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Animal Crossing hasn’t always been the incredibly popular mega-hit it became with the release of New Horizons last year. In its humblest days, it existed as a last-second swan song for the Nintendo 64 called Dobutsu no Mori, exclusive to Japan. He would see a second version pretty quickly, slapping a “+” at the end of the name, porting it to the Nintendo GameCube and adding a handful of new features. Fortunately, Nintendo of America gave the game a chance in the west by evolving it, giving it one of their most charming translations ever, and naming it Animal Crossing. The rest is history.
In fact, this story is rather rich. The NOA localization of Dobutsu no Mori + was not just a translation; the events, graphics and jokes all had to be adapted for a Western audience. US gamers probably wouldn’t understand Eastern culture references and vacations, so it took a lot of work to create new characters for vacations like the Harvest Festival, make pop culture jokes that are relevant at the moment, and edit. all kinds of tiny little details, all in addition to translating a game that has a mind boggling amount of text to start with. When the time came for Animal Crossing to debut in the west, the original developers of Nintendo of Japan saw all the hard work and decided it needed to be relocated with all the new content, while adding even MORE of novelties. up! This is how Japan came up with three versions of Animal Crossing, all in a short period of time.
Sadly, that super charged version of Animal Crossing – Dobutsu no Mori e + – never returned to players in the west. At the time, it wasn’t that bad; after all, Animal Crossing was still a new IP, and few people knew about the game’s back and forth translation tango. Even after the internet knew the funny story behind it, years had passed and new Animal games had passed. Crossing were out. Yet, for devoted fans, a definitive version of the original Animal Crossing existed, filled with all kinds of new content, one never to experience – unless you know Japanese.
Now what happens when you have a Japanese-only version, on an older platform that has a lot of documentation on hacking and handling the inner workings of its files? Well, of course it is getting an official release on the Nintendo Switch! Just kidding, it’s Nintendo after all! The real answer is, you get a dedicated fan translation, courtesy of one of these super fans. Cuyler is a programmer who has spent years working on modding, editing, and translating all of this Dobutsu no Mori e + goodness into English.
With all this background, you can now appreciate the meaning behind a project of this caliber.
And there is a lot to enjoy. More fish, more bugs, more residents, new features, new events, new locations. In fact, the exclusive content of Dobutsu no Mori e +, if released around this time, would warrant a definitive definitive edition slapped on the title, or at least a DLC version at a decent price. Now that there is an English translation patch for fans, all of these things can finally be enjoyed.
It’s still the original Animal Crossing, so the start of the game is the same as what you played before. Once you’ve adjusted to living in your little animal forest, well, this is where you start to find all the cool stuff. Closing Tom Nook’s store can really affect the way you play the game at night. With minimal inventory and even less storage at your disposal, you might not want to bother playing at night once you’ve filled your pockets to the brim with fish, fruit, and fossils. But if you grab your shovel and slam it enough times on Nook’s shop door, it will reluctantly open and let you buy and sell … at a reduced rate too, that cheap skate! While the drop in selling prices can put you off, being able to empty your inventory overnight is an invaluable asset. Other quality of life options have also been added, such as the island being usable even if you don’t have ACS to plug in, the ability to pick up flowers and, cooler of all, the addition of buildable city projects – existing as a concept years before New Leaf implemented it again!
Unfortunately, not everything is translated yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of random character conversations, as they will switch between perfectly translated texts and large swathes of random Japanese text. However, a lot of the exclusive e + content is covered, which is great if you’re just looking to have fun only with features not found in the regular releases.
Compared to the newer games in the series, this may not seem like much; after all, why not play the newest one that has all that fancy stuff to start with? For me, nostalgia is one of the main reasons. Growing up with the original Animal Crossing cemented its place in my heart, and being able to have a new take on something so well worn after years of playing makes it a welcome experience. Not only that, but there is a rough charm to the game. The villagers have so much to say, and a lot of things are not so pretty! The sassy will downplay your fashion choices, some may laugh at your misfortune of being stung by a bee – it’s fun to see these little animal figures have real character, even if it’s at your expense. Having a villager get mad at you or take your hard-earned bells from you in an RNG game gone awry adds to the world – your specific world and all the experiences that build it. You won’t like some of the animals you meet (yeah that’s right I’m talking about you, Blaire, goofy squirrel), others will give you a rare piece of furniture and that will be enough to earn your friendship, and some will make you want to send them letters full of furniture and clothes, so you can see them walking around with that little musical note sounding above their heads. And that’s one facet that the new games don’t focus on anymore: the relationships you form in your head with these cute characters.
If you are tired of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, then I urge you to go back to where it all began and enjoy the original Animal Crossing, in its best possible form.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of GBAtemp Recommends. If you want to know more, leave your comments in the discussion thread below or check out our previous articles.
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