Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I did manage to jump onto my island every day last week, but it was a struggle. A half-hour every day isn’t a small amount of gaming, but I was tired and had to make myself log in. That isn’t how you want to game.

My Hybrid flower beds are a mess. I have large areas of Game Room covered in flowers. The thought of Happy Home Paradise filled me with dread. I honestly thought I was hitting the end of my second run of Animal Crossing New Horizons.

And then…

The fossil collection is the easiest of the Museum sets to complete. There are no seasons or random wares to wait for. There is luck involved, but fossils appear every day.

Going for a coffee at The Roost, I also came across an old Animal Crossing staple – Resetti! Even though New Horizons is my first ‘proper’ Animal Crossing game, I know of Resetti.

If you tried to manipulate the state of your game by say quitting without saving, Resetti would come ‘talk’ to you. It was a clever bit of programming and he made it to many easter egg lists.

Last week, he was chilling at Game Room at The Roost!

I don’t use Amiibo often, so I can’t invite him. But it was cool seeing him sitting there!

So even though I finished the week doing the bare minimum daily chores again, I am looking forward to next week. The mix of completing a Museum wing and Resetti appearing was the little push my enthusiasm needed.

Now I need a day to clean up all the flowers and start on hybrids again!

It was another week of cruising around the island of Game Room with the bare minimum of effort. I have been busy all week, but the little things had started to set in. The start of the week felt like the beginning of the end for this round of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

My daily swim for a scallop for Pascal hasn’t been done for weeks. Talk to everyone? If they aren’t in my circuit of the island, they don’t get spoken to. I don’t go into houses and get annoyed when villagers come to my home.

All the effort of starting to grow hybrid flowers has gone to waste. Stuff has grown, it’s not like my time has been wasted. For a couple of weeks, I wanted to sit down and clean up my flower beds. Spoiler – that hasn’t happened.

But then I found a new insect. The next day, I got a new piece of artwork from Redd. Brewster gave me a little “Thanks for coming” present.

It’s like I hit the secret ‘oh no quick give him something’ point of the code. The gameplay loop had staled, but I have reason to keep going now.

Not in a big way. I am not gripped with the urge to play all day out of the blue. But enough of a dopamine hit has happened with the tiny bits of progress that I want to keep playing.

I still need to clean up my hybrids and spend some time in Happy Home Paradise. A day in the world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be on the cards, but not soon.

Next week I will most likely keep at the basics to keep chains going. Even the thought of turnip farming is a bit much for me a the moment.

But I will still be there, and that is an accomplishment in itself.

I still come in daily for my Animal Crossings New Horizons dabble. Dig up fossils, earn some Nook Miles, try and talk to a few villagers.

Last week was the start of the Lunar Festival, which I should get excited about. It’s not quite coming yet. Last week was monitoring the project now that it’s out, and later in the week that let me take some split days for a break.

So Thursday I thought to myself I would spend an hour cleaning up my hybrid flowers. But on my island of Game Room the weather didn’t agree.

Yes, I skipped virtual gardening because of virtual rain!

But it’s not all gloomy news. I was able to pick up the Switch at the end of my day. It doesn’t sound like much, but I usually play about 6 am – most of my villagers aren’t awake to talk to!

Playing in the evening lets me try and talk to everyone. This should help with the villager turnover I have been letting run rampant the last few weeks.

Another goal I am getting closer to is the bugs Critterpedia. I managed to hit 75% of the creatures caught, and all are donated to the museum as well. Progress in set collection is happening!

The one collection that feels like it takes forever is my art collection. Even though an update means that you can visit Redd every day at Harv’s Island, there is rarely genuine art on sale.

It has gotten to the point I am thinking of buying fake art to cycle the options quicker. I have done pretty well with some turnip trades, so it’s not like it would hurt.

I don’t know if this would help or not. I could likely look it up, but I wouldn’t mind trying it out for myself. That might be a goal next week.