Animal Crossing: New Horizons is finished with major content releases. While some may argue Nintendo didn't do enough with the game's explosive popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is going out with a bang. The Version 2.0.0 update adds a ton of free content for players, including new furniture, the ability to cook, Gyroids, and Brewster's cafe The Roost. This update also came out just before New Horizons' paid DLC expansion Happy Home Paradise.
A piece of Animal Crossing content focused exclusively on decorating interior spaces for villagers was tested with 2015's Happy Home Designer on 3DS, but Happy Home Paradise elevates the idea. Now players can decorate interior and exterior spaces on plots of land they choose within a diverse archipelago, with new design techniques like partition walls and soundscapes included in the DLC. Because Happy Home Paradise is attached to a larger game, players can apply those techniques to their actual living spaces.
With hundreds of potential villagers to design houses for, including the ability to summon them using amiibo, it's easy to imagine a version of this DLC that's overwhelming to those who prefer Animal Crossing: New Horizons' casual life simulation to its greater focus on customization and design. The drip-feed behind Happy Home Paradise's content is a smart solution to this, one that presents the DLC as a learning experience preparing fans to design homes for the villagers who truly matter rather than something that throws fans into the deep end.
Happy Home Paradise Offers Progressively More Options
While many players starting Happy Home Paradise will have a year-and-a-half of experience following New Horizons' March 2020 launch, others will be just starting their new virtual lives. This DLC is designed for everyone to partake by virtue of its own progression path. Players begin their work with Lottie's vacation home company Paradise Planning by designing the interior of a single house, and their duties expand from there. Milestones are unlocked after a set number of jobs for any villager the player chooses (or whoever randomly shows up), such as item polishing after four remodels and constructable pillars after 15.
This progression continues through 30 remodels, at which point players will be able to apply all the skills they've learned to the homes of villagers living on their personal island. Each character who visits Paradise Planning has a different theme in mind, with some villagers requesting weirder ideas than others. Rather than giving immediate access to every known furniture item in the game and expecting people to comb through it all, Happy Home Paradise adds a set number of items to the limited catalog for each design job based on whatever theme a client wants.
While more experienced players may get frustrated at only having a set number of items for each design job (until late into the DLC when the full Nook Shopping catalog is unlocked), the items handed out for each job fit well and have to be added alongside required furniture pieces anyway. One's design potential increases exponentially over time, as the DLC lets players use furniture from older jobs alongside whatever is included for a given theme. There is also an option to go back and give clients a second pass once more design tools and items are available.
Not only does this sense of progression work wonders to make the Happy Home Paradise DLC feel like its own story rather than just a paid designer tools add-on, it also opens the door for apprehensive fans to realize they may have some design chops after all. It's far less intimidating to start with a small set of items and build up a repertoire than it is to be paralyzed by choices. Some will no doubt say at least 30 jobs is a lot of work to unlock the full potential of the DLC considering how much time goes into each remodel, but the infinite freedom that comes afterward should be worth Happy Home Paradise's $24.99 price tag or a Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.
