New Leaf, A Somewhat Crossing Tale

Ah, it's time to mellow out. Let us go into a world with cute animal friends, bamboo shoots, alpaca sales associates, and a WiFi community that makes you wish for guns. Lots of guns.

Welcome to the world of Animal Crossing, New Leaf style! This 3DS title is the latest installment in the Animal Crossing series. New Leaf has honestly "wow-ed" me. It is a refreshing version of Animal Crossing with many new elements as well as re-implementing some old favorites. Bullet time!

• Choice in Town Layout
• Rover (again)
• Mayor baby!!
• Your very own secretary!
• SWIMMING
• Perfect Fruits
• Bad puns
• D-Pad Shortcuts
• Bamboo Shoots
• Silver Tools
• DIVING
• Badges
• Playing.Card.Furniture.
• WiFi Jackasses

Oh man, how am I going to fit everything into one post? Augh! Too much, man. Just, too much. This will definitely require secondary posts. At least I've included screenshots from my own file though, adds a touch. Where to begin...Hmm. I'll start with Rover, the annoying cat. 

Let's have a long consequential chat

If any of you have played the first Animal Crossing game, for the Gamecube, then you know who Rover is. He is a sweater wearing cat who will not shut up. This seems like a touch of hypocrisy coming from a fellow blather-mouth, that's right blather, but I stand by my statement; Rover, you need to shut it. 

Fortunately, you only deal with Rover once in this game. That's right, once. He is the first character whom you meet, such a throwback to 2002, and helps you set up your game. Rover asks you questions in order to determine your name, your gender, and your looks. The name and gender parts are very obvious, however the looks often requires some thought. There are tutorials that reveal which answers yield which face, but for first time players, I recommend just going with your gut feeling. If you don't like your face, just start over.

A new feature, in the Rover questionnaire segment, is deciding your town layout. Rover shows you four different maps and asks which one is your town. This is a new feature in the series and a definite step up from Wild World. 

A quick note, I have not played City Folk, so I cannot pass judgement.

Anyways, there are few important factors in deciding the layout of your brand new town. Firstly, you want to have the town hall in a relatively easy point-of-access. This will be your main hub as mayor. Oh yes, you are the new mayor of the town audience. This only happens to your first character, all others are regular residents. 

Right-o, the second aspect is the location of Re-Tail. This will be the shop where you sell everything. Personally, I put Re-tail near the beach in order to balance my town's look. That was a wise decision, you'll be visiting the beach often in this title. Do not put it in a tight corner or right next to the town hall audience. You want access to everything but need to have some space in between in order to create a fluid town. Desolate neighborhoods are never fun. Besides, you will have a downtown for all other shopping needs.

The downtown, called Main Street, is a pile of crap, in the beginning. There is almost nothing there. All you have is the post office, Tom Nook's housing company, the Nooklings' crappy cranny reincarnation, the Able Sisters' clothing boutique, and the museum. Compared to the final downtown, this is truly appalling. Still, you have to start somewhere.

Her head "is a bell" shape, get it?

Start, that's right! As soon as you exit that train, you are greeted by a very excited golden retriever named Isabelle. She explains that you are the new mayor of the town. No matter what you say in response, you are the mayor. Isabelle then takes over as the next leg of the tutorial. Bye forever Rover!

The tutorial is the usual thing; meet your neighbors, visit important buildings, decide where you'll live. Wait, I can choose where my home will be? It's a dream come true! Dear audience, I built my house next to a scenic river. Oh should I say, I pitched my tent. Yeah...you start the game by living in a tent. It is motivation to upgrade your home. Who ya gonna call to do that? Tom Nook!

Oh Nook, you are a wily tanuki. This old raccoon dog has moved up from being the only shop owner/landlord to being the only landlord in town. Wait, what? Yes, he gave his shop ownership to his adorable little nephews who are, somehow, greedier than him. Seriously, every time you buy something in their store, they gleefully exclaim how shiny all your bells are, ugh. 

Warning: Do not sell anything to the Nooklings. Re-Tail gives you 25% more bells per sale on your items. This will not change over the course of the game. It is, ridiculously stupid.

Bells! I forgot about bells. In Animal Crossing, the form of currency is called bells. The reason, coins make a chiming sound when they hit, well, anything. This is why the creators coined the term "bells" for the game's coins. You adjust, eventually.

Hold up, wasn't I talking about living in a tent? Right, Tom Nook is the one you go to about remodeling your home. Just like before, you go to the post office to pay off any debts you have. You can also access a bank account, from the beginning, at the same ATM. Once your debts have been cleaned, you don't have to do anything. New Leaf gives you the choice to expand your home, rather than forcing you. So, if you are fine with a modest sized house and want to focus more on community projects or Main Street, you can. Without anything hanging over your head!

Now, I mean, I of course went as big as you can go audience. Let's be real, when I play Animal Crossing I play to perfection. It did take some time paying off my mortgage though. That is where the beach comes in. Well, rather, Kapp'n.

Quoi de neuf, Blaise?

After a few days of exploring your town, receiving advice from Isabelle, making friends with personified animals, and namely, paying off your first home upgrade, you'll be able to access your island. Isabelle will introduce you to an old friend, a turtle named Tortimer. In the original game, he was the mayor, so there is going to be some throwback. He invites you to travel to his island in order to relax and have fun. This is the golden land you need to make bells and become obsessed with mermaid furniture in the process. Blaise knows what I'm talking about. Find Kapp'n, the Kappa, on the beach and fork over 1,000 bells in order to sail to the island of wonder!

Quick Tip: Although Kapp'n's lyrics are amusing, you can skip all that by tapping the "B" button a few times. He will be a bit grumpy but you'll arrive faster.

The island has three new characters and one very familiar one. Hi, again, Tortimer. Having fun being tour director? 

The new characters are Kapp'n's family; his mother, his wife, and his daughter. His wife, Leilani, is in charge of tours and returning you home. Tours are how you earn island currency, medals. In order to buy the island exclusive stuff that Grams sells, you'll need to reel in some medals. This is best done by playing tours that are intermediate to expert; the higher the difficulty, the more medals you can earn. Play a number of tours in order to see which ones you enjoy as well as which ones you are talented at winning. Do this a number of times in order to buy that snazzy wet suit!

Quick Tip: Always earn double the amount in tours. This means, if you need to catch four fireflies in a challenge, catch eight instead. This will guarantee that you will earn the most medals possible. This also applies when playing with other players.

Near the door to the island cabana is a basket. You must, and I mean must, put anything you want to take back to your town in that basket before you leave the island. If you don't, you'll find your pockets empty on arrival with some small change in the bank.  Leilani always warns you before you leave, so don't fret too much audience. 

Tiptoe, to the palm tree, on the island, 'neath the moon

Outside the cabana, you'll find your private island. Here is where it can rain money. The gyroid, his name is Lloid, will allow you to borrow tools to use on the island. He will take them back, even if you keep them on you, before you leave the island. After dark, your island is on the same clock as your town, big juicy beetles will appear on the palm trees. They range from a selling price of 6,800 to 15,000 bells. That is a lot of bells. The ideal island set up, lemme bullet it:

• Palm trees on the east and west coasts, spaced with at least four steps in between them
• Zero flowers
• Zero shells on the sand
• No trees on the south coast
• One to two regular trees on the center of the island, Rainbow and Giant Stags

With this setup, you can easily weave in and out of the trees, thus maximizing your beetle catching potential. Golden Stags and Hercules beetles are touchy, they require a very slow approach, but yield high sell prices. Find a routine path to take through the trees, I often do an infinity shape. in order to keep respawning new bugs. If the beetles aren't appearing, there are probably other bugs preventing their spawn rate. These jewel beetles, roaches, and hermit crabs can easily be spooked by slamming your net nearby. Load up on beetles, stash them in the basket, and head home to reap the rewards. 

Quick Tip: Use the D-pad to switch between tools. This is much faster than constantly re-opening the menu. On the mainland, store any extra equipment in opened letters. This frees up space in your inventory.

There are other ways of earning bells in New Leaf. The beetle grind can become tedious and suck some of the fun out of the game. So, I'll give you a quick list of alternatives and how to capitalize.

• Perfect Fruit
• Bamboo Shoots
• Fossils
• Turnips
• Sea Creatures
• Mushrooms

Another new addition to this game, the perfect fruit. In previous titles, you would have to either visit different towns to find fruit or randomly be rewarded a new fruit species for doing a favor for a neighbor. You see audience, the fruit that is native to your town, it is not worth much in your town. Native species sells for a mere 100 bells per fruit. Foreign fruit though, they go for 500 bells. The goal was to cover your town in various fruits in order to make a tidy profit. Then, the perfect fruit happened.

I stumbled on perfect fruit by accident. I saw that one of my apple trees had a shiny looking apple among two normal ones. I shook the tree, snatched up the shiny, and discovered that it was a pomme parfaite. I immediately planted it and hoped for the best. Sure enough, a healthy tree sprouted and I had a perfect apple tree. It did not take long before my entire town was covered in perfect apple trees. These little babies sold for 600 bells at Re-Tail, a serious bargain. They sell for even more. 3,000 bells per fruit, in foreign towns. How sweet is that!

Lots of apples for me to crunch
Trees all around growing by the bunch

Quick Tip: Fruits can be bundled together. Simply drag and drop the fruit onto another of the same type. The maximum number of fruit per basket is nine. This is great for storing fruit in your home as well as carrying it around. 

Then, I discovered the drawback; perfect fruit trees do not last forever. Eventually, they lose their leaves and drop two perfect apples along with a rotten one. This requires a constant need for an ax and a shovel in order to keep your crop fresh. Fortunately, Lief, the sloth, opens a gardening store in Main Street where you can acquire axes. 

Bamboo shoots are another crop in the game. They must be bought, or taken from a foreign town, at the last upgrade of the Nookling's shop. In order to harvest the shoots, you must have full grown bamboo stalks. After a few days, you'll see some "X" marks in the ground. These are new shoots that are harvested via shovel. They sell for 750 bells at Re-Tail. If you don't dig up the shoots, new bamboo will grow and take over the town! Motivation enough to harvest those suckers.

Fossils, these little babies will be the bulk of your bell earning on the mainland. In order to find fossils, you must dig up "X" marks, like bamboo. There are usually three to four fossils buried in your town daily. You must take them to the museum for Blathers, the curator of an owl, to identify them. Happily, you can select multiple fossils so that he can identify them all at once. You then have the choice to either keep them, or donate them to the museum. I always donate in the beginning because then my museum is full and Blathers doesn't guilt trip me.

Turnips. Ugh, I hate turnips. Every Sunday there is a sow named Joan who appears and sells you turnips. They function like stocks in the game. In fact, there are many stalk market jokes in-game, oh Joan. 

Warning: Turnips go bad after seven days. Even if you set the time back a day, they will still go bad. Rotten turnips are worth nothing and cost a fee at Re-Tail for disposal.

You cannot sell turnips at Re-Tail on Sunday, that would be cheating, but can every other day of the week. Each day, Reese, the Re-Tail alpaca, will give you a buying price for turnips. This fluctuates daily. My advice, sell turnips in bundles on days when the price is higher than what you initially paid for. Sure, you might have fewer turnips for the really big blowouts, but you won't lose everything either. Safe stalks makes for steady income.

Hey maaaaaaan.

Ah, catching sea creatures. In order to hunt down the treasures of the deep, you must acquire a wet suit audience. These can only be bought on the island. They are the tool necessary to swim which makes them very invaluable.

Once you are suited up, go to the ocean shore! There, you can enter the water and swim around. Pretty soon, you'll start seeing black shadows with bubble trails. These are your targets. Press "Y" to dive and "A" to move around in the seabed. Your shadow must touch the other shadow in order for you to catch the sea creature. The ones worth the most amount of money are the hardest to catch, the crabs. 

It is best to practice as much as possible so that you can minimize your escaped prey count. There are jellyfish in the waters and they will temporarily paralyze you, bastards. Be careful of the bouey boundaries as well; crabs love to swim past the bouey line rendering it impossible to catch them. Just keep to the seabed and mash "A" when chasing a target. You'll have fun swimming, regardless.

And finally, mushrooms. This crop is a funny one. Yes, more funny than bamboo shoots. Mushrooms will grow under two conditions; the month of November or special tree stumps. November is the mushroom hunting month in Animal Crossing. They can be found at the base of trees. Every day, new mushrooms appear all over the town. One of them is even a piece of the mush furniture series, oooh. However, when it is not November, you can still harvest mushrooms by having a special stump grove in your town.

May the Triforce be with you

What are special stumps? They are tree stumps that do not have the regular ring pattern on them. Instead, they will have a heart, butterfly, triforce, musical note, leaf, etc. The likelihood of finding a special stump with a regular ax is low, annoying low. However, there is a silver ax that almost always yields a special stump. 

This ax is found on Club Tortimer, the name of the WiFi island that you can visit. The silver ax does eventually break, but lasts much longer than a regular ax. It will take many tries to find a WiFi island with a silver ax. Thus, you should always have some medals saved up before surfing the online the waves. You also need to watch out for trolls, they could ruin your WiFi experience by simply crashing the connection. 

Alright, this post has gone on far enough. I know that I have more to say about New Leaf, I'll just say it later. I'll make a post specifically about the WiFi jackasses. In fact, I'll even categorize them. I love you New Leaf, clearly, but this novel needs an ending.

Music as per usual audience?

Ah, that's better. Well, time to hunt beetles!

New Leaf Slideshow

P.S. I have included a link to a New Leaf Slideshow right above this. I mostly wanted to show off my mermaid furniture. Enjoy you guys <3