Animal Crossing Could Make Good Use of a Simple Persona 5 Feature

Highlights

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ success was due to its customization options and the ability to share creations, creating a boom in the cozy game genre.
Persona 5 Royal’s part-time jobs could be an inspiration for future Animal Crossing games to add more ways to make money and pass the time.
Incorporating part-time jobs in Animal Crossing could enhance social interactions with villagers, impact reputation, and make the game more immersive and engaging.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a smash hit for Nintendo, turning the once niche franchise into one of the company’s most recognizable series. New Horizons achieved this feat because of its immense amount of customization options and the ability for players to share their creations with others at a time when people were unable to be together. The success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and other games like Stardew Valley in recent years has created a boom in the cozy game genre. What was once a niche space is now growing, and future Animal Crossing games will need to learn from other entries in the life simulation and cozy game genres if it wants to keep up with the competition.

Persona 5 Royal is by no means a cozy game, but aspects of it pull from the dating and life-simulator genres, much like cozy games have. Persona 5‘s confidants system tracks the player’s relationship with each character and rewards building strong connections. On top of using time to interact with confidants, the player can, much like in Animal Crossing, craft or perform tasks to earn money. Persona‘s social simulation systems are much more limited, and it compresses the player’s schedule rather than playing out in real time, but there are still things that AC could borrow from P5. One such concept is Persona 5‘s approach to part-time jobs.

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Animal Crossing Could Borrow From Persona 5’s Job System

Part-time jobs in Persona 5 are a good way for players to earn money. They also serve as a productive way to pass the time when there is nothing more urgent to do. Animal Crossing has traditionally had players make money through selling items or participating in the turnip trade. While this loop has worked for the franchise for over two decades now, adding more ways to make money could flesh out the experience. Letting players work at Nook’s Cranny rather than only selling their items there or having them perform other jobs around town could be a fun new feature in the next game.

Jobs Could Add Mini-Games to Animal Crossing

Another venue that could offer work to the player is Brewster’s Cafe. These jobs could take the form of mini-games, such as making coffee orders or racing to organize the inventory shop’s inventory. If Animal Crossing were to drop its dedication to real-time gameplay, then it could be used as a way to pass the time while making money, just like in Persona 5. Nintendo games often remind players to take breaks, so another alternative could be letting players commit to working a certain amount of time and having the work be automated. This would gamify taking breaks, and allow players to use the feature as a way to be rewarded for taking some time away from their system.

Jobs Could Impact Reputation in Animal Crossing

A villager polishing a sign in Animal Crossing

Working a job in Animal Crossing could also provide more social interactions with villagers. For instance, if players were tasked with making deliveries for the cafe or Nook’s Cranny, it could give them unique interactions with the recipients. Villagers could potentially come to know the player for working for one business a lot and loyal service to a company could result in bonuses, promotions, employee discounts, and unique interactions with its owner. On top of being a way to earn money in Animal Crossing and providing a new set of activities for players, part-time jobs could impact the social simulation mechanics that lie at the heart of the series.

Borrowing from Persona 5‘s job system could help the next Animal Crossing game to stand out from its predecessors and feel even more immersive. Persona 5 isn’t the only game it should borrow from, however; Palia has features Animal Crossing should copy, as do other cozy games like Stardew Valley, The Sims 4, and Disney Dreamlight Valley. Animal Crossing may have opened the door for many other games in the cozy genre, but that doesn’t mean it can stop growing from entry to entry. A job system would be one of many great ways to keep pushing the series forward.