Coming eight years after the last main series entry, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has managed to gather a ton of hype around its release, and rightfully so. Now only a few months away from its release, it's time to start analyzing every piece of information that's been released about the game and speculate wildly about unannounced new features.
For a beloved franchise that has been away for this long, it's hard for people to not only be incredibly excited but also concerned about some of the changes being made and some of the changes not being made.
10 5. River Pole Vaulting (Know)
Hopefully, a sign of the types of minor quality-of-life improvements that the game will have in, the trailer shows a villager using a pole to vault from one side of the river to the other, avoiding the annoying search from one of two bridges usually present in a town, or now island.
While the game doesn't typically emphasize doing things quickly, it is nice that they are thinking of ways to make things a little easier while you enjoy the island life.
9 5. New Bell Avenue (Possibility)
With such a significant amount of time passing between releases, it would warrant a large new feature to be added to the game. Previously, bells could be earned through fishing, foraging, bug catching and selling miscellaneous items.
It would be nice to see an additional way to earn bells, something related to island living. Cave spelunking would make sense given the island premise but there are plenty of different things that could be put into the game that would make for another fun activity.
8 4. Create Your Own Paths (Know)
One of many requested features, being able to customize the paths around the island gives players more agency over their space. It allows players to make the world feel more lived by them and can design paths around the way they play the game.
This feature may not be something that everyone is interested in or will care to take advantage of, but it's a good sign that Nintendo is listening to Animal Crossing fans, for at least some new features.
7 4. More Design Control Over The Island (Possibility)
Seeing villagers getting to design their own paths around the island just lets the imagination run wild, hoping for more options to design the island. From residents' house/tent placements, to where shops end up, hopefully, the game will allow for as much control over the island layout as possible.
Being able to change the exterior of buildings to have themed islands would also be very cool, but seems far more unlikely. Being able to visit other player's islands and see how they laid it out would be just as exciting as seeing their homes.
6 3. Better Character Customization (Know)
While its hard to believe that the last Animal Crossing game didn't have character choices like skin color, options in video games have come a far way since 2012. Having not only skin color options but also a wider variety of hair options including all types makes the game feel like it truly is for everyone.
Getting to see a wide range of villagers is neat, but making sure everyone can play a villager that looks like them is important and a feature that needed to be added to the game.
5 3. Deeper Pockets (Possibility)
Animal Crossing is about many things, but trying to manage a limited amount of storage space shouldn't be one of them. Understandably, games like Resident Evil and Fallout have limited inventory because it adds to the challenge of those games but nobody would describe Animal Crossing as difficult.
I'm not petitioning for there to be unlimited inventory space, but having the option to upgrade or just have a larger amount to start with over previous titles. The inventory screen shown in the trailer suggests the space is as limited as past games but there is still hope.
4 2. Crafting (Know)
Crafting feels like a natural evolution for the series since many other life simulation games feature crafting systems of one type or another. While it might lessen the experience of trying to acquire items through the rotating store selection and pressuring other residents into giving you their stuff, crafting makes sense for a game mostly about the acquisition of stuff.
The impact of crafting on the economy of Animal Crossing will be interesting since money would only really be needed for upgrading your home if you build the items instead of buying them.
3 2. More Shops (Possibility)
So it's counterintuitive to the island getaway for there to be a wider variety of shops available to buy stuff from but it's a big part of Animal Crossing for there to be a bunch of shops and businesses. They could be located on another island to avoid breaking the island vibe.
A shop that sells blueprints would make the most sense but there are plenty of other avenues that they could go down. Perhaps a boat shop, assuming the island life comes with a boat as it should.
2 1. Isabelle Returns (Know)
In a very recent 30-second teaser for the game, a crowd of villagers is being shown a presentation by Tom Nook and company about the island getaway package. Shown fairly prominently in the crowd is Isabelle, the assistant to the mayor in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Not much is known beyond that, if Isabelle will be returning to her role in the new game, making the player the mayor of the island, or if she just wants a vacation like the rest of the villagers.
1 1. More depth to activities (Possibility)
While the series has certainly evolved in many aspects over the years, the bell-making activities, like fishing and bug-catching, have not.
It would be nice to see new aspects added to these, like bug traps and crab cages. The majority of gameplay activity comes from doing these tasks so it would be great to see them improved and expanded upon, even if only a little bit.
