Whoa! Great minds, eh? And my sister-in-law is doing a haunted Phantom of the Opera style gothic basement. Maybe everyone's got dark little secrets in our house...

EDIT: Something to consider for you spook-fans: apparently some of the fake paintings you can get from Redd actually change when you're not looking! Eeek!

@TriforceBun

I was thinking about that today on his ship. I bought a really creepy-looking statue that would fit right at home here, and some of the paintings weren't too far behind.

They're very Spencer Mansion-esque paintings.

@TheBigG753 Oh mine isn't a room, it's just up in the hills where you would least expect it.

@Zero

Oh, I've seen your...congregation.

A friend from church bought a copy of this for my wife and I as a Quarantine Present. :) So far I've been enjoying returning to that magical world. Of course, as I guessed it would, it is also trying very hard to steal me away from doing anything else including my work. When I got the email from him which was just a giant AC Leaf logo and an eShop code I replied "What have you done, Kyle. What have you done..."

Also my wife, who is NO STRANGER TO AC GAMES, was extremely displeased when she learned she couldn't have her own island. What the what? I don't get it, this is normal Animal Crossing. One town, multiple people. Since Day 1. Maybe it is because it is an island that everyone just assumes they would have their own? Seems so strange to me that this is the big deal it is. Well anyway, she got over it quickly enough. (Not much other choice.)

@J.K. Riki I think one weird part about this specific game that I read though is that all of the progression only goes through 1 person. So if you start playing first, you become the island representative or whatever, and then she starts playing and nothing she does really affects the overall progression of anything much. So if she, for instance, wanted to play at a faster pace than you, she really couldn't, because everything unlocking would be based on your progression, not hers.

I could be wrong though, I have no direct experience with this, I just read it somewhere. People were warning that if you plan to play multiplayer make sure the person who will *probably* play the most starts the game, because unlocking stuff and progressing throughout the main course of the game will be solely dependent on their actions.

I can't honestly say if the older games had anything like this since I haven't played multiplayer in the same village since the original, but I feel like with the original it was more anyone could do anything? But I guess there wasn't a whole big progression through a lot of stuff in the original game anyway. It just kind of was what it was right from the start.

@Zero This started with New Leaf where the first person to play was the Mayor, so there were some things only the Mayor could do (though it wasn't to the extent as NH). However I think there were less complaints about it at the time since less people share a 3DS than share a Switch, probably.

@Zero

I suppose I'm not sure what is "progressing." I know you don't have a museum at the start, but beyond that I just don't know what you'd progress. Making bridges, I guess.

EDIT:

But I will say this: I don't really want to know. I paid almost no attention to any AC stuff because I didn't expect to get it, so I'm going to take that and run with it and just enjoy, lol.

Oh I won't spoil it. Just that certain things unlock or upgrade over time based on things you do yada yada. Lots of stuff! So if one person starts the game then doesn't really play much, no matter what the other does, the village will be very limited for all of eternity.

Apparently. Again, I only read this, second-hand information.

To give an example of the "problem": I'm playing with my girlfriend Karen, and I'm the "Resident Representative". We had been waiting for a particular thing to be triggered in the game. Turns out it was triggered by our island reaching a 3 star rating, and talking to Isabelle, which we didn't know.

Well, Karen talked to Isabelle, learned we made it to 3 stars, and told me. Nothing happened. Much later, I talk to Isabelle about our rating, she tells me it's 3 stars, AND tells me this thing we were waiting for was happening shortly.

So basically, the event could have been triggered much earlier, but because Karen told me we had made 3 stars, I didn't check up with Isabelle myself, and we didn't know that was the trigger.

I think Nintendo should at the very least had Isabelle give non-Resident Representatives some sort of clue that the RR needed to talk to her to move things forward.

My wife is the town rep. She's doesn't play much unless me and/or our two sons beg her to. Basic things like bridges and ramps depend on her talking to Nook. Even the initial fish/ insect donations to Nook had to be made by her. I'm not even sure if our town has a rating. This very well may be the best A/C game yet, but they need to patch in the ability to have multiple Town Reps.

So after progressing in the game more, I have two new thoughts on New Horizons:

1) It is so far my favorite AC game since the first (which will likely never be topped, so that is saying a lot)

2) The "Resident Representative" first-player stuff makes the game super fun for the Resident Representative and is almost game-breaking for everyone else who wants to join in.

So it's kind of weird, I guess. I love how many changes they made, but those changes make it almost the least Animal-Crossing game (in spirit) that there has ever been. I feel really bad for my wife who is not the Resident Representative. There has almost become a meta-game for me where I try to make it as fun for her as possible by any way I can, like pretending I don't know stuff that I myself unlocked just because it is lame that she doesn't get to see it be a special event like it is for me when I play as RR. Kinda bizarre design choices here by Nintendo. I guess they *really* want everyone owning their own Switch and copy of this game.

@J.K. Riki

I know multiple people who have bought a Switch Lite for themselves or their kids solely because of Animal Crossing. Haha. Either they don't want to share their island or they don't want to share their time.

Of course Nintendo could have made it an option to let users on a shared console have a separate island, so I have to believe they did this intentionally.

@Hinph

I'm sure the idea that they would sell more Switches just due to some people not wanting to share an island entered the calculation. But I think that particular thing causing people to buy extra Switches is probably overstated, and that what we're mostly seeing here is the result of multiple people in a household all stuck inside and all competing for the same resources (TV and consoles). Including some people in the household who might not be into video games normally but who find AC appealing.

I know Karen and I have considered getting a Switch Lite since we're both playing AC a lot. But instead I just went and started playing the ol' GameCube backlog on the other TV. An easy way to save $200.

It makes me a little irritated, honestly. 90% of the time, Nintendo is one lovable conglomerate, but whenever they pull stuff like this, it feels skeezy. There's really no reason why you can't have the option of picking whether you want your own island or not under your profile, considering this was more or less available from the beginning of the series. As far as I know, no other Switch game on the planet has different experiences through different files. It's aspects like this that keep NH from being the ultimate AC, as far as I'm concerned, and it's been the fly in the ointment for both myself and my four-year-old, who wants to have his own island as well.

Sorry to get all dumpy in this thread repeatedly. Still enjoying myself!

@TriforceBun

Good gracious, four already?! Where does the time go.

I wonder if this stuff feels sleazy *because* Nintendo usually is so above board? Like if EA or Ubisoft pulled this crap it would be "business as usual." Higher standards for the Big N, I suppose.

On a positive note, I leave my gates open a lot, and almost every time I do my building projects get paid off or nearly paid off for me.

Some generous players out there! And they don't even get any credit for it or anything, no one will ever know the good that they did, but they did it anyway!

@TriforceBun
@Hinph
@Zero

Saw this today and thought you'd all appreciate it!

So, question. I just randomly started getting a LOT of letters from a villager (Audie.) Like, almost one per day for the last week or so. They kind of ramble a lot and she never gives me gifts. Am I supposed to be doing anything about this?! I just ignore them for the most part.

@TheBigG753 I really want the gravestone.

@Zero

They call it a Western stone in the game, I believe. You can make it from a recipe. I'll let you know if I get it again. In the meantime, I could make you some?