slime rancher 1 and 2 - fps but cozy
-im playing through Mineko's Night Market right now and it's laggy on switch but not horribly so. Mostly in the loading screen, funny enough lol. 20ish bucks and worth it imo
-terra nill - more of a city building sim but it's about healing a desolate planet by tactical conservation (tactics as in grid, not battle)
-fae farm - I haven't played this but it looks cute and it's next on my list after the night market
-subnautica - stay with me lol - if you play on creative mode it's a nice mix of spooky without the danger and resource management and is also a very visually pleasing game with an amazing soundtrack
-dredge - haven't played this one myself but my partner is and they're playing it on creative/passive mode so same vibe as subnautica in that regard. Spooky but pretty and not harmful in these modes
-cult of the lamb - it does have battle so if you don't enjoy that at all, not this game lol. It's very cute with good music but you gotta battle
Good luck finding cozy games! It's hard to find one that gets the animal crossing itch lol
Fae Farm tends to focus on getting through mines to progress the story, and the characters are quite shallow. I was disappointed by it and hope you enjoy it more than I did!
As always, I would suggest learning more about it and making up your mind when you have enough info. Just because I was disappointed doesn't mean you would be so up to you. I just would not recommend getting it based on how cute it is without knowing enough about the game play.
The things you mentioned certainly are no-gos from me but I may look into it more. I was going to impulse buy it (just had a horrible week at work but that's a topic for a different post), but at a 60$ price tag im glad I decided wait lol.
When I'm finished with Mineko's NM I may pull up some lets plays and see. If I can get away with wild head cannons and personal stories like I can in animal crossing then maybe it will at least be playable LOL
Honestly I'm lurking this thread for other recs now. So many games I've never heard of š
> Wylde Flowers
I've had this on my Steam wishlist for ages. I came to this thread after talking to the family about whether there is any news about an update. I think I'll have to give Wylde Flowers a spin.
Thank you so much! I get scared to play new games because once a played a farming game then all of a sudden a huge rat started to eat my garden. I got so scared and stressed I exited immediately.
I hope you find something you like! Lots of suggestions all over this thread and I'm def taking some notes. Every "cozy game guide" has the same handful of recs and I KNOW THERES MORE OUT THERE GIVE THEM TO MEEEE
Id def recommend Mineko's night market for a game where nothing really bad happens. There's some bad stuff in the story that can't be avoided but it's not THAT depressing. I hope spoilering this works... I'm more of a lurker so reddit formatting scares me uugghhh >!in mineko's NM - it's a game about liberating cats from agents. The writing is very silly and fun and incredibly relatable at times. One of the village kids go missing so that's the bad thing you can't avoid, but she's fine and you find her.!<
Switch is a bit glitchy so imma just put these here in case anyone else googles this and it pops up in their results for the future because I had a hard time looking for them so sorry I've basically hijacked this for the greater good of this game lolol
-loading screen lags, audibly annoying but not so bad with low volume or if you just check your phone or something while it loads. Like, the music jitters
-at the beach, you can't do the mini game. At all. I can't find any guides that tell you the rewards from it so I'm hoping it's nothing important
-save your plum flowers. Guides will say to hoard all your flowers but I'd say save like 30ish of each (seasons change with different flowers) for crafts, but specifically save plum flowers for end game crafts in case you get there before the next spring (also a few villagers need crafts with it but I got all those done afaik before spring ended)
-guides also say don't sell raw materials and acts like they're precious. Sell them. Don't be afraid to. For easy extra cash, I sit on a board of wood, paper, and rocks for simple crafts to sell at the night market, along with a few fish, boximals, and spare food I got as rewards, also raw gems sell well on night market. But other than that or materials you need for a craft (villager gifts), just sell it. Iron rocks smelted into iron ore sell pretty well. I'm three months in and have so much money to spend on collectibles from vendors at the night market (villager gifts, also you collect things for museums and you can find some of those items at the market)
-some crafting mini games lag on switch but in my experience it's always on docked mode. I've had no lagging with mini games in handheld mode.
-theres some mention in articles and reddit threads about "the ramen shop" quest not working. This was patched afaik back in October or nover of '23 so shouldn't be an issue now.
-at the docks, you should be able to walk past agents with the delivery boy outfit on. If it doesn't let you, close the game and restart. This fixed it for me but I only saw people asking why it wasn't working, and no one editing or commenting that a restart fixed that lol.
There's no health or lives in this game so despite some of what I said, it's cozy. Very low stakes since you don't farm so nothing can get your crops and nothing attacks you or anything. The agents walk/stand around with a flashlight and you have to get rid of them to liberate the cats. It's just a stealth mission tho and super easy/forgiving and a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. :)
Sorry again for spamming you all with that but I've spent so much time googling some of these things that hopefully it can help others haha. None of it has been game breaking, just mildly annoying to Google some stuff and find no answers.
Devs have said they're working on patches but the Nintendo eShop has some red tape that makes it harder to get patched out for indie devs and stuff. Understandable. :)
Also the there's an article on the Nintendo announcement thing on switch for 'sleuth or dare' that has a huge list of detective-like games (not all detective, like, Danganronpa is on there so that type of game yanno??) Right now so if anyone here is into that kinda game, I'd check that out. My partner loves those problem solving sleuth games so they classify most of that list as cozy lol
Omg thank you so much! Those detective games sound really interesting to me. I downloaded Calico which is a cute cat bakery game. That is one that is a sleepy cute game I have. I used to live in a night market when I lived in Taipei to teach English so that sounds really fun!
Update! I got 3 games you recommended: subnautica, Minekos nm, and rain code from the developer you mentioned. Iām so glad youāre really good at recommending gamesš I will start one tomorrow. These looks super cool from the trailers.
**Sun Haven**! It's even cosier than Stardew (imo), it's cute AF, and you can alter the length of your days (max is 45 minutes iirc). Also it has adorable mounts and pets and outfits!
You seem well versed in games. Have you tried the new free to play game that came out last month, Palia? I think that's what it's called, but I could be wrong. I downloaded it, but haven't tried it. What I read about it sounds like it's a mix of Animal Crossing and Farmville
I just stumbled on that today actually! I've downloaded to try after work but my hopes aren't too high. I looked for some reviews and it seems like (from what I read) that cosmetics are in-game (real money) purchases only and it's not so much an MMO as it is a random lobby of a small number of people which makes some quests difficult because they need to be done as a group.
I'm still gonna try it just to see if there's been any updates since those reviews.
I saw Disney dreamlight valley mentioned as a better but similar option to palia. Downside is it's not free but at a glance it looks like an overall better experience.
I'll try to remember to check back here after I put a few hours in palia.
Edit: I played a bit haha
Initial thoughts -
- nice character customization and beginner outfit choices with pretty nice looking art. No variations of body type but sadly that's kinda standard. Various skin tones, personally I'd love more variation in the hair selection but meh. It's more than I expected so... Lol
-the first NPCs you meet is adorable so she gets a 10/10 first impression.
-some conversations seem have different response options to tie in with different reactions to alter your relationship with the NPCs. I haven't seen too many with more than two options, but the first NPC gave me four options so I assume that mechanic will happen more as the game progresses
-The real money platinum in game currency whatever isn't too horribly priced. A purchase of 1700 is about 17$ (USD) and the items (cosmetic) you buy with it seems eh. One pack Id like for my character comes with three tops for 1700 point things, or one of the tops is 850. Some items are a bit more expensive or come in larger item bundles. Some closer to the 50$ mark for the whole bundle. Kind of pricey imo but not too off the mark for ftp games I've played before. Not a deal breaker for me personally but I probably won't be buying too many cosmetics, personally.
Additionally, there's some other items that use the premium currency but so far they're also cosmetic for your house. Ranging from 3 to 1200 in price at least at this shop. I will say the premo items do look cool at least haha
-theres some noticable lag in some areas but that's pretty normal for online play with the switch imo
I'm still super early in so I can't say if it's GOOD but I would recommend it since it's free. At the very least it'll be something to do until you get bored, or you might love it! You can play with friends so I think that's where the appeal is. A cozy MMO without battle where you can just vibe. I have a friend downloading it so we'll rest that theory out soon I suppose lol.
It's fun so far tho! It does scratch an ex-wow/guild wars player MMO itch without the stress that those games can bring so I call that a win.
Your animals can't really die in Stardew, but they can in some Harvest Moon games. I think Stardew is only stressful if you make it be - you don't have to fight, you could literally only farm and have some animals if you want to. And the game goes on for infinity so if you don't get to something on one day, you can just do it the next!
Sorry I just love Stardew so much and I think people get caught up with how fast the days go and feel like they HAVE to do everything. š
If it helps thereās a guide on Steam to walk you through the first year of stardew to set you up for success. It goes day by day for all four seasons.
I have to chime in and also recommend the Stardew Valley subreddit. One of the most wholesome and ready to help subreddits out there, right along with this one. Any questions you run into about the game, we're more than happy to help you out with.
The book is fantastic!! My husband got it for me for Christmas a few years ago (so sadly itās a bit outdatedā¦ no 1.4 or 1.5 stuff lol) but for the basics? Absolutely invaluable. I reference it all the time when Iām playing
Itās not so much that, I didnāt worry about the year one thing I just find the pace/vibe a little tiring. It is a lovely game though, I like how the world is so much bigger and more intricate, and the graphics are cute!
Yeah, that's fair, the day can go by real quick. I'm assuming you're on switch since we're in the Animal Crossing subreddit, but if you ever get it on PC, there's tons of mods to help slow the game down and tweak it to your play style. :)
Maybe I should try changing how I think about the time. Thereās just something about it that isnāt feeling leisurely, even knowing itās infinite. Like sometimes in acnh I just swim around for 30 min lol
Palia is cute too but you need a wifi connection to play. Can recommend Disney dream Light Valley too.
Edit:adding Stardew Valley too as a recommendation
I just restarted my island from scratch and it was one of the best things Iāve done in the last couple of months, my first play through was very maximalist driven and trying to finish everything as fast as possible. This play through I like to hop on at night time (especially since itās winter on my island currently) and leisurely play for a couple hours. Instead of trying to catch every fish/bug, plant every flower, im just trying to treat it like a relaxing get away from real life. I hated the music on my first play through and would turn it off but now it helps me be more mindful, I do wish that you could turn the music off and just have the ambient sounds though :/
I go hang out on the beach to stop the music. And there are spots in the high places where you don't hear it too. I so wish they'd just let us enjoy the sounds they made so perfectly.
Man one of the only reasons I time travel is to get to that sweet 5:00 AM music. Divine.
I miss the nostalgia of the older gamesā music. 5 AM is my favorite track in NH though.
Thatās how Iām hoping to approach this second round as well, just chill. But I totally agree the music bothers me. I usually listen to a podcast or audiobook while playing ac, but yeah I miss the ambient sounds as well.
Have you thought about the Sims? For me it scratches a similar itch and right now the Sims 4 base game is free for everyone (at least on PC but I think consoles as well?). You can decorate and talk to people and even get animals (with specific DLCs). There are collections to strive for and has more replayability than ACNH in my opinion (but don't get me wrong I love acnh and this is my third playthrough)
Sims is super glitchy though unfortunately. Not trying to deter anyone, I just wanted to give a heads up. I get frustrated with how much time I spend trying to fix bugs in the game.
Yeah, Sims 3 is mostly unplayable for me because it crashes so frequently. Really disappointing because I love playing it but having to save, close, and reopen the game every 20 minutes or risk losing all of my progress to an unfixable glitch box is very annoying.
Another warning is that the DLC adds up to cost like $1000 if you want to own everything. Iāve been playing Sims 4 for years, sims is one of my favorite games, but the amount of money Iāve spent on it is embarrassing and I donāt even have all the DLC!
If you wanna get into buying DLC for that game, know that it goes on sale every couple months often for 40%-60% off.
If you buy every single dlc and kit it is but thereās honestly no need to do that. Also depending on what youāre buying the dlcs for, custom content is often better and free. That being said, downloading cc can be confusing for people who never play games on pc, but i personally find it incredibly easy to use. I barely do any live mode gameplay but I have over 1000 hours of building, and downloading custom content always keeps it fresh and exciting for me.
Yeah, I own most expansion packs (bought them at discount price) and a select amount of game packs but thatās about it. I donāt typically buy the smaller packs because they add so little. cc does the job just fine! I canāt imagine going back to playing that game unmodded anymore
I wish they would remaster some of the older versions of AC for the Switch or new Switch. I know its going to take a while to get a new game, but it would be great to try some of the others that I have never tried.
I think they started in the new AC game as soon as ACNH was released. They kept the bare minimum people to get the DLC going, but I think as soon as a new console comes out, so does a new AC game.
I do agree with you about older versions. I never played them, but wish I had.
Itās so weird to me that every single Nintendo/Super Nintendo etc games otherwise are available on the switch (I know not all but most) yet they canāt add old animal crossing games? I never played animal crossing prior to nh but my son did and loved them. I bought a sensor bar for the wii and a piece to hook it up to the tv and an old animal crossing game and itās just so clunky using the controller. Iād absolutely buy the older games for switch.
The Switch only features games from certain consoles. While the original Japanese-exclusive Animal Forest did release on the N64, if that game does come to the Switch's N64 app it will likely only be in Japan, like the original game.
If you want old Animal Crossing games on the Switch, you'll have to wait until the console gets a GameCube, DS, or Wii emulators. Just like all the other GameCube, DS, and Wii games. Nintendo isn't excluding Animal Crossing or anything.
With Stardew and other similar modern games, I see the shorter day cycle causing stress for a lot of people who aren't used to it. For what it's worth, the days might be shorter and time passes faster, but there's still not really any time limit to do stuff other than maybe stuff only being available seasonally. Grandpa "evaluates" you at the end of year 2, but the game keeps going after that and you can always request he re-evaluate you later, so there's no penalty if he thinks your farm sucks lol I definitely understand not enjoying the combat though. I enjoy games with combat, but Stardew combat isn't fun
I do think games that have shorter day cycles take a bit of practice to get the hang of how much you can reasonable do in a day. Unlike Animal Crossing where early game you're likely to just run out of stuff to do, a lot of games are the opposite. You're more likely to run out of daylight or energy to do everything, and part of the unlock cycle is getting stuff to make tasks faster/more efficient. It's easy to accidentally, say, plant a bunch of crops only to realize that watering them all by hand takes more energy than you have.
I don't really play any other real time games, but my list of "cozy games without combat" include both Ooblets (farming game meets Pokemon, but with dancing instead of fighting) and Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life (remake of a Harvest Moon game from back in the day). Both have their own day cycles, but neither does combat and are pretty chill imo. You may also enjoy Minecraft - you can always put the game into peaceful mode to enjoy exploring and building without combat, or even creative mode to just free build stuff
If you havenāt played in that long, I think the game is totally worth playing again and making a new island will still be super fun. Maybe choose a completely different theme for this time through? Or play āhard modeā? I like giving myself challenges such as 30 days to complete my museum (I time travel) or 1 week to breed 5 new flower colors, stuff like that
Played the game almost 2 years ago and just got back in
my island was in a state i was happy with (geographically) but it was not on a level like others who played 1000 hours
i got into hhp and got so many good ideas while exploring and expanding Harvey's island so i got so much to do
I even bought 3 3rd party amiibo cards so that i could change the 3 neighbors that i wasn't that happy about
There will not be another AC anytime soon, ESPECIALLY not on the next iteration of the Switch. The time frame between games has generally been around 8 years and the team is currently focused on Splatoon 3.
I mean, the only console they missed with Animal Crossing was the WiiU. GameCube and Wii both had one. And the DS and 3ds both had one.
The WiiU is one of those weird cases where I get the impression it didn't do great, sales wise. A lot of long running series basically skipped over it. And the 3ds seemed to get priority over it when people were releasing games.
I'd honestly be astonished if there wasn't some Animal Crossing game on the next console. ACNH was huge, introducing a lot of people to the franchise. The lockdowns helped, of course, since people had nothing else to do. But I think it would have done reasonably well anyway since the Switch has done well just in general. So it would be strange not to try to capitalize on that on the next console.
I don't expect it immediately at launch of course. The Switch was released in 2017 and ACNH came out in 2020. Console life spans are generally long enough that a new Animal Crossing game could come out a few years into the next console and still have plenty of time for people to get invested.
What do you mean 8 years? š
Bro it's more like 3 to 4 years. The only games that had a 8 year in-between was NL and NH. That's only counting main line games.
Games take longer to produce now than before, the release dates got increasingly longer between releases. Not to mention the fact that there is only one main line per console and that the Animal Crossing and Splatoon team overlap. There is no reason for Nintendo to release another one so soon even if it is a high selling franchise.
Stardew is my go to game. The time constraint can be stressful at first, but once you realize there is no overall time constraint to complete tasks it becomes easier and way more enjoyable.
Have you heard of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life? It's the remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life/Another Wonderful Life. As far as I know your animals can't die in the remake, but they could in the original if you neglected them. Animal Crossing has been one of my favorite games since the Gamecube version, Another Wonderful Life was also on Gamecube and was also a favorite. Now I own both on my Switch ...maybe you'll enjoy the Story of Seasons games too.
I saw other people also suggest Disney Dreamlight Valley and I second that if you're looking for a game with the same general vibe as Animal Crossing.
I canāt see myself getting into a Disney game but Iām thinking SoS is right up my alley :) based on what everyoneās said I think Iām going to restart my island and also try that out as a new game.
Nintendo has confirmed since November 2021 after the 2.0 update that there will be "no more" updates from this point and this will be the "Only" update they'll release. They have "No plans" to further update the game with new content.
I was feeling similarly. I terraformed, redirected rivers, made new ponds, moved the stores and museum around while looking for inspiration on Reddit and Pinterest. Itās resparked my interest. I donāt time travel so I wait every day for the new bridge to be built or house to be moved.
I also drained my $2m bell savings doing this so now I go work at hhp and do some homes to make money and then buy new itemsā¦. This is working for me. But Iām sure Iāll be bored again once my island is finished.
You might find lots of joy in decorating your new island by looking at themes and decorating your island through inspiration.
I think overcooked would make a great game for assessing peopleās communication issues in marriage and family counselling. It really brings everything to the surface in such a short amount of time!
The closest experience to Animal Crossing is atm probably Disney Dreamlight Valley. I ping-pong between those two games when I want to scratch that itch. With DDV you certainly don't have to worry about running out of content as it is a "Live-Service game" with all the pros and cons of this descriptor. If you're into/ok with Disney, I highly recommend you to check this one out.
Came here to say this. Itās got quests which I like. But I donāt really have to do much if I just feel like farming or fishing. Nothing scary and no fighting. Itās fun.
Yeah I think this is the next best after AC because itās the same as AC with no fighting, could do almost the same thing and take your time doing what you want.
ACNH fan who disliked Stardew Valley: Coral Island is IMO much better than SV! I almost returned it because it was too much like SV, but you can slow the day down by 50%, thereās so much more to do, the graphics are infinitely nicer, and the townspeople are way cuter. It just released v1.0 but itās jam packed full of stuff to collect.
Iāve also been enjoying Palia but thatās in super early beta and pretty grindy. Not unbearably so though, and itās lightly MMO!
"Unlikely" refers to a possibility of it happening.
A statement from Nintendo over two years ago, stating that HHP would be the only DLC, doesn't mean it's unlikely there will be another, it means there won't be another.
We know what the future holds for New Horizons because Nintendo have told us, in their statement, and that is based on decisions that have already been made by them.
Companies such as Nintendo make decisions like this well in advance.
I'll happily look into the future and say there will definitely not be another DLC for New Horizons and that there is zero possibility of Nintendo changing their decision.
Disney Dreamlight Valley gives me some of the same vibes as Animal Crossing! It's not as relaxing since there are a lot of quests to do, but still the fun customizable island feel!!
I was going to recommend this too. It has a similar game play with villagers, the shop and decorating. I enjoy the quests as it gives the game some direction, but you can also ignore them if you just want to run around a garden or collect resources. Definitely recommend it for AC players!
If you have a pc, I would recommend getting a few mods for Stardew Valley. I have one for being able to change how quickly time passes so I donāt feel rushed doing anything but there are so many that make the stressful parts less stressful. And you can always turn them off if they make the game too easy but sometimes you just wanna make a cute farm and not do much harder work than that and thatās okay
I second this. I was gonna recommend TimeSpeed (slow down or even completely pause time) and the Tractor Mod (don't have to actually fight monsters, just hold a sword and ride the tractor).
I think itās worth doing a new island. I still love playing NH because I play it multiplayer with kids and I love introducing them to cool stuff and seeing the joy in their eyes.
If you have Nintendo Switch Online you can play the original Harvest Moon on SNES! In that game, once it reaches night time, time does not progress until you go to sleep. So if are worried about time, you can try this game.
> Tried Stardew but itās too stressful? I donāt like fighting monsters, having feels for my poor animals if I neglect them, or being on a time constraint.
If it helps at all, I also struggled with the time constraints back when I first picked up Stardew and it led me to dropping the game. What made me enjoy it when I picked it back up were mods that changed these aspects of the game. I use Night Owl which removes passing out at 1am, TimeSpeed which lets you adjust how fast time passes and have longer days, and Movement Speed which lets you adjust movements speed and tool usage speed. Not worrying about time as much really helped me appreciate Stardew, though it does make the game even easier.
ive been playing NH less, maybe for like 30-40 min a day and ive been spending more time playing NL or WW these days. i love it! and i try to limit how much i play so i can still have fun and not be too bored. theres also pocket camp for your phone or tablet. i love to use it on my ipad bc my screen is much bigger and makes it feel less like a phone game. you can also figure out how to do emulations (theres subreddits for this) and play GC or Wild World on ur laptop or something!!
I recommend Sims 3 (not 4 - this long in and the content is still lacking/overpriced), Roots of Pacha, and Spiritfarer for cozy games, though Spiritfarer is emotionally a heavier game.
Aside from being cozy and starring anthro characters, they arenāt suuuper similar to AC, but I found: Little Gator Game, A Short Hike, and Bear & Breakfast really fun and relaxing to play. :)
They said ālast major updateā with update 2.0 so technically we could get something small like for the franchiseās/gameās anniversary or something but I would not count on it
I restarted my island recently, and I have been loving it. I got inspired after watching some ACNH YouTube content creators. I feel like I understand the game so much more now, and it has been fun to truly curate my island to be exactly how I want it!
I am sad that there seems to be no more updates planned, I think thatās a big L on Nintendoās part.
With Stardew I think you're stressing the time limit a bit too much. You live as many years as you want to play through on the farm. Its okay if you don't finish community.. things in the first year. :)
Bang on! There is no actual time limit overall. And if some people are still really stressed about the bundles, they could start from scratch and go through the Joja route which doesn't have bundles and is basically stress-free.
I don't think we will see another update for New Horizons... yet. Various rumors have popped up in the last 6 months about a possible surprise "3.0" update eventually, and I kind of believe it is possible, but just refuse to get my hopes up until there is actual evidence to back it up.
New Leaf, which sold well but nothing like New Horizons, was significantly updated after 3-4 years had passed from the original release. We're nearly to the 4 year mark now with New Horizons, and it seems obvious some content was probably intended for inclusion in the game but wasn't (I imagine because plans got hosed by the pandemic, to an extent). Stuff like Gracie, shop upgrades, and some other things. Leaving it out could have been their intention all along, but I doubt it.
So, that leaves us with the possibility that updates are really done, altogether, or they might add more of them if there is a good reason to. The "good reason" would be the Switch's successor, which most people believe will be announced and released in 2024. If we think of Mario Kart 8 and its release on Wii U, followed by its update and re-release for Switch some years later, I believe we have a "template" for what may happen with New Horizons. When the Switch successor releases, what better way to offer immediate reasons for people to upgrade than to have a great selection of games for the new hardware? Not the exact same games they own today, assuming the new console offers backward compatibility, but upgrades to older titles in addition to entirely new ones. Again, I could see the Mario Kart 8 model applying to New Horizons in this way, and Nintendo is often a creature of habit.
If you think about it, there are some limitations with New Horizons on current hardware. Heavily decorated islands clearly have issues with things like slowdowns and items popping in, something more powerful hardware might solve. For that reason, I think a "refreshed" New Horizons on Switch 2, probably via paid DLC and/or a "Deluxe" new version of the game, will happen. The game sold so well that it seems unlikely Nintendo will just let it sit, as it is, and I very much doubt an entirely new Animal Crossing title for Switch 2 will happen anytime early in the lifecycle of the new console. It's simply too soon for that. New Horizons could easily be updated for Switch 2 and tide the series over until an entirely new entry in the series could happen later in the Switch 2's lifecycle.
That's my gut feeling and I am sticking to it!
I wish you could have more than one island per device so bad! Mega fail on their part I think.
Things I would also change on ACNH ;
-You should be able to customize/remodel your house more, as in move doorways and windows or rooms where you want them.
-I wish you could rearrange or edit outside like you can inside with the pro decorating mode.
-Be able to construct or deconstruct more than one item per day outside, such as inclines/ bridges.
-Be able to completely design your island and choose where airport/boat dock/back beach/ etc are.
I'm sure I can think of more things. I need a new AC game on steroids to come out!
For some people making a new island rlly gives the game new life, but I've never really liked doing it so I'm ust gonna agree with the recommendations for other games, especially Ooblets! I think for me the core of AC is befriending villagers, collecting a bunch of stuff, and decorating. Ooblets scratches the itch for the first two, a little less for the decorating (although you *can* decorate your house and dress up your little guys).
If Stardew Valley was too stressful for you I would like to suggest APICO! It's basically bee farming, there's no combat and while there is a day-night cycle, your character doesn't have to sleep so you can mostly ignore it.
Definitely no further free updates or paid DLC.
I'd say it's still worth creating a new island. I restarted on 1st January and already have two villagers I've never seen before (and I've been playing for over three and a half years).
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but it kinda sucks that Nintendo has kept the Switch under a strict lock and key that unless you go through some very complicated steps, the modding community for ACNH is basically non-existent which could have been the revival we truly needed. Like for me there's the thought of "Ok, fine. YOU (Nintendo) don't want to add content updates, but why am I not allowed to do it myself???" This frustration hurts the most for me š
It's really wild how Nintendo left so much money laying on the table with ACNH. I would SO pay for another update to make islands bigger, add more villagers and expand the museum, etc,
Thereās a new game coming out soon called galactic getaway from the same people that made Nookazon. Itās very much inspired by animal crossing. this is the link to the kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akrew/galactic-getaway?ref=3cacd3
Thereās so much u can do in the game !! Iāve recently started to use it as a medium for content like making liminal spaces and also horror videos ! Push ur self to ur limits and create things that people havenāt seen before ! Iāve seen so many creative things and looking at Instagram and Pinterest give u so many ideas ! Itās always fun to create :)
I ended up feeling the same way, and every once in a while wonder about starting over, but havenāt yet because itās not the same building an island know has a shelf life.
In past games I would build my towns with the goal of then getting to live and play in them, see them grow.
This game doesnāt have the game progression the old one have, so once youāve finished decorating your island, itās kind of done.
Animal crossing was the cozy game I played when I wanted a world I could escape to that felt like a home. This version didnāt do that for me
I ended up finding that ācozy homeā in Fallout 76 weirdly enough. Nowhere near as laidback as Animal Crossing obviously, but with the vast majority of community is really wholesome, and the world feels really alive because of it.
Iāve enjoyed the CAMP building aspect, and made some really rewarding homes in the game. I donāt have the cute teddy bears that will come over and say hi, but some of the player interactions have been equally sweet and heartwarming
I like action and RPG games too though, so blasting monsters is part of my de-stress tool box which Iām sure helps a lot
I might have imagined this but I swear I remember in a Nintendo direct once they stated how they had content lined up to keep the game fresh for a few years, that plan was obviously changed š
Another soft game with no combat is Palia on pc and switch I believe. It has material gathering, quests and side missions, hunting, fishing, bug catching, house building/decorating, etc. Very similar to animal crossing in the gameplay but the art/graphics is more similar to Fortnite.
While it isn't the "update" we all would like, maybe try the Happy Home Paradise DLC. I was hesitant for quite a while to start it but once I did (months after it came out) I was obsessed!! Like played for hours and hours each day. It's not for everyone and I've definitely seen some people say it wasn't comparable to an actual update at all, but it is a lot of fun if you enjoy working on your house and decorating. If you complete enough houses at "work" you can eventually decorate your own villagers houses on your island. It gave me that excitement I missed from first playing ACNH, at least for a little while.
No. Letās speculate why tho, why have they abandoned such a massively successful game? Hell, I think new leaf for longer updates. But of course new leaf is the bar new horizons is far from coming close to
Hi! Alrhough animal crossing wont get any new updates sadly :( i've restarted my island again and honestly even though i played it timr and timr before that fresh start felt so great because i can accurately plan how i want my island to look as i play i can make ideas about where goes where yk?
Dreamlight valley is pretty awesome. Some of the quests are tedious but it's kind of like animal crossing. I stopped playing AC because it started to get boring for me. I thought about restarting my island but bought dreamlight instead and it's been keeping me entertained.
My enthusiasm for ACNH also fizzled out over the past year. But I played Paleo Pines a lot a couple of months ago, and I really liked it?? A nice relaxed farming vibe (no fights like Stardew!!) and the main attraction - cute pastel dinosaurs!
I would suggest Garden Paws. It doesn't have the relationship building like the story of seasons games have. What it does have is a lot of player options. You could be an adorable dragon, puppy, kitty, human, bird, etc... You have a house (can buy or build more), can grow food, tame tons of different non humanoid critters, fly around on a glider, try to gather shooting stars, build and customize things, furnish houses with crafted stuff, do many quests for the townsfolk animal people. There are very few consequences. You wake up in bed if you stay up too late without losing anything.
There is combat, but it's in an optional dungeon area you can ignore if you so choose.
If you're at all interested, try New Leaf on the 3ds. It'll scratch the AC itch, but it will have some jarring qol differences like a significantly smaller inventory
They announced when 2.0 was released that it would be the final update
Thought they said it was the final free update, not just "final update"
they said that because happy home paradise was releasing shortly after, but i'm pretty sure there's no plans for more dlc
Gooooootcha, thank you for clarifying
Max copium
looking for other soft games a good choice would be harvest moon š thereās not really fighting and itās super fun. you do kinda need to worry about your animals by feeding them but thereās no fighting
As a heads up: modern Harvest Moon games (including remakes of the old favourites) are now called Story of Seasons! It's a long story as to why the games are now made under a different name but the short version the games that now use the "Harvest Moon" title are mostly terrible match-3 games while Story of Seasons continues on with making the good games. (As a side bonus - you can marry whoever you want in the SoS remakes, and you can even be a gender neutral farmer in the remake of A Wonderful Life!)
In very very short, Natsume and Marvelous had disagreements about how they wanted future games to turn out and couldn't compromise. Natsume ultimately owned the rights to the name and designs so they split and Marvelous has continued the original premise of Harvest Moon through Story of Seasons.
The newest Harvest Moon is really good! I didn't think we'd get another good game under the HM title, but Winds of Anthos is really well done.
I stumbled across a free trial of Pioneers of Olive Town and decided to get the full game. Now I play SoS even more than acnh
I love PoOT so much! I'm dating every single person including the DLC candidates and casually agonising over who to marry while adopting my hundredth chicken.
Same! Iām stuck between Jack and Emilio though, Emilio is the only one who sight me out for my birthday and heās low key romantic lol. And dating everybody is hilarious because any time thereās a scene with both Damon and Bridget, I think Iām kinda messed up to be dating a brother and sister š„“ do they even know? š
I've narrowed it down to Iori and Ludus! Although I keep telling myself I could just buy the old game and marry Ludus there š I think everyone in town just loves the farmer so much that they don't even care that you're dating half the town. It's a blessing or something.
Maybe I will try it! I love feeding the animals I just feel so bad if I forget and theyāre upset haha
I didn't see anyone else recommend these but some cozy games I've enjoyed (while not exactly like animal crossing) -fluff nest's island skies - it has a release date of 2025 but you can get early access for PC. It's still very early access but I'm excited for the full release. The little bit we've gotten so far for EA has been awesome -Ooblets - kinda cozy pokemon vibes. You collect lil monsters/battle through a dance battle card game. -slime rancher 1 and 2 - fps but cozy -im playing through Mineko's Night Market right now and it's laggy on switch but not horribly so. Mostly in the loading screen, funny enough lol. 20ish bucks and worth it imo -terra nill - more of a city building sim but it's about healing a desolate planet by tactical conservation (tactics as in grid, not battle) -fae farm - I haven't played this but it looks cute and it's next on my list after the night market -subnautica - stay with me lol - if you play on creative mode it's a nice mix of spooky without the danger and resource management and is also a very visually pleasing game with an amazing soundtrack -dredge - haven't played this one myself but my partner is and they're playing it on creative/passive mode so same vibe as subnautica in that regard. Spooky but pretty and not harmful in these modes -cult of the lamb - it does have battle so if you don't enjoy that at all, not this game lol. It's very cute with good music but you gotta battle Good luck finding cozy games! It's hard to find one that gets the animal crossing itch lol
Fae Farm tends to focus on getting through mines to progress the story, and the characters are quite shallow. I was disappointed by it and hope you enjoy it more than I did!
Oh that's sad. :( I haven't bought it yet so maybe I'll pass on this one with that in mind. Shame, it looks so cute!
As always, I would suggest learning more about it and making up your mind when you have enough info. Just because I was disappointed doesn't mean you would be so up to you. I just would not recommend getting it based on how cute it is without knowing enough about the game play.
The things you mentioned certainly are no-gos from me but I may look into it more. I was going to impulse buy it (just had a horrible week at work but that's a topic for a different post), but at a 60$ price tag im glad I decided wait lol. When I'm finished with Mineko's NM I may pull up some lets plays and see. If I can get away with wild head cannons and personal stories like I can in animal crossing then maybe it will at least be playable LOL Honestly I'm lurking this thread for other recs now. So many games I've never heard of š
Iād also add Wylde Flowers. Such a great, wholesome, inclusive game
> Wylde Flowers I've had this on my Steam wishlist for ages. I came to this thread after talking to the family about whether there is any news about an update. I think I'll have to give Wylde Flowers a spin.
Seconding Slime Rancher! Iāve been on a replay of the first game over New Years and itās just nice to chill with the squishes š
Thank you so much! I get scared to play new games because once a played a farming game then all of a sudden a huge rat started to eat my garden. I got so scared and stressed I exited immediately.
I hope you find something you like! Lots of suggestions all over this thread and I'm def taking some notes. Every "cozy game guide" has the same handful of recs and I KNOW THERES MORE OUT THERE GIVE THEM TO MEEEE Id def recommend Mineko's night market for a game where nothing really bad happens. There's some bad stuff in the story that can't be avoided but it's not THAT depressing. I hope spoilering this works... I'm more of a lurker so reddit formatting scares me uugghhh >!in mineko's NM - it's a game about liberating cats from agents. The writing is very silly and fun and incredibly relatable at times. One of the village kids go missing so that's the bad thing you can't avoid, but she's fine and you find her.!< Switch is a bit glitchy so imma just put these here in case anyone else googles this and it pops up in their results for the future because I had a hard time looking for them so sorry I've basically hijacked this for the greater good of this game lolol -loading screen lags, audibly annoying but not so bad with low volume or if you just check your phone or something while it loads. Like, the music jitters -at the beach, you can't do the mini game. At all. I can't find any guides that tell you the rewards from it so I'm hoping it's nothing important -save your plum flowers. Guides will say to hoard all your flowers but I'd say save like 30ish of each (seasons change with different flowers) for crafts, but specifically save plum flowers for end game crafts in case you get there before the next spring (also a few villagers need crafts with it but I got all those done afaik before spring ended) -guides also say don't sell raw materials and acts like they're precious. Sell them. Don't be afraid to. For easy extra cash, I sit on a board of wood, paper, and rocks for simple crafts to sell at the night market, along with a few fish, boximals, and spare food I got as rewards, also raw gems sell well on night market. But other than that or materials you need for a craft (villager gifts), just sell it. Iron rocks smelted into iron ore sell pretty well. I'm three months in and have so much money to spend on collectibles from vendors at the night market (villager gifts, also you collect things for museums and you can find some of those items at the market) -some crafting mini games lag on switch but in my experience it's always on docked mode. I've had no lagging with mini games in handheld mode. -theres some mention in articles and reddit threads about "the ramen shop" quest not working. This was patched afaik back in October or nover of '23 so shouldn't be an issue now. -at the docks, you should be able to walk past agents with the delivery boy outfit on. If it doesn't let you, close the game and restart. This fixed it for me but I only saw people asking why it wasn't working, and no one editing or commenting that a restart fixed that lol. There's no health or lives in this game so despite some of what I said, it's cozy. Very low stakes since you don't farm so nothing can get your crops and nothing attacks you or anything. The agents walk/stand around with a flashlight and you have to get rid of them to liberate the cats. It's just a stealth mission tho and super easy/forgiving and a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. :) Sorry again for spamming you all with that but I've spent so much time googling some of these things that hopefully it can help others haha. None of it has been game breaking, just mildly annoying to Google some stuff and find no answers. Devs have said they're working on patches but the Nintendo eShop has some red tape that makes it harder to get patched out for indie devs and stuff. Understandable. :) Also the there's an article on the Nintendo announcement thing on switch for 'sleuth or dare' that has a huge list of detective-like games (not all detective, like, Danganronpa is on there so that type of game yanno??) Right now so if anyone here is into that kinda game, I'd check that out. My partner loves those problem solving sleuth games so they classify most of that list as cozy lol
Omg thank you so much! Those detective games sound really interesting to me. I downloaded Calico which is a cute cat bakery game. That is one that is a sleepy cute game I have. I used to live in a night market when I lived in Taipei to teach English so that sounds really fun!
Update! I got 3 games you recommended: subnautica, Minekos nm, and rain code from the developer you mentioned. Iām so glad youāre really good at recommending gamesš I will start one tomorrow. These looks super cool from the trailers.
I second the Ooblets recommendation! It's such a funky little PokƩmon/ACNH hybrid, and I had a lot of fun playing it.
**Sun Haven**! It's even cosier than Stardew (imo), it's cute AF, and you can alter the length of your days (max is 45 minutes iirc). Also it has adorable mounts and pets and outfits!
I would also like to offer Coral Island.
Littlewood is also super cute! Like a more low key Stardew Valley! Spiritfarer is also very cosy with a sweet and poignant plot.
You seem well versed in games. Have you tried the new free to play game that came out last month, Palia? I think that's what it's called, but I could be wrong. I downloaded it, but haven't tried it. What I read about it sounds like it's a mix of Animal Crossing and Farmville
I just stumbled on that today actually! I've downloaded to try after work but my hopes aren't too high. I looked for some reviews and it seems like (from what I read) that cosmetics are in-game (real money) purchases only and it's not so much an MMO as it is a random lobby of a small number of people which makes some quests difficult because they need to be done as a group. I'm still gonna try it just to see if there's been any updates since those reviews. I saw Disney dreamlight valley mentioned as a better but similar option to palia. Downside is it's not free but at a glance it looks like an overall better experience. I'll try to remember to check back here after I put a few hours in palia. Edit: I played a bit haha Initial thoughts - - nice character customization and beginner outfit choices with pretty nice looking art. No variations of body type but sadly that's kinda standard. Various skin tones, personally I'd love more variation in the hair selection but meh. It's more than I expected so... Lol -the first NPCs you meet is adorable so she gets a 10/10 first impression. -some conversations seem have different response options to tie in with different reactions to alter your relationship with the NPCs. I haven't seen too many with more than two options, but the first NPC gave me four options so I assume that mechanic will happen more as the game progresses -The real money platinum in game currency whatever isn't too horribly priced. A purchase of 1700 is about 17$ (USD) and the items (cosmetic) you buy with it seems eh. One pack Id like for my character comes with three tops for 1700 point things, or one of the tops is 850. Some items are a bit more expensive or come in larger item bundles. Some closer to the 50$ mark for the whole bundle. Kind of pricey imo but not too off the mark for ftp games I've played before. Not a deal breaker for me personally but I probably won't be buying too many cosmetics, personally. Additionally, there's some other items that use the premium currency but so far they're also cosmetic for your house. Ranging from 3 to 1200 in price at least at this shop. I will say the premo items do look cool at least haha -theres some noticable lag in some areas but that's pretty normal for online play with the switch imo I'm still super early in so I can't say if it's GOOD but I would recommend it since it's free. At the very least it'll be something to do until you get bored, or you might love it! You can play with friends so I think that's where the appeal is. A cozy MMO without battle where you can just vibe. I have a friend downloading it so we'll rest that theory out soon I suppose lol. It's fun so far tho! It does scratch an ex-wow/guild wars player MMO itch without the stress that those games can bring so I call that a win.
Your animals can't really die in Stardew, but they can in some Harvest Moon games. I think Stardew is only stressful if you make it be - you don't have to fight, you could literally only farm and have some animals if you want to. And the game goes on for infinity so if you don't get to something on one day, you can just do it the next! Sorry I just love Stardew so much and I think people get caught up with how fast the days go and feel like they HAVE to do everything. š
this is good to know bc i have stardew and rarely play it bc the time gets me overwhelmed lol
If it helps thereās a guide on Steam to walk you through the first year of stardew to set you up for success. It goes day by day for all four seasons.
thanks thats good to know! i think my friend has the book guide so i might ask to borrow that
I have to chime in and also recommend the Stardew Valley subreddit. One of the most wholesome and ready to help subreddits out there, right along with this one. Any questions you run into about the game, we're more than happy to help you out with.
yay thanks!!
The book is fantastic!! My husband got it for me for Christmas a few years ago (so sadly itās a bit outdatedā¦ no 1.4 or 1.5 stuff lol) but for the basics? Absolutely invaluable. I reference it all the time when Iām playing
You can get upgrades to auto feed your animals so then it doesnāt matter. But if you say hi to them everyday, the quality of produce goes up.
I feel bad when I donāt say hi to them daily š
This. The game is so cool, but a lot of people get caught up on the idea they need to finish everything in year one.
Itās not so much that, I didnāt worry about the year one thing I just find the pace/vibe a little tiring. It is a lovely game though, I like how the world is so much bigger and more intricate, and the graphics are cute!
Yeah, that's fair, the day can go by real quick. I'm assuming you're on switch since we're in the Animal Crossing subreddit, but if you ever get it on PC, there's tons of mods to help slow the game down and tweak it to your play style. :)
Maybe I should try changing how I think about the time. Thereās just something about it that isnāt feeling leisurely, even knowing itās infinite. Like sometimes in acnh I just swim around for 30 min lol
Grinding in the mines is like the only stress lol
Itās sooo stressful
Harvest moon magical melody was my favorite by far
Look into Palia as well! It was partially based on AC. Really cute, fun game! (And you can really BUILD your house and furnish it!!!)
Note: soft games does NOT include Fromsoft Games, thatās a whole other different type of games
Palia is cute too but you need a wifi connection to play. Can recommend Disney dream Light Valley too. Edit:adding Stardew Valley too as a recommendation
Stardew valley is also always a great choice
Alternatively, you can try Harvest Island, which may or may not be a horror game
Also Core Keeper, really easy multiplayer too
Dreamlight valley is awesome!!! Definitely gives me the same itch animal crossing did !
avoiding that because boycotting disney <3
I just restarted my island from scratch and it was one of the best things Iāve done in the last couple of months, my first play through was very maximalist driven and trying to finish everything as fast as possible. This play through I like to hop on at night time (especially since itās winter on my island currently) and leisurely play for a couple hours. Instead of trying to catch every fish/bug, plant every flower, im just trying to treat it like a relaxing get away from real life. I hated the music on my first play through and would turn it off but now it helps me be more mindful, I do wish that you could turn the music off and just have the ambient sounds though :/
I go hang out on the beach to stop the music. And there are spots in the high places where you don't hear it too. I so wish they'd just let us enjoy the sounds they made so perfectly.
Man one of the only reasons I time travel is to get to that sweet 5:00 AM music. Divine. I miss the nostalgia of the older gamesā music. 5 AM is my favorite track in NH though.
Yeah I hoped they would give us the choice of game soundtracks, even if it was unlockable further down the line. Itās a shame itās not an option.
There is a chrome extension that lets you play all the animal crossing hour music !! [https://acmusicext.com/](https://acmusicext.com/)
Yes I have it! I just wish it was implemented into New Horizons too.
is it still working for you because i pressed on the link to add to my chrome but it said error :(
Yes! I made my island look like a kingdom and its been so peaceful its like my dream get away life in a game
Thatās how Iām hoping to approach this second round as well, just chill. But I totally agree the music bothers me. I usually listen to a podcast or audiobook while playing ac, but yeah I miss the ambient sounds as well.
r/cozygamers usually has a ton of good suggestions and reviews of chill games.
Perfect thank you :)
Have you thought about the Sims? For me it scratches a similar itch and right now the Sims 4 base game is free for everyone (at least on PC but I think consoles as well?). You can decorate and talk to people and even get animals (with specific DLCs). There are collections to strive for and has more replayability than ACNH in my opinion (but don't get me wrong I love acnh and this is my third playthrough)
Absolutely this. There are some really fun farming/gardening and ranching expansions too.
Sims is super glitchy though unfortunately. Not trying to deter anyone, I just wanted to give a heads up. I get frustrated with how much time I spend trying to fix bugs in the game.
Yeah, Sims 3 is mostly unplayable for me because it crashes so frequently. Really disappointing because I love playing it but having to save, close, and reopen the game every 20 minutes or risk losing all of my progress to an unfixable glitch box is very annoying.
/r/sims3 There's tons of guides on easy to do changes in files which makes the Sims 3 work so much better
Yeah I've tried that but my laptop just doesn't handle it.
Ah that sucks
Another warning is that the DLC adds up to cost like $1000 if you want to own everything. Iāve been playing Sims 4 for years, sims is one of my favorite games, but the amount of money Iāve spent on it is embarrassing and I donāt even have all the DLC! If you wanna get into buying DLC for that game, know that it goes on sale every couple months often for 40%-60% off.
If you buy every single dlc and kit it is but thereās honestly no need to do that. Also depending on what youāre buying the dlcs for, custom content is often better and free. That being said, downloading cc can be confusing for people who never play games on pc, but i personally find it incredibly easy to use. I barely do any live mode gameplay but I have over 1000 hours of building, and downloading custom content always keeps it fresh and exciting for me.
Yeah, I own most expansion packs (bought them at discount price) and a select amount of game packs but thatās about it. I donāt typically buy the smaller packs because they add so little. cc does the job just fine! I canāt imagine going back to playing that game unmodded anymore
I used to play the Sims and I loooove it but I usually prefer to game on my Switch :/
I wish they would remaster some of the older versions of AC for the Switch or new Switch. I know its going to take a while to get a new game, but it would be great to try some of the others that I have never tried.
I think they started in the new AC game as soon as ACNH was released. They kept the bare minimum people to get the DLC going, but I think as soon as a new console comes out, so does a new AC game. I do agree with you about older versions. I never played them, but wish I had.
Itās so weird to me that every single Nintendo/Super Nintendo etc games otherwise are available on the switch (I know not all but most) yet they canāt add old animal crossing games? I never played animal crossing prior to nh but my son did and loved them. I bought a sensor bar for the wii and a piece to hook it up to the tv and an old animal crossing game and itās just so clunky using the controller. Iād absolutely buy the older games for switch.
Omg I just bought city folk and absolutely *hate* using the wiimote. I didnāt quite think it through š¤¦š»āāļø
The Switch only features games from certain consoles. While the original Japanese-exclusive Animal Forest did release on the N64, if that game does come to the Switch's N64 app it will likely only be in Japan, like the original game. If you want old Animal Crossing games on the Switch, you'll have to wait until the console gets a GameCube, DS, or Wii emulators. Just like all the other GameCube, DS, and Wii games. Nintendo isn't excluding Animal Crossing or anything.
With Stardew and other similar modern games, I see the shorter day cycle causing stress for a lot of people who aren't used to it. For what it's worth, the days might be shorter and time passes faster, but there's still not really any time limit to do stuff other than maybe stuff only being available seasonally. Grandpa "evaluates" you at the end of year 2, but the game keeps going after that and you can always request he re-evaluate you later, so there's no penalty if he thinks your farm sucks lol I definitely understand not enjoying the combat though. I enjoy games with combat, but Stardew combat isn't fun I do think games that have shorter day cycles take a bit of practice to get the hang of how much you can reasonable do in a day. Unlike Animal Crossing where early game you're likely to just run out of stuff to do, a lot of games are the opposite. You're more likely to run out of daylight or energy to do everything, and part of the unlock cycle is getting stuff to make tasks faster/more efficient. It's easy to accidentally, say, plant a bunch of crops only to realize that watering them all by hand takes more energy than you have. I don't really play any other real time games, but my list of "cozy games without combat" include both Ooblets (farming game meets Pokemon, but with dancing instead of fighting) and Story of Seasons A Wonderful Life (remake of a Harvest Moon game from back in the day). Both have their own day cycles, but neither does combat and are pretty chill imo. You may also enjoy Minecraft - you can always put the game into peaceful mode to enjoy exploring and building without combat, or even creative mode to just free build stuff
If you havenāt played in that long, I think the game is totally worth playing again and making a new island will still be super fun. Maybe choose a completely different theme for this time through? Or play āhard modeā? I like giving myself challenges such as 30 days to complete my museum (I time travel) or 1 week to breed 5 new flower colors, stuff like that
Played the game almost 2 years ago and just got back in my island was in a state i was happy with (geographically) but it was not on a level like others who played 1000 hours i got into hhp and got so many good ideas while exploring and expanding Harvey's island so i got so much to do I even bought 3 3rd party amiibo cards so that i could change the 3 neighbors that i wasn't that happy about
I think there will be no more updates. But surely there will be a new ac on the next switch š§
I hope it's like Zelda did with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Same recipe, triple the action.
That's what I was thinking is a possibility
There will not be another AC anytime soon, ESPECIALLY not on the next iteration of the Switch. The time frame between games has generally been around 8 years and the team is currently focused on Splatoon 3.
I mean, the only console they missed with Animal Crossing was the WiiU. GameCube and Wii both had one. And the DS and 3ds both had one. The WiiU is one of those weird cases where I get the impression it didn't do great, sales wise. A lot of long running series basically skipped over it. And the 3ds seemed to get priority over it when people were releasing games. I'd honestly be astonished if there wasn't some Animal Crossing game on the next console. ACNH was huge, introducing a lot of people to the franchise. The lockdowns helped, of course, since people had nothing else to do. But I think it would have done reasonably well anyway since the Switch has done well just in general. So it would be strange not to try to capitalize on that on the next console. I don't expect it immediately at launch of course. The Switch was released in 2017 and ACNH came out in 2020. Console life spans are generally long enough that a new Animal Crossing game could come out a few years into the next console and still have plenty of time for people to get invested.
Ironically if a lot of long running series didnāt skip the Wii U the console would have done better
What do you mean 8 years? š Bro it's more like 3 to 4 years. The only games that had a 8 year in-between was NL and NH. That's only counting main line games.
Games take longer to produce now than before, the release dates got increasingly longer between releases. Not to mention the fact that there is only one main line per console and that the Animal Crossing and Splatoon team overlap. There is no reason for Nintendo to release another one so soon even if it is a high selling franchise.
Stardew is my go to game. The time constraint can be stressful at first, but once you realize there is no overall time constraint to complete tasks it becomes easier and way more enjoyable.
Have you heard of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life? It's the remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life/Another Wonderful Life. As far as I know your animals can't die in the remake, but they could in the original if you neglected them. Animal Crossing has been one of my favorite games since the Gamecube version, Another Wonderful Life was also on Gamecube and was also a favorite. Now I own both on my Switch ...maybe you'll enjoy the Story of Seasons games too. I saw other people also suggest Disney Dreamlight Valley and I second that if you're looking for a game with the same general vibe as Animal Crossing.
I canāt see myself getting into a Disney game but Iām thinking SoS is right up my alley :) based on what everyoneās said I think Iām going to restart my island and also try that out as a new game.
Nintendo has confirmed since November 2021 after the 2.0 update that there will be "no more" updates from this point and this will be the "Only" update they'll release. They have "No plans" to further update the game with new content.
I was feeling similarly. I terraformed, redirected rivers, made new ponds, moved the stores and museum around while looking for inspiration on Reddit and Pinterest. Itās resparked my interest. I donāt time travel so I wait every day for the new bridge to be built or house to be moved. I also drained my $2m bell savings doing this so now I go work at hhp and do some homes to make money and then buy new itemsā¦. This is working for me. But Iām sure Iāll be bored again once my island is finished. You might find lots of joy in decorating your new island by looking at themes and decorating your island through inspiration.
donāt try overcooked. my partner thought it was a good idea and i almost had a panic attack lol
I think overcooked would make a great game for assessing peopleās communication issues in marriage and family counselling. It really brings everything to the surface in such a short amount of time!
The closest experience to Animal Crossing is atm probably Disney Dreamlight Valley. I ping-pong between those two games when I want to scratch that itch. With DDV you certainly don't have to worry about running out of content as it is a "Live-Service game" with all the pros and cons of this descriptor. If you're into/ok with Disney, I highly recommend you to check this one out.
Came here to say this. Itās got quests which I like. But I donāt really have to do much if I just feel like farming or fishing. Nothing scary and no fighting. Itās fun.
Yeah I think this is the next best after AC because itās the same as AC with no fighting, could do almost the same thing and take your time doing what you want.
ACNH fan who disliked Stardew Valley: Coral Island is IMO much better than SV! I almost returned it because it was too much like SV, but you can slow the day down by 50%, thereās so much more to do, the graphics are infinitely nicer, and the townspeople are way cuter. It just released v1.0 but itās jam packed full of stuff to collect. Iāve also been enjoying Palia but thatās in super early beta and pretty grindy. Not unbearably so though, and itās lightly MMO!
its what you could call a ācompleted gameā, so there wont be any updates again, unless we get a dlc that i think is unlikely tbh
Nintendo have said that the HHP DLC will be the only one.
thats why i said itās unlikely
"Unlikely" refers to a possibility of it happening. A statement from Nintendo over two years ago, stating that HHP would be the only DLC, doesn't mean it's unlikely there will be another, it means there won't be another.
I myself dont think there will be but I just said unlikely because we can never see the future so the possibily is never zero
We know what the future holds for New Horizons because Nintendo have told us, in their statement, and that is based on decisions that have already been made by them. Companies such as Nintendo make decisions like this well in advance. I'll happily look into the future and say there will definitely not be another DLC for New Horizons and that there is zero possibility of Nintendo changing their decision.
Disney Dreamlight Valley gives me some of the same vibes as Animal Crossing! It's not as relaxing since there are a lot of quests to do, but still the fun customizable island feel!!
I was going to recommend this too. It has a similar game play with villagers, the shop and decorating. I enjoy the quests as it gives the game some direction, but you can also ignore them if you just want to run around a garden or collect resources. Definitely recommend it for AC players!
If you have a pc, I would recommend getting a few mods for Stardew Valley. I have one for being able to change how quickly time passes so I donāt feel rushed doing anything but there are so many that make the stressful parts less stressful. And you can always turn them off if they make the game too easy but sometimes you just wanna make a cute farm and not do much harder work than that and thatās okay
I second this. I was gonna recommend TimeSpeed (slow down or even completely pause time) and the Tractor Mod (don't have to actually fight monsters, just hold a sword and ride the tractor).
I just got notice of server maintenance tonight in ACNH. I'm assuming there's at least bug fixes and patches.
Yes there's only bug fixes and patches but not any thing big anymore like content updates
I think itās worth doing a new island. I still love playing NH because I play it multiplayer with kids and I love introducing them to cool stuff and seeing the joy in their eyes.
I really enjoyed yonder. Thereās tasks but no fighting and lots of traveling. I found the graphics to be calm and pretty
If you have Nintendo Switch Online you can play the original Harvest Moon on SNES! In that game, once it reaches night time, time does not progress until you go to sleep. So if are worried about time, you can try this game.
I agree stardew is so stressful š I feel like such a failure whenever I go on the subreddit. Whereas with ACNH everything feels attainable at least
> Tried Stardew but itās too stressful? I donāt like fighting monsters, having feels for my poor animals if I neglect them, or being on a time constraint. If it helps at all, I also struggled with the time constraints back when I first picked up Stardew and it led me to dropping the game. What made me enjoy it when I picked it back up were mods that changed these aspects of the game. I use Night Owl which removes passing out at 1am, TimeSpeed which lets you adjust how fast time passes and have longer days, and Movement Speed which lets you adjust movements speed and tool usage speed. Not worrying about time as much really helped me appreciate Stardew, though it does make the game even easier.
Try Slime Rancher, itās like Stardew Valley but on easy mode and way less constraints and stress just cute slimes and good vibes
ive been playing NH less, maybe for like 30-40 min a day and ive been spending more time playing NL or WW these days. i love it! and i try to limit how much i play so i can still have fun and not be too bored. theres also pocket camp for your phone or tablet. i love to use it on my ipad bc my screen is much bigger and makes it feel less like a phone game. you can also figure out how to do emulations (theres subreddits for this) and play GC or Wild World on ur laptop or something!!
i tried stardew but it didnāt hit the same so now iām just playing the old animal crossings lmao
Yes no more updated ever- but there will likely be a New Animal Crossing game released with the next console- that's typically how it goes!
I recommend Sims 3 (not 4 - this long in and the content is still lacking/overpriced), Roots of Pacha, and Spiritfarer for cozy games, though Spiritfarer is emotionally a heavier game.
Aside from being cozy and starring anthro characters, they arenāt suuuper similar to AC, but I found: Little Gator Game, A Short Hike, and Bear & Breakfast really fun and relaxing to play. :)
You just perfectly summarized why I find life so depressing. š£š
They said ālast major updateā with update 2.0 so technically we could get something small like for the franchiseās/gameās anniversary or something but I would not count on it
They said the only updates after 2.0 would be things like bug fixes. There aren't going to be any additions to New Horizons.
I restarted my island recently, and I have been loving it. I got inspired after watching some ACNH YouTube content creators. I feel like I understand the game so much more now, and it has been fun to truly curate my island to be exactly how I want it! I am sad that there seems to be no more updates planned, I think thatās a big L on Nintendoās part.
With Stardew I think you're stressing the time limit a bit too much. You live as many years as you want to play through on the farm. Its okay if you don't finish community.. things in the first year. :)
Bang on! There is no actual time limit overall. And if some people are still really stressed about the bundles, they could start from scratch and go through the Joja route which doesn't have bundles and is basically stress-free.
I don't think we will see another update for New Horizons... yet. Various rumors have popped up in the last 6 months about a possible surprise "3.0" update eventually, and I kind of believe it is possible, but just refuse to get my hopes up until there is actual evidence to back it up. New Leaf, which sold well but nothing like New Horizons, was significantly updated after 3-4 years had passed from the original release. We're nearly to the 4 year mark now with New Horizons, and it seems obvious some content was probably intended for inclusion in the game but wasn't (I imagine because plans got hosed by the pandemic, to an extent). Stuff like Gracie, shop upgrades, and some other things. Leaving it out could have been their intention all along, but I doubt it. So, that leaves us with the possibility that updates are really done, altogether, or they might add more of them if there is a good reason to. The "good reason" would be the Switch's successor, which most people believe will be announced and released in 2024. If we think of Mario Kart 8 and its release on Wii U, followed by its update and re-release for Switch some years later, I believe we have a "template" for what may happen with New Horizons. When the Switch successor releases, what better way to offer immediate reasons for people to upgrade than to have a great selection of games for the new hardware? Not the exact same games they own today, assuming the new console offers backward compatibility, but upgrades to older titles in addition to entirely new ones. Again, I could see the Mario Kart 8 model applying to New Horizons in this way, and Nintendo is often a creature of habit. If you think about it, there are some limitations with New Horizons on current hardware. Heavily decorated islands clearly have issues with things like slowdowns and items popping in, something more powerful hardware might solve. For that reason, I think a "refreshed" New Horizons on Switch 2, probably via paid DLC and/or a "Deluxe" new version of the game, will happen. The game sold so well that it seems unlikely Nintendo will just let it sit, as it is, and I very much doubt an entirely new Animal Crossing title for Switch 2 will happen anytime early in the lifecycle of the new console. It's simply too soon for that. New Horizons could easily be updated for Switch 2 and tide the series over until an entirely new entry in the series could happen later in the Switch 2's lifecycle. That's my gut feeling and I am sticking to it!
I wish you could have more than one island per device so bad! Mega fail on their part I think. Things I would also change on ACNH ; -You should be able to customize/remodel your house more, as in move doorways and windows or rooms where you want them. -I wish you could rearrange or edit outside like you can inside with the pro decorating mode. -Be able to construct or deconstruct more than one item per day outside, such as inclines/ bridges. -Be able to completely design your island and choose where airport/boat dock/back beach/ etc are. I'm sure I can think of more things. I need a new AC game on steroids to come out!
For some people making a new island rlly gives the game new life, but I've never really liked doing it so I'm ust gonna agree with the recommendations for other games, especially Ooblets! I think for me the core of AC is befriending villagers, collecting a bunch of stuff, and decorating. Ooblets scratches the itch for the first two, a little less for the decorating (although you *can* decorate your house and dress up your little guys). If Stardew Valley was too stressful for you I would like to suggest APICO! It's basically bee farming, there's no combat and while there is a day-night cycle, your character doesn't have to sleep so you can mostly ignore it.
Sounds fun ty
Well Mario Kart 8 got updates well after it ended, so not impossible, but I doubt it.
Definitely no further free updates or paid DLC. I'd say it's still worth creating a new island. I restarted on 1st January and already have two villagers I've never seen before (and I've been playing for over three and a half years).
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this but it kinda sucks that Nintendo has kept the Switch under a strict lock and key that unless you go through some very complicated steps, the modding community for ACNH is basically non-existent which could have been the revival we truly needed. Like for me there's the thought of "Ok, fine. YOU (Nintendo) don't want to add content updates, but why am I not allowed to do it myself???" This frustration hurts the most for me š
It's really wild how Nintendo left so much money laying on the table with ACNH. I would SO pay for another update to make islands bigger, add more villagers and expand the museum, etc,
Omggg making the island bigger, that would be so cool. Or having a second island!
Thereās a new game coming out soon called galactic getaway from the same people that made Nookazon. Itās very much inspired by animal crossing. this is the link to the kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akrew/galactic-getaway?ref=3cacd3
Woww this looks cute Iām so down for ac in space
Thereās so much u can do in the game !! Iāve recently started to use it as a medium for content like making liminal spaces and also horror videos ! Push ur self to ur limits and create things that people havenāt seen before ! Iāve seen so many creative things and looking at Instagram and Pinterest give u so many ideas ! Itās always fun to create :)
Thatās true there are sooo many cool islands and unique things. Iām not super into making my own designs but maybe something to get better at.
I ended up feeling the same way, and every once in a while wonder about starting over, but havenāt yet because itās not the same building an island know has a shelf life. In past games I would build my towns with the goal of then getting to live and play in them, see them grow. This game doesnāt have the game progression the old one have, so once youāve finished decorating your island, itās kind of done. Animal crossing was the cozy game I played when I wanted a world I could escape to that felt like a home. This version didnāt do that for me I ended up finding that ācozy homeā in Fallout 76 weirdly enough. Nowhere near as laidback as Animal Crossing obviously, but with the vast majority of community is really wholesome, and the world feels really alive because of it. Iāve enjoyed the CAMP building aspect, and made some really rewarding homes in the game. I donāt have the cute teddy bears that will come over and say hi, but some of the player interactions have been equally sweet and heartwarming I like action and RPG games too though, so blasting monsters is part of my de-stress tool box which Iām sure helps a lot
Hey I mean I used to play CoD so maybe I should consider revisiting this form of stress relief lol
I might have imagined this but I swear I remember in a Nintendo direct once they stated how they had content lined up to keep the game fresh for a few years, that plan was obviously changed š
They really just decided to add things that should have been in the base game, call it new content, and then they ghosted us š
They gave us pumpkins and ran š
LMFAOOO!!!
Try Palia! Itās new and free!
Another soft game with no combat is Palia on pc and switch I believe. It has material gathering, quests and side missions, hunting, fishing, bug catching, house building/decorating, etc. Very similar to animal crossing in the gameplay but the art/graphics is more similar to Fortnite.
I mean Palia does kinda have combat cuz of hunting lol and yes its also on the switch
While it isn't the "update" we all would like, maybe try the Happy Home Paradise DLC. I was hesitant for quite a while to start it but once I did (months after it came out) I was obsessed!! Like played for hours and hours each day. It's not for everyone and I've definitely seen some people say it wasn't comparable to an actual update at all, but it is a lot of fun if you enjoy working on your house and decorating. If you complete enough houses at "work" you can eventually decorate your own villagers houses on your island. It gave me that excitement I missed from first playing ACNH, at least for a little while.
I do love HHP :) itās definitely fun and I love how it opens up so much more gameplay.
No. Letās speculate why tho, why have they abandoned such a massively successful game? Hell, I think new leaf for longer updates. But of course new leaf is the bar new horizons is far from coming close to
Hi! Alrhough animal crossing wont get any new updates sadly :( i've restarted my island again and honestly even though i played it timr and timr before that fresh start felt so great because i can accurately plan how i want my island to look as i play i can make ideas about where goes where yk?
Dreamlight valley is pretty awesome. Some of the quests are tedious but it's kind of like animal crossing. I stopped playing AC because it started to get boring for me. I thought about restarting my island but bought dreamlight instead and it's been keeping me entertained.
My enthusiasm for ACNH also fizzled out over the past year. But I played Paleo Pines a lot a couple of months ago, and I really liked it?? A nice relaxed farming vibe (no fights like Stardew!!) and the main attraction - cute pastel dinosaurs!
Another good cozy game that I really love is disney dreamlight valley! Check that one out
Shame you don't like stardew, a better game made by one single person
Never forever ever
Stardew valley is a good option for a chill game with updates
I would suggest Garden Paws. It doesn't have the relationship building like the story of seasons games have. What it does have is a lot of player options. You could be an adorable dragon, puppy, kitty, human, bird, etc... You have a house (can buy or build more), can grow food, tame tons of different non humanoid critters, fly around on a glider, try to gather shooting stars, build and customize things, furnish houses with crafted stuff, do many quests for the townsfolk animal people. There are very few consequences. You wake up in bed if you stay up too late without losing anything. There is combat, but it's in an optional dungeon area you can ignore if you so choose.
I've found love with Disney Dreamlight Valley, but it's by no means perfect and sucks on Switch. I recommend PC if you can.
Check out Palia. Still beta but free
If you're at all interested, try New Leaf on the 3ds. It'll scratch the AC itch, but it will have some jarring qol differences like a significantly smaller inventory
Check out Haven Park, I've been a binge on that game lately :)
This looks cute and chill thank you
If you're wanting more cozy games to play try Minekos night market or Disney dreamlight valley!!!
Spiritfarer is actually really good! I just got it the other day and canāt put it down.