The dialogue in New Horizons had so much potential, but no matter how many details are in there, if the dialogue itself aren't interesting, it will still hurt the game. It's like if they were baking a cake, and they had every ingredient at the finest quality at their disposal, with the best chefs and ovens, but they decided to bake a bland bread cake without any sugar or icing.
I'd argue it's closer to being promised a beautiful dessert by the best baker in the city; you can see their previous works, you can even eat some of their cakes they made in the past! Then the dessert gets to your table and it's a single slice of pound cake with some berries on the side. It tastes great, best pound cake you ever had, but compared to the complex desserts the chef was making in the past, you're pretty miffed at spending $65 on a single slice of pound cake.
@roseolivas08 No, it's like, it's still better than any of the pound cakes they made in the past, but the icing they decided to use was below par than the previous cakes. The cake overall is still fantastic, but they just couldn't get the icing right, that they have gotten right before.
Honestly, I just started playing City Folk again recently since I hadn't played it since probably around 2010 or so, and I talked to one of my villagers and he noted the shirt I was wearing and then regaled a small story it reminded him of. And I remembered what dialogue in this series actually used to be.
@@pyndr0p_not related to this comment, but there was a moment where dag described randomly dressing up as the joker and having chat play along. Extremely elaborate. Or the time he talked about his ass for like 5-10 minutes.
Another thing that you pointed out about general dialogue is that a lot of people play at the same time every day. There is a lot of dialogue during the eaely morning and late night hours, but if someone plays every day at 3-5 after they get home from work theyre going to see the same thing every time.
I think you've nailed it that the problem isn't necessarily the writing of the dialogue, but the fact that it's become all so similar and generic. In the old games, of course dialogue was recycled a lot, but it had much more variety from the same types of characters. By far the most interesting dialogues in NH are when villagers have conversations with each other, because they talk about all sorts of things, and it's also nice to see them interact. Unfortunately that's pretty rare.
12:44 “These things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” THANK!!!! YOU!!! OHHH my gosh! Just because this game finally scratches that itch in my customize-everything brain, doesn’t mean I don’t still want my villagers to be more than string-pull diorama pieces in my creation.
Finally befriending Elvis as a kid, after however long of him being moody with me, was SUCH a huge thing for me. It felt so realistic, and I felt so happy when his greetings went from dismissive to welcoming, and it really felt like I'd integrated into the village and befriended the resident lifer there who was apprehensive of this fresh blood, but eventually accepted and even welcomed the change (Elvis come back I've spent so many ticket trying to find you in NH)
I think something that a lot of people don't realize is that every personality type has unique dialogue for EVERY fossil, fish, bug or piece of art in the museum
I agree, the unfortunate part is that the villagers don't seem to interact with the museum that much, at least in my personal experience. Usually when I'd open the game and go on my rounds talking to everyone there was only a 50% chance one if my villagers was in the museum, but more often than not no one was there. And I saw Rocco looking at the spider THREE TIMES! I wanted him to look at something ANYTHING else so bad to see his dialogue!
I have genuinely never seen any of my villagers in the museum I don't go in my museum much to begin with, but I genuinely thought they just never went there because I haven't ever seen it- this is the first I'm learning they're capable of going inside
Its really cool, but If 95% of the time you only see your villager walking around or in their house that doesnt really matter. The dialogue you see 10x a day needs to be interesting.
the dialogue has such weird priorities. Because that's cool, but most people will never see it. The player isn't likely to be visiting the actual museum exhibits all that often, it's usually empty when they do, even if there's a villager in there there's a chance they'll be in a room the player isn't visiting, and even when ALL the stars align the villager is likely to be just sorta walking around instead of looking at anything. Who in the world thought it was important that snooty villagers have unique dialogue for every single fish, but didn't think it important that they have a variety of day to day comments?
@@purelysmetalnightcore next time it happens just wait around a bit and eventually rocco (or any villager) will walk away and look at something else 😅
On the topic of flanderization, consider the absence of many quirky/fantasy-esc furniture, like the old Gyroids, pineapple bed, even the beloved Froggy Chair (although it was later added back after MASSIVE backlash). I enjoy all the new mundane modern items, but there's no reason for them to be mutually exclusive with the old items.
A lot of people say it's to maintain the Island Getaway vibe, but exactly what about the Antique, Exquisite, or Imperial sets bring "Island Getaway" to mind?
I picked up New Leaf again two months ago and ive been having such a blast. It's more limited, but the limitations are strangely freeing, and I can't remember a single time where I read repeat dialogue from my Villagers. It probably happened, but they said enough new stuff in between that i didn't notice
Something I miss from older games, specifically Wild World, is when villagers would spread rumours about each other and about important npcs. It made the village community feel so much more involved and realistic
I've been playing GameCube lately and another thing I noticed is my girl bestie cashmere, I love conversations with her bc she'll be like "I love gossip!!!! Something I've been hearing around lately is that I'm more popular than you haha ok no but pelly and Pete are like crushing hard on each other ok. You need to talk to Pete ab it bc they're just too shy" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT I have a bad memory HOWEVER. I like this dialogue bc it's acknowledging other characters, and she's saying she's better than me, and it feels like actual gossip bc she doesn't bring it up every 5 seconds!!!! Another thing about PG is they are so MEAN I SWEAR TO GOD I GOT A BEE STING AND GOOSE LAUGHED IN MY FACE AND SAID "DO ALL HUMANS DO THAT WHEN THEYRE STUNG BY BEES OMG" like what the. Huh. Does no one else swell up. No animal villagers. Swell up. Huh
The villagers and Resetti were so funny as a kid. I would talk to them for hours. If I annoyed them, I'd just save and quit and come right back lol Recently playing E+, which is half translated, but even with having to Google translate all the Japanese text I run into, I'm not feeling burnt out or unwilling to talk to my villagers. I actively avoid them in NH.
I never actually realized until your video that they coded in dialogue pauses. It's no wonder the conversations had a 'natural' feel to them that felt different to other games, where the dialogue is sometimes spat out at a consistent pace. It always felt more fun to read dialogue in ACNH compared to other games, and now I understand why lol
Love this genre of Dagnel, eager to see more! When you mentioned writers feeling vindicated about someone appreciating the work, I remembered one of the fishing dialogue guys. (He was part of the english localisation team.) He talked on twitter about his seabass line, and how a joke he thought was clever ended up being shorthand for "this is annoying me in acnh" and people kinda hating it, just because the fish is so common (which at the time of writing it he didn't know). Or something like that. It was during the high time of acnh and the pandemic so I don't remember it very well. The general idea stuck with me though.
I think they kind of took it in stride though, when they added Gullivarr in the 2.0 update with the line “You call that a sea bass? It’s a C- at best!” Lol
In addition to everything brought up in this video: The casual dialogue system is completely broken. Not broken as in buggy, but as in designed in such a way that makes it near nonfunctional for its intended purpose. EVERY day, the first thing from your villager will be a greeting. Then another 2-3 contextual dialogue pieces- Even when there's nothing of note to talk about (wow you dug 2 holes yesterday you sure love digging don't you) or it's something you already know (being told a minimum of 8 times in one day that there's a holiday coming up.) In addition to that, after talking to your villager a few times they start to imply that they're getting annoyed at you talking to them, discouraging you. Yet it's only AFTER those 2-4 times of talking with them that they will give you ANY of the general dialogue. I legit didn't even know the general dialogue existed until someone online told me I needed to pester my villagers over and over and over to get so much as a word of it. Initiating a conversation 4 times in a row as the NPC wonders aloud why you're bothering them is not normal behavior for your average player, which means many people will play the entire thing thinking the only general dialogue that exists is greetings and the rare ask you a favor events (which is another issue- these used to be MUCH more common, to the point that they made up a significant portion of the gameplay.) I really miss New Leaf dialogue. There was a lot of it, and varying friendship levels could make two villagers of the same personality feel totally different. It wasn't perfect- There was already some flanderization with lazies being really gross most of the time, and they could have been maybe a touch less always-friendly. I think it had the best balance overall though, as some of the earlier games were just too mean for me. Sure villagers should have some edge, but I don't come to my escapist fantasy friendly forest town video game to be so harshly insulted just for breathing. New Horizons had such potential, and I kept waiting for them to expand the dialogue, but they just... didn't. Like it wasn't a priority for them at all. We got SO many updates and patches, and yet the general dialogue remained largely unchanged. It could have been the best animal crossing game yet, the initial fun burst play of decorating followed by the slow long burn of your villager friends. But without proper general dialogue, once you've decorated to your satisfaction there just isn't anything left to do anymore.
The biggest problem with new horizon's general dialog in my opinion is that most of it is one-liners, one speach bubble. It's over so quickly, there's barely enough time to feel like you're actually talking to someone.
Great video! Well-commentated, scripted, and edited. I genuinely enjoyed watching it! 🙂 The developers meticulously inserting villager emotes, text colors, and pauses has actually been a thing since all the way back in the GameCube version. It’s super fascinating to see the concept survive all the way to New Horizons.
I always seem to circle back to your more talkative videos rather than the challenge ones (though I love those too!), and I feel like this one will be a part of that cycle too. This is such a good way to describe the way the dialogue works I think. It has a lot of effort in it, evident by the fact that it'll change over time as you grow to know your villagers. That being said, the effort doesn''t give it immediate flavour. I guess that would be the big issue. Personally speaking, I've grown to really enjoy some of the dialogue, especially between the sisterly and cranky villagers. When they talk, they actually feel more dynamic. They'll argue and play fight, and it's kinda fun. All in all, though, the sanitization of things really hurts the feeling. Especially as the game came out during a time where people wanted an escape from reality, the lack of rudeness and interest to round everyone out severely takes me out of the world. Anyway, rambling over. Awesome video Dagnel! Very interesting and well made! :D 11/10
In a way, the under-appreciation of dialogue is something that writers and programmers are aiming for, I think, because it shows how wonderfully integrated it is with the game. The dialogue should feel seamless, and the little hints of important details like the font or font colour changes should be juuuust noticeable enough to highlight the important hints the game is trying to convey to players without being too distracting. The fact we take the heavily programmed dialogue for granted is impressive in and of itself.
Lets goooo, new Dagnel as a treat for doing a doctors appointment! Thank you for releasing this video specifically to congratulate me Dagnel, you're a real one.
As someone who has four cranky villagers on my island, doing the rounds and hearing them all say the exact same thing tends to make me feel like I'm running a retirement home. On one hand it's absolutely hilarious, but on the other it instantly breaks my immersion. Why would they allow such shallow general dialogue in a game that encourages you to talk all your villagers daily? :,)
It happened to me aswell even though I enjoy New Leaf so much, so I decided to start playing Wild World recently because it has more dialogue compared to New Leaf.
Although the animations may seem more advanced than a portrait change, its really not hard in programming to call a function with an emote. And since each line of dialogue pertains to one of 6 villager types, that one line works for 1/6 of all the villagers in the game.
I think expanding personalities would help. Make them more than one note. Also make some females jocks and some males normal. Or something like that. With slight differences. So that if you have two jocks, no problem. Because a female one might talk about a different kind of sport and ways that they train. Maybe a female jock could be really into martial arts like Karate.
I love my villagers so dearly, especially Roscoe and Nibbles since I had the in New Leaf... but the rare times that I play NH now it feels like I'm talking with them because I have to, not because I want to. Everytime I greet my bestie Nibbles its "my voice is gone bc I was metal screaming!" or "sigh. so bored. i played hide and seek against myself and won" the best dialogue us absolutely the discussions they have with each other
I work in LQA testing, basically we are the bridge between companies that are making games and their translation team and we test how the text is implemented in-game. It's a tedious, thankless job but I love it, thank you for acknowledging us. There are so many things that go into a text most people don't see and it makes me happy you took the time to make a video about it. PS: LQA testers cannot enjoy games normally after lmao and one of my colleagues noticed an extra space in Timmy/Tommy's dialogue in the shop in Spanish and now she can't unsee 😂 it happens but people CAN tell when there was no LQA testing done at all (looking at you Wuthering Waves) and the testing on ACNH is honestly impressive. Kudos to their translation and LQA team!!
The thing about the more 'soft' dialogue of the newer games is: they where allways like this in the Japanese version, even back on the first game, so, at least to me, it's much less about catering to a broader audience, and much more just them adapting the dialogue as closely to the original as possible.
Interesting! That's a bit surprising to me, as it often goes the other way around, with the original Japanese having stronger personalities and the localization being flatter and softer.
@stanleygagner The original Animal Crossing game for GC actually had so many changes and additions made to the English release that Japan re-released the game with all the inclusions they missed out on! Which included multiple festivals and I believe either donating art to the museum or the museum completely - I can't remember if the original version had the museum or not. It's a really neat fact I love throwing out because you're right, usually we hear about English localizations being worse by taking dialogue out of context or censoring something.
@@purelysmetalnightcore The original GC game didn't have the ability to donate to the museum?? That's so surprising, that's my favourite part of the game.
@@staticradiosys I'm pretty sure the museum didn't exist at all, actually. I know I watched a YT video about all the differences which I'm currently trying to find.
really good video, man. i feel this exact same way. the effort for dialogue in the new game was great and a lot of it is really good, but a huge chunk of the general day-to-day dialogue you will run into is lacking a LOT. its funny the contrast of being like "wow they say the same things" and then during a small holiday its like "WAIT THEY KNOW WHATS HAPPENING RN?" i love some things about NH, but i continue to play older games for the dialogue and just the unique feel of what it used to be. the gamecube game, to me, has such an unmatched feel. its new, its different, its cozy, its exciting, and even the OST stands out with the random cat and dog noises and such lol
this video essay reminds me of the video you made talking about the rarest things that can happen in acnh, and some of them were dialogues. to this day, sometimes when i play it’s to see what other new dialogue i can find wether it’s from something rare happening, or to playing at the different hours, or less frequently!
Too much in game freedom lead me to get bored and resort back to my villagers like you pointed out. One of my favorite aspects was always dialogue because let’s be honest- ain’t have too many friends back then. Late night talks with the sisterly villagers in new leaf meant everything to me- I wouldn’t talk to people in real life who talk like NH npcs, they’re conversations you have in passing, like small talk. I need big talk.
But I also was a child so it’s definitely a combination of nostalgia and watering down. I need to play the older games as an adult to make sure my bias has actual grasp lol
Personally I feel the dialoges in new horizons more empty; in the games before new leaf they had more expressive dialoges and in new horizons they are like robots, I don't see that well made personality they had in older games and in exchange of it they have a lot of special dialoges that probably weren't made in those times, but I personally prefer the work that they putted on making the usual dialoges more caracteristical and not the special variations that are on new horizons. That's what I have felt after all the time I used playing this relaxing games.
It’s a weird paradox too that I’ve noticed the game has; the dialogue becomes more expressive as you raise the friendship meter, which is great! But the game gives you no hook to get to this point besides itself. It’s like the devs have locked any autonomy to the villagers behind you giving them gifts, or constantly talking to them, but it gives you no reason to do such. If they want to turn down the “meanness” or whatever to get the player to interact more and raise that hidden meter, that is a design choice, but in doing so, they just give them a cookie cutter slate and expect you to work with that. It’s a weird husk of balance - they want to give the player the control that New Leaf did, but now even more with the island representative role, and as a result it creeps too far into the territory of the characters having no feeling. It’s like they had that balance, fucked it up because of the new features, and what we’re left with is NH. I think it could have been so much more than it was is the most disappointing thing, because that work is there like you showed. Yap comment over. Good video man.
dialogue is such a complex and unique process and concept, i’ve never played the other animal crossing games (i know, i want to) but i’ve always admired how human the villagers are conveyed. they make you attached to code in such an interesting and complex way :o
I was just watching your last video and I checked to see if you had uploaded, today was kinda meh so I'm looking forward to watch one your videos while I play on my island
I've only played the OG Animal Crossing and New Horizons, and I guess I'm in the minority that I hated how mean the villagers were on the GameCube. I was very young when the game came out (it actually helped me learn how to read!) so it was upsetting to be treated so harshly. But I also agree that NH is too sanitized and wish the characters had the capacity to be snippy sometimes. I also wish I was asked for favors more. I loved running around in Population Growing and the goose chases when someone's Gameboy had been passed around three times - just remove the part where you couldn't fulfill a favor because someone was in an igloo all day.
I put 1500h into NH and over the course of that playtime I only recall one line of dialogue that I experienced just once. Willow the snooty sheep had the sadness cloud above her head and spoke about some flowers she'd planted that had wilted. She was pretty cut up about it! It never happened again and to this day I have no idea what triggered it. 🤷♂️
Love your ways to keep animal crossing interesting. I started a new island where I am restricting my town to the beaches only and turned my entire island into sand path. Maybe try some challenge like this I’ve been having fun
While I agree that a lot of work went into the dialogue, I think a huge improvement could be made if the number of personalities available matched the number of villager spots on my island. As it is now, we’re forced to double up on personality types, and that’s when I find it super repetitive.
I've been watching your videos for a couple years now, and you always make really great stuff. This video might be my favourite. I love how you approach the topic with nuance, and as the guy who might have some of the most in-depth knowledge of New Horizons, I think your perspective and expertise are such a welcome addition to the conversation. Genuinely, thank you for making this video.
My first game was New Leaf, and I haven't played too much of it or other games in the series, so I'm kind of used to repetitiveness. I have three lazy villagers in the town right now and they share some mannerisms. My favorite had me pick a new piece of home decor for him on 4 days in a row. I was also a little upset Blathers didn't freak out when I talked to him wearing the bug mask on Halloween :D
Your videos are some of the very few that i can just watch anytime and not get sick of. Great video! I havent seen much of the ACNH dialog even with playing since it came out so it was cool to see all the diffent things that can be said.
i really hope you do more of these video essays. They're a nice change of pace from the challenges you're so known for. It's very nice how you take a tempered approach and try to have a more holistic view on the topic.
Awesome analysis. I also wonder how much of the feeling of repetitive-ness comes, for me, purely out of exposure. NH is by far the most time I have poured into an AC game, and it was all within essentially 1 year - whereas my experience playing WW as a kid it was much more spread out and experienced organically. An hour or so here or there after school, a few hours on the weekend - compared to the 5-8 hour blocks I smashed out with New Horizons.
Like a lot of others I first found your channel through your acnh museum speed run and I've been watching ever since. I don't comment often but I just had to say that I really enjoyed this video in particular. The essay style format with your voice and your perspective and editing style really did something for me. Not to mention for this topic in particular I feel like you put into words feelings I've had but could never really place about these characters and this world and this series. I'm sure many videos have been made on this idea before but the fact it came from you, guy who I've seen play this game literally inside out, made it feel all the more poignant. Like, yeah, if anyone can talk about the odd lonliness and repititveness present in this game and it's dialogue it's this guy. When you cycled through the NPCs we'd lost towards the end I actually got a little emotional! All this to say keep up the goodwork!
as much as i love your challenge videos, you bring such an interesting perspective to commentary on this game as well! i hope to see more videos like this in the future along with your other content 😊
The villagers no longer feel like villagers. They feel like walking pieces of furniture with little purpose. They listened to their fans by adding more items and dramatic changes from the last games, but not without removing aspects. When compared to the first game in the series, it starts to feel like apples and oranges.
It's even multiplied by the fact of people selling their villagers, and it comes across less as selling a pet to a new home and as selling a pristine collectors item.
I think it would be cool if along with personality types dialogue would change with species too. Like a snooty cat and a snooty duck would have different things to say. I understand that would be so so much more work that I can't imagine them actually doing it but it would be cool.
Hey Dagnel! vid idea: can you try getting a 3-star island without checking your star rating, if you check your star rating and it is below 3 stars you have to restart your island all over again and try again! Hope you like my idea!
It's telling that people don't consider dialogue to be deep enough unless it contains a lot of random ad hominem insults. I know I'd find it really off-putting if one of my villagers just fat-shamed me out of the blue.
Great video!! As someone who only played NL before NH, the biggest disappointment to me in the dialogue was how in NH it felt like villagers of the same personality types were suddenly all carbon copies of each other. I largely kept the same villagers between the two games because I grew attached to them (and had their amiibo cards lol), yet in NH it felt like they lost all uniqueness and anyone that had the same personality type acted the exact same suddenly. I had three smug villagers in both games, and in NL I could even make these overarching storylines for them and never got bored of their dialogue despite playing for way longer than I played NH. In NH, I exhausted all dialogue options (or at least it felt like I did) two months into the game's life. It made me not even really like the villagers that I came to love anymore. I think I heard that NL had sub-personalities for each personality type, and I wonder if they got rid of that in NH? Sorry for the long comment! Just passionate about this topic lol
My problem with the New Horizons' dialogue (maybe just general animal crossing dialogue?) is that every personality type has the exact same dialogue which completely breaks the immersion. Replacing villagers with the same type as before or having 2 of the same type on your island makes them feel a lot less interesting than when you first start the game. There's no point in talking to them once you've gotten a couple months into the game. But the point in this video that the dialogue takes more work than people think is definitely true, I enjoyed seeing some of the process of writing the code for it.
I remember going through that website with all the dialog options for several afternoons, just amazed by how expansive the dialog is. At the same time it was quite saddening how little it showed in day to day play oftentimes. You made some really great points, especially about the flanderisation (spelling?) of the characters and how that contributes to how boring the villagers feel a lot of times!
personally i love the simple scripts, especially the early morning and night dialogue and that one where they become semi- self aware before laughing it off. its so cute and relaxing for me compared to the older versions
This was a super nuanced take on the dialogue of ACNH. I loved hearing your thoughts on the situation and I hope this is the beginning of your video essay era
apparently in the original japanese script for the older games the villagers were never as mean as they were in the west, if anything these days the localisers are just being more faithful to the original text
the writing of the dialogue itself was cute at first, but because of the time that the game released, we were all stuck at home and with nothing better to do. The mechanics behind the dialogue shouldn't be underminded, but i have no idea why youd wanna defend the contents of the writing itself. Theyre too full of personality, so much so it makes them boring. its like they invited someone into the team who's never seen the dialogue from past animal crossing games. New Leaf was my first AC experience, and still playing today, most of the dialogue still feels new to me. The neutrality of the speech makes them feel more realistic, and their personalities could still be differentiated. Speaking of realism, I've never met a SINGLE person irl who talks in ways like the villagers do in ACNH. i know new horizons is "the design" game, but to make fans wait for like 8 years mustve been a let-down for them.
Animal crossing reminds me a lot of the sims-the newest installments are amazingly accessible, customizable, and easier to control with lots of QOL improvements…but the soul feels flattened and shallow. It’s TOO accessible, TOO focused on avoiding upsetting or inconveniencing the player, and the lack of inconvenience makes the games…too easy. If you don’t have your own goals, it’s much easier to get bored and drop the games as compared to earlier installments. It feels like there’s less depth.
thanks for the video! was excited to see this video because you seemed excited to make it and im so glad i did :) as a student who has learnt a bit of coding and surprisingly enjoyed it, it brought me a lot of joy to see just how much code went into all the different contextual dialogue in the game alone! ☺️
I just got a Wii and i’ve been playing City Folk for a few days now. I have never had so much fun talking to my villagers and will actively seek multiple times a day just to see what they have to say. My favorites to talk to are Fang, Yuka, and Lily, if you were wondering. I am genuinely excited to see what they have to say every day and I really wish it was the same for New Horizons.
it’s how i feel with the sims 4 vs the previous games. i can micromanage the hell out of my sims. i control EVERYTHING. but that makes every save feel the same. my sims don’t seem like different people with their own lives. the build/buy mode is the best it’s ever been (minus the swatches) but the actual gameplay is such a downgrade. rabbit holes, samey dialogue, and the default emotional state being happy, gets boring FAST acnh is my first animal crossing game. i’m not a very creative person, i’ll admit. i really struggle with decorating my house and island. the amount of control i have over it all is honestly quite overwhelming lol. i wish the connection to the villagers were greater
this is a really well-made video about Animal Crossing and how NPC dialogue has changed over the years. It's a shame that villagers' personalities have become watered down so much 😢
100% agree on the lack of general-purpose dialogue but baffling amount of hard to find special dialogue. i recently found out there's special dialogue for meeting a new villager for the first time on their birthday and was floored. there's so much specific situation dialogue hidden around, but when i go around talking to my villagers daily i feel like they keep saying the same 3 things
As a massive Ace Attorney fan, I did notice the way the text and emotes work, as ace attorney does essentially the same thing (but even more expressive imo)
i really appreciate how much you appreciate the work that went into this game. As much as i may agree with the criticisms of this game, i feel so many people like to insist the developers are "lazy" and i always felt that was unfair. You said it best, it wasnt a lack of care, its just a different direction.
so I've been playing the game in korean for most of the time I've had it (not my first language), and I can safely say I've never really gotten bored of the dialogue! either I skip through it without really reading much bc I can't be bothered to think in korean at the moment, or I pause to read it and end up learning new words. it's been fun trying to guess the words I don't know based on context like the villager's personality + learning new ways to say things like "what's up," "how's it going," in a casual tone. as a side note, gotta give props to the acnh team for localizing all of that dialogue/ui elements/etc.! also, random fun fact, Lopez's name in korean & japanese is actually "Thomson" bc he's modeled after a real animal called Thomson's gazelle :) anyway, if you're bored of the dialogue, want a bit of a challenge, and/or you're interested in learning a language, I'd recommend changing the language setting! 10/10 makes the experience of playing the game more interesting. thanks for the vid, dag, it was a good'n :) and thanks to anyone who read this far. 물 좀 마시고 즐거운 하루 보내세요~ 마지막 멘트가 여울씨 (Isabelle) 항상 말해요 ㅋㅋ
Hi Dagnel - VIDEO IDEA: How long would it take to PROPOSE to every villager on your island? Here’s the challenge: * Move 10 random villagers on your island * Acquire villager photos from all of them * Acquiring 10 of the “ring” items from the shop or catalog (the first one will be the hardest - you MUST buy the first from the shop but can catalog order the rest) * Unlocking Cyrus on Harv’s island to customize the ring box to match each villager personality * Setting up AND PERFORMING an outdoor proposal that both suits their personality AND appears like a romantic proposal. Then “showing off” the ring in front of them and taking a photo together on the camera app This challenge would be super fun and chaotic 🤣 I thought of it this morning but idk if it’s ever been done.
I’ve got a challenge idea Get every single villager on your island/to live there (obviously not all at once) but you can’t use amiibo cards or nookazon or other people who have villagers in boxes
Edit: For the record, I really like that you made this video. I love to analyze game design, and Animal Crossing is always fascinating to me. I've said it once, I'll say it again: I think New Horizons dialog is fine, and they DID NOT skimp on it. I never played AC until NH came out: my beloved childhood life sim that I played until it's code was literally fraying at the seams was MySims, where at any given time, your possible lines of dialog from a non-shop-owner sim was exactly *3.* You got 3. Take it or leave it. _(granted, we got the added bonus of every single character being, well, a character, instead of falling into 1 of a handful of duplicate personalities, but that's a design choice difference)_ I also have watched my sister play AC on the Wii, and while there's definitely more dialog adaptability than MySims, it didn't take long to get repeated dialog from a house visit or talking to a villager outside. New Horizons has a lot of similar greetings, and play anything long enough, you'll be able to count how many possible lines an NPC has, but I _still_ run into new lines sometimes, just because I talked three times with a neighbor again, or because I've never seen X and Y have a chat before, or because someone is in the museum, or it's a holiday. (And I just fundamentally do not understand the "I miss when villagers were meaner" thing. I think the ONLY AC game like that is the Gamecube, and I can't tell if it's nostalgia I don't have or just something about my personality, but I just do not understand why people are so attached to it. If I want neighbors who judge and make fun of me for more realism and character, I WILL GO OUTSIDE. Let me have my little group of 10 animal besties who are super silly and sweet.)
The dialogue in New Horizons had so much potential, but no matter how many details are in there, if the dialogue itself aren't interesting, it will still hurt the game. It's like if they were baking a cake, and they had every ingredient at the finest quality at their disposal, with the best chefs and ovens, but they decided to bake a bland bread cake without any sugar or icing.
I'd argue it's closer to being promised a beautiful dessert by the best baker in the city; you can see their previous works, you can even eat some of their cakes they made in the past! Then the dessert gets to your table and it's a single slice of pound cake with some berries on the side. It tastes great, best pound cake you ever had, but compared to the complex desserts the chef was making in the past, you're pretty miffed at spending $65 on a single slice of pound cake.
@roseolivas08 No, it's like, it's still better than any of the pound cakes they made in the past, but the icing they decided to use was below par than the previous cakes. The cake overall is still fantastic, but they just couldn't get the icing right, that they have gotten right before.
Y'all made me want a slice of cake dammit
Or anothee take on new horizons dialogue:
Its like Gordon Ramsay trying to make a grilled cheese
Honestly, I just started playing City Folk again recently since I hadn't played it since probably around 2010 or so, and I talked to one of my villagers and he noted the shirt I was wearing and then regaled a small story it reminded him of. And I remembered what dialogue in this series actually used to be.
i’m glad the prison allowed you to make this 🙏🏻
Honestly so generous of the prison
I didn't know there was Dagnel lore and I am missing it. lol
@@BreloomsGarden yeah what’s the daglore lmao 😭
@@pyndr0p_not related to this comment, but there was a moment where dag described randomly dressing up as the joker and having chat play along. Extremely elaborate. Or the time he talked about his ass for like 5-10 minutes.
Another thing that you pointed out about general dialogue is that a lot of people play at the same time every day. There is a lot of dialogue during the eaely morning and late night hours, but if someone plays every day at 3-5 after they get home from work theyre going to see the same thing every time.
I think you've nailed it that the problem isn't necessarily the writing of the dialogue, but the fact that it's become all so similar and generic. In the old games, of course dialogue was recycled a lot, but it had much more variety from the same types of characters. By far the most interesting dialogues in NH are when villagers have conversations with each other, because they talk about all sorts of things, and it's also nice to see them interact. Unfortunately that's pretty rare.
69th like
12:44 “These things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
THANK!!!! YOU!!! OHHH my gosh!
Just because this game finally scratches that itch in my customize-everything brain, doesn’t mean I don’t still want my villagers to be more than string-pull diorama pieces in my creation.
Finally befriending Elvis as a kid, after however long of him being moody with me, was SUCH a huge thing for me. It felt so realistic, and I felt so happy when his greetings went from dismissive to welcoming, and it really felt like I'd integrated into the village and befriended the resident lifer there who was apprehensive of this fresh blood, but eventually accepted and even welcomed the change (Elvis come back I've spent so many ticket trying to find you in NH)
I think something that a lot of people don't realize is that every personality type has unique dialogue for EVERY fossil, fish, bug or piece of art in the museum
I agree, the unfortunate part is that the villagers don't seem to interact with the museum that much, at least in my personal experience. Usually when I'd open the game and go on my rounds talking to everyone there was only a 50% chance one if my villagers was in the museum, but more often than not no one was there. And I saw Rocco looking at the spider THREE TIMES! I wanted him to look at something ANYTHING else so bad to see his dialogue!
I have genuinely never seen any of my villagers in the museum
I don't go in my museum much to begin with, but I genuinely thought they just never went there because I haven't ever seen it- this is the first I'm learning they're capable of going inside
Its really cool, but If 95% of the time you only see your villager walking around or in their house that doesnt really matter. The dialogue you see 10x a day needs to be interesting.
the dialogue has such weird priorities. Because that's cool, but most people will never see it. The player isn't likely to be visiting the actual museum exhibits all that often, it's usually empty when they do, even if there's a villager in there there's a chance they'll be in a room the player isn't visiting, and even when ALL the stars align the villager is likely to be just sorta walking around instead of looking at anything. Who in the world thought it was important that snooty villagers have unique dialogue for every single fish, but didn't think it important that they have a variety of day to day comments?
@@purelysmetalnightcore next time it happens just wait around a bit and eventually rocco (or any villager) will walk away and look at something else 😅
dag in his video essay era‼️
Yesss
On the topic of flanderization, consider the absence of many quirky/fantasy-esc furniture, like the old Gyroids, pineapple bed, even the beloved Froggy Chair (although it was later added back after MASSIVE backlash). I enjoy all the new mundane modern items, but there's no reason for them to be mutually exclusive with the old items.
I don't know what would be unsafe or unappealing to a general audience about those things.
A lot of people say it's to maintain the Island Getaway vibe, but exactly what about the Antique, Exquisite, or Imperial sets bring "Island Getaway" to mind?
@@TheQuashingoftheTub "It's to maintain the deserted island vibe" people when I show them everything in the game that doesn't enforce that vibe:
I often find myself rewatching most of your videos simply because I love your voice and inflection - very, VERY invested in Dagnel video essays
same here, i feel like im tuning into my favorite radio show when i check to see if dag posted, tbh
I picked up New Leaf again two months ago and ive been having such a blast. It's more limited, but the limitations are strangely freeing, and I can't remember a single time where I read repeat dialogue from my Villagers. It probably happened, but they said enough new stuff in between that i didn't notice
I had to play that game for a good YEAR straight, every single day, before I felt like I'd even seen MOST of the dialogue.
Something I miss from older games, specifically Wild World, is when villagers would spread rumours about each other and about important npcs. It made the village community feel so much more involved and realistic
I've been playing GameCube lately and another thing I noticed is my girl bestie cashmere, I love conversations with her bc she'll be like "I love gossip!!!! Something I've been hearing around lately is that I'm more popular than you haha ok no but pelly and Pete are like crushing hard on each other ok. You need to talk to Pete ab it bc they're just too shy" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT I have a bad memory HOWEVER. I like this dialogue bc it's acknowledging other characters, and she's saying she's better than me, and it feels like actual gossip bc she doesn't bring it up every 5 seconds!!!! Another thing about PG is they are so MEAN I SWEAR TO GOD I GOT A BEE STING AND GOOSE LAUGHED IN MY FACE AND SAID "DO ALL HUMANS DO THAT WHEN THEYRE STUNG BY BEES OMG" like what the. Huh. Does no one else swell up. No animal villagers. Swell up. Huh
The villagers and Resetti were so funny as a kid. I would talk to them for hours. If I annoyed them, I'd just save and quit and come right back lol
Recently playing E+, which is half translated, but even with having to Google translate all the Japanese text I run into, I'm not feeling burnt out or unwilling to talk to my villagers. I actively avoid them in NH.
I never actually realized until your video that they coded in dialogue pauses. It's no wonder the conversations had a 'natural' feel to them that felt different to other games, where the dialogue is sometimes spat out at a consistent pace. It always felt more fun to read dialogue in ACNH compared to other games, and now I understand why lol
Love this genre of Dagnel, eager to see more!
When you mentioned writers feeling vindicated about someone appreciating the work, I remembered one of the fishing dialogue guys. (He was part of the english localisation team.) He talked on twitter about his seabass line, and how a joke he thought was clever ended up being shorthand for "this is annoying me in acnh" and people kinda hating it, just because the fish is so common (which at the time of writing it he didn't know). Or something like that. It was during the high time of acnh and the pandemic so I don't remember it very well. The general idea stuck with me though.
I think they kind of took it in stride though, when they added Gullivarr in the 2.0 update with the line “You call that a sea bass? It’s a C- at best!” Lol
Iirc the pun was gonna be "C- Bass" but they were worried it'd be too negative so it got changed to C+
In addition to everything brought up in this video: The casual dialogue system is completely broken. Not broken as in buggy, but as in designed in such a way that makes it near nonfunctional for its intended purpose.
EVERY day, the first thing from your villager will be a greeting. Then another 2-3 contextual dialogue pieces- Even when there's nothing of note to talk about (wow you dug 2 holes yesterday you sure love digging don't you) or it's something you already know (being told a minimum of 8 times in one day that there's a holiday coming up.) In addition to that, after talking to your villager a few times they start to imply that they're getting annoyed at you talking to them, discouraging you. Yet it's only AFTER those 2-4 times of talking with them that they will give you ANY of the general dialogue. I legit didn't even know the general dialogue existed until someone online told me I needed to pester my villagers over and over and over to get so much as a word of it. Initiating a conversation 4 times in a row as the NPC wonders aloud why you're bothering them is not normal behavior for your average player, which means many people will play the entire thing thinking the only general dialogue that exists is greetings and the rare ask you a favor events (which is another issue- these used to be MUCH more common, to the point that they made up a significant portion of the gameplay.)
I really miss New Leaf dialogue. There was a lot of it, and varying friendship levels could make two villagers of the same personality feel totally different. It wasn't perfect- There was already some flanderization with lazies being really gross most of the time, and they could have been maybe a touch less always-friendly. I think it had the best balance overall though, as some of the earlier games were just too mean for me. Sure villagers should have some edge, but I don't come to my escapist fantasy friendly forest town video game to be so harshly insulted just for breathing.
New Horizons had such potential, and I kept waiting for them to expand the dialogue, but they just... didn't. Like it wasn't a priority for them at all. We got SO many updates and patches, and yet the general dialogue remained largely unchanged. It could have been the best animal crossing game yet, the initial fun burst play of decorating followed by the slow long burn of your villager friends. But without proper general dialogue, once you've decorated to your satisfaction there just isn't anything left to do anymore.
The biggest problem with new horizon's general dialog in my opinion is that most of it is one-liners, one speach bubble. It's over so quickly, there's barely enough time to feel like you're actually talking to someone.
Great video! Well-commentated, scripted, and edited. I genuinely enjoyed watching it! 🙂
The developers meticulously inserting villager emotes, text colors, and pauses has actually been a thing since all the way back in the GameCube version. It’s super fascinating to see the concept survive all the way to New Horizons.
I always seem to circle back to your more talkative videos rather than the challenge ones (though I love those too!), and I feel like this one will be a part of that cycle too. This is such a good way to describe the way the dialogue works I think. It has a lot of effort in it, evident by the fact that it'll change over time as you grow to know your villagers. That being said, the effort doesn''t give it immediate flavour. I guess that would be the big issue.
Personally speaking, I've grown to really enjoy some of the dialogue, especially between the sisterly and cranky villagers. When they talk, they actually feel more dynamic. They'll argue and play fight, and it's kinda fun.
All in all, though, the sanitization of things really hurts the feeling. Especially as the game came out during a time where people wanted an escape from reality, the lack of rudeness and interest to round everyone out severely takes me out of the world.
Anyway, rambling over. Awesome video Dagnel! Very interesting and well made! :D 11/10
In a way, the under-appreciation of dialogue is something that writers and programmers are aiming for, I think, because it shows how wonderfully integrated it is with the game. The dialogue should feel seamless, and the little hints of important details like the font or font colour changes should be juuuust noticeable enough to highlight the important hints the game is trying to convey to players without being too distracting. The fact we take the heavily programmed dialogue for granted is impressive in and of itself.
I totally agree I feel like the dialogue should feel natural like your talking to your real neighbor
@@greenseaweed4218 Kind of, though I think fun matters more than plain realism, something Nintendo usually also thinks and does well
@@ConvenientlyShapedUsername that's completely fair I guess animal crossing isn't very realistic so the dialogue should reflect that a bit
I gave Sasha mom's homemade cake for their birthday. the dialogue was about having a cake at a birthday party and it was really cute.
Lets goooo, new Dagnel as a treat for doing a doctors appointment! Thank you for releasing this video specifically to congratulate me Dagnel, you're a real one.
Really goes to show the effort put into games that most people just don’t get to appreciate…
As someone who has four cranky villagers on my island, doing the rounds and hearing them all say the exact same thing tends to make me feel like I'm running a retirement home. On one hand it's absolutely hilarious, but on the other it instantly breaks my immersion. Why would they allow such shallow general dialogue in a game that encourages you to talk all your villagers daily? :,)
Fun fact: in Newleaf there are also repeating Dialogues, and If you're having the same Personalities, they tell you the same too.
It happened to me aswell even though I enjoy New Leaf so much, so I decided to start playing Wild World recently because it has more dialogue compared to New Leaf.
Although the animations may seem more advanced than a portrait change, its really not hard in programming to call a function with an emote. And since each line of dialogue pertains to one of 6 villager types, that one line works for 1/6 of all the villagers in the game.
I think expanding personalities would help. Make them more than one note. Also make some females jocks and some males normal. Or something like that. With slight differences. So that if you have two jocks, no problem. Because a female one might talk about a different kind of sport and ways that they train. Maybe a female jock could be really into martial arts like Karate.
I love my villagers so dearly, especially Roscoe and Nibbles since I had the in New Leaf... but the rare times that I play NH now it feels like I'm talking with them because I have to, not because I want to. Everytime I greet my bestie Nibbles its "my voice is gone bc I was metal screaming!" or "sigh. so bored. i played hide and seek against myself and won" the best dialogue us absolutely the discussions they have with each other
I work in LQA testing, basically we are the bridge between companies that are making games and their translation team and we test how the text is implemented in-game. It's a tedious, thankless job but I love it, thank you for acknowledging us. There are so many things that go into a text most people don't see and it makes me happy you took the time to make a video about it.
PS: LQA testers cannot enjoy games normally after lmao and one of my colleagues noticed an extra space in Timmy/Tommy's dialogue in the shop in Spanish and now she can't unsee 😂 it happens but people CAN tell when there was no LQA testing done at all (looking at you Wuthering Waves) and the testing on ACNH is honestly impressive. Kudos to their translation and LQA team!!
The thing about the more 'soft' dialogue of the newer games is: they where allways like this in the Japanese version, even back on the first game, so, at least to me, it's much less about catering to a broader audience, and much more just them adapting the dialogue as closely to the original as possible.
Interesting! That's a bit surprising to me, as it often goes the other way around, with the original Japanese having stronger personalities and the localization being flatter and softer.
@stanleygagner The original Animal Crossing game for GC actually had so many changes and additions made to the English release that Japan re-released the game with all the inclusions they missed out on! Which included multiple festivals and I believe either donating art to the museum or the museum completely - I can't remember if the original version had the museum or not. It's a really neat fact I love throwing out because you're right, usually we hear about English localizations being worse by taking dialogue out of context or censoring something.
@@purelysmetalnightcore The original GC game didn't have the ability to donate to the museum?? That's so surprising, that's my favourite part of the game.
@@staticradiosys I'm pretty sure the museum didn't exist at all, actually. I know I watched a YT video about all the differences which I'm currently trying to find.
Need a source for this cause it's an interesting new thing to me that I would love to explore more about
really good video, man. i feel this exact same way. the effort for dialogue in the new game was great and a lot of it is really good, but a huge chunk of the general day-to-day dialogue you will run into is lacking a LOT. its funny the contrast of being like "wow they say the same things" and then during a small holiday its like "WAIT THEY KNOW WHATS HAPPENING RN?"
i love some things about NH, but i continue to play older games for the dialogue and just the unique feel of what it used to be. the gamecube game, to me, has such an unmatched feel. its new, its different, its cozy, its exciting, and even the OST stands out with the random cat and dog noises and such lol
this video essay reminds me of the video you made talking about the rarest things that can happen in acnh, and some of them were dialogues. to this day, sometimes when i play it’s to see what other new dialogue i can find wether it’s from something rare happening, or to playing at the different hours, or less frequently!
Too much in game freedom lead me to get bored and resort back to my villagers like you pointed out. One of my favorite aspects was always dialogue because let’s be honest- ain’t have too many friends back then. Late night talks with the sisterly villagers in new leaf meant everything to me- I wouldn’t talk to people in real life who talk like NH npcs, they’re conversations you have in passing, like small talk. I need big talk.
But I also was a child so it’s definitely a combination of nostalgia and watering down. I need to play the older games as an adult to make sure my bias has actual grasp lol
Personally I feel the dialoges in new horizons more empty; in the games before new leaf they had more expressive dialoges and in new horizons they are like robots, I don't see that well made personality they had in older games and in exchange of it they have a lot of special dialoges that probably weren't made in those times, but I personally prefer the work that they putted on making the usual dialoges more caracteristical and not the special variations that are on new horizons.
That's what I have felt after all the time I used playing this relaxing games.
It’s a weird paradox too that I’ve noticed the game has; the dialogue becomes more expressive as you raise the friendship meter, which is great!
But the game gives you no hook to get to this point besides itself. It’s like the devs have locked any autonomy to the villagers behind you giving them gifts, or constantly talking to them, but it gives you no reason to do such. If they want to turn down the “meanness” or whatever to get the player to interact more and raise that hidden meter, that is a design choice, but in doing so, they just give them a cookie cutter slate and expect you to work with that. It’s a weird husk of balance - they want to give the player the control that New Leaf did, but now even more with the island representative role, and as a result it creeps too far into the territory of the characters having no feeling. It’s like they had that balance, fucked it up because of the new features, and what we’re left with is NH.
I think it could have been so much more than it was is the most disappointing thing, because that work is there like you showed.
Yap comment over. Good video man.
dialogue is such a complex and unique process and concept, i’ve never played the other animal crossing games (i know, i want to) but i’ve always admired how human the villagers are conveyed. they make you attached to code in such an interesting and complex way :o
I was just watching your last video and I checked to see if you had uploaded, today was kinda meh so I'm looking forward to watch one your videos while I play on my island
I've only played the OG Animal Crossing and New Horizons, and I guess I'm in the minority that I hated how mean the villagers were on the GameCube. I was very young when the game came out (it actually helped me learn how to read!) so it was upsetting to be treated so harshly. But I also agree that NH is too sanitized and wish the characters had the capacity to be snippy sometimes. I also wish I was asked for favors more. I loved running around in Population Growing and the goose chases when someone's Gameboy had been passed around three times - just remove the part where you couldn't fulfill a favor because someone was in an igloo all day.
I put 1500h into NH and over the course of that playtime I only recall one line of dialogue that I experienced just once. Willow the snooty sheep had the sadness cloud above her head and spoke about some flowers she'd planted that had wilted. She was pretty cut up about it! It never happened again and to this day I have no idea what triggered it. 🤷♂️
Love your ways to keep animal crossing interesting. I started a new island where I am restricting my town to the beaches only and turned my entire island into sand path. Maybe try some challenge like this I’ve been having fun
While I agree that a lot of work went into the dialogue, I think a huge improvement could be made if the number of personalities available matched the number of villager spots on my island. As it is now, we’re forced to double up on personality types, and that’s when I find it super repetitive.
I've been watching your videos for a couple years now, and you always make really great stuff. This video might be my favourite. I love how you approach the topic with nuance, and as the guy who might have some of the most in-depth knowledge of New Horizons, I think your perspective and expertise are such a welcome addition to the conversation.
Genuinely, thank you for making this video.
My first game was New Leaf, and I haven't played too much of it or other games in the series, so I'm kind of used to repetitiveness. I have three lazy villagers in the town right now and they share some mannerisms. My favorite had me pick a new piece of home decor for him on 4 days in a row.
I was also a little upset Blathers didn't freak out when I talked to him wearing the bug mask on Halloween :D
Great video Dag!!! I hadn't known about the work that went into the dialogue, I thought it was all prewritten with no "variables" :) very interesting
Your videos are some of the very few that i can just watch anytime and not get sick of. Great video! I havent seen much of the ACNH dialog even with playing since it came out so it was cool to see all the diffent things that can be said.
this is so cool you need to do more videos where you're talking like this i love ac video essays!!
i really hope you do more of these video essays. They're a nice change of pace from the challenges you're so known for. It's very nice how you take a tempered approach and try to have a more holistic view on the topic.
Awesome analysis. I also wonder how much of the feeling of repetitive-ness comes, for me, purely out of exposure. NH is by far the most time I have poured into an AC game, and it was all within essentially 1 year - whereas my experience playing WW as a kid it was much more spread out and experienced organically. An hour or so here or there after school, a few hours on the weekend - compared to the 5-8 hour blocks I smashed out with New Horizons.
this is peak determination
Like a lot of others I first found your channel through your acnh museum speed run and I've been watching ever since. I don't comment often but I just had to say that I really enjoyed this video in particular. The essay style format with your voice and your perspective and editing style really did something for me. Not to mention for this topic in particular I feel like you put into words feelings I've had but could never really place about these characters and this world and this series. I'm sure many videos have been made on this idea before but the fact it came from you, guy who I've seen play this game literally inside out, made it feel all the more poignant. Like, yeah, if anyone can talk about the odd lonliness and repititveness present in this game and it's dialogue it's this guy. When you cycled through the NPCs we'd lost towards the end I actually got a little emotional!
All this to say keep up the goodwork!
as much as i love your challenge videos, you bring such an interesting perspective to commentary on this game as well! i hope to see more videos like this in the future along with your other content 😊
Dag my guy, I have rewatched all your old videos while you were off
i love your videos dangel. i had a bad day at school but this cheered me up. 10/10 and i totally agree with your takes on this stuff
The villagers no longer feel like villagers. They feel like walking pieces of furniture with little purpose. They listened to their fans by adding more items and dramatic changes from the last games, but not without removing aspects. When compared to the first game in the series, it starts to feel like apples and oranges.
It's even multiplied by the fact of people selling their villagers, and it comes across less as selling a pet to a new home and as selling a pristine collectors item.
@strawberryjam0585 the AC community had always done that. But from what I can remember, most of the community were pretty nice and pro-cheating
I think it would be cool if along with personality types dialogue would change with species too. Like a snooty cat and a snooty duck would have different things to say. I understand that would be so so much more work that I can't imagine them actually doing it but it would be cool.
This was really well made. I never really thought of animal crossings dialogue like that, but you nailed this one right on the head.
Hey Dagnel! vid idea: can you try getting a 3-star island without checking your star rating, if you check your star rating and it is below 3 stars you have to restart your island all over again and try again! Hope you like my idea!
It's telling that people don't consider dialogue to be deep enough unless it contains a lot of random ad hominem insults.
I know I'd find it really off-putting if one of my villagers just fat-shamed me out of the blue.
Great video!! As someone who only played NL before NH, the biggest disappointment to me in the dialogue was how in NH it felt like villagers of the same personality types were suddenly all carbon copies of each other. I largely kept the same villagers between the two games because I grew attached to them (and had their amiibo cards lol), yet in NH it felt like they lost all uniqueness and anyone that had the same personality type acted the exact same suddenly. I had three smug villagers in both games, and in NL I could even make these overarching storylines for them and never got bored of their dialogue despite playing for way longer than I played NH. In NH, I exhausted all dialogue options (or at least it felt like I did) two months into the game's life. It made me not even really like the villagers that I came to love anymore. I think I heard that NL had sub-personalities for each personality type, and I wonder if they got rid of that in NH? Sorry for the long comment! Just passionate about this topic lol
There are subpersonalities for personality types in ACNH, but only 2 each.
My problem with the New Horizons' dialogue (maybe just general animal crossing dialogue?) is that every personality type has the exact same dialogue which completely breaks the immersion. Replacing villagers with the same type as before or having 2 of the same type on your island makes them feel a lot less interesting than when you first start the game. There's no point in talking to them once you've gotten a couple months into the game.
But the point in this video that the dialogue takes more work than people think is definitely true, I enjoyed seeing some of the process of writing the code for it.
Challenge idea:Getting the golden slingshot but if I miss a shot I restart. that would be fun though it might be time consuming
I remember going through that website with all the dialog options for several afternoons, just amazed by how expansive the dialog is. At the same time it was quite saddening how little it showed in day to day play oftentimes. You made some really great points, especially about the flanderisation (spelling?) of the characters and how that contributes to how boring the villagers feel a lot of times!
great video dag!! honestly the dialogue is so interesting
Cinderblock
i'm at work. should i be watching Dagnel? no. am i still going to? yeah!
personally i love the simple scripts, especially the early morning and night dialogue and that one where they become semi- self aware before laughing it off. its so cute and relaxing for me compared to the older versions
This was a super nuanced take on the dialogue of ACNH. I loved hearing your thoughts on the situation and I hope this is the beginning of your video essay era
New Video Idea: Get all Buildings Open and fully Upgraded, including the facilities on H.H.P and all the shops on Harv’s Island
apparently in the original japanese script for the older games the villagers were never as mean as they were in the west, if anything these days the localisers are just being more faithful to the original text
the writing of the dialogue itself was cute at first, but because of the time that the game released, we were all stuck at home and with nothing better to do. The mechanics behind the dialogue shouldn't be underminded, but i have no idea why youd wanna defend the contents of the writing itself. Theyre too full of personality, so much so it makes them boring. its like they invited someone into the team who's never seen the dialogue from past animal crossing games. New Leaf was my first AC experience, and still playing today, most of the dialogue still feels new to me. The neutrality of the speech makes them feel more realistic, and their personalities could still be differentiated. Speaking of realism, I've never met a SINGLE person irl who talks in ways like the villagers do in ACNH. i know new horizons is "the design" game, but to make fans wait for like 8 years mustve been a let-down for them.
I do love a Dagnel education video!!
Animal crossing reminds me a lot of the sims-the newest installments are amazingly accessible, customizable, and easier to control with lots of QOL improvements…but the soul feels flattened and shallow. It’s TOO accessible, TOO focused on avoiding upsetting or inconveniencing the player, and the lack of inconvenience makes the games…too easy. If you don’t have your own goals, it’s much easier to get bored and drop the games as compared to earlier installments. It feels like there’s less depth.
i just commented about this same comparison. cool to see i’m not alone
Coziest channel of RUclips
Such a good video. the appreciation shown to something most won't take notice of 💙💙💙
thanks for the video! was excited to see this video because you seemed excited to make it and im so glad i did :)
as a student who has learnt a bit of coding and surprisingly enjoyed it, it brought me a lot of joy to see just how much code went into all the different contextual dialogue in the game alone! ☺️
I just got a Wii and i’ve been playing City Folk for a few days now. I have never had so much fun talking to my villagers and will actively seek multiple times a day just to see what they have to say. My favorites to talk to are Fang, Yuka, and Lily, if you were wondering. I am genuinely excited to see what they have to say every day and I really wish it was the same for New Horizons.
when dagnel uploads we all shut up, sit and listen
I do not care if I'm watching a video about dialogue Dagnal somehow makes anything entertaining
i love your videos, i rewatch them very often
it’s how i feel with the sims 4 vs the previous games. i can micromanage the hell out of my sims. i control EVERYTHING. but that makes every save feel the same. my sims don’t seem like different people with their own lives. the build/buy mode is the best it’s ever been (minus the swatches) but the actual gameplay is such a downgrade. rabbit holes, samey dialogue, and the default emotional state being happy, gets boring FAST
acnh is my first animal crossing game. i’m not a very creative person, i’ll admit. i really struggle with decorating my house and island. the amount of control i have over it all is honestly quite overwhelming lol. i wish the connection to the villagers were greater
this is a really well-made video about Animal Crossing and how NPC dialogue has changed over the years. It's a shame that villagers' personalities have become watered down so much 😢
Awesome video! Always been very curious as to how much work goes into this and the layers all the dialogue consists of. Great job!
100% agree on the lack of general-purpose dialogue but baffling amount of hard to find special dialogue. i recently found out there's special dialogue for meeting a new villager for the first time on their birthday and was floored. there's so much specific situation dialogue hidden around, but when i go around talking to my villagers daily i feel like they keep saying the same 3 things
As a massive Ace Attorney fan, I did notice the way the text and emotes work, as ace attorney does essentially the same thing (but even more expressive imo)
i really appreciate how much you appreciate the work that went into this game. As much as i may agree with the criticisms of this game, i feel so many people like to insist the developers are "lazy" and i always felt that was unfair. You said it best, it wasnt a lack of care, its just a different direction.
so I've been playing the game in korean for most of the time I've had it (not my first language), and I can safely say I've never really gotten bored of the dialogue! either I skip through it without really reading much bc I can't be bothered to think in korean at the moment, or I pause to read it and end up learning new words. it's been fun trying to guess the words I don't know based on context like the villager's personality + learning new ways to say things like "what's up," "how's it going," in a casual tone.
as a side note, gotta give props to the acnh team for localizing all of that dialogue/ui elements/etc.! also, random fun fact, Lopez's name in korean & japanese is actually "Thomson" bc he's modeled after a real animal called Thomson's gazelle :)
anyway, if you're bored of the dialogue, want a bit of a challenge, and/or you're interested in learning a language, I'd recommend changing the language setting! 10/10 makes the experience of playing the game more interesting.
thanks for the vid, dag, it was a good'n :) and thanks to anyone who read this far. 물 좀 마시고 즐거운 하루 보내세요~ 마지막 멘트가 여울씨 (Isabelle) 항상 말해요 ㅋㅋ
Hi Dagnel - VIDEO IDEA: How long would it take to PROPOSE to every villager on your island?
Here’s the challenge:
* Move 10 random villagers on your island
* Acquire villager photos from all of them
* Acquiring 10 of the “ring” items from the shop or catalog (the first one will be the hardest - you MUST buy the first from the shop but can catalog order the rest)
* Unlocking Cyrus on Harv’s island to customize the ring box to match each villager personality
* Setting up AND PERFORMING an outdoor proposal that both suits their personality AND appears like a romantic proposal. Then “showing off” the ring in front of them and taking a photo together on the camera app
This challenge would be super fun and chaotic 🤣 I thought of it this morning but idk if it’s ever been done.
I didn't know that blank letters got a particular response from the villagers until this video lol
I’ve got a challenge idea
Get every single villager on your island/to live there (obviously not all at once) but you can’t use amiibo cards or nookazon or other people who have villagers in boxes
Edit: For the record, I really like that you made this video. I love to analyze game design, and Animal Crossing is always fascinating to me.
I've said it once, I'll say it again:
I think New Horizons dialog is fine, and they DID NOT skimp on it.
I never played AC until NH came out: my beloved childhood life sim that I played until it's code was literally fraying at the seams was MySims, where at any given time, your possible lines of dialog from a non-shop-owner sim was exactly *3.* You got 3. Take it or leave it.
_(granted, we got the added bonus of every single character being, well, a character, instead of falling into 1 of a handful of duplicate personalities, but that's a design choice difference)_
I also have watched my sister play AC on the Wii, and while there's definitely more dialog adaptability than MySims, it didn't take long to get repeated dialog from a house visit or talking to a villager outside.
New Horizons has a lot of similar greetings, and play anything long enough, you'll be able to count how many possible lines an NPC has, but I _still_ run into new lines sometimes, just because I talked three times with a neighbor again, or because I've never seen X and Y have a chat before, or because someone is in the museum, or it's a holiday.
(And I just fundamentally do not understand the "I miss when villagers were meaner" thing. I think the ONLY AC game like that is the Gamecube, and I can't tell if it's nostalgia I don't have or just something about my personality, but I just do not understand why people are so attached to it. If I want neighbors who judge and make fun of me for more realism and character, I WILL GO OUTSIDE. Let me have my little group of 10 animal besties who are super silly and sweet.)
We had emotions and breaks before.... I just want to have deep conversations and rude villagers again.
banger video. shocked you edited this so well from prison
I really enjoyed this, thanks for making this video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
The only issue I have with the dialogue sometimes is the 2 mins of dialogue between every single nook miles island when I’m villager hunting😭😭
I kinda wanna see an all reactions speedrun. I don't know if you have thought about it before but I really wanna see it.
New video I can fall asleep to
did he talk about A and B dialogue of personality sub types?
I'm not finished yet but you really seem to be a natural at this kind of video! Great work 👏
Loving this style of video. Keep it up Dag
2:04 Faith: "yo, big man!"
haha [INSERT SPLATOON 3 REFRENCE HERE.]
please bring back the crossover villagers, nintendo