Animal Crossing Anniversary!

Today marks the passing of a whole year since I received my Nintendo 3DS and began my Animal Crossing journey. I've played this game almost daily since starting it up and it has to be one of my all-time favourite games, so I thought I'd do a commemorative post on it!  ｡^‿^｡
 
When you first start up the game your character is riding  on a train. A cat called Rover approaches and asks a series of questions which allow you to name your town, choose a layout and influence your character's appearance. When you reach your destination, several town residents are awaiting the arrival of the new town mayor; and yeah, they think it's you. Despite your insistence that you have no idea what they're talking about, you suddenly find yourself mayor of a town full of animal villagers.Your duties include keeping the town tidy, building public works projects, attending town events, developing relationships with your townspeople and working on your own home. There's also plenty of bug/ fish/ sea creature catching to be done.

There are a lot of things I like about this game; the bright, colourful graphics, the huge number of cute villagers that could potentially move to your town, and the fact that it plays in real time. Something that surprised me was the range of interaction you can have with your villagers. They'll randomly visit you in your home, or invite you to visit theirs. You can exchange letters with them, be tasked with finding fruit or furniture, be invited to play hide and seek and more. The huge variety of dialogue options usually makes for amusing conversations which are often influenced by the villager's personality type. I've been playing for a year and even now on occasion a villager will say something brand new and surprise me. This individuality does make it strangely easy to become attached to particular villagers. 
 
    My current residents are :    Chow
                                              Tangy
                                              Melba
                                              Wendy
                                              Pecan 
                                              Deirdre 
                                              Beau 
                                              Katt 
                                              Sally 

Anyway, this game has been great fun over the last year. I found that when I was swamped with dissertation stuff it was nice to be able to visit my town for fifteen minutes and enjoy the simple, light-hearted nature of the game. Sadly this means that I have now experienced all that New Leaf has to offer. It was however a big success, so I'm hopeful for another game to be added to the series in the near future!    ｡^‿^｡

           

Visit my town! Dream Address: 7800-2563-9048

 ♥

Update

Well I think it's about time for an update here! Last month was pretty busy. I now officially have a BA with Honours in English Studies, and I was accepted into the publishing course which starts next semester. I finally feel like I have some sort of plan for the future laid out which is a relief. I also visited Palma. The apartment was perfect for my friend and I, and it was in a lovely part of the city. I mean this was the view from our balcony:

We had our itinerary planned and visited a variety of places (once we sussed out the bus system) including the aquarium, Marineland, the cathedral and the palace. We also shopped and consuming copious amounts of ice cream. I did also get a fair bit of reading done.

Red Dragon: I particularly liked this one. I had been under the impression that the TV show 'Hannibal' was based on this, but the events in the show actually lead up to those in the book. Also, curiously, many of the characters who are portrayed as woman in the show are male characters in the book. It was fun to compare the two.

Heat Wave: This book troubled me a little. I think it's best not taken too seriously as a novel in its own right. I couldn't quite manage to separate the show from the book and I found myself getting confused because I began trying to apply the show's characters to differently named characters in the book. It is true though that it was written clearly in the voice of the show's main character. That was mildly amusing. I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series though.

An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris: I'm glad I finally finished this. It's an interesting read. It would also be a great tool for writing exercises; choosing a person that Perec briefly describes and featuring them in a short story or writing a character profile for them.

Anyway, I've got a few things lined up post-wise in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! ｡^‿^｡