Animal Crossing Direct: October 2021

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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Okay, gang. How many of you are still playing ACNH, and how often are you playing it? Daily? Weekly? Once or twice a month? Once or twice a season? Only to get special new items? Basically never?

What do you think this October Animal Crossing dedicated Direct will bring us? The Roost for sure, we know that. Brewster 99.9% for sure, I'd say. They didn't say his name, I don't think, but still....it's the Roost, so it's almost beyond question that it is also Brewster.

Other than that, and some word on this new Series 5 set of amiibo cards, do you think we'll get anything? Or is that it, except for inconsequential tiny things like a few more new limited-time-availability items to collect?

Personally, I think that's about all we're getting...except I hope that Brewster coming back will also mean gyroids are coming back. Maybe even the wing opposite The Roost will open up as a gyroid wing. That'd be awesome...I always wanted to collect all the gyroids in New Leaf, but there simply wasn't enough space to keep them all. They're clearly cultural/archeological treasures...why shouldn't they go in the museum? I always thought that was a missed opportunity.

But yeah, other than that, I don't think we're getting anything. I HOPE we'll get a new crop or two, and maybe another shop expansion and a few new furniture sets sold in the store. But I definitely wouldn't put any money down on that.

What about you guys? Anyone who still cares? I'm sure there are at lest a couple left who do.
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Arcy
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I like to keep my expectations low and get surprised and happy if they deliver anything good. I do not like to make a shopping list of things I personally want in the game and get crushed when they don't deliver. (I do maintain a shopping list of things I personally want on the side for fun, but I'm not in charge of Animal Crossing and that's probably a good thing.)

The "Animal Crossing Direct" tease was only 5 seconds long and didn't really promise or show anything new other than a new version of The Roost inside the museum, so it isn't really much to get hype over. It wasn't even shown, properly. Only a sign for it. I'm waiting for the actual Direct. I am the kind of person who will get sick with too much anticipation as well, like physically throwing up sick, so I try to stay calm about these things.

I do continue to play every day, I have not missed a single day yet, since March 19th, 2020. I just like the routine. Being there for my friends as they pop in and out of playing is nice too. I'm always making new Animal Crossing friends, this game has legs for me in a way that none of the previous entries ever did.

I do want to talk about amiibo cards. Series 1-4 have 100 cards each, the first 17 card slots or so are usually front-loaded with important NPCs (there aren't actually that many NPCs, a lot of them have variant art reprints) and the remainder of cards are actual villagers that you can use to move them onto your island. Series 1-4 and the Sanrio Series are being reprinted and continuously restocked by Nintendo, at least in North America. I was able to recently pick up a couple of packs myself at Target in the US and ended up with 4 new-to-me cards, in 2021. Kind of wild considering the original launch date.

So, let's work with the theory that Nintendo is shooting for a new 100 card series, called "Series 5".

Probable Cards? What have not been reprinted up to this point are the "Welcome Amiibo" series camper cards, of which there are 50. They could easily make a 75-100 card "set" by reprinting the camper cards with less New Leaf specific branding (the backs of all the camper cards have the "welcome amiibo" logo), throwing in the 8 new villagers who didn't previously have cards (Raymond, Judy, Sherb, Dom, Cyd, Megan, Reneigh, and Audie), adding all the new "important NPCs" that didn't previously have cards (they could add some from Pocket Camp too), printing up a couple of new variants for old "important NPCs", and maybe something more? That should bring the total up to at least 75 or so characters, especially because I can see Nintendo wanting to reprint every important NPC that has a New Horizons outfit (those outfits are real cute).

Possible cards? Crossover character cards would probably be a hit if it meant they were bringing those characters back from other Nintendo properties, that's 7 or 8 more characters. (Cece, Viche, Inkwell, Ganon, Medli, W. Link, Epona, and Felyne - who would be contingent on the MonHun guys approval maybe?) None of these cards need to have extra furniture necessarily other than the associated characters Posters and Pictures (where applicable), even if new furniture would be nice.

Not happening cards? I feel like Filly and Holden are wild cards but I'd lean to the side of "no dice" since they were never properly villagers anyway, only LE RV campers treated similarly to "important NPCs" RV Campers. I'm also not holding out hope for any of the previously removed villagers/islanders that didn't come back when welcome amiibo launched. (As much as I would love to have a second Jock Squirrel in the pool). Too many of the cut villagers were renamed, redesigned, relaunched, put back in, and a few of the others have similar Filly/Holden issues due to their natures as crossover promotional characters.

Dream on cards? Anything actually new. Outside of five NPCs (no Gullivaaaaaaar doesn't count in this math lol), New Horizons is more about recycling content rather than making new strides, at least where characters are concerned. They used all the new strides on landscaping and decorating, in my opinion. It would be cool but I wouldn't hold my breath. (Right now, I would like to scream into a paper bag about how having only 5 Cows and only 3 Octopuses skews the villager hunting ratio so very badly.)

Series 5 could also just be one or two "set cards" (think Sanrio here) pack of all the new characters and only the new characters, still at around $1 per card (USD) regardless of how they package them. I'd like a reprint of Welcome Amiibo series alongside that IF they go that route, they're easily the rarest amiibo card series that was mass produced at this point.
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Kikki
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My expectations are quite low. Honestly I don't have much attachment at this point, so I don't feel much. I figure getting The Roost installed will get me to go back, and if they DO put in gyroids, that may get me to play a little longer, but I don't have any thoughts about how likely that is. Anything else seems far-fetched, to me.

But the more they add, the more likely I am to actually return to the game for a few weeks or even a month or two. If it's a HUGE update, it could bring me back for all of winter, though I'd be shocked if that was the case. I never believed in ACNH 2.0 and still don't believe we'll be getting anything big enough to qualify as that. (Of course it's possible, but so is winning the lottery, and I never buy tickets for that, either. That's kind of how I feel about it.)

Windfall is done. I don't have any desire to change what's there, now. I mean, it could definitely be better since it's not fancy...but it works well for me, so I don't really want to change it.
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Mikodesu
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It's been about...a year since I've played New Horizons regularly. I don't think I've touched the game since the anniversary (it's been three months since I've picked up my Switch in general, so).

I think in terms of expectations...it'll be somewhere between what we've gotten in tweets about Animal Crossing updates and the "Welcome Amiibo" stuff for New Leaf. The fact that it's being put into a direct raises expectations. Nintendo knows this. They've had to temper expectations for directs before. I don't feel they would bother making a direct/hyping up the fan base for ONE character and ONE new thing in the museum.

I think...MOST of what will be there will be little. Honestly stuffing the Roost into the museum and not making it its own building already makes that little.

I'd be happiest with a bunch of quality of life things that enhance what's already there rather than completely overhauling things. Like all the crafting stuff we've already been requesting.

What would be incredible would be some sort of 'design mode' that lets you move things around/decorate your island like you can your house. Even if we still can't rotate the camera, just having an overhead view and being able to quickly move things, group them, pick them up, etc would be huge.

That's sort of the thing with Nintendo, isn't it? You never really know. For good or bad. Sometimes they surprise us with crickets, sometimes they surprise us with freebies. I'm going to say the new update will get me playing anywhere from a few days to a few months. If it's big enough I might be willing to reup my Switch Online sub. For now the ball is in Nintendo's court.
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I'm in the basically not playing category and I expect nothing from this direct. Just Brewster isn't going to get me to come back, I'd need something far more significant. When New Leaf got it's big update with trailers and amiibos, that got me to jump back in because it was a big enough change to warrant my attention, so it'd have to be something along the same size and impact as that. I've done everything in the game worth doing, only missing a few fish/bugs that I don't really care all that much about to go back and hunt down. My town is 'perfect', I have all the items in-game that I want, drowning in bells, ect. It's not fun anymore, there's nothing to do that's worth my limited gaming time.

Brewster+Gyroids would be good, but not good enough. If they added something like say, a HHD mode or something so you could customize your neighbors houses, bring back all the amiibo villagers (Felyne, Ganon, Epona, ect) and add more events that aren't freaking collectathons, then I might be tempted to jump back in. Maybe.
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I think a gyroid wing of the museum would get me to come back. The collecting aspect is what I like best, and I'd finished most of it when I set it down last September. I only needed a few each of bugs/fish to complete the museum in October/November. The diving collection did extend the game life for me, and I did have quite a bit of that to go, but swimming and hunting rare shellfish was a little tedious after a couple months. The art is also too tedious to bother collecting (I feel like I have the hardest time getting legit pieces!), but if, say, we got to dig up gyroids for the museum, that would probably bring me back.

The events are cute, as are the LE recipes, but I had almost every recipe when I stopped, and didn't care enough to gather new ones. I was out of space to decorate and store unique items anyway, and I'd set up the town adequately and am not super-interested in redecorating. Decorating the town actually stressed me out a lot in this one. I feel like I can't do it as well as a game designer, and always felt like my efforts looked cheap/amateur. Not super-interested in new/ideal villagers either - I usually keep folks until they give me a portrait, then accept the next person that asks. Slow, but I like the surprise.

The only other thing I'd jump back into is flower hybrids (those ROSES), but adding new ones wouldn't be enough to get me to come back.
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I've been playing daily ever since the game came out. I'm still trying to get the museum finished and get the last 5 DIYs I'm missing. I can't wait for the Animal Crossing Direct. I wonder what they have planned aside from the Roost.
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Shan O 123
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I still play, though on my second switch. I do hop on my main town but only to give my second character stuff or I’m doing a trade. I’m not hoping for anything huge, but again we have to wait and see.
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Arcy
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October 15th, 7am USA Pacific Time, roughly 20 minutes long video.

Welcome Amiibo Direct for New Leaf was almost 16:30, but I am of course expecting Nintendo to do a lot of introductions and skits the way they tend to do, which will probably knock the "new stuff" to 12-15 minutes worth of information and media. Knowing how long the video will be makes it seem like it will in fact be a substantial update. Now I'm starting to get excited.
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Kikki
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I'm not home then. Hmm. I could watch it while I'm out, probably, but...I may as well just wait until I'm back home. It's not like I'll run into any spoilers in the interim. Or that spoilers would matter to me if I heard 'em. I can't speculate about content beyond what I already have, so it'll just be about 10 more days of wondering what the heck they're gonna show, I guess. I'm slightly concerned about this Series 5 stuff; I hope it's something good.
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7am PST = 10am EST meaning: I won’t be awake to catch it live lol
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Mikodesu
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Thanks for letting us know, Arcy! It's nice to have a little something to look forward to, honestly. :lol:

20 minutes is fairly exciting. Definitely enough to make me pick up the game again. I'll be curious to see if there's any Youtube 'analysis' of the picture in the tweet. I don't remember enough to say for sure how much is/isn't new in it, but. I don't remember doorways of that style. It also kind of looks like there may not be any transition between two rooms, whether that's some sort of 'viewport' or what.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember ANY place in the game that didn't require a loading screen between two rooms. So, technically anyway, that would be pretty neat!
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Arcy
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I'm pretty sure that's just a photo of the inside of The Roost though.
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Kikki
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That's what I also thought. So anything new in there doesn't necessarily mean anything? That's why I never bothered to look all that closely at it, anyway.
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Mikodesu
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I was overly curious, I guess. :lol: I'm assuming the Roost has two rooms them, since that archway doesn't look like it leads to the museum entrance. Call me stupid it looks a little too dark for that.

Little over a week till we find out! :)
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