shadowhive: (Lucky Happy)
shadowhive ([personal profile] shadowhive) wrote in [community profile] covidcoffeecorner2020-05-05 08:49 am

Let’s cross some animals!

Hi! So this is my first post here and I figured I should talk about something that’s helped to keep me sane these past weeks. That thing is Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

New Horizons is the latest game in the series and it’s already become one of the best selling games of the year, so chances are if you have a nintendo Switch you already have it. But for those that don’t you might be wondering what Animal Crossing is all about?

On this game you start out by going to a deserted island to start a new life. You’re not alone though, there’s Tom Nook and his nephews who run the shop and resident services and you also start out with two island villagers. These villagers come in the form of animals (the player character is the only human in the game) and as time goes on you can find and befriend even more. (At time of writing the total number of villagers you can have is 10, which I think is too few considering there are almost 400 different villagers.) After setting up the tents of yourself and the villagers and, choosing the island name, your island life begins.

So what does that entail? Well there’s a variety of things that you can do. You can catch fish and bugs (which can be donated to the museum) and, once your tent is upgraded to a house you can decorate it with furniture, carpet and wallpapers. New to this game is the option to craft things, tools, furniture even musical instruments!

Your starting island has native fruit and a type of flower, but you can gain others (if you have friends you can easily gain all the fruits and flower types by going to visit their islands!). As time goes on you get special visitors coming to your island, like Kicks (the skunk who sells shoes, socks and bags), Saharah (the camel that sells rugs, mysterious carpet and wallpaper) and Flick and CJ who buy bugs and fish respectively (and getting models of them too!).

I got the game on the day of release and my island (Eventide) is now completely full of villagers, including some of my favs like Lucky (a dog wrapped in bandages) and Julian (a stylish unicorn). My museum is filling up, with my fossil exhibit almost complete (with only two fossils short!). My shop has been upgraded and I also have a clothes shop. My house has all six rooms (that it can have currently), which includes a room I’ve got decorated with skull and horror stuff alongside one with sci fi stuff. My island is still pretty wild, unlike some who have it covered in paving and nicely ordered, but I like it that way. Even so I’m working on making a kitchen and diner area on a part of the island next to Julian’s house.

I’m so grateful that this game came out during this time. As someone who as anxiety and depression, this is helped distract me from my thoughts and help keep me sane. I know I’m not the only one that’s been helped by this game and it seems a lot of people are using it as a distraction or escape.

One interesting thing that’s come from the lockdown is the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been doing Animal Crossing streams every Monday. The focus has been on the museum and there’s been interesting facts about the various exhibits. They’ve even had guests on to talk about fossils and insects and it’s really fascinating. The link to their twitter is here which keeps an update on their streams among other things. (From the one last night I learned that diving beetles can fly, which I had no idea about!)

Do you have Animal Crossing? What are your native fruit and villagers? Let me know in the comments. And if you don’t, what games are you playing to help keep you sane.

Lastly here’s some pics from my island


Julian’s house, which features the rare zodiac furniture


The diner area


The butterfly room of the museum


One of the aquariums of the museum
althea_valara: An icon of my character from Final Fantasy XIV (Final Fantasy XIV)

[personal profile] althea_valara 2020-05-05 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm curious: does this Animal Crossing game do the thing where if you don't log in for several days, your island deteriorates? I own one of the past Animal Crossing games (mine is for the Nintendo DS) and I was very turned off when I didn't play for several days and came back to find my town covered with weeds and cockroaches in my house. I felt like I was being punished for having a real life, and yeah, just, no.

That said, I do know lots of people who are enjoying Animal Crossing, and I'm glad the game exists as a good distraction right now, even if the game might not be to my tastes.

As for me: I'm spending most of my time playing Final Fantasy XIV. I've actually scheduled myself some time away from the game today since my play has been rather excessive lately, oops. I have two characters: Althea Valara on Coeurl, and Eirian Ari on Brynhildr, both on the Crystal data center.

Other games I'm playing are Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, War of the Visions:FFBE, and I'm attempting a replay of Final Fantasy IX. Yeah, I like Final Fantasy, why do you ask, lol!
althea_valara: Icon of Noctis from Final Fantasy Versus 13, using magic. (noctis)

[personal profile] althea_valara 2020-05-05 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's good that the weeds are useful! Maybe I'll give the game a try in the future, then. Can't right now, I lack a console to play it on and I don't have the money to buy one.

Yes, Final Fantasy XV is the one with Noctis. I've played all the main series, and they're all good in different ways. FFXV is one of my more favorite ones, because of its open-world exploration, but mostly because of the banter between the chocobros. It's just such a delight to see them interact with each other. I was smiling for a good portion of the game.
ninetydegrees: Art & Text: heart with aroace colors, "you are loved" (Default)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2020-05-05 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
No cockroaches in houses in this version, and weed comes back but very slowly and sparsely. There's a reward if you log in to the game's ATM that increases if you do it every day but it's a capped bonus and not much anyway. You can easily get as much or more money in other ways.