Why Animal Crossing Is Poised to Surpass Expectations with This Incredible Palia Feature

Highlights

Animal Crossing: New Horizons could learn from Palia's multiplayer features to enhance community interaction and gameplay.

However, hunting is suitable for Palia, but it would seem unsettling and inappropriate for Animal Crossing because of the anthropomorphic animal characters that live in the game.

Instead, Animal Crossing should contemplate incorporating Palia's vast map and innovative island management aspects to offer players enhanced possibilities for exploration.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is part of the renowned Nintendo franchise known for its relaxing yet thrilling social simulation gameplay, featuring activities such as fishing, farming, insect catching, and fossil hunting. This game's popularity and accessibility have served as inspiration for many developers to create similar open-ended social simulation games, like Palia from Singularity 6 Corporation. Unlike Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Palia is designed to be played with a community of real players rather than relying solely on non-player characters (NPCs). This is a concept that Animal Crossing could embrace in future games to truly evolve from its current format. While there are numerous features in Palia that would be a great addition to Animal Crossing, there is one notable exception.

Originally released for the Nintendo GameCube, Animal Crossing revolves around the premise of a human player engaging in various activities to repay their mortgage while living in a village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Players can perform tasks typical of everyday life, such as shopping, selling goods, and chatting with neighbors. The game incorporates events, such as festivals, to help players immerse themselves in their newfound community. Additionally, players have agency in village development by constructing houses, decorating the area, and attracting new residents. Games like Stardew Valley and Palia trace their roots back to cozy games like Animal Crossing, but they introduce elements that would not align with Nintendo's family-friendly franchise. Specifically, hunting would be an unfitting inclusion in the Nintendo series.

Hunting Feels Right at Home in Palia, But it May Be Too Much for Animal Crossing

Palia offers a more sophisticated take on social simulation games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon with its 3D graphics and improved social aspects, including the ability to romance NPC villagers. Additionally, players can engage in hunting deer and rodent-like creatures known as Sernuks and Chapaas for their resources. Palia manages to maintain a PG rating by having the animals disappear when their health is depleted, rather than leaving a visible corpse. This aspect adds diversity to the game by allowing players to use hunted materials for cooking and crafting, as well as selling them for gold. However, due to the animal-based nature of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its sequels, hunting similar creatures to the player's animal neighbors feels unsettling, violent, and inappropriate, even if executed in a more sanitized manner like in Palia.

Other Palia Features That Animal Crossing Should Consider Adopting

While Animal Crossing: New Horizons does feature fishing, it lacks aquatic villagers and the fish caught are not killed or butchered like in Palia. Stardew Valley also lacks hunting elements, despite its combat system allowing players to defeat monsters in the mines.

However, Animal Crossing is not suited for hunting. Instead, it can incorporate other fantastic features from Palia. Expanding the map, creating more areas to explore, and introducing new islands for players to manage and populate would be greatly appreciated by Animal Crossing players. Additionally, adopting Palia's multiplayer features would facilitate social interaction and connection among friends. While the small scale of Animal Crossing adds to its charm, some players may feel restricted, especially when compared to the larger worlds of other open-world games available on the Switch. Therefore, a more expansive and open world would be a refreshing change for both new and long-time fans of the Animal Crossing franchise. Nevertheless, hunting should be excluded from this world.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on the Nintendo Switch.