The game of the season is finally here. I pre-ordered it a couple of weeks before launch date. With the pandemic going on, Amazon sent me an e-mail on the 18th past midnight. They said the release wouldn't arrive until later that week. After that egregious slap in the face I promptly cancelled my pre-order and ordered again from Game Stop. My order arrived on the 20th just after 3 P.M., and it made a moody day considerably better. These days have been quite tough. Los Angeles is currently being hit by the virus. The cases just keep sky-rocketing, and people working at ICU are overwhelmed. Our quarantine status has been extended until April 30th. Double the time. We estimate things may start to return to normal around June. I think it'll be a drag until August.
The game starts out checking you checked in for your flight. Before your flight has landed you can glimpse at your native fruit. The first thing you do is get settled with your tent. From there you dive into the tutorials, gathering resources and crafting tools. You can harvest fruit once every three days for a profit, and in between days can be spent chopping wood, hitting rocks and selling fish or bugs. Whenever I've got energy to keep going after exhausting my island's resources, I head on over to the airport to visit adjacent mystery isles. The first time I flew out, I met Stitches but didn't talk. I wanted to be surprised by the villagers that moved in.
My first five are Coach, Sylvia, Drago, Peanut, and Coco. Out of them all, Drago is my favorite. I am on the hunt for Alli, Bunnie, Lily, Muffy, Pietro, Diana, Eunice, Punchy, and Lucky. One of my friends I met online has Pietro. Every time I go to her island I chat him up. His house looks like a theme park in the clouds. It's super cute!
Remember back when y'all were hyped about Smash Bros coming out in the Nintendo direct? That's about as long as I've been waiting for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We were very disappointed when Nintendo didn't even give us a teaser. That was cold.
My journey with Animal Crossing started 7 years ago. I got my Nintendo 3DS XL bundle off the internet. It arrived on August 22nd, 2013. A couple of days before I moved to Los Angeles. I played the game at the airport, and every day since. It was a soothing balm of relaxation during a hectic but also very pleasant moving process. I only ever got to play Animal Crossing: New Leaf with a couple of friends. I didn't really get to see how far you could push the town. But I got to do lots of fishing and bug catching.
I love that when you open your gate to your friends, you never really know who will come in. But almost assuredly, somebody will. They have brought local fruit and gifts with them, my favorite of which is the spider umbrella so far.
My island has apples. The local flower is the mum, which I dig out whenever I see it in bloom. I favor tulips, lilies and roses. So far it seems I favor hybrid flowers. The extra colors are very pretty. With luck I bred some black tulips. I've also got pink ones.
Here is a compilation of some of my favorite moments from March 20th until today.
DIARY
Zeph has been retweeting ACNH journals on Twitter for a couple of months leading up to the release. I waited until release day to get started with mine, but its been coming along. I shared it on my social media and it has had a very positive response. Some friends have been turned onto playing the game or starting a journal of their own. Zeph's journals are especially beautiful journals. I'll have to ask her permission to share her work here...
These journals are time consuming to make, and the emotional payoff is always worth it.
Enjoy mine.
Hope you enjoyed some of the spreads collaged together. Playing with color has been somewhat therapeutic; there is always something cathartic about journaling with collage and paper punch-outs.
The game is expansive in terms of what you can do now. You unlock full customization and can revise everything as often as you like as long as you can pay for it. The farming rates make it very easy to rack up some savings, although I don't have any since I am constantly doing updates.
Once you get past the initial setup you will find there are many ways to personalize the game to your personal tastes. Hosting your friends at your island makes it very fun. I love checking my bulletin board to see if anybody has left me a note.
Talking to the villagers is adorable and funny. They mention people that have visited the island in conversation. I find them all adorable.
Pietro is my dream villager. Beside him is Muffy, the black sheep villager.
Their uppity, snooty personalities are quite cute. Really curious to see how all the villagers interact with one another.
Love how this game has connected people. I've had visitors from all past stages of my life interacting with one another. We talk more because we're playing together. The Switch app does a great job with the voice chat ability.
I buy items from Nook's Cranny depending on who they remind me of. I'll have gifts for them during visits and send them in the mail along with a note. But I'm clumsy, so sometimes I forget to attach the item.
And remember...
That bad times are just times that are bad.
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