Coming from somebody who has played every Animal Crossing, I agree it feels somewhat lifeless, they gutted the game and have been slowly trickling in Animal Crossing Items old features/characters through upgrades, you can't even update the Nook store that was a staple of previous games, I could absolutely admit that they fucked up, despite me having 500+ hours in New Horizons.

Also, the hardcore players will absolutely buy it twice only to have several islands. I purchased ACNL twice (one physical, one digital) for this reason and I currently have digital ACNH and am thinking about picking up a physical copy only for a fuck-around island.

I purchased it due to the hype. That is famous to saybut the game is really boring. Once you get your three of four important buildings done along with a handful of island residents, all you do is gather materials and craft materials at a work bench. Or you can buy things at the general store. Like I can't even spend a complete hour on the match at a time.

That said, I really do think it's an wonderful game but I would not have put so much time into it when I wasn't playing with family and friends. Throughout the pandemic, we'd get on and enjoy each others company, Chat about what fish we obtained, any trendy things we had in the shop, commerce and gift items to each other etc..

My buddies dropped it and that I kept going but it was just a daily zen garden kind of item. Checkout what is popped up. At this point I was already a couple of hundred hrs in. Haven't touched it in a while, but I know I can jump back at any time.

I totally agree. I gave it a try, but the gameplay is way too slow to the rewards you get. You get an entire day to do things, but most of this is just collecting materials and nothing happens before a full 24hrs later. The slow gameplay simply doesn't appeal to me personally.

The only real way I can describe it's like the Animal Crossing New Horizons Nook Miles Ticket sims with critters. I mean, I could see the allure of world building matches for some people but there's no overarching objective, no end, no overarching plot. It is just more of the same with no eventual payoff.