My blog is a fictional island named Pinkie’s Paradise. Today I will tell you about Pinkie’s Paradise… it’s not about the blog! It’s about my little haven in Animal Crossing New Horizon. So we write about a fictional tropical island on a blog that is set on a fictional tropical island…meanwhile I am stuck in a 22m² flat in real life. Which due to quarantine has become kind of an island itself… Islandception.
Creating Paradise
Due to Corona my game was brought to me one day early, since I went with a physical copy! So at least there was this little sparkle of light in these days. I was super excited to get started. Not only because I would be able to play New Horizon for the first time! This was the first time I actually got to OWN a Animal Crossing save. So there was a lot for me to learn! But that was something I was actually looking forward too. The franchise always fascinated me but it was in low supply, or money was short for me..one way or another I always missed this game.. and now it was finally time! This time I could turn a deserted island in my Paradise.
Like everyone I got to pick my name, birthday, hemisphere and favored island layout. A you-tuber I adore named Princess Peachie told me something about optimal island lay out and while I have no idea if it was her preferred layout offers some actual benefits or looks pretty but I made sure to pick an island with a source in the north and two exists on the south of the island. Airport is in the middle so it isn’t exactly like the island she wanted .. but hey I feel that in my paradise blog.. the airport is in the middle as well so this made sense to me!I made sure I had peaches..because they are the pinkest fruit! I made sure I had a yellow airport.. because the colour of sunshine.. and it matches my blogs colour scheme the best.
Other colours are blue, green or orange.. but well everyone knows water landing planes are yellow .. right?!
While the fruits have always been a random aspect . and the island goers are random (though you get a jock character at least) I feel like this game really tried to cater to more online play. Now I have plenty of friends who play this but due to how rng works we might end up with all peach trees unless we spend a while resetting and coordinating. It isn’t that hard to get the fruits other ways but still. I think creating would have been so much cooler if you could band together with some friends, each picking a fruit and hemisphere to help each other out. I have about 4 friends playing this with me..but we might not all be as useful to each other as we could! Which is a shame. Which is about the only negative if I have here.
Tom, Tommy and Timmy
Creating my character feels a bit minimal, I chose to give my character crazy eyes and a buck tooth because it looks crazy and adorable! My Kawaii Trailer trash character lands on her island together with Dom the jock sheep and the somewhat paranoid koala Canberra. She believes she has a great personality but also constantly believes I have twins walking around or hidden camera pranks set up for her! Tom, Timmy and Tommy gather us at a square which serves as the walking tutorial. After that I have to place everyone’s tent. I chose mine to be in a nice forest bit close to the river way up to the north west. Don and Canberra live on the other side of the Nook Plaza at the south east. Just so I can later put Galaxy bear and some pink villagers close by! Don lives by the beach so he can easily run Indeedadaroo. Canberra is in a place with lots of bugs trees and water.. kind of like Australia mate!
As cute as the villagers are, in the beginning they do not do a lot for me! UI can talk to them a few times a day but only the first one will truly offer something new.The ones I really need to rely on is the nook family. After a quick celebration.. a dog playing a guitar tells me it’s time to move into real time and so we begin day 1. It is quickly established that Timmy is how I make and spend Money, Tom is the unlock guy who gives me upgrades, tutorials and “main” tasks and Tommy… he just wanders around town waving a flag telling me to Ganbatté! You can do it Pinkie! I like him the best! He’s so cute!
Speaking of cute.. the sound effects of villagers talking is so adorable that I sometimes just talk to people and see their endless repeating dialogue over and over again just so I can hear those cute voices. I absolutely love this! Tom got me a lot of stuff to play around with…….at a price. Not in his favorite currency this time but in Nook Miles! Achievement hunting is the way to pay them off so let’s get started. Weirdly enough there isn’t really a tutorial for that one you will just have to experiment a bit, talk to people and figure things out! Which is great! I can really go about this however I want…. so what do I do?
Day 1
Time is synced between the real world and my Island so it’s already twilight when I start to play for real.By interacting with Tom I found out I could hand him several types of animals, he has a friend who might be interested in them. He also explains me stuff about his crafting table. From 5 sticks I can make a bug net or a fishing rod… not sure how that works but I guess gauze and wire is freely available. However my tools are flimsy! They break easily..which is to be expected, since if swords break upon a few strikes..surely so would a bugnet. Stil I like how you do not need better tools for better stuff.. it just is less of a nuisance to use better stuff. Thus I do not feel forced to go for the better tools right away! Great!
I enjoy catching bugs a bit more than I do catching fish! Catching fish means casting out my rod depending on where the fish head is located and using the current to make my hook line and sinker float towards him. It feels a bit awkward as the fish can be fickle. Still fun.. but have just looking at the animation of my character using the bug net is so cute.. SQUEEEEE.. I love when she misses or accidentally slaps a tree. Slap that tree…slap slap! Awww my tool broke! After spending about an hour just enjoying the plain esthetics and having some fun I caught a bunch of fish and bugs and Tom tells me a new resident will come tomorrow! Neat! I also noticed how trying everything gets me a lot of Nook Miles. I already nearly have enough to pay of my debt.. just by trying stuff out!
I draw a pink square in the designer app and use it to replace my stereotypical lesbian blouse with a pink tank top like print… that gave me a lot of Miles! I make a new passport photo wearing a cap I just got from Dom! That gives me a lot of miles. I play around with all the apps, do just about everything I currently can do on an island and bam! 5000 miles! Wow that was so easy!.. Tom tells me I can now purchase cool stuff with Miles!… Yay.. that’s why I payed off my debt! I want access to cool stuff plus using achievements is a great way to learn the game. He tells me I can now get a house! Since I picked the Southern Hemisphere.. I know winter is coming so I opt in favor of buying a house! Perhaps it can unlock cool stuff! Tom tells me my house will be ready tomorrow. With my inventory space already full ..and me being to dense I could just put animal cages out in the wild to clear my inventory.. I thought I was played out for the day and I had to wait for the next day.. and since time is synced to your switch clock I could not possibly get progress unless somehow the date on my switch……wait a minute!
Another Day 1
Okay so I cheated a a bit! I wanted more day one content so I did what I had to do! I got a house, an owl showed up who accepted 15 more donations before he would open a museum and I now could spend Nook Miles on precious gifts! Like Hairstyle upgrades.. an improved outfit designer and some neato little decorations! Online play now also was enabled for me! The aiport opened up and I could fly! I even got a Nook Miles Ticket for free.. which took me to a random farming island! Neato!
On this mysterious new island I met a very positive person..whom by the time of writing I cant remember because I might have played it so much that day I was a bit overwhelmed by everything. It was tall hairy.. and super positive! Whatever it was I could invite it to live on my Island! So I did! Timmy was working on a new project to start a store and need 30 softwood, 30 wood , 30 hardwood and 30 iron nuggets.. since I broke all my stones by accident.. it would take me a while to complete that last one! I needed 3 whole real life days!..Mostly because I used some of my iron ore to build a mirror to change my hairstyle. I still had fun gathering up as much materials as I could though.
When I got home after a long day of work I noticed my mailbox was beeping! There was a tree in front of it.. so I could not see the “you have mail Icon” So I ate a Peach.. dug up a tree and finally accessed my mail! I got a nintendo switch to put in my room which I set on a cardboard box.. I had a bundle of hay as my bed. .and a simple lamp! Feeling super content I went to bed.. both in game and in real life.
Day 2 and Day 3
In the following days I learned more about the game..I had set my switch clock back..so time flowed normally once again. I met a pink elephant that said they would come to my island..which made me super excited because it’s pink! However to this day it hasn’t shown up yet…and neither has that positive thing! I even invited a third thing to my island! I think it’s like a geisha anteater.. she talks a lot about love and wore a kimono..so even though she scared the living daylight out of me. I allowed her to come to my island! Because at Paradise we welcome everyone. Now I just wished I could see them arrive and make my island grow.. but the wait kind of has me excited for the next days to come.
By the time that I redeemed 3 days of Nook miles…so my actual second day on the island. I had gathered 90 pieces of wood for Timmy and about ..10 iron. The only way of me getting more required me to gather 2000 nook miles and buy a nook ticket! Luckily the game offers a sort of daily achievements that can be very easily used to get Nook miles.. it involves simple tasks like “catch 5 fish, sell 10 seashells, plant 1 tree” and other stuff like it. So never did I feel unable to make progress… which again is great game design. I managed to get the 15 donations ready but failed to get enough Iron..and yet I closed of the game feeling completely satisfied! I did a good job and did all I could do that day! I had the evening available to me to do other things.. and it did not feel bad for not playing the game either! I was so content.
I even had a blast with stuff I normally do not enjoy! Drawing on a console is horrible! Like it might not be as bad as the LJN Video-Art console but it’s not a fun pastime! However the way Animal Crossing Handled it is great. The design tool works with nice big pixels that are super easy to work with, a 3d model of what you are drawing is updated in front of you as you work along. As such without any effort I was able to create the dress my chibi avatar wears. I can cover my house in custom designs as well however it somehow removes the windows…which is kind of weird.. but okay! No custom design there than! Still it’s super easy to design something cute yourself. Hanging out with friends also was a lot of fun, while not particularly helpful just yet I took a few cherry trees which got me a increased cash flow! While visiting islands is still a tad clunky..it is nowhere near as awkward as that of other nintendo games!
Visiting Bean’s island even got me plenty of nook miles! Which took me to a very ore filled island,I bought better tools DIY with miles which allowed me to hit rocks 5 times for minerals instead of 3..and I managed to get enough Iron for a store to be build. I also sold off enough stuff to upgrade my house! I went to sleep like a child before christmas eve.. and I think that is a good place to leave with my first impressions. Each day I felt super excited to play some more the next day! From wondering what gifts will fly by your island the next day.. to what upgrades you will get and what will show up! I am truly in love with this game, I can perfectly leave it for a few hours after I did my grind just to come back happily and just try to catch some different fish! I no longer feel the urge to cheat either. I will get there when I get there.. my dream island will take shape.. and more likely than not I will let you all be a part of this progress. Now I need to see how big my house is gotten!
Remember that I love you all, keep smiling and stay positive!
XO
Pinkie
Pinkie's Paradise 