Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Official Cover of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Released March 20, 2020.

Animal Crossing New Horizons is the fifth game within the Animal Crossing franchise made by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. This social simulation game fixes itself in a storyline of a character which is made by the player. This character lives on a deserted island they purchased and must build it up with guidance from Tom Nook, a raccoon holding a businessman/real estate agent occupation. By buying, selling, crafting, and completing tasks around the island in order to customize it, the player is able to form a community of animals deemed as villagers–– animals who live on the players’ island–– or visitors–– animals which will visit, stay for a day, and can potentially offer to move onto a player’s island.

Created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami, the fifth rendition of the game began its development in 2012 before announcing it’s coming in 2019 at the Electric Entertainment Expo at a Nintendo Direct event. New Horizons then made its worldwide release in March of 2020, gaining critical acclaim and major success amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gameplay

In the beginning of the game, the player is greeted by Timmy and Tommy Nook, apprentices for Tom Nook. The player’s character receives a Deserted Island Getaway Package from Timmy and Tommy where the game then continues to ask the player’s name, birthday, and directs the customization of their character. There are then 4 different island layout starters the player can choose from, each with their own random, unknown native fruit and flower. Once an island is chosen, the character is flown to the island where they are greeted by Timmy and Tommy Nook again alongside the player’s 2 starter villagers that will live on the island with them.

The player is directed to their plaza where Tom Nook awaits to welcome them and provides the opportunity to figure out where the player wants to set up their tent while they work up to a home. In this process, the player also helps their villagers pick a spot in which their tents will go. These placements can later be changed at a price when a player is further into the game by speaking to Tom Nook about making changes to their island in the Town Hall.

From this point forward, the player is mostly taking tasks from Tom Nook that will help further the beginning development of the island for an in-game day. Along the way, players gain crafting DIY recipes for tools that will help them with tasks and any additional material gathering by either finding these recipes around the island or they are given to the player by Tom Nook. The player will also gain Bells, the form of currency in this game series; Nook Miles, a different form of currency that allows players to not only buy premium items and supplies in their Resident Services, but also tickets to fly to different, vacant islands in order to find new villagers or resources they may need.

Once players progress past this introductory in-game day, the accelerated time progression is shifted to follow a real-world 24-hour day based on what time and day the player has their console set at. It is at this point that the game progresses as the player chooses and is allowed. By following any additional tasks asked for by Nook such as fishing for certain types or amounts of sea creatures, catching particular bugs, etc., the player can begin to shape their island however they want. Players will gradually receive 8 additional villagers and have the choice to pick where they want their homes to be around the island as well as help craft furniture that decorates the outside of the houses. A player will also be able to place Timmy and Tommy’s store, Nook’s Cranny, and a clothing shop, Able Sisters, owned by 2 hedgehog characters, Mable and Sable. There is also a museum run by an owl named Blathers which the player will be prompted to place for construction, and Blathers will stay in a temporary tent where a player can still donate their various bugs, fish, and fossils. The more ornamented, neat, and overall pleasing the island is, the higher the rating of the island will be. Island ratings can be seen by the player through interacting with Isabelle, who works alongside Tom Nook in the Town Hall. Once a player reaches a 3 star rating for their island, they unlock new ways to customize their island via terraforming which will allow players to tear down or build up mountains, create waterfalls or ponds, and create brick, dirt, or grass patches. K.K. Slider, a musician, will also visit the island to perform. After this 3 star rating is achieved, players can further develop their island to get to 5 stars with the help of the terraforming feature they gained.

Characters

Villagers

Villagers take on a variety of different animal appearances such as eagles, dogs, koalas, pigs, and many more. These villagers will have their own home on the player’s island and interact with one another, will be seen doing various activities (fishing, catching bugs, singing, etc.), as well as interact with the player, at times asking for favors, opinions, or to even give a nickname to the player.

Main and Special Characters

Tom Nook: Tom Nook is a raccoon businessman and travel agent within New Horizons that manages the players’ loans within Resident Services. He also helps players with infrastructure customizations around the island, home expansion, and home relocations.

Timmy and Tommy Nook: Timmy and Tommy Nook are Tom Nook’s apprentices, although they are widely referred to as nephews of Tom Nook despite having no familial relation. These 2 smaller raccoons own a shop, Nook’s Cranny, where the player can buy decorative items or supplies along with being able to sell any sea life, bugs, fossils, and other miscellaneous objects a player no longer needs in order to get more Bells.

Isabelle: Isabelle is a dog appearing character that works as a secretary alongside Tom Nook in Resident Services in the Town Hall. She is in charge of keeping the player’s island reviews and star ratings in check while providing suggestions should a player check in on their island rating. Acting as an administrative role, Isabelle is also able to change the island’s tune and flag (which are customized by the player) at the player’s request. She is also the first character to be seen in the regular gameplay when a player enters the game for the first time in a given day by giving announcements regarding island events, villager and player birthdays, or visitors.

K.K. Slider: K.K. Slider is a dog who is a musician and is usually seen sitting on a stool, playing the guitar. This character signifies a milestone in the player’s game progress, as it means that the player has managed to build up and decorate their island to a 3 star rating amongst habitants and visitors. After this milestone, Slider can be found in the player’s plaza on Saturdays performing.

Blathers: Blathers is an owl who is the owner of the museum on a player’s island. The player brings Blathers any sea life, fossils, bugs, and/or art to be inspected and put in the museum should they be missing those items from that respective exhibit. He will also offer information about an item a player brings in if it is brought in on its own with no additional critters or items.

Redd: Redd is a fox that will show up on islands on his boat with art to sell. He is known for being a con-artist because he looks to scam players into buying fake, forged art pieces at an expensive price only to have the price drop when the player bargains the price should they want to buy it. It is up to the player to identify whether or not the art they buy from Redd is fake or not. If the piece of art is fake and a player attempts to donate it to their museum, Blathers will not accept it and Timmy and Tommy will not accept to buy it off the player. The only option would be to display it in a player’s own home or throw it away in a trash bin.

Ethical Concerns

Veganism

Animal Crossing’s gameplay is based in various interactions between the player’s human character and some animals which are seen as having human-like abilities and qualities (villagers, special characters, etc.) as well as those which are non-sentient and caught, sold, and/or crafted into different materials or food items. This encourages players to partake in non-vegan activities. It may also bring about a moral conflict for those who may be vegan and want to play the game since some of the first tasks Tom Nook asks of a player is to fish or catch a bug. This issue was addressed by PETA and they provided a way to try and avoid these in-game actions.

PETA Suggested Gameplay: Upon having this issue be brought up by PETA, their suggestions to achieve a vegan-friendly gameplay was to simply avoid all non-vegan activities and tasks in the game. The tasks they highlight to avoid partaking in are fishing, catching bugs, digging up clams, and catching hermit crabs. PETA also delves into how New Horizons allows players to eat food items such as the fruit on their island, as well as cook food from the animals you catch in the game’s recent 2.0 update in order to gain strength. Their suggestion for getting around this is to simply eat only the fruit that are found on different islands. Although players only have one type of fruit on their island, which is their native fruit, PETA informs players about the chance to go on friends’ islands or traveling to different islands in order to collect all the fruits there are in the game. PETA also advises against wearing certain clothing items sold at the Able Sisters’s shop if they are made of materials such as wool, cashmere, leather, and more.

The game also allows for animals to be seen with human emotions, rights, and consciousness with the ability to cohabitate peacefully alongside humans. One of the key aspects of ethical veganism is the idea that humans do not own pets, nor are they above animals. Rather, they live with animals and cohabitate in the same environment. Animal Crossing: New Horizons demonstrates these ideals and how well they can be comprehended and achieved with the villagers of the island.

Bullying

In the beginning of the game, players begin to gain 8 new villagers on top of the 2 they are randomly given at the start of the gameplay. These 8 villagers will at times also be randomly assigned to move onto the player’s island if the player does not seek out villagers for themselves. If a villager is not a favorable character for the player, the player may continue to find ways to remove them from their island. Since Animal Crossing: New Horizons is widely based on island and character customization and known for its “cutesy” designs, if a player’s theme or aesthetic of their island clashes with a villager’s look, it can be grounds to bully them as some Reddit users noted. This also sparked a conversation on whether people in the community actually bully their villagers off their islands, leaving many to feel bad for the villagers. Although there is no guaranteed method to remove villagers out on a player’s own decision, there are plenty of articles that suggest a player to do certain actions that may begin to upset the villager. Berating these characters in multiple ways such as hitting them with a net, sending them mean notes, enclosing them with fences, making hateful displays against them, and ignoring them all together are amongst the methods that claim to be most successful, but despite this, it may need to be a matter of waiting for the villager to want to leave. Another way players manage to evict the villagers they do not want is through their campsite. Each island is equipped with a campsite where visiting villagers come to the players island for a day. Either waiting for a villager to visit the campsite or using Amiibo cards, players will have the chance to give the villager DIY projects they ask for or play a game with them and win. Once either of the tasks that the player is given is complete, the villager will ask to move to the island and suggest a villager to talk to about moving in in their place. If this villager is not the target, players will need to close the game without saving and try again until the random villager is the one they desire to leave.

Forgery and Plagiarism

Redd becomes a point of contention when considering his position of selling fake artwork and likely gaining a profit from his actions. Amongst these works are real-life pieces of art such as Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vitruvian Man, and The Mona Lisa. The poor ethical implications of having forged artwork being sold at its valued price or more is clear within New Horizons as Redd is warned against by characters like Blathers and Isabelle, and the manner in which Redd visits the island is through a run-down, sketchy boat that is docked at the very back of a player’s island. Upon trying to enter his boat, the game prompts a speech text from the player’s character noting the boat is sketchy and that it should not be boarded without asking. Communities on Reddit have commented on his behaviors and created memes about how what he does is a crime. Some have acknowledged his actions as a crime, but others have chosen to see that Redd is actually unaware of his doings or that he is within his right to recreate famous pieces of artwork with his own take on them with different names: Girl with a Pearl Earring becomes Wistful Painting, Vitruvian Man becomes Academic Painting, The Mona Lisa becomes Famous Painting, etc. This leaves unclear remarks as to whether Redd is considered to actually be aware of what he is doing or not. Since art forgery is still a crime, some who are in the community decided to create a scenario surrounding Redd’s unethical behavior. This included staging a court hearing with Blathers acting as the prosecutor, Redd as the criminal at hand, the player’s villagers standing in as the public gallery watching the trial unfold, and the player themselves acting as the judge of the case.