Saturday, March 21, 2020: Early Morning Exploring

Post date: March 21, 2020

Just as I'd done in New Leaf the day after I got it in August 2013, I loaded up New Horizons the next morning to play. (I will undoubtedly play more later on, and hope to livestream some online play to check that out, but for now, here is what I did this morning - I'll update this post as necessary later on.) The early moments in any new Animal Crossing can always be exciting to document, so I'm glad I'm doing that with this game!

Anyways - first, check out the gorgeous sunrise! I was playing in Handheld Mode on my bed, but still. You can also see my new house; I ended up moving my Switch indoors (I love the modern wood flooring, that was new to New Leaf). I was also able to make a mirror using wood and iron to finally customize my character. It seems there are more hairstyle options here than when you first start (as I was going through them with my family last night).

Here are a couple letters I got in the mail this morning (who's delivering them? Is Pete around?). One is from Mom, who gave me a few apples I'll have to plant to make my apple orchard. Another is from the HHA, the Happy Home Academy, who, as in past games, wants to rate my home.

I had placed down Blathers' tent last night as well; speaking to him gave me the recipe to craft a vaulting pole! Finally, I can unlock more beyond the river, which is what I immediately set off to explore. You can even see my reaction in yesterday's livestream, where I'm a bit disappointed how locked off I am, especially if I wanted to set up a proper neighborhood district later on. However, this feature is starting to grow on me - I can't access anything above the cliffs yet, and I think it's neat how the developers are taking even more cues from Breath of the Wild I feel in having us unlock more of our islands to explore.

I also met Gulliver, who did wash up to shore like in GameCube and New Leaf, but, like in Wild World and City Folk, wanted me to find parts to his phone. I'll look for them later on today, as will exploring Dodo Airlines.

The shovel not only let me look for fossils for Blathers, but it also let me hit rocks for ore (as in New Leaf) and Bells! Thank goodness Bells don't go to your inventory anymore - what a helpful feature! Plus, Jeff was right - the sparkling money in the ground returns from the GameCube game! Hoorah!

Alright, so as I said, I'll be livestreaming online play later today, and if I take more pictures I'll update the blog. However, I'm thinking of livestreams and this blog as being separate ways to document my time with the game, so there may not be much overlap, as determined yesterday. If I don't post anything more today, I'm sure there will be more stuff to share tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and hope you're enjoying your time with the game as much as me!