Sunday, February 7, 2021: Sunday Afternoon Island Updates

I loaded up the game this afternoon in a Zoom call with my friends, ready to see their islands they've been working on this past week! First I checked my mail - the HHA likes my feng shui, and Merengue was literally standing right in front of my house in my yard examining my orange flower. What the heck?!

Cookie wanted to give me a new nickname: superfan. Sure! The Able Sisters also had Renaissance dresses for sale; how fitting with my fantasy theme and going with our Final Fantasy IX playthrough we've started! I bought a couple in the colors my friends wanted for them to wear.

Anyways, the first stop was Kaitlyn's island, Hyrule! I ran into my old buddy Frobert right at the entrance (from a childhood memory somewhere previous in the series). Of course I was excited to share my new outfit from my wand - even the word bubble looks quite magical from this picture. :P

Marissa showed off her Joe Biden merch she had before we all put on our virtual Renaissance Faire outfits.

Here's a pic of us tap-dancing (one of the new Reactions) in the town square!

I ran into Kyle on the island as well! He moved out of Iyerland some time ago; it was great to see him! Kaitlyn said Lyman was there too; she's moved all her island homes into a neighborhood on the left side of her island in a more traditional sense than what we have in Iyerland. Her Snowboy she made was there, too. I love how he said I was a 'traveler' - a very RPG village thing to say I feel!

I loved her little campsite area as well in the back of the island! Especially how the dirt path lines up neatly with the campground. It'll be so great to see in summer nights!

Here's her playground area! I've always liked seeing these in other islands, although I don't think I'd be interested in designing one myself.

It was fun to see Lyman again too, and his actual in-game house; because I got him right on day one of playing the game, he got a D.I.Y. house from the introduction. His actual house is so cool! I love the jungle aesthetic. Kaitlyn said she has too many jocks on her island, so we'll see how long he sticks around for.

We then hopped on over to Marissa's island, Cocoa Land; she's been able to do a ton since I was last there, I think on her birthday. I haven't seen a screen where multiple islands are open at one time until today; this was similar to how you selected a friend's town to visit in City Folk. It's a neat feature; brings a tiny bit of an MMO feeling to the game, if you have lots of Switch friends who play it.

Clay was here; I had to remind myself this is a clone Clay, since I also have a Clay on my island! It was fun seeing the jet stream against the sunny late-afternoon sky, while we waited for Kaitlyn to get on.

This was my favorite part of her whole island so far; a giant lake with trees lining the distance! The way they are rendered gives them a gorgeous foggy effect, especially rendered on the Switch. The touch was the painting: she had imported a screenshot from the game into a pattern maker, to make it look like an artist was painting the scene in front of them! So creative!

I met Bangle as well; she's a peppy tiger.

It was fun to navigate around these narrow paths she had built up, kind of like mole tunnels. This was essentially her camping ground; a very different style than Kaitlyn's.

I had to use a ladder to get up to Carrie's perch, as the ramp hasn't been built yet (I donated 10k Bells!). She basically said exactly what I did all-day today: play Nintendo Switch games to avoid my work. :P Celia is also really cute! And Bangle yelled at me that she was famous. Easy tiger! I'm right there, you know!

I loved seeing her updated ice room, and especially the item at the bottom of the picture, with those potion-like containers.

Here's Marissa and I goofing around with the megaphones and me showing off that Raja Brooke butterfly I had caught yesterday.

At her Able Sister's shop, I found a messy wig that reminded me of Link's hair! So Marissa got a mirror for me so I could dye my hair blond and create a new Link costume! I might try and get a blue tunic similar to what Link wears in Breath of the Wild so I can fit with Kaitlyn's Zelda outfit. You can see on the right my recreation of getting my first stick in Breath of the Wild! I was joking I could use it as a weapon when I found it lying on the ground.

Finally, ending with some hamster cuteness... Clay wanted me to stay on this island forever! Oh no, the Clay clones are at work to shut down the plane system, maybe?? I was able to forgive him when seeing him with Apple, being two cute hamsters on the beach as the sun started setting.

It was a really fun day! We got to play this game and more Final Fantasy IX on the Switch as well, celebrating all the fantasy series with The Legend of Zelda referenced too. I'm excited to see how their islands may continue to develop whenever we next play! At some point, I'll have to get cracking with my own changes on mine! Until then, never stop Crossing!