Highlights
- Fans of Animal Crossing: New Horizons are eagerly awaiting the next game in the series, hoping for improvements like the return of NPCs and more personality among the Villagers.
- One major request from players is the addition of multiple save slots, as creating a new island currently requires completely starting over and losing all progress.
- However, it is unlikely that the next Animal Crossing game will include multiple saves, as this has been a longstanding issue in the franchise and doesn’t align with Nintendo’s approach to the game. Still, other improvements should be made to increase replayability.
With the next Animal Crossing game, expectations are understandably high, as New Horizons’ lightning in a bottle success saw the series soaring to new heights. Now, there are many more fans hoping to see different things in Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ successor. Some longtime fans want certain Animal Crossing NPCs to return or more personality among the Villagers, while others want simple quality of life upgrades such as a craft all button. However, one thing that nearly all players want is multiple save slots, though this may continue to elude the franchise.
Currently, if Animal Crossing: New Horizons players want a new island, they are forced to start completely from scratch. This is devastating considering how much work players will put in to crafting their islands and collecting hundreds of rare items, some of which, like certain Golden Tools, can take a lot of hard work to obtain. While players may crave a fresh start after doing everything on one island and getting their Dreamies and ideal setup, most do not want to scrap the island they spent so much time on, and have instead just been waiting for a new game to release. Hopefully, Animal Crossing addresses this criticism with its next game, even if the series’ pattern suggests it is unlikely to happen.
The Next Animal Crossing Can Finally Explore One Mysterious Character More
To further capitalize on the success of the Animal Crossing franchise, Nintendo could delve deeper into the backstory of one specific character.
Why The Next Animal Crossing Could Still Lack Multiple Saves
A Lack of Saves is Not Exclusive to New Horizons
While more players have been outspoken about the issue thanks to Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ impressive sales, the franchise has always suffered from this problem. Take Animal Crossing: New Leaf, for instance, which only allowed players to have one town. While multiple players could move into the area, only one had the power of the mayor, meaning that everyone else would have an inferior experience. Unfortunately, this is the case with New Horizons, as the second player lacks the building freedom of the main villager. With Nintendo notorious for sticking to its own way of doing things, it is hard to imagine it changing this approach after over a decade.
While players can back up their original Animal Crossing: New Horizons island before deleting it and starting fresh, if they ever want that island back, they will have to replace their new one – meaning that they lose hard work either way.
Multiple Saves Do Not Fit Nintendo’s Animal Crossing Philosophy
Unfortunately, multiple save files for Animal Crossing games do not fit Nintendo’s approach to the franchise. From a financial standpoint, players buying new Switches and fresh copies of the game for each family member or just to have a second island for themselves is common enough that multiple saves would mean losing money. While a paid option to purchase island slots could happen, the current approach is likely benefitting Nintendo. Beyond that, Animal Crossing players are encouraged to work together, and having a shared island makes that more of a necessity. Plus, being able to have multiple islands could make online trading less essential, as players could get everything they want by pass items between their islands. Unique item colors would also be less meaningful.
Still, if Animal Crossing does not want to embrace the idea of saves, it has to find ways to encourage replayability. A new game plus mode where players keep their items but reset their island designs and Animal Crossing Villagers could work well, as would a free-build mode separate from players’ main islands. Plus, if cooperation is one of the reasons for the strange one-island per account approach, then players need to have an easier time working together. Being able to give build permissions to offline co-op players as well as friends online would be a good way to do this. However, though there are alternatives, multiple saves would be worthwhile for many players, even if they are easily exploitable and could cause issues for account-based items or mechanics like Dream Islands.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the fifth major game in the Animal Crossing series. This slice-of-life simulation game tasks the player with developing an abandoned island into a small town for its resident villagers. The game was released at the start of worldwide lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which catapulted it into massive success. It’s currently the best selling game of all time in Japan.
