So, I actually thought I had written an entry about like… half the stuff we’ll be talking about here, but apparently I haven’t so let’s get started!
Before I do though, I will admit that I am debating on no longer playing Pocket Camp. I really wanted to love the game, but the game is incredibly stressful with all the events, rarely relaxing, and just feels too overwhelming. The only thing I had to worry about with New Leaf were villagers moving and that’s due to an issue in coding that I hope will be fixed next game.
Anything else, I knew would be back next year or I could trade with friends or, while I didn’t do it, there was always the option to time travel.
But with Pocket Camp it’s just based on what they want to throw at us, limited, solo-mode, and requires a lot of constant playing and it just isn’t fun. It’s really not. And while we get our villagers and nice decorated camp, I feel the game largely misses the entire charm of Animal Crossing with how it works.
Not to mention when collecting is literally one of the main features of Animal Crossing, having many things behind a pay wall isn’t fun. It’s not fun in the slightest. Literally having game mechanics you can’t complete without using their real money currency loot boxes is absolutely awful. I wish I could be like “well, it’s not that bad” but it really is. And sure, I’m sure there’s a good amount of people who have maybe managed to never buy any Leaf Tickets and saved everything, but not everyone has time to constantly check the game to get everything done in the time allocated. Not to mention due to hitting walls (waiting 3 hours for flowers to bloom or villagers to cycle), maybe you have a bunch of time in the morning, but suddenly are out of things to do unless you speed them up somehow.
And these are such classic sleezy mobile tactics. One of the most common things “adventure”-type games do is they have you tapping things for a certain amount of energy points to fill up a bar. You need a certain amount to pass with some being bonuses, but the bonuses often determine how you do in the plot so they’re not really as optional as they’re presented. You usually have anywhere from an hour to 8 hours to do these things where, unless you pay for energy to get it done while you actually have time or so you don’t forget about it, you will be having this game up for that amount of time tapping each time you get a single energy point every 3-5 minutes and praying for a level-up.
It’s not fun, it’s a huge wall, and it’s discouraging to anyone who wants to play a large chunk of a game in a time.
And that’s the thing with Animal Crossing. Not many people pick it up to play for a little while and then are done. People enjoy sinking time into it. It’s supposed to be a relaxing game. There’s all kinds of things for you to do. But Pocket Camp has these walls up and it sucks. It really does.
If it wasn’t for the fact that there might be connectivity in a future AC game, I don’t think I’d still be playing it. But I think, unless there’s a big chance to the Fortune Cookies or I hit the lottery and can afford to suffer trying to get the grand prize, I will end up no longer playing once the current run of Fortune Cookies end. I’ve always been a huge completionist with Animal Crossing. It’s one of my favorite series. So failing at the fortune cookies means I fail at two things: One, the catalog, which I have never failed to complete, and two, the new memory system that I had actually been really excited for before seeing how it worked.
So yeah, I’m bitter, but I think I have a right to be too. Anyway, I doubt anyone is actually here to hear me rant, so lets move onto what I have been doing in Pocket Camp!
For one, thanks to some help, I finally paid off my RV:
Unfortunately, it was pretty unsatisfying. At least it’s done though, I guess.
And Celeste’s item came out and despite it being 350 Leaf Tickets, I had to get it because she’s actually one of my favorite Special Villagers in the game:
And this gets long and image heavy so…
The first Fishing Tourney happened as well, which I have mixed feelings on:
It’s pretty cute, but the problem is you only get whatever trophy you earn… which wouldn’t be an issue, except items might vary each time and you’d essentially have to miss out on items to get all the trophies… At least the trophies don’t show up in the catalog, but I’d still like them. Not to mention the Golden Rod really helps a lot (catching 2x the fish every single time) and I don’t know if I’d have enough time without it considering you’re limited to how much fish you can catch at a time (again with these forced walls).
While this was happening, we also had Zipper show up for a new Gardening Event to catch… Eggs with Legs.
His ending segment was… something:
There was also the Mario Event going on through all of this, including the final part with Peach’s dress and crown (I’m so happy it wasn’t attached to a wig):
Underwater items were also added shortly before the Fishing Tourney, but all for Leaf Tickets… It makes me excited for future themes they could make though. For now, I only got the Coral Fence:
And Cherry Blossom season happened!:
I even was able to switch back to the flowers I prefer instead of the spring for a bit… But I had to switch back to the Spring ones now because I like my permanent Cherry Blossom Tree.
Gulliver was also added, though, unfortunately not much at all like his usual game counterpart. In Pocket Camp, you give him items and when he has enough, he leaves and comes back with a reward based on a point system and with a set random chance to bring back a Villager… And the Villagers you can get from him, you can only get from him… So it’s… pretty annoying.
It cost me so many bells to finally get the villagers from him. I managed to get Rowan and Plucky one after the other (after not getting anyone for ages) and then it took even longer to finally get O’Hare:
And of course, the fortune cookies were added:
As cute as the cookies are, they break my hopes and dreams.
We also got our next events–a Gyroid scavenger hunt that let us get some cosplay clothing of some of our favorite villagers (unfortunately, two items were Leaf Ticket exclusives, something which started with the Mario event):
And most recently, Katie’s Fruit Gardening Event that started a couple of days ago:
I’ve finished the first part, but the second part starts the 9th and I’m already stressed.
Outside of events and Gulliver, I’ve moved in many other new villagers too (All currently available ones are hosted) and there’s been… a lot between just more villagers and two new Essence types:
And I did finish building all the amenities:
I love the Elegant stuff a lot. And also we finally have fountains which is great. But I’m sad that the castle is blue… it would’ve been pink if City Folk didn’t change the color of the Princess Top and just made the set to match it instead :|
These new essences also brought several of my favorite furniture series–Rococo (if only the pink version…), Regal, and the Lotus Pond!:
I’m undecided if I want to do double fountains or the castle + the fountain, but hopefully I can eventually make up my mind:
I want more amenity space honestly. Two isn’t enough.
Finally, I will say a lot of the new villager requests are pretty cute and just work really well. It’s nice having more ways to interact with the villagers and also finally be able to get rid of the items they don’t really ask for.
