I’ve been playing a lot of Pocket Camp again lately. Partially due to wanting to finish up some loose ends (getting villagers I need, getting everyone to at least level 15 for new items to craft (I’ll go for 20 for each after and each milestone in steps after that), and just generally “preparing” for Pocket Camp-New Horizons Collaborations), but also because with New Horizons so close, I just really want to play some Animal Crossing and as much as I adore New Leaf, I’m super paranoid about messing up again and still kind of bummed about not getting to go through all these Dream Addresses due to my capture card dying (at the very least, it’s an easy fix if I ever manage to get that sent in).
Pocket Camp, as frustrating as it makes me, is a lot quicker to just pick up and at least not worry that all my villagers abandoned me and my hair has become an unruly mess as I stayed in my camper for months. There’s also no cockroaches so that’s nice.
But even ignoring my Animal Crossing kick and the easy pick up of Pocket Camp, I also just can’t resist some of the new outfits:
This pink dress and adorable pink boots? Perfect and also one of my favorite shades of pink.
Picking between that and the Princess dress is hard, but I figured a change was worth it for a bit. As much as I love Princess dresses, I really love casual frilly dresses too.
I also really loved this dress as well:
Unsurprisingly, I could not resist the new earrings. I’m still not sure what I’d say is my “default” outfit in this game with the amount of dresses I just really adore, but my camp site continues to barely change:
I don’t think it ever really will. Maybe if we get an Amenity I like better. At the very least, if we ever have more space, I’d likely add on to it, but that’s it. I really hope the items I’ve used could show up in New Horizons though as I’d love to try and set up a nice area using a lot of the same things.
In general, I have mixed feelings about most of my other set-ups (mainly due to having issues working with the space given with how large some items are), but part of it is there’s just so many items I like too.
I’ve also managed to somehow finish the gardening event as my friend’s list is clearly better at this than I am.
I don’t know if I’ll finish the “hard challenges” part. I have yet to finish one, though, this has been the closest I’ve gotten so maybe something will happen before it ends. While I hate the gardening events, I genuinely love the cutscenes at the end so I do wish I had an easier time completing them. Unfortunately, I just find them too stressful to really deal with.
And I’ve been thinking a lot about how I would change things in Pocket Camp and why it bothers me and after recent situations in another mobile game I play that features customization, I realized a huge issue is that Pocket Camp, while yes it is for Animal Crossing fans, a large focus is honestly for those who play games with a lot of customization. And while this doesn’t apply to everyone, a lot of them are very impatient and/or kind of selfish. And by that I mean an update can happen and if they finish the content and there isn’t new content within 24 hours, they start complaining. Similarly, older events can’t stay around to participate in because it’s considered an “eye sore” if they constantly have to see something they have no interest in or it’s out of season.
And I think that easily explains a lot of Pocket Camp’s choices along with the constant events. But as an Animal Crossing fan, it’s so overwhelming and completely against the principle of the game. If you focus only on items you want or maybe your favorite villagers for the like… memories and certain events, it may not be as bad, but as someone who likes collecting everything and loves seeing all the cut scenes, it’s actually really disheartening. And considering these types of things are a large part of Animal Crossing, it does make it a bit pay to win.
I feel like Pocket Camp could really use a Premium version (not a subscription, a premium to buy) alongside an option for a free version as is as a lot of the recent issues can be pinned down to three specific factors: Constant Events, the overuse of Gulliver, and Fortune Cookies– all which can only really be a little less of a burden if you invest leaf tickets into them. So, general ideas on how things could be different:
- Fortune Cookies – Cost Bells. Have ones that can show up randomly be cheaper (maybe 2,000-3,000) and then you can buy them outright for 5,000 or 23,000 for 5. Scratch Cards could still be used, but you could also use Leaf Tickets to buy a specific item instead. This would get rid of the large issue of gambling as the real money currency wouldn’t be attached to that part. Similarly, don’t expire fortune cookies or just make it so “out of season” ones have a limited stock each day and/or are more expensive.
- New Villagers – They should not be gotten through Gulliver or the Treasure Map situation. This was silly to do in the first place and is just a huge pain. A new villager should just be guaranteed to take up one of the four spots the first time you met them and there should always be at least 2 villagers you haven’t invited to your camp yet (including a new one), if any, out to do favors for.
- Gulliver – In general, only being able to get extra cargo with leaf tickets is stupid. Instead, it should require more materials equal to the amount it took the sale (IE: If it took 140 Points of Cargo for Gulliver to go to the island, it should be 140 more per each extra piece of cargo you want). This would continue the point of Gulliver to help get rid of excess items versus another leaf ticket drainer. Like fortune cookies, leaf tickets should only be used to pick something specific from the Island– possibly even without waiting for Gulliver to return.
- Events – They just… need to not have so much overlap and honestly more time. Most people don’t mind having a break or taking more time to gather resources. And if they have to, add them permanently as being able to be crafted (with
- Gyroid Gathering Events – Should just be general crafting events with only existing materials, Gyroid counts should be less (or spawns should be a lot quicker), and/or let people buy the special material with bells in addition to finding it.
- Event goals shouldn’t have exclusive items attached to them. More of the items from the event themselves and/or things to help with the events (IE: Nets for Fishing Tourneys, Honey for Bug Tournaments, Flower Feed for Gardening Events, etc.). This goes for the new month-long ones that need you to hit pretty much every single event. There’s been plenty of times now I’ve liked the final item only in one of these and could never get there (and even buying all the bundles with the “goal increase” item, I still fell short…).
- Gardening Events – Flowers shouldn’t take 3 hours to grow. 1-2 hours is already long enough. Some of the counts are awful, especially with the sucky catch rate. People who play alone would not be able to finish unless they use Leaf Tickets and even then, there’s no guarantee if they have particularly awful luck. Also a way for friends to leave some even if there are no free flowers would be nice. More often than not, I end up having tons of whatever it is we need to catch left over because everyone I want to leave them to is full and anyone who isn’t doesn’t need any.
- On a similar note, alternate colors should not be through the “hard goals” section and that should just be used for additional colors. Recolors should be available through the normal part of the event or flower trades with Lloid.
I don’t even really have an idea for the map feature. I kind of hate it, to be honest? But I think how it works is fine, it’s just not my way to play things and I usually use Leaf Tickets to auto-complete for every Villager. Just Villagers really shouldn’t be part of it. All the other materials? Sure, fine. Having Leaf Tickets while gambling with bells? That makes sense and works. I just don’t care for this mode at all, but I don’t think it’s a bad feature outside of tying villager maps that you get from Gulliver to it (which getting villagers through Gulliver was silly in the first place).
There’s a lot of little things I can think of too like I wish we could let Villagers know we made something versus needing to invite them and place it (not to mention get the crafting recipe without inviting them) or just wanting better ways to organize things. I still think Storage shouldn’t be a subscription service.
I will say if I ignore all the things I’m missing, Pocket Camp can be a bit more fun, but as someone who loves to collect everything, I just feel a little sad to know I’m missing out, even though it’s a lot less stressful to play this way.