There are many things that Animal Crossing: New Horizons does right, but there are also several areas that could be improved. Increased efficiency in the crafting UI and removing the limit of one-player per console are common complaints, and now that the game has been out for about four months, we can add a soft reset feature to the list.
New Horizons, like the games in the series that came before it, is all about giving players the ability to create their own island. At first this feels great as there is quite a lot to do, but now four months in, dedicated fans find that they are bored due to a lack of content, or rather the slow pace of content updates.
In any other year, the pacing of content releases might not be an issue, but the pandemic has forced players to stay home and invest more time into New Horizons than they might otherwise have done. In addition, the Island Rating System has been criticized for forcing bland uniformity of design to unlock all the content in the game.
A Soft Reset Would Breathe New Life Into The Game
What New Horizons needs most is the ability to start the game over again, but without the complete loss of certain progression earned through play. The idea of “starting over” but keeping your villagers, Bells, catalog, and building progress would be ideal, especially without the need to maintain an Island Star rating.
The idea of a soft reset or a New Game+ has long existed in other games and is a staple to encourage long-term player retention by giving them something to do even after the game has been completed. Although one can argue that there is no end to Animal Crossing, the Star Rating system is in its own way constraining player creativity.
Technically, the idea is not new in the series either. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, players can sell all of their items and maintain their Bells, though this is more of a workaround rather than a deliberate feature that would certainly be used by players in-game.
How About A Second Island?
Another idea would be to earn the ability to acquire or purchase a second island. If the first needs to remain at 5 Stars, a second island could be a reward that is free of these system rating conditions and would allow for that fresh feeling of starting anew.
This could be a long-term goal to achieve, and it could be acquired by completing certain goals. A Five-Star Rating might be one, but it could also relate to seasonal events, buildings, Bells, and so one. If we are asking for ideal situations that might never occur, it would be fantastic to have multiple islands purely for the sake of having an empire of locations to visit, each built however a player likes.
There would clearly be a demand for something like this. Even games like Final Fantasy XIV and Elder Scrolls Online that fall into the genre of MMORPG offer a broad range of options for decorating and personalizing player housing. The freedom to carve out one’s space in a digital world is a major reason for playing New Horizons, and it is a shame that it feels rather limited in scope.
Ideal Solutions, But Not Likely To Happen
The ideas listed above would all be a great way to give some players the freedom to do as they like in New Horizons, but the odds of seeing any real change are slim to none. Nintendo is and always has been extremely controlling of how its games are designed, and if the one player per console limit has not been changed by this point, the odds of something like a soft reset are not likely to occur either.
In the end, these limitations should be considered within the oddity that is 2020. During the years of development leading up to the release of New Horizons, no one would have guessed that a pandemic would shut everyone inside and allow people to binge through their new favorite game, and it would be hard to argue for Nintendo to adjust its design philosophy over this remaining the norm for the long term.
As our lives slowly return to normal and the pandemic is controlled, the majority of players will also return to their daily lives, and the gradual release of content in New Horizons will probably be more than sufficient to retain player interest for the long term. For now, players who are bored with the game because they have binged through everything might simply need to look to a new game, as Nintendo is not likely to change course any time soon.
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