After Learning Animal Crossing's Original Goal, I’m Sad New Horizons Abandoned It (2025)

Table of Contents

Animal Crossing Was Originally About Communication It Was Designed To Get People Talking New Horizons Doesn’t Have The Same Focus It Is More Interested In Gameplay How Animal Crossing Could Re-Emphasize Communication It Needs To Put The Focus Back On Villagers

The Animal Crossing franchise has managed to prevail since its inception, growing and adapting to the whims and wants of its dedicated player base, and carving itself a sizable place at the top of the cozy game leaderboard, rightfully claiming its place as the coziest game series of all time. It has achieved this through a number of means, largely by remaining relevant, but also through its numerous changes in both game philosophy and design. Players aren't really getting the same Animal Crossing experience now as they did in 2001. That is both a good thing and a bad thing.

The original idea for Animal Crossing was a far cry from what players enjoy now, and that's largely for the best. However, while all the alterations and updates to Animal Crossing's game design have made the series more enjoyable on a purely mechanical level, they have pushed aside the whole point of the entire franchise. Hearing the series' creators discuss their original intentions for Animal Crossing and realizing just how much the series has deviated from that is genuinely disappointing, and hopefully something future entries can turn around.

Animal Crossing Was Originally About Communication

It Was Designed To Get People Talking

During a 2003 interview - archived on the website shmuplations - Animal Crossing's creators Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami discussed how the core foundation for the series was always communication. That didn't necessarily mean communicating with Animal Crossing's unique villagers, but also one another in the real world. Eguchi discussed how the key concept of the series for them was "people communicating with each other," something they spent a lot of the game's development trying to figure out how best to achieve. He went on to explain that they wanted Animal Crossing to almost be practice for talking with real people, saying:

"Part of what we wanted to do there, I admit, was show something like "practice" for conversing with other actual human beings, like "this is how you have fun communicating!" [...] I hope players talk with each other about what the animals said, what they were thinking that day, what they did… and hey, we can't help it if these cute animals just say cute things!

It is a fascinating concept, one that was captured by the earlier Animal Crossing games when the villagers had a lot more to say. Eguchi also wanted players to learn challenging concepts through Animal Crossing which they could "go ask [their] Mom about." To achieve this, they had villagers - most likely Animal Crossing's worst villagers - say "scary" things, or, more aptly, tell mature jokes, discuss things like death and the meaning of life, or pontificate on their purpose. All of this, Eguchi and Nogami hoped, would spur players to go and talk to their parents, friends, and other family members.

Animal Crossing has long since lost its focus and rarely resembles the game Nogami and Eguchi had once imagined.

Nogami explained in the interview that "All the surprising or interesting dialogue we added was done towards that end, so people would actually talk with each other in real life." Fans of the series may find this concept alien, especially as this is not the direction Animal Crossing has been taking for quite some time. A lot of Animal Crossing's mature content has been stripped away, and anything difficult, challenging, or complex has been replaced with lighthearted banter. Simply put, Animal Crossing has long since lost its focus and rarely resembles the game Nogami and Eguchi had once imagined.

New Horizons Doesn’t Have The Same Focus

It Is More Interested In Gameplay

After Learning Animal Crossing's Original Goal, I’m Sad New Horizons Abandoned It (1)

Animal Crossing's shift in focus can best be seen in the removal of hostile gameplay features such as Resetti. Players were punished for quitting the game without saving with a lengthy and unskippable tirade from Mr Resetti. Now, there's no punishment for not saving as the game auto-saves for you. It's a nifty feature, one that will save players a lot of heartache, but nevertheless takes away the more challenging side of the game. Of course, one could safely argue that it's all being done in service of making Animal Crossing as cozy as possible, and that's admirable.

However, while some may disagree, Animal Crossing's shift to being a more mechanically-focused experience that prioritizes gameplay, resource collection, landscaping, and other chore-like activities, over the player's interactions with their fellow villagers and building a sense of community is absolutely to the detriment of the overall series. In New Horizons, players will get the same bland responses from their villagers that are repeated ad nauseam, meaning they all lack a genuine sense of personality outside of their appearance and catchphrase. It's the most disappointing part of New Horizons, especially as previous games like Wild World had gotten it so right.

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To be clear, this didn't start with New Horizons. This change has been gradual, but inevitable. New Leaf is incredible, but it suffers from the same issues, lacking a lot of the bite its predecessors had and pivoting towards giving the player more things to do, rather than reasons to spend time with their villagers. People may care about who they get on their island and spend forever attempting to get them there, but ultimately, especially in New Horizons, it's meaningless when all they do is wander around and say the same five things repeatedly until you wish they'd leave.

How Animal Crossing Could Re-Emphasize Communication

It Needs To Put The Focus Back On Villagers

After Learning Animal Crossing's Original Goal, I’m Sad New Horizons Abandoned It (3)

Animal Crossing can absolutely re-emphasize its original focus on communication with future entries. All it needs to do is realign its focus back onto the villagers and the player's interaction with them, rather than making the experience more mechanically complex. As fun as landscaping an island can be, it is all pointless if the reason for staying on that island is moot. In its attempt at getting players to continue playing Animal Crossing for as long as possible by busying them with chores and unlockables, Nintendo pushed away the only thing that truly gave the series its longevity: connections.

People love this series because of the villagers, because of the friendships they made with them when they were younger, the wild things they said, or the gifts they gave. These moments of connection, of communication, are what made saying goodbye when they inevitably moved out all the more somber. It's what made letting go so heartbreaking, which is yet another lesson Animal Crossing teaches players. So, Nintendo needs to remove Animal Crossing's most annoying features and bring back the great and varied writing, challenging concepts and themes, and even harsh gameplay features.

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It'll restore that original idea of communication and add some much-needed spice to the Animal Crossing experience. As much as the cozy genre should focus on giving players a heartwarming experience that they can reliably fall back on during difficult moments, it should also give players a safe space in which to understand why life can be difficult, why communication with others is so important, and how to best heal. Animal Crossing doesn't have to be your therapist, but it should get you thinking about understanding what's wrong or, at the very least, reaching out to friends and family.

Source: shmuplations