Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Biggest Flaw Is Actually All Our Fault

screenrant.com:

is undeniably a good game and, in many ways, an improvement over its predecessors. It addressed the issue of not having enough to do by introducing a plethora of tasks as well as the ability to customize and landscape an entire island. It shoved practically every villager into its tiny file size so that players like me could get their favorite ones to come to their island, and it offered lots of ways to interact with other players in multiplayer.

However, almost killed my love of gaming thanks to one of its most frustrating features. It's something that a lot of players have encountered, but something that is a lot more nuanced than I once thought. While a lot of the responsibility for this issue lies with Nintendo and the game's fundamentally flawed design, there is some responsibility that I and many other players must bear.

One of biggest flaws is how quickly villagers seem to repeat dialogue. It is easily the biggest feature that I hope changes in the next game as it fundamentally ruins the social sim aspect, which is, at least in my opinion, the most crucial part. In my initial playthrough, which, like everyone else, was during COVID-19, I found myself rapidly encountering the same lines of dialogue over and over again, which all but killed my enthusiasm for as a whole. It almost made me fall out of favor with gaming altogether.

Now, that may seem a little extreme, but it became evident to me that was prioritizing mechanical freedom over atmosphere and, dare I say, vibes. It is easily one of the most annoying aspects of as, while I appreciate the ability to completely alter the appearance of my island, I would have much rather had villagers that felt like real people, not soulless beings that dispense witty one-liners ad nauseam.

It is especially frustrating considering that villagers in completely lack any bite. None of them are rude like they were in the original games, which means every conversation with them devolves into a player-appreciation party.