Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer
1 year of experience with past games
Let me just start out by saying the hype is real. I got the new Animal Crossing game the night it came out. At midnight, Lucas and I were at Gamestop ready to pick up our bundle of the New 3DS and HHD and they were both utterly gorgeous. Since this is a new game I’m going to try to cover as much as possible without ruining it for anyone.
How is HHD different? So obviously unlike in games previously you are not a villager. Instead it is more like City Folk where you work for Tom Nook and New Leaf where Nook is running the “home improvement” shop. Only difference is you don’t spend any time really playing as a villager. You start out as a lowly employee and as you improve you can climb the ranks and get more responsibility. With this responsibility you begin being able to do things such as work on shops and businesses within the town. And yes you do want to share your data. As this unlocks parts of the game that use the internet making it more fun for everyone involved.
At the beginning of the game you can do some pretty baseline things. You get some furniture for a home that you need to decorate. The new clipboard design lets you rearrange all of the furniture with your stylus which is so much easier than having to walk all around the room. You can also drag the stylus in order to select multiple pieces of furniture at the same time. The more people you build houses for, the more stuff you can unlock. Things you can unlock range from flowers, beds, tables, clothing, and more. You can also search for furniture based on name or by color which comes in handy. I am hoping (like many others) that this is how future Animal Crossing games will allow you to design the inside of your house. In fact, it's not just houses that you can design in this game. You get the chance to design stores, restaurants, a school, a hospital and more to truly make the town your own. You unlock more and more things when you do more projects. You can even compete with others to make the best looking house via the Happy Home Network* during different challenges that will be held. October's current challenge is the sweetest home.
1 year of experience with past games
Let me just start out by saying the hype is real. I got the new Animal Crossing game the night it came out. At midnight, Lucas and I were at Gamestop ready to pick up our bundle of the New 3DS and HHD and they were both utterly gorgeous. Since this is a new game I’m going to try to cover as much as possible without ruining it for anyone.
How is HHD different? So obviously unlike in games previously you are not a villager. Instead it is more like City Folk where you work for Tom Nook and New Leaf where Nook is running the “home improvement” shop. Only difference is you don’t spend any time really playing as a villager. You start out as a lowly employee and as you improve you can climb the ranks and get more responsibility. With this responsibility you begin being able to do things such as work on shops and businesses within the town. And yes you do want to share your data. As this unlocks parts of the game that use the internet making it more fun for everyone involved.
At the beginning of the game you can do some pretty baseline things. You get some furniture for a home that you need to decorate. The new clipboard design lets you rearrange all of the furniture with your stylus which is so much easier than having to walk all around the room. You can also drag the stylus in order to select multiple pieces of furniture at the same time. The more people you build houses for, the more stuff you can unlock. Things you can unlock range from flowers, beds, tables, clothing, and more. You can also search for furniture based on name or by color which comes in handy. I am hoping (like many others) that this is how future Animal Crossing games will allow you to design the inside of your house. In fact, it's not just houses that you can design in this game. You get the chance to design stores, restaurants, a school, a hospital and more to truly make the town your own. You unlock more and more things when you do more projects. You can even compete with others to make the best looking house via the Happy Home Network* during different challenges that will be held. October's current challenge is the sweetest home.
Unlike other Animal Crossing games, HHD is not done in real time. Instead it seems to follow more of a pattern. Most days you design a home/store and once you are done, you do a nightly report (which basically tells the game you are done for the day and then saves your hard work). After the game has saved you can either choose to continue on to the next day, or you can quit the game. You can also save after beginning a project and then come back to it the next time you open up the software.
A few days into the game Nook will give you a free lesson from the Happy Home Handbook. These lessons will also help you unlock tutorials that help better your experience while playing the game. You use Play Coins to unlock the rest of the lessons. The lessons cost between 1 and 5 Play Coins and you can be unlocked in any order you want. You can choose to not unlock them (though I don’t recommend it). These lessons help you learn things like how to change the design of windows, ceiling decor, refurbishing furniture and more. You have to use about 30 Play Coins to unlock all of the lessons.
Amiibo Cards | How do they work?Now that I’ve covered most of the basics, let’s talk about the amiibo cards. When I got my game it came with one amiibo card included (I got Joan) I’m unsure if all of the games come with one free amiibo card included but I would imagine that they do. Each card has a little microchip in it which acts like a typical amiibo however they are a lot easier to bring with you (and only function within HHD and likely the upcoming Animal Crossing: Festival game). Each amiibo card has different information on it. In the upper left box the card tells you what type of card you have. Joan, Isabelle, Lyle, Nook, etc. are considered to be SP which stands for special character (each pack of amiibo cards have one SP card). Other characters will come up as their animal breed. The upper right circle tells you what number the card is from this series of Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards. Series 1 has 100 different cards, the circle simply tells you which one you have. As for the circle below the number I’ve heard that it is just supposed to be rock-paper-scissors. Now whether or not I am willing to buy that, I’m unsure on. The secondary box below the upper left box is believed to be a value for some future feature as they are numbered 1-6 and look like a dice. People are thinking that maybe this is a “roll value”. Honestly I’m looking forward to finding out what it is as I have not noticed that it has any meaning in the gameplay of HHD. The rest of the card has their name (in English and two other languages) and below that is listed their birthday and their star sign.
The amiibo cards seem to be able to be used in a few different ways**. When visiting a client's house you may invite another character over via the amiibo cards. You can also update your client’s information (if you have already designed their house before getting their amiibo card). As well as use the amiibo phone (which you get a few days into game play) which will allow you to basically place a “call” to the person on your card and then you can design (or redesign) their home. Another really neat feature of the amiibo phone is that you can add furniture saved to the card to your own catalog by reading the amiibo card while in a home created by someone else. (To get to other people’s houses you need to use the Happy Home Network, which uses an internet connection.)
There is probably so much more that I could say about this game, but you should find out for yourself. Right now the Nintendo eShop is having a deal where if you buy the game on the eShop you get a free Animal Crossing Theme for your 3DS as well. Unfortunately I do not have the free theme but I guess I’ll just have to live.
*The HHN is simply a place that is used to show off houses and facilities that people have built. You can post your own projects on there and get them rated.
**Please note that if you are using the original 3DS and not the New 3DS you will need to get a separate NFC reader and writer in order to use amiibo cards. You can find one of those at most stores such as Target or GameStop for about $20 or you can find them online on places like Amazon.
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