When it comes to Animal Crossing, the reason many people love it is due to the game's cozy setting. In practically every entry, you're put somewhere that's away from urban life, like a far-off town or city, or even a deserted island.
While they provide a calm and relaxing mood, perhaps Nintendo should stray away from the peaceful rural setting, especially since that's all fans have been given for years. When the next Animal Crossing title arrives for the Switch 2, I think it should take place in the city instead.
The franchise already tried its hand at providing an urban area with Animal Crossing: City Folk, but it didn't fully capitalize on the gameplay opportunities it could have granted. That, and its take on the city, which wasn't the main setting of the game and only an optional place to visit, meant it never reached its full potential. Despite that being the case, it still gave us a glimpse of what could have been.
It had a theater, a hair salon, an auction house, and other places that provide a lot of entertainment. While it's a shame that there wasn't more, what it offered acts as a blueprint for how the next Animal Crossing can provide a real city experience and improve upon what worked to make it better.
Longtime fans will still hesitate over the idea of going more urban, but it's important to understand that this could be the next step that will help one of Nintendo's biggest franchises evolve. Aside from more activities, being a city allows for new gameplay features that would not have worked as well in a rural environment.
One good example is players finally being able to open up and manage their own store. Setting up shop in a city can lead to innovations such as allowing NPCs to haggle with the player over item prices, hiring employees and rewarding or punishing them for their performance, preventing characters from stealing store goods, and more. Things like that would make for one of the most engaging Animal Crossing entries, again emphasizing why the next one should take place in an urban setting.
To further convince that this is something that needs to happen, placing the next game in the city could allow for a lot of high vertical structures. It would certainly be possible with the Switch 2's powerful hardware, and that means homes and establishments with more floors than ever before.
Such a thing ensures that players have more rooms to decorate and play in, while activity and leisure centers would also be able to offer more variety. Additionally, having multiple structures with high ceilings in an urban area can lead to interesting designs that wouldn't be possible in rural towns, allowing for an entry with many unique aesthetics to gawk at.
Again, fans will likely be hesitant over the switch in setting, given that they've become accustomed to rural environments. However, an Animal Crossing set in the city has a lot of untapped potential that can make for an amazing game. It would be a shame if it didn't happen, but we'll just have to wait and see if Nintendo ever considers the idea or sticks to the usual formula.
For more like this, stick with us here at Gfinityesports.com, the best website for gaming features and opinions.