Animal Crossing

"So, you've decided to move out? Get your own place? See the world? That's groovy. Who needs someone telling you what to do all the time? You can do what you want, when you want, where you want. Yeah, living on your own, being free. It feels great. ...But living by yourself can be a real drag, too. Still, if you've got some really tight friends somewhere nearby, then you know it'll all work out. Yeah, man. Friends are far out. ...Oh. I guess I'm kind of rambling. My bad. So, are you ready to hop on that train and go for a ride?" - K.K. Slider

UNSORTED NOTES:
 * Language selection: Animalese, Bebebese or Silence
 * gyroids are flatly referred to as haniwa in the JP version - you dig them out of the ground (disturbing their rest), and there is an unsettling fascination with them in animal crossing culture
 * they feature incredible diversity in appearance, dance & sound, and encourage both sorting them into categories and experimenting with different combinations - a deep rabbit hole for players to lose themselves in?
 * https://gaming-urban-legends.fandom.com/wiki/Gyroid_Face
 * pitfalls are another oddity
 * tom nook is a tanuki - a trickster and symbol of wealth
 * "Among other things, the tanuki has enormous testicles (but not Tom Nook; this is a family game). Many Japanese woodblock prints depict a tanuki kneading its testes into the shape of various objects, such as raincoats or fishing nets. The supernatural industriousness of Tom Nook, who can divine manufactured goods from thin air in the game, takes on another meaning when seen through the lens of tanuki mythology."
 * redd (a kitsune!) is also a "trickster" character
 * villagers taking your furniture/items/money is pretty trickster-ish too
 * some random villager quotes break the fourth wall (GOTTA CHECK THESE)
 * umbrella and balloons are practically useless (?) but cute
 * balls are similarly useless but fun
 * cut airplanes seem like they would've fit this trend too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbmdsXnAMwA
 * creativity: town theme, house layout, roof colour, personal appearance, taste in villagers, tree/flower placement, door design/message, able sisters patterns, constellations, Blanca, outdoor path patterns, furniture customization
 * random fixed town features prompt creative additions from the player, though the limitations imposed by the grid-based system feels somewhat at odds with this (i.e. you're given a perfect 'centre' spot to place a tree, but it's not aligned with the grid so you have to put the tree slightly to one side)
 * inventory background customization
 * competing with friends/family to complete the museum
 * encouraged to interact with friends to get different fruit than your town's native species
 * neat holidays: april fools day, halloween, "toy day" (secular christmas), new year's eve, birthday
 * kinda sad to spend these holidays in a game though w/o other players
 * cool events: K.K. slider, flea market, fishing tourney, bug off, flower fest, meteor shower/shooting star, wisp
 * snowballs/making a snowman is cool
 * turnip trade
 * lottery - replaced by loyalty points system?
 * same button for run/action can take a tiny bit of getting used too
 * lots of videos I watch suggest that 'asking villagers for favours needs to return', but I expect if it had been a series mainstay, fans would complain about the repetitive fetch-quest nature of the task


 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Luck
 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Emotions
 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Personalities
 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Hide-and-Seek


 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Reset_Surveillance_Center
 * as a wild world player, the reset surveillance center sounded like a hoax
 * entering tom nook's store at night with the shovel too


 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Dream_Suite
 * interesting alternative to visiting people's towns, but perhaps promotes too much vanity and isolation?

Animal Crossing (N64/GCN)
Animal Crossing Version Differences - The Cutting Room Floor


 * https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/93v0wq/an_experiment_to_determine_once_and_for_all_how/
 * https://twitter.com/jamchamb_/status/1025977659522789376
 * https://jamchamb.github.io/2018/07/11/animal-crossing-nes-emulator-hacks.html
 * https://jamchamb.github.io/assets/pdf/secrets_of_animal_crossing.pdf


 * Famicom games: Gomoku Narabe, Mahjong


 * multiple-item-select is such a nice feature
 * cute voice that repeats the letter you type in actually helps a lot with writing
 * would be nice if you could wrap-around tho (probably not taken into account because the japanese version has a separate typing system)
 * "glowing spot" - money trees & golden shovel
 * Let's Talk and Need a Favor's order should be swapped
 * morning aerobics - a niche relic from the 90s, I like the clear-cut stick-based minigamery of it
 * primary purpose seems to be light motivation for the player to try and wake up early
 * sports fair also
 * Tortimer sometimes appears next to rivers and offers to build a bridge

Wild World (NDS)

 * https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Note-in-a-bottle