Capsule Review: Animal Crossing
A life sim set in a small town with humanoid animals of various species (though for some reason, the player character is apparently human). In many ways it feels like an offline MMORPG with no combat. There’s even some asynchronous multiplayer as multiple players can move into the town and see each others’ houses and send each other mail. There’s no single overarching goal or win state; rather, the player can engage in various activities such as fishing or collecting insects, doing fetch-quest favors for villagers, donating to the local museum, saving up to buy house expansions, collecting furniture and outfits, and participating in various holiday events. There are also real-time day/night and seasonal cycles that affect what activities, townspeople, and fauna are available - which is actually pretty inconvenient, since shops are only open during certain hours and neighbors go to bed, meaning that a lot of the game is simply unavailable at night.
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