MuffpuffZeBuff

I wanted to like this game but I just can’t get behind it. While the actual gameplay mode isn’t broken or anything, it gets very repetitive and isn’t super deep. I would have liked a little more meat. While the characters are fun and they try really try hard to make sure there is a variety, done of the interactions were really basic or uncomfortable and it made it hard to really get invested in the cast. The main character in particular is weirdly hard to like even though he’s mostly a self insert and I think that might be why I couldn’t get behind things. But overall it isn’t a bad game, but it is a game you need to turn your brain off to enjoy .

The game is otherwise exactly what you expect from the series if it was mobile. The graphics look really good for a mobile game, the characters are friendly and cute even if simplified for phone, and the gameplay is the fetching of items that make up animal crossing but without anything else. Story there isn’t anything to say as it is mostly just a tending to a camp, but you don’t play these games for a gripping story. Basically if you like animal crossing this is a taste of it or a version aimed at very little kids to introduce them to it. No, it won’t keep you entertained long and it isn’t a full animal crossing but it does what you’d expect of it.

This is one of those ‘hidden gem’ games that people miss out on because nobody talks about them. It is a beautiful game with a beautiful sound design and visuals. While there are some limitations due to the systems available, they really try to push what the can do with a platformer. It is basically the beautiful underwater level of game expanded into a full length game and darker (but in a realistic way not in a cheap gore slasher way). It is a simple game so it is hard to go into depth about it, but consider giving it a shot.

Hot damn I didn’t realize how many people share a switch in their household. While yes, the one island per console is sad and warrants loosing a few points, the game is otherwise exactly what you expect from the series. The graphics look great on the switch and are bright and fun with a beautiful island setting, the characters are friendly and cute, and the gameplay is the generic collection and fetching of items that make up animal crossing. Story there isn’t anything to say as it is mostly just a tending to the island and it’s inhabitants sim, but you don’t buy these games for a gripping story. Basically if you like animal crossing you will like this game unless you have ants in your pants about not being able to share on a console.

This is a game where you probably have decided whether or not you will love the game before you have bought it. There are plenty of people here that declared the original a perfect game, so any positive changes would warrant another perfect score, meanwhile there are plenty who decide this game didn’t need to be made and would have given it a fail rating no matter what was in it. For me the devil is in the details when I look at how to rate this game and for me, if you are charging as it would cost to make a whole new game you need to have enough changes and additions to be as much as a new game and Royal doesn’t even come close to that - and with several years between the two versions that is really inexcusable. It is on the same system so it isn’t like controls had to be changed or images had to be resized. Outside of the dungeons most changes are minor such as different particle effects, new character busts, and slight changes to word choice in the dialogue. In the dungeons battle has been given some spit and polish and are really the highlight of Royal, but nothing extreme and I definitely think some bad reviews are downplaying the good aspects of this version. That being said, if the new characters or story were amazing it could still have justified Royal being worth it but it does not. Other reviews posted here go into more specifics but most of the reviews that discuss the story at all and are /not/ a two sentence blurb about how there is sooo much new content and the graphics are so much better say the new story sections are not to their liking. Kasumi is not popular with fans and I can see why as she is barely part of the team and much of the game is shamelessly begging the audience to find her cute, the new palace added to the end is a beat for beat copy of the plot of persona 4, and any developments from the new section are undone by the ending (such as Goro’s new developments) making the new sections feel like a waste of time. I would have much rather has something like the new dungeon that was added to Golden where it was cleaning up a fraction of the villain or FES dealing with the aftermath of a character’s death to provide more closure to the cast. The new ending for Royal is also hilariously unsatisfying, I thought I had messed up and gotten a bad ending because it was sadder and more distant than the original game. Anyone who says this version is an unquestioned improvement after that ending must not like the phantom thieves other that Goro or the new characters very much. I would have given this a 4.5 or something but since this site can’t I’ll settle for 4. This version doesn’t add as much as you’d hope, the new story sections are less than ideal, and so you are mostly buying this version over the old one (or replacing you old game for this one) for gameplay upgrades.