There's almost too much new content in Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought along with the 2.0 update. Kapp'n the sea turtle will serenade players as he takes them to new faraway islands filled with exotic flora and seasonal items. Players can dig up Gyroids, which were mysteriously missing from the base game but have now been redesigned to fit the modern and adorable Animal Crossing aesthetic. And farms encompass more than just pumpkins now, lending their crops to the new cooking mechanic.
And those are just a few things that Nintendo advertised when it showcased Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 through the Direct livestream. That doesn't include the slew of new furniture items, the new ways players can decorate their homes and islands, and the new villagers that are already going for several millions of bells through online marketplaces. While this is certainly exciting for those who fell in love with the game last spring, for some, it's almost overwhelming how much new content there is, and they don't even know where to begin with all of it.
Animal Crossing Makes You Feel Guilty
Veteran fans of the Animal Crossing franchise, unfortunately, know all too well what happens when the game isn't booted up in a prolonged amount of time. Beloved villagers will approach them, saying not only that they haven't seen the player in a number of months but some go so far as to say, "I thought you were mad at me," and similar sentiments. It can be quite heartbreaking.
Animal Crossing makes players feel guilty in other ways, too. Not only will villagers point out the player's prolonged absence, but weeds will cover the island and can take quite some time to pull them all out. Through the course of Animal Crossing's franchise history, this is a surefire way to make people fear returning to their island as well.
Getting Your Island Ready for the Animal Crossing 2.0 Update
Once players have mustered the courage to reopen their game after 2, 6, or even 12 months or more, they then need to figure out what their plans are for their upgraded island. One of the most common methods has been 'flattening' the island, or completely clearing out virtually everything possible and starting from "scratch" without actually starting a new save file. While this takes a lot more time on the terraforming side, most likely at least tens of hours worth, this allows players to hold onto their favorite villagers, keep all of the bugs and fish in the museum, and they won't need to rediscover any DIY recipes. It's simply starting from scratch in a design sense.
But that's a lot of work to prepare for a game update, much more taxing than most game updates require. It might be necessary though, because of how many new items there are available thanks to the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 update. In short, there are over 9,000 new items to discover, which include furniture, clothing, accessories, decorations, food items, cars, and so on. Some players might say they might as well start from square one rather than try and fit the new items into their already existing designs. If they don't, where should the redesigning start? At the very least, Leif will clear out all those new weeds for 100,000 bells, but unfortunately, not many players seem to know about this new 2.0 feature.
Coming up with those original designs, making those Animal Crossing custom paths fit, and time-traveling day after day was a lot of work the first time around though. And most players had the time to do this because of quarantine and shelter-in-place procedures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic is still ongoing, most people have had to return to work, school, and their "normal" lives. Animal Crossing was never meant to be played as heavily as it was last spring, and players no longer have tens if not hundreds of free hours to spend on designing the perfect island.
Regardless of what players decide to do, tackling all of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' new content will likely be a costly endeavor. Each house is 50,000 to move, and most bridges and ramps are upwards of 100,000 bells to create, and it's not like they can be moved from one spot to the next. Players must destroy the bridge, possibly wait a day, build the next one, then wait another day for it to be finished before they can build another bridge.
Animal Crossing's Meta-Narrative
For some, though, the bells are the least bit of their problems. Animal Crossing's in-game economy became something of a real economy as players were spending their precious time collecting bells and Nook Mile Tickets to trade for valuable NPCs. Some even spent actual cash, but Nintendo warned that this went against its policies. These values were further inflated by Stalk Market and sites that allowed players to easily sell 4,000 turnips per trip, earning them a quick several million bells in a matter of minutes.
While many have paid maybe 500,000 or 1 million bells to get their favorite villager in the past, some shown in the Animal Crossing Direct like Sasha and Ione go for upward of 10 million bells. Shino, probably the all-time favorite of New Horizons right now, is going for an insane 30 million bells on Nookazon.
time-traveling became popular last year once people had all too quickly exhausted New Horizons' content and clamored for more. The easiest way to discover new content was to change the dates on their Switch consoles, collect every DIY recipe, and catalog every new item from Nook's Cranny. While the idea of doing this was more controversial, it seems like the community has loosened up a bit, which forces many to decide if they should grind days in Animal Crossing to collect as much stuff as possible and keep up with the hype or take it slow and steady like the game is designed.
For some players, all of this is a bit overwhelming, and it doesn't even include the Animal Crossing: New Horizons DLC Happy Home Paradise, which brings even more new content to the game. While it does a better job of drip-feeding content to the player at a gradual pace, some have been so overwhelmed by the prospect of reopening their islands and the sheer amount of new content that would bring on that they seem to have been turned off by it.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for Nintendo Switch.