Error during authentication for model o3-mini: Failed to create temporary account. Status: 403, Details: Invalid request. Please try again.

When “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” launched in March 2020, I found myself utterly captivated. I’d dabbled with “New Leaf” before and loved its comfortable vibe, but didn’t get fully hooked until long after its release when the initial excitement had subsided. For “New Horizons”, I was right in the thick of things. With very little else to occupy my time on my Switch, I poured nearly a month into the game.

Initially, I was eager to squeeze every bit of joy out of “New Horizons” as swiftly as possible. The daily routine of gathering DIY recipes, accumulating materials, and checking Nook’s Cranny for new items felt excruciatingly slow, so I succumbed to the most egregious error in Animal Crossing. I frequently fast-forwarded my days, making in-game weeks pass by in real-life days. Looking back five years since “New Horizons” was released, I can’t help but regret rushing through my gaming experience.

Time Travel Has Downsides In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Speeding Through Life Isn’t The Best Approach

Time travel in games linked to real time is often very hard to resist. Simulation games generally move at a leisurely pace, and starting out in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is particularly slow. Upon arrival on your new island haven, there are merely two other Villagers and a limited number of NPCs with whom you can interact. While you can spend your days fishing or exploring, there’s not much else to keep you busy except waiting for the store and museum to be constructed.

Once past the initial stages, “New Horizons” offers a compact list of daily tasks (interacting with villagers, mining rocks, chopping trees, fishing) that can be swiftly completed. This brevity, however, often triggers the inclination to time travel, an action that brings its own set of drawbacks. For me, these repercussions became apparent during my dealings at the Stalk Market, where I discovered a method to amass bells rapidly without waiting for my local Nook’s Cranny to offer a favorable selling price by exploiting time travel and visiting other players’ islands.

In the initial stages of the New Horizons game, an active marketplace thrived online where players traded turnips. Every Sunday morning, Daisy Mae would help with in-game transactions, allowing players to buy turnips and sell them later at Nook’s when they believed the buying price was maximized. To skip the waiting period, players could find profitable sell prices listed online and pay a hefty fee for others to visit their island and sell their turnips on their behalf. This strategy helped me accumulate millions of bells in just a few weeks after starting on my island.

Animal Crossing Is Meant For A Slow & Steady Pace

Games Meant To Be Experienced Over Years, Not Weeks

The game Animal Crossing is known for fostering a leisurely and gradual progression, allowing players to gradually accumulate bells to pay off their homes, upgrade, and initiate public works projects. However, due to my use of time traveling and market manipulation, I was able to speed through these tasks at an unprecedented pace. Unbeknownst to me, this rapid advancement ultimately diminished future gaming satisfaction.

In Animal Crossing, gamers should drop by their towns every 24 hours to interact with their Villagers, gather resources, shop around, and then return the following day. This game synchronizes with real-life time zones and hemispheres, which means it celebrates real-world holidays and seasons that smoothly blend into one another. While players are working towards long-term objectives such as paying off Tom Nook, this setup provides a unique gaming experience. However, after I abused time travel, the ensuing months were less engaging because most of my goals were completed in a matter of weeks.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has some issues, such as the Villagers being rather shallow and an emphasis on decorating over conversation. However, by using time travel, I inadvertently compromised my long-term enjoyment of the game. The ideal way to experience any Animal Crossing is to progress gradually and accept the game’s natural pace. Although it’s tempting to rush ahead and collect everything quickly, this can make the game less enjoyable in the long run. I wish I had resisted the urge to time travel, as playing New Horizons after those initial weeks wasn’t as fun as it could have been.

The Next Animal Crossing Is My Chance To Change

A Fresh Start In An Entirely New Town

As a die-hard fan of the Animal Crossing series, I can’t help but feel that another installment is on the horizon, given its popularity and past financial success. Although Nintendo hasn’t confirmed anything yet, it seems almost inevitable that we’ll see a new game for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 at some stage. While I could revisit New Leaf or start over in New Horizons, I’ve already invested hundreds of hours into both games. But the day when the next Animal Crossing title arrives will give me the chance to fully immerse myself in this delightful world once more, just as it was meant to be enjoyed.

Starting afresh in the next “Animal Crossing” title offers an authentic, immersive experience that playing from scratch provides. By adopting a patient approach, gradually accumulating resources, and avoiding the pressure of keeping up with online peers sharing their islands/towns, you’ll savor a more fulfilling journey over time, even if your island doesn’t reach perfection immediately.

It’s quite probable that I’ll delve into some form of time manipulation, but restricted to altering the hour or visiting missed days solely for special occasions like birthdays and events, will help me maximize my Animal Crossing enjoyment. Maybe amplifying Resetti’s role in scolding rule-breakers could deter my inclination, instead of confining him to a minor part in rescue operations.

2025-05-25 05:42