History YMMV / AnimalCrossingNewHorizons

** One of the few points of contention lashed towards the VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf previous mainline ''Animal Crossing'' entry]] were villagers becoming so nice that they've become "bland". ''New Horizons'' shares a similar criticism towards the dialogue, with many arguing that the Jerkass tendencies (particularly those of the Snooty and Cranky villagers and in the [=GameCube=] game) lended their characters some humor and diversity, and that the possibility that they could warm up to the player character if they spent enough time getting to know them made befriending villagers more rewarding (despite ''Population Growing!'' barely showing any indication that this was the case). Others are glad that villagers no longer insult you just for simply communicating with them, and find the rudeness to be obnoxious, unfunny, or unfit for a children's game that's supposed to be a form of escapism. Others find themselves in the middle of this, appreciating that villagers are ''nicer'' than they once were, but still wishing there was more variety or noticeable change when they eventually warm to the player character. Overall, the fanbase can't decide if the gradual change of characterisation in this series has become legitimately blander and softer overtime, or if it's just a NostalgiaFilter and WhenIWasYourAge talk.

** Just like [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair Nagito Komaeda]] and [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] before him, Raymond's popularity among fangirls has proven to be a double-edged sword. Because he (along with the other villagers introduced in ''New Horizons'') lacks an Toys/{{Amiibo}} card, he has proven to be rather rare compared to the other villagers. Combined with his [[{{Bishounen}} cute]] [[MismatchedEyes design]] and a bit of MemeticMutation (such as having him dress up in a maid outfit and sing Bubblegum K.K.), this has made him the most demanded villager of all. This has led to his fans taking rather extreme measures to add him to their island, such as harassing someone who happens to get Raymond on social media or buying him off sites like [=eBay=] for upwards of ''[[https://www.ebay.com/itm/Raymond-ACNH-Animal-Crossing-IN-BOXES-Ready-to-go-legit-BONUS-400-NMT/362985090323?hash=item548398ed13:g:N78AAOSwM4JeqCKw $900 USD]]''. Because of incidents like these becoming publicized, a vocal hatedom for Raymond has emerged, with trolling campaigns against his fans (i.e. pretending to have him in boxes) gaining prominence on outlets such as Discord and Twitter. The "Raymond Black Market" eventually ''crashed'' due to too many competing sellers offering him.

** One of the few points of contention lashed towards the previous mainline ''Animal Crossing'' entry were villagers becoming so nice that they've become "bland". ''New Horizons'' shares a similar criticism towards the dialogue, with many arguing that the Jerkass tendencies (particularly those of the Snooty and Cranky villagers and in the [=GameCube=] game) lended their characters some humor and diversity, and that the possibility that they could warm up to the player character if they spent enough time getting to know them made befriending villagers more rewarding. Others are glad that villagers no longer insult you just for simply communicating with them, and find the rudeness to be obnoxious, unfunny, or unfit for a children's game that's supposed to be a form of escapism, though either way [[FranchiseOriginalSin villagers had already become 'softer' prior to New Horizons]]. And of course others find themselves in the middle of this, appreciating that villagers are ''nicer'' than they once were but still wishing there was more variety or noticeable change you befriend them. It doesn't help that, when posting photos comparing the dialogue between the two games, some people [[ManipulativeEditing talk to a villager in the originals over and over again until they get a particularly cutting line and then juxtapose it with a line from]] ''[[ManipulativeEditing New Horizons]]'' [[ManipulativeEditing which is just the villager sitting down or fishing or even just greeting the player before conversing with them]]. Overall, the fanbase can't decide if the characterisation in this game is legitimately blander and softer or if it's just a NostalgiaFilter and WhenIWasYourAge talk.

* TierInducedScrappy: Label is this in terms of weekday visitors. Having assigned you a task to show off an outfit based on a random theme (and no, there's no way to [[ButThouMust back out of the offer]] once you begin talking to her), if you don't have suitable clothes already in your wardrobe then you're more likely to ''spend'' more money than the rewards she gives you (Kicks, Leif, and Saharah at least have the excuse of being stores with random items that can't be obtained anywhere else, and the Gullivers' rewards are also exclusive to them) which are discount tickets to the clothing store (which would have helped ''before'' doing her missions, you can't use the tailor tickets on anything more expensive than 3,000 bells which ironically would have been the ideal time to use them, and are mostly redundant if one is already swimming in bells) and a line of (mostly) female-centric clothes with a pattern not everyone will think is appealing, especially since the game already showers the player in free cosmetics from your villagers and the occasional balloon. She also lacks any Nook Mile achievements tied to her, unlike Redd, Gulliver, and KK Slider.

* TierInducedScrappy: Label is this in terms of weekday visitors. Having assigned you a task to show off an outfit based on a random theme (and no, there's no way to [[ButThouMust back out of the offer]] once you begin talking to her), if you don't have suitable clothes already in your wardrobe then you're more likely to ''spend'' more money than the rewards she gives you (Kicks, Leif, and Saharah at least have the excuse of being stores with random items that can't be obtained anywhere else) which are discount tickets to the clothing store (which would have helped ''before'' doing her missions, you can't use the tailor tickets on anything more expensive than 3,000 bells which ironically would have been the ideal time to use them, and are mostly redundant if one is already swimming in bells) and a line of (mostly) female-centric clothes with a pattern not everyone will think is appealing, especially since the game already showers the player in free cosmetics from your villagers and the occasional balloon. She also lacks any Nook Mile achievements tied to her, unlike Redd, Gulliver, and KK Slider.

** The "Item Delivery and Liquidation" service offered by Dodo Airlines. It is a feature that allows you to sell items from your inventory or have them shipped back to mailbox at home if you need to drop off some items off to make space in your inventory. While it can be useful in certain scenarios such as the Wedding Season, the baffling drawback is that this can only be used on Harv’s Island, ''not'' the mystery islands where a player would need it more, particularly if they are grinding for materials. The current inability for the player to directly travel from one island to the next without first going back to their home island and starting the "I want to visit" process again makes one wonder why the service was added to the game to begin with. Even more puzzlingly, after the 2.0 update, Tortimer's stall allows players to directly put items into their house storage *and* retrieve items from said storage making the Item Delivery service redundant.

** The new cast of decorative gyroids which debuted in 2.0 seems to be more popular with fans than the established set of of gyroids was in the previous games, likely owing to the new gyroids being able to afford unique character models that made for more wacky and personable designs and animations, as well as the new game's broader furniture system allowing for more characterful scene-setting with them and packing rooms full of active gyroids.

* UnexpectedCharacter: During the fall, Tortimer's co-op on Harv's Island may instead feature Cornimer, the almost-certainly-a-costume autumn wares NPC who hasn't made a canonical appearance in the games [[note]]though he is in a minigame side mode in ''Welcome amiibo''[[/note]] since ''Wild World''.

** Although this problem had already been an issue for people in the Southern Hemisphere back when the game launched, by the time September hit in the Northern Hemisphere many players were having issues collecting acorns and pine cones. Most of the time, the items dropped are tree branches, which are already plentiful thanks to random tree branches spawning underneath trees at the start of each day. Because of this, collecting a full stack of acorns or pine cones means repeatedly shaking a tree for it to drop items, and most of those drops will be tree branches that are likely to be thrown away. Most annoying of all, though, is that if you aren't prepared and holding a net when first shaking a tree, [[WickedWasps it is likely you'll be caught off guard and possibly stung by wasps]] when collecting acorns or pine cones, especially if you try your luck with multiple trees.

*** Some have issues with the live service time-locking events like Toy Day. Either players are fine with locking events behind internet time so as to discourage time traveling and allow everyone a chance to experience the event on the day. Or others find that time-locking events causes more issues than it solves; it encourages a bigger black market trading scene for items that cannot be obtained legitimately (unlike in ''New Leaf'' which has event NPC camper vans, which contained most, if not all, of the event items you could get from say, Jingle), it locks out players who missed the event in question through no fault of their own; if they either did not own the game when that event was active, if they couldn't play due to real life commitments, or simply missed the day by forgetting there was an event, and because of the new system, cannot time-travel back to experience it, something prior games allowed for, and so must wait for anything up to a year for that event to reappear in the game. It also means that the events are tied to an always-online connection, meaning offline play is impossible. This was updated with the final major 2.0 update, as seasonal events are able to be time-travelled to without being time-locked.
** Does ''New Horizons'' really lack content or are players nowadays just impatient and entitled? Fans can't seem to agree. The games 2.0 game has seemed to make debate die down, with some saying the game is finally on-par with the previous entries in the franchise.

** The fact that the November 5th 2.0 update is the final major free and paid update for the game has lead to some discontent with fans, which was discussed before the update was live. Some argue that it being the final major update for the game is unfair, considering the game is barely over a year old and the players were promised over 3 years of updates[[note]]It should be noted that this is a popular misconception. The developers promised the players a game that could be enjoyed for over 3 years in a past interview. Along the way, this was misconstrued into them saying that players would receive updates for the game for over 3 years.[[/note]]. Others argue that while the lack of major updates in the future is disappointing, the game has already done enough to introduce new and missing content with 2.0, which either puts it on par with the previous entries in the franchise or even surpasses them by far, as well as "completes" the game.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The November 5th 2.0 update, which acts as the game's final major free and paid update for the game, did wonders to more or less cause the game's growing negative reputation with the veteran ''Animal Crossing'' fanbase to dissipate due to it addressing most of the complaints players had with the game during the first year, reintroducing things from past games with their own spin on them, as well as introducing new things to establish the game's unique identity.

** The fact that the November 5th 2.0 update is the final major free and paid update for the game has lead to some discontent with fans, which was discussed before the update was live. Some argue that it being the final major update for the game is unfair, considering the game is barely over a year old and the players were promised over 3 years of updates[[note]]It should be noted that this is a popular misconception. The developers promised the players a game that could be enjoyed for over 3 years in a past interview. Along the way, this was misconstrued into them saying that players would receive updates for the game for over 3 years.[[/note]]. Others argue that while the lack of major updates in the future is disappointing, the game has already done enough to introduce new and missing content with 2.0, which puts it on par with the previous entries in the franchise as well as "completes" the game.

** One of the few points of contention lashed towards the previous mainline ''Animal Crossing'' entry were villagers becoming so nice that they've become "bland". ''New Horizons'' shares a similar criticism towards the dialogue, with many arguing that the Jerkass tendencies (particularly those of the Snooty and Cranky villagers and in the [=GameCube=] game) lended their characters some humor and diversity, and that the possibility that they could warm up to the player character if they spent enough time getting to know them made befriending villagers more rewarding. Others are glad that villagers no longer insult you just for simply communicating with them, and find the rudeness to be obnoxious, unfunny, or unfit for a children's game that's supposed to be a form of escapism, though either way [[FranchiseOriginalSin villagers had already become 'softer' prior to New Horizons]]. And of course others find themselves in the middle of this, appreciating that villagers are ''nicer'' than they once were but still wishing there was more variety or noticeable change you befriend them.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The November 5th 2.0 update, which acts as the games final major free and paid update for the game, did wonders to more or less cause the games growing negative reputation with the veteran ''Animal Crossing'' fanbase to dissipate due to it addressing most of the complaints players had with the game during the first year, reintroducing things from past games with their own spin on them, as well as introducing new things to establish the games unique identity.

*** Some have issues with the live service time-locking events like Toy Day. Either players are fine with locking events behind internet time so as to discourage time traveling and allow everyone a chance to experience the event on the day. Or others find that time-locking events causes more issues than it solves; it encourages a bigger black market trading scene for items that cannot be obtained legitimately (unlike in ''New Leaf'' which has event NPC camper vans, which contained most, if not all, of the event items you could get from say, Jingle), it locks out players who missed the event in question through no fault of their own; if they either did not own the game when that event was active, if they couldn't play due to real life commitments, or simply missed the day by forgetting there was an event, and because of the new system, cannot time-travel back to experience it, something prior games allowed for, and so must wait for anything up to a year for that event to reappear in the game. It also means that the events are tied to an always-online connection, meaning offline play is impossible.
** Does ''New Horizons'' really lack content or are players nowadays just impatient and entitled? Fans can't seem to agree. The games 2.0 game has seemed to make debate die down, with some saying the game is finally onpar with the previous entries in the franchise.

** The "Item Delivery and Liquidation" service offered by Dodo Airlines. It is a feature that allows you to sell items from your inventory or have them shipped back to mailbox at home if you need to drop off some items off to make space in your inventory. While it can be useful in certain scenarios such as the Wedding Season, the baffling drawback is that this can only be used on Harv’s Island, ''not'' the mystery islands where a player would need it more, particularly if they are grinding for materials. The current inability for the player to directly travel from one island to the next without first going back to their home island and starting the "I want to visit" process again makes one wonder why the service was added to the game to begin with. Even more puzzlingly, after the 2.0 update, Tortimer's stall allows players to directly put items into their house storage *and* retrieve items from said storage making the Item Delivery service redundant unless the player is island hopping with Nook Mile tickets instead of making trips to Harv's Island.

** One of the few points of contention lashed towards the previous mainline ''Animal Crossing'' entry were villagers becoming so nice that they've become "bland". ''New Horizons'' shares a similar criticism towards the dialogue, with people reminiscing that the Jerkass tendacies, particularly from Snooty and Cranky villagers in the [=GameCube=] game, were what made them funny, and the possibility that they could warm up to the player character (despite the dialogue not changing much, anyway) if they spent enough time getting to know them. Others are glad that villagers no longer insult you just for simply communicating with them, and find the rudeness to be obnoxious, unfunny, and not fit for a children's game that's supposed to be a form of escapism.

* WinBackTheCrowd: The November 5th 2.0 update, which acts as the games final major free and paid update for the game, did wonders to more or less cause the games growing negative reputation with the veteran ''Animal Crossing'' fanbase to dissipate due to it addressing most of the complaints players had with the game during the first year,
reintroducing things from past games with their own spin on them, as well as introducing new things to establish the games unique identity.

** The "Item Delivery and Liquidation" service offered by Dodo Airlines. It is a feature that allows you to sell items from your inventory or have them shipped back to mailbox at home if you need to drop off some items off to make space in your inventory. While it can be useful in certain scenarios such as the Wedding Season, the baffling drawback is that this can only be used on Harv’s Island, ''not'' the mystery islands where a player would need it more, particularly if they are grinding for materials. The current inability for the player to directly travel from one island to the next without first going back to their home island and starting the "I want to visit" process again makes one wonder why the service was added to the game to begin with. Even more puzzlingly, after the 2.0 update, Tortimer's stall allows players to directly put items into their house storage *and* retrieve items from said storage making the Item Delivery service redundant.

** Another common criticism of ''New Horizons'', even among those who consider the game a step up from ''New Leaf'', is that villager dialogue is noticeably limited and one-note, with characters feeling static and saccharine as a result of their small interaction pools (with more variable dialogue being locked behind the game's RelationshipValues). The limited amount of possible interactions is actually a trend that stretches all the way back to the first game. However, in earlier cases it was excusable due to the technical limitations of the respective systems; while the Switch is also limited, it's considerably more powerful than previous systems. [[AuthorSavingThrow The November 2.0 update has updated villager dialogue, giving them more diverse things to say when interacted with]].

* HypeBacklash: While originally well-received during its first year cycle, ''New Horizons'' started receiving much more negative criticism later on, especially from veteran players of the ''Animal Crossing'' series, due to a combination of ''many'' factors, such as some of the dialogue being ''very'' repetitive (especially when regarding the villagers and Isabelle's daily announcements), the lack of features and characters present in previous games in the series, the updates not living up to the expectations of players given that they mostly only add furniture and updates to holidays, and the overall ridiculous amount of [[ScrappyMechanic/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons Scrappy Mechanics]]. And while there was a big update to the game in November 2021 that addressed many criticisms [[WinTheCrowdBack and was overall well-received by players]], some common complaints remain untouched, such as the inability to craft more than one DIY recipe at a time, as well as the continued absence of upgrades to Nook's Cranny.

* WinTheCrowdBack: The November 5th 2.0 update, which acts as the games final major free and paid update for the game, did wonders to more or less cause the games growing negative reputation with the veteran ''Animal Crossing'' fanbase to dissipate due to it addressing most of the complaints players had with the game during the first year,

** Does ''New Horizons'' really lack content or are players nowadays just impatient and entitled? Fans can't seem to agree.

* ContestedSequel: Does the games' use of a live-service to [=(re-)implement=] content make it a good way to play and keep engaged with the game, or does the lack of base-game content compared to ''New Leaf'' make it an unfinished game being sold at full price? Even a year after its release, players can't decide.

** Of the New Horizons 2.0 new villagers, Shino (the red and white peppy deer) and Sasha (the teal lazy rabbit) are the two most popular villagers; Shino for her really nice and unique design with a Peppy personality, and Sasha for having a cute appearance. As a testament to their popularity, after their initial implementation, on the popular fan-made trading website ''Nookazon'', these villagers would often go for ''thousands'' of Nook Mile tickets and over ''30 million bells''. The snooty mouse, Petri, also gained quite a following for her unique science theme and having her ear colors red and blue, after the magnetic directions.
** Tiansheng (the orange and white jock monkey) and Ione (the blue, normal squirrel). While not quite as popular as the aforementioned villagers, they're actually quite popular on their own due to their cool designs and unique aesthetics, being heavily sought after on fan-trading sites such as ''Nookazon''.

** Another common criticism of ''New Horizons'', even among those who consider the game a step up from ''New Leaf'', is that villager dialogue is noticeably limited and one-note, with characters feeling static and saccharine as a result of their small interaction pools (with more variable dialogue being locked behind the game's RelationshipValues). The limited amount of possible interactions is actually a trend that stretches all the way back to the first game. However, in earlier cases it was excusable due to the technical limitations of the respective systems; while the Switch is also limited, it's considerably more powerful than previous systems.

* HypeBacklash: While originally well-received during its first year cycle, ''New Horizons'' started receiving much more negative criticism later on, especially from veteran players of the ''Animal Crossing'' series, due to a combination of ''many'' factors, such as some of the dialogue being ''very'' repetitive (especially when regarding the villagers and Isabelle's daily announcements), the lack of features and characters present in previous games in the series, the updates not living up to the expectations of players given that they mostly only add furniture and updates to holidays, and the overall ridiculous amount of [[ScrappyMechanic/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons Scrappy Mechanics]]. And while there was a big update to the game in November 2021 that addressed many criticisms, some common complaints remain untouched, such as the inability to craft more than one DIY recipe at a time, as well as the continued and jarring absence of upgrades to Nook's Cranny.

* UnexpectedCharacter: During the fall, Tortimer's co-op on Harv's Island may instead feature Cornimer, the almost-certainly-a-costume autumn wares NPC who hasn't made a canonical appearance in the games [[note]]though he is in a minigame side mode in ''Welcome amiibo'')[[/note]] since ''Wild World''.

** The "Item Delivery and Liquidation" service offered by Dodo Airlines. It is a feature that allows you to sell items from your inventory or have them shipped back to mailbox at home if you need to drop off some items off to make space in your inventory. While it can be useful in certain scenarios such as the Wedding Season, the baffling drawback is that this can only be used on Harv’s Island, ''not'' the mystery islands where a player would need it more, particularly if they are grinding for materials. The current inability for the player to directly travel from one island to the next without first going back to their home island and starting the "I want to visit" process again makes one wonder why the service was added to the game to begin with. Even more puzzlingly, after the 2.0 update, Tortimer's stall allows players to directly put items into their house storage *and* retrieve items from said storage
making the Item Delivery service redundant.

** The "Item Delivery and Liquidation" service offered by Dodo Airlines. It is a feature that allows you to sell items from your inventory or have them shipped back to mailbox at home if you need to drop off some items off to make space in your inventory. While it can be useful in certain scenarios such as the Wedding Season, the baffling drawback is that this can only be used on Harv’s Island, ''not'' the mystery islands where a player would need it more, particularly if they are grinding for materials. The current inability for the player to directly travel from one island to the next without first going back to their home island and starting the "I want to visit" process again makes one wonder why the service was added to the game to begin with.

** Of the New Horizons 2.0 new villagers, Shino (the red and white peppy deer) and Sasha (the teal lazy rabbit) are the two most popular villagers; Shino for her really nice and unique design with a Peppy personality, and Sasha for having a cute appearance. As a testament to their popularity, after their initial implementation, on the popular fan-made trading website ''Nookazon'', these villagers would often go for ''thousands'' of Nook Mile tickets and over ''30 million bells''.

* HypeBacklash: While originally well-received during its first year cycle, ''New Horizons'' started receiving much more negative criticism later on, especially from veteran players of the ''Animal Crossing'' series, due to a combination of ''many'' factors, such as some of the dialogue being ''very'' repetitive (especially when regarding the villagers and Isabelle's daily announcements), the lack of features and characters present in previous games in the series, the updates not living up to the expectations of players given that they mostly only add furniture and updates to holidays, and the overall ridiculous amount of [[ScrappyMechanic/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons Scrappy Mechanics]] that have not been addressed in any shape or form. And while there was a big update to the game in November 2021 that addressed many criticisms, some common complaints remain untouched, such as the inability to craft more than one DIY recipe at a time, as well as the continued and jarring absence of upgrades to Nook's Cranny.

** Leaving items on the ground has always hurt the town rating, but it becomes more of a problem in ''New Horizons'' for a few reasons: First, players tend to leave spare resources outside for ease of access. Second, until it was silently patched, the dropped item limit counted items ''dropped on table space''. Third: Duplicate DIY recipes (of which the player will receive many) cannot be put in storage and must be dropped to get them out of the inventory.

** Isabelle is given the spotlight every morning with her daily announcement, but she only announces a few things: visitors at the campsite, someone moving in or out, villager birthdays, shop upgrades, special events, seasonal craft materials, giving out seasonal DIY recipes, and meteor showers. None of these are frequent events, with many being tied to early progression. Once K.K. makes his first visit and the gameplay opens up, most days she will simply [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] the fact that she has nothing valuable to say, leaving players wishing she would announce special [=NPCs=] on the island. Isabelle's other functions involve her resetting a villager's catchphrase or clothes, changing the town's tune, changing the flag, or explaining the town's rating (which also goes unannounced unless you check with her), making her feel a bit underutilized.