It always surprises me when so-called 'offical guides' miss so much
but having written one myself, i do understand that it is not the fault
of the writer on many occasions. There are limitations with respect to
space for a start and punishing deadlines to meet. In many cases, the
writer is not given enough time to play the game exhaustively. Instead,
he/she hires some one to translate the official Japanese guide for the
game (if it originally was a game produced in Japan) and then proceeds
to format that for the English Guide. It is a great pity, but there it
is.
That is why official guides contain detailed
information about statistics and percentages but often do not speak of
ways to make a cunning profit or how to prevent a misfortune from
occurring. I found as well, in my old guide-writing days, that when I
wrote about a trick or tip to 'cheat' the system or manipulate the game,
using only actions available in the game itself, very often it spawned a
new version of the game that prevented the player from benefiting from
the action. I was naive in those days. I communicated freely with the
game producers as well as players. I should have kept my mouth shut.
For example, the glitch that allowed players to earn a million gold
from the Fishing Team in HM DS disappeared in the later version... so
sad. I actually had produced a logical reason why the fishing team
should be that generous to the player before I discovered it was nothing
more than a glitch. Well, call them glitches or call it Fate or Lady
Luck. Good fortune is good fortune, however obtained.
There
is an official English guide for Animal Crossing New Leaf. It contains
pictures of all the times in teh game and all the Animals. It gives
information about the various Festivals and so on. It is, however,
incomplete with respect to strategy.
New Leaf differs
from earlier Animal Crossing games in many ways, most of which enrich
the new game considerably. One of these is the new Re-Tail shop where
the player as well as Villagers can sell 'used' items. The Re-Tail Shop
contains another very amazing and creative new option for those who
unlock it. The husband of the owner, Cyrus, refurbishes old furniture.
What this means, in effect, is that the player often has the option to
change the colour and patterns on existing items as well as asking Cyrus
to make special furniture from Gold Nuggets and miniatures from
Fossils. When you first begin to play, Cyrus will be slumped in a
corner, snoring loudly. It is only when you have played for a full
week, have 100 Furniture items in your Ctalogue, 50 Clothing Items in
said catalogue and have earned a total of 100,000 Bells in the Re-Tail
Shop that he will awaken, like a male alpaca Sleeping Beauty, to offer
his services. (At this point, his wife sternly will warn you NOT to
flirt with her spouse.)
Another new option that can be
very creative is that of the 'big sewing machine' in the shop of the
Able Sisters. In Wild World, one could befriend Sable, the industrious
and rather shy porcupine in order to experience a variety of interesting
dialogues. Befriend her in New Leaf and you will obtain a new option
as well as experiencing the dialogues. She will offer you the use of
the big sewing machine that her sisters purchased for her and which she
herself is afraid to use! It is here that you can download QR Codes
from the Internet to add custom patterns to your patterns storage. The
Japanese, in particular, have created marvelous patterns for clothing as
well as tiles that can be used to landscape your village.
What is the purpose of Animal Crossing? Entertainment obviously is the real purpose of the game, but any Animal Crossing game is centred on intereor and exterior design as well as friendship. You creare your own unique village by interacting with Animals and visiting all the local shops. You can fill your Museum with Art, Fossils, Fish and Insects while completing your Catalogue of Furniture, Clothing, Music, Fossils and Gyroids. Fossils and Gyroids cannot be purchased but those you have obtained can be viewed in your Catalogue at the Nookling shop. The Nookling Catalogue offers you the option of ordering any ordinary Item that you have obtained at any point in the game. There are special limited Items that are not for sale, even though they will appear in your Catalogue List.
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TIPS AND TRICKS
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The Birthday Wish
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On your birthday, you will be accosted by a Villager as soon as you exit your house. You will be asked to accompany him/her. At the Villager's house, there will be a surprise birthday party in full swing. The villagers who have the greatest degree of friendship with you will be there. You will be asked to blow out the candles using the DS microphone. (I always find this difficult sadly.) You then will be given a special gift. The nature of the gift will depend on the degree of friendship you have with the villagers who are in atttendance. If you are new to the village, you may not receive a special item but simply a random item that is sold at the Nookling Shop.
When you blow out the candles, you will be asked to make a wish in writing. If you speak to the other villagers at your party, one will ask you to divulge your wish. If you do, he/she will promise to try to make it come true.
The first time, I wished for 'good friends' or osmething of the sort. I do not know what was done to make this wish come true but from time to time, a villager would ask me if it was working out for me and then promise to support me in my efforts. The next time, however, I tried something very different. I asked 'for all rococo items'. I wanted to see if the game would do anything to speed the process of obtaining the full set.
It is interesting that the last time I made a Wish on a falling Star, Wishy gave me one of the last two pieces of Rococo Furniture that still were missing from my catalogue. It could be coincidence, but I think not. A few days prior to this, an Animal had asked me if my birthday wish had come true. In any case, Wishy gives special items that are 'Spotlight' pieces at the Nooklings Shop. The Rococo items tend to be special Spotlight pieces. Another Spotlight piece is the Throne that ordinarily costs almost one Million Bells. Wishy randomly sends that as a Gift for wishing on a falling star, aka meteor shower.
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Special Tools
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Players of other Animal Crossing games will be familiar with the various improved or upgraded tools that exist. The basic tool is the lowest level, found at the Nook's Shop or Leif's Shop. The Silver Tool is the next level. You can find the Silver Net, Silver Shovel and Silver Fishing Rod at the Museum Shop. The Silver Watering Can is a reward from Leif. Shoot down the Silver Slingshot.
It is the Silver Axe that is the most interesting. It can be purchased at the Island Shop but seldom appears there. When used, it ALWAYS creates a special pattern on the stump of a tree, allowing Mushrooms to sprout randomly round the stump. The problem with the Silver Axe is that it WILL break ultimately. The Golden Axe that never breaks is a gift from Leif but it does not always produce a special pattern on a stump. Do not use the Silver Axe, therefore, unless you intend to keep the Stump.
FRIENDLY PERSUASION
I am a gamer who plays for 100% completion in any game. This can lead to all sorts of boredom and frustration, especially when items are given randomly in the game. Any Animal Crossing game is centred partly on the 'Catalogue' and Lists of Items. There are rewards for completing the Museum Collections. Completing the Items Catalogue is a bit more dubious in terms of benefit, although it is great to be able to order every item in a particular Set or Series when one wishes to change the interior of a room or give an Animal Neighbour items from a specific Set.
This leads me to Animal Behaviour and the various mistakes I made at the beginning in New Leaf. Animal Neighbours can be a source of items as much as the Nook Shop or the Re-Tail Shop. In fact, it is the Animal Neighbours who often place a hitherto unobtained Item for sale in Reese's shop. When an Animal first moves to your Village, he/she will have a particular collection of mismatched furniture in his/her home. One of the subsidiary goals in Animal Crossing is being able to visit all Neighbours. Visits can be prompted by a dialogue with the Neighbour or one simply can find the Neighbour at home at specific hours. The time when a specific Neighbour will be at home depends on his/her personality. There are early risers and late risers, 'night owls' and other types of Animals. Each type has a set schedule.
There are ways in which to influence an Animal's interior decoration. You can attach an Item as a Gift to any Letter. You can place an Item for sale in the Re-Tail Shop. You can carry the Item with you in your pockets in the hope that an Animal will notice it and ask to buy it or trade for it.
Unfortunately, the quality of my Neighbours' interior decoration sense decreased horribly in the first two months of gameplay because I used the wrong strategy where items were concerned. In the effort to complete my Items Catalogue, I bought everything that appeared in Nook's shop. I then unloaded the Items I did NOT like in the Re-Tail Shop where they quickly were snapped up by eager Animals who then placed them in their homes. My Animals therefore had homes filled with Men's Toilets and Clotheslines, random pieces of Kiddie Furniture and other bits and pieces I did not like at all.
I finally realised how I had erred and actually began to order decent furniture from my Catalogue specifically for the purpose of setting it out for sale at the Re-Tail Shop. It is a slow, long process but I hope that m Animal Neighbours soon will have homes that merit a compliment instead of homes where, upon concluding any visit, I am forced to lie through my teeth in telling them that their room is beautiful or wonderful or great.
WINNING CONTESTS
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Veterans of Animal Crossing will be familiar with the seasonal contests that allow Players to compete with their Animal Neighbours in collecting and submitting Insects and Fish to a judge. The Bug-Off is a summer contest, held in each summer month. Unlike the Fishing Tourney, that judges each fish submitted according to its size, the Bug-Off arbitrarily and randomly assigns each insect that is submitted a point total. Although the judge allegedly gives these points according to the size, rarity and 'lustre' of the insect in question, the same insect can be awarded a very different point total in two different submissions. (This is possible through the magic of 'reloading' the game, a practice that Resetti deprecates but which, unless the Player choses to build a Reset Centre, he no longer can fuss about in New Leaf, apart from an initial visit and lecture the first time the player fails to save the game.
Both the Bug-Off and the Fishing Tourney award item prizes during the course of the contest whenever the player submits an item that is worth more than the one that previously held 'first place' on the same day. IN other words, one can win multiple prizes in the form either of limited furniture with a 'Bug' or 'Fish' Motif or random pieces of furniture that are available for purchase in the ordinary shops.
Having tested this over and over and over, I firmly believe now that the way to win a limited item is to submit one of the largest possible fish of its kind. In other words, if you submit a Sea Bass that is small or ordinary and it is larger than the last fish that was given 'first place', you will be awarded a random item of ordinary furniture. If, however, your Sea Bass is declared to be 'large', you will be given a random item in the limited Fish furniture collection.
The same holds true of the Bug-Off prizes, although here the point total awarded to your submission, as previously stated, is enitrely random. If it does not win, reload...
This brings me to another issue, one despised by some purists:
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WHEN TO RELOAD
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How many times can you stand to be cheated by Saharah when, after paying 3000 Bells, she repeatedly gives you Walls and Carpets that you can purchase easily at the local shop? How many times are you willing to receive the same Dab Table as a limited item in the Fishing Tourney or, having painstakingly collected 3 bits of Gold Ore, do you want to receive a Gold Floor from Cyrus?
It is these questions that prompt the old temptation to reload the game.
Reloading for Saharah
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A total of four Characters can make a deal with Saharah when she visits. Without any reloading, that means you can receive a total of 4 Walls and 4 Carpets. Mind you, this does not guarantee that ANY of them will be Limited Items or if they are, that they will not be duplicates of items she gave to you previously. With a little patience, you can reload and reload and reload until you receive at least one limited Wall and one Limited Carpet, even if they do not match. To receive a matching Limited Set might require a superhuman amount of patience. What I usually do is to make certain that each Character receives at least 1 Limited Item, even if it is a duplicate.
Reloading for Gulliver
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Unlike Saharah, Gulliver ALWAYS will give you a Limited Item.
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