It was clear from the very beginning that New Horizons would not be a typical or typical Animal Crossing game in any way, shape, or form. This was obvious from the very beginning. The time-honored custom of moving into a town that was already inhabited by five or six animal villagers (and working at Tom Nooks shop) has been abandoned in favor of starting a new life on an island that is devoid of any human inhabitants. You are going to begin this new routine from the very beginning. In the beginning, there are only two other villagers in addition to the Nooks who are there to assist you.
One more significant addition to the game that has been made is crafting, which made its debut in Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. Crafting is an important addition to the game that has been made. You scavenge the island for supplies like rocks and sticks, then carry those items back to your workshop to get started on whatever it is you're making. Whether it be tools, furniture, or even medicine to treat that ugly wasp sting on your face, making your own goods is the best way to get ahead in life. This applies to everything from tools to furniture to medicine. Crafting is a potentially useful skill to have early on in the ACNH because supplies are limited.
But there are a few drawbacks associated with making things by hand. If you want to be able to craft what you need, you will need to make sure that you always have a significant quantity of materials on you at all times. This is something that is going to be necessary for you to do. It was discovered that there were nuggets of iron, tree branches, rocks, clay, three different kinds of wood, and more. However, the most significant issue with the crafting system is the way it handles tools. This is by a wide margin. Tools break. On a regular basis. Not just the flimsy tools that you make when you first begin working with the material. Even the most basic ACNH tools have a high risk of breaking, and that's not even the worst of the problem. Even the rarest and most difficult-to-obtain golden tools, which in earlier games were completely resistant to any kind of damage, are now vulnerable to it.
Nevertheless, despite the current state of the tools, New Horizons comes packed with a variety of helpful enhancements, both big and small, that streamline the way you play
These improvements can be found throughout the game
If you put things like bells, crafting materials, and a wide variety of other items in your pockets, they will automatically stack, which will save you time and reduce the amount of space you need to store them
This update brings the total number of pockets available up to 40, up from a maximum of 16 in the previous version of New Leaf
It is not necessary to unlock a salon or spend a significant amount of bells in order to make a change to your appearance at any time
You can make these changes whenever you like by using bells
You are able to continue placing orders through the catalog even when the retail location is closed. In addition, when compared to earlier iterations, the amount of space that can be used to store various items is enormous. Personalization of an item takes only a few seconds, as opposed to the thirty minutes that are required in New Leaf, and you are not required to do it during store hours either. Because of New Horizons, a great deal of complexity has been removed from a variety of aspects of everyday life.
Tom Nook will hand you his very own brand of smartphone, which he refers to as a NookPhone, at the beginning of the game. In addition, Tom Nook is, in reality, a generous and kind individual, despite what you may have been led to believe about him. Nook Miles are a form of virtual currency that can be used toward the purchase of goods or even the settlement of your initial debt if certain requirements are met. You will be rewarded with Nook Miles if you satisfy these requirements.
Simple tasks—tasks that you would normally perform anyway—can earn you Nook Miles, which can be redeemed for various prizes
Take a picture, fish for dinner, tend to your plants, and perhaps even plant a tree if you have the time
You will get a notification on your phone whenever you accomplish a goal, and you will also rack up some easy miles in the process
There are some long-term objectives, but at some point in the future, you will also be able to unlock some shorter-term Nook Miles+ objectives
The daily Nook Miles+ goals operate in the same manner as the initiatives in New Leaf; however, once you complete one, you are immediately given a new goal to work toward. This ensures that you never run out of challenges to complete. This guarantees that there will never be a moment of boredom. This reward system has the potential to be entertaining, and it may even have some addictive qualities of its own all on its own.
ACNH Nook Miles can be redeemed for a variety of different pieces of outdoor furniture (much like PWPs in New Leaf), in addition to the possibility of redeeming them for the ability to pay off your first mortgage. This feature is very similar to New Leaf's PWPs. This encompasses a wide range of things and features, including but not limited to fountains, lighthouses, benches, playground equipment, and streetlights. On the other hand, and this is perhaps the feature that is of the utmost significance, Nook Miles can also be used to travel to unknown islands. You can find new villagers who might be interested in joining your community and stock up on the necessary materials on these islands.
You are able to use the NookPhone to access your island map, create custom designs, take in-game screenshots, view a chat log when playing in multiplayer mode, and take in-game screenshots. Additionally, you are able to view information and statistics about each fish, bug, and sea creature that you have caught (and whether or not they have been donated to the museum), view your Critterpedia, which displays this information and statistics, and view your island map. The most significant new addition to the series is also the most recent feature; it gives players the ability to completely customize their islands' aesthetics and even alter their islands' topographies. Players were able to relocate large public works projects (PWPs) outside in the previous game, New Leaf; however, the new game, New Horizons, has taken this concept and run with it. In addition to the fact that you can now place regular furniture outside for the very first time, you also have the ability to now position a wide variety of PWP-style objects anywhere you like throughout the city.
When it comes to the task of decorating your island, the incorporation of outdoor furniture and the recently released island designer app gives you an unprecedented amount of leeway and scope to work with. You have the ability to add waterfalls, reshape rivers, put in ponds, make cliffs either large or small, install ramps, erect fences, set up ladders or vines for climbing, move and pull furniture in increments of half a space, and completely personalize your island to suit your preferences. The cumbersome public works project system in New Leaf, which is now considered to be archaic, is light years ahead of this revolutionary new system.
