i would honestly pay £300 to keep my memories. seriously, if i was that desperate for a new town that i'd reset it, then i would rather buy a new switch. seriously. you can never buy your past back, you might want it. edit: i feel like it's less important if you have video recordings of it
@@Yanessa97 do it!! Haha 😂 I did and it’s the best! Now I don’t have the regret of starting over and losing everything! And I get to have double the villagers!
it’s so interesting to me, as someone who has played animal crossing since 2003, when people say they’re “done” with their island. i think acnh is a great game but i feel like the animal crossing charm was lost a long time ago. original games were about friendship between you and your neighbors and living a real life in a small town. the design aspects of acnh i feel like are great and cool but it makes people see an end game to a game that was never meant to have one. i feel like a lot of people design their islands to show to others/please others and don’t just play to become friends with their neighbors and have an escape from reality. this game has pressure. it’s just interesting how the series changed so drastically
true. i think it’s because of the internet and social media though, showing off islands that everyone wants for their own and there’s a real sense of competition. plus, the villager dialogue is more stale than it used to be so that’s not everyone’s priority. villagers are mainly used for aesthetics now especially with their house exteriors
@@cozyskyjurnee I recently watched a video where the person said “I don’t ever talk to the villagers really, it makes it easier to kick them out” and I guess it’s just a different playing style? I love chatting with my villagers everyday, personally.
@@cozyskyjurnee i’ve started playing my wild world game again and the entire point is to talk to your neighbors. there are some that are mean and grumpy sometimes and some that are nice. it’s like real life. i run errands for them and make plans to hangout and if i forgot to do those things for them they get upset. the game makes me laugh and feel a variety of emotions and it’s something new horizons doesn’t do for me :/
I have never fully completed my island design as I just simply don't know what to do with it. I realized it was because I tried to force this symmetrical idea upon myself. Now, I am planning on flattening my island as well and moving buildings around. It is going to be a long process especially w/ school but I will take my time. Love your videos and thanks for always giving me design inspiration xx
Ahh I remember my struggle with wanting a symmetrical island haha I’m glad I ended up not sticking with it and am really enjoying the scattered layout. Your island is gonna turn out great, I know it! 😁
I had the same feelings about mine that I restarted it. I got a better layout that I liked but I missed everything I had accumulated. All those fish and bugs plus my favorite villagers gone. I was lucky to get two of them back in the first week. Next time I’m going to flatten. It will take lots of bells. Haha My island will always be a work in progress but I’m ok with that.
Tha'd be so cool if they added in the ability to buy "mini" islands or something of the sort! It'd give a good chance for the millionaires to spend their bells too!
You can if you separate your island into parts with barriers like rivers and panels. I’m considering doing that myself since I can’t pick a theme so I think I’ll make my island a bunch of mini islands
@@kays9007 I tried, I made a corner for japanese inspired part the middle is cottagecore and the other end is really foresty. I had to redo the japanese side now, because of the custom patterns, I couldn't afford to have both the path and japanese urban street design :(
Nintendo should DEFINITELY do that. Like you can buy another island and the Nooks and Isabelle and Able sisters will come with, but your villagers will stay so you can have new ones on your second island. Nintendo HELLO
i restarted my island two weeks ago, at 750+ hours. i was s unhappy with the location of my plaza, which caused me to be unhappy with everything i tried to do with my island. let's just say - i hated this place, and everytime i load into the game not even my favorite villagers could make me happy over a long process i moved most of my money, furniture and other stuff to my best friends island and deleted mine. it took me maybe 15 resets to find an new island to work with ofc it's sad that i lost all my stuff, i'm crying so bad over my lost diys and my museum progress BUT restarting my island was the best thing i could've done. i don't feel "depressed" over it anymore, i like the stuff i do and finally i'm getting all the fairycore vibes i wanted to have on my old island also playing the game from scratch on again, with the experience i had before, made it easier for me to plan things out and finish the tutoriel as fasr as possible. all in all it's funny to play it again from a whole new island, even tho a little part in me kinda regrets it. well didn't mean to write such a long comment, just wanted to share my thoughts D: also i'm very sorry for all the mistakes i've made, english is not my first language so uhhh .... have a nice day whoever read it to this point
The problem I had with flattening is that is costed millions of bells to move everything. And basically I was poor. So yeah, I destroyed my 5 star Island...
@sweeze i actually have everything almost unlocked, redd, nooks cranny upgraded, muesem upgraded , able sisters, campsite, 3 star island , island designer as stuff. but like my island looks so ugly. and im a lazy person to fix it. so im thinking to restart. but lowkkey i will loose all of my villagers.
@@thisaintit yea haha i restarted but now on my new island i got a few mil bells and yea but im flattening the one i legit restarted on so im tryna go smart cuz i have like 7mil bells
I flattened my 700 hour island and went with a new theme that I wanted to do. I've never been happier and more invested in the game. It's such a struggle to flatten, but once you do and make the first new area you feel soooo rejuvenated and the creativity just flows. I recommend not focusing on everything not being even with the exception of some parts. That way you can just go and do without worrying about symmetry. You may end up liking it more!
The MAIN thing for ME on making this decision is "Do I want to PLAY or do I want to only re-create?" that is the question I asked myself and what you should ask yourself - - - when I flattened my 1000+ hour 5 Star island" I wasn't happy with the island layout because a lot of it was learning .. now that I have learned a lot about terraforming and creating,, I flattened it to re-create the island the way I wanted. I got to keep my villagers and all the hard work I did around fossils and stuff I collected. If you are burnt out and wanting to play and its not so much about the island - than restarting fresh over is a good choice... that is what you need to ask yourself before doing it. Also ask yourself if you are wanting a whole new island layout (airport entrance, resident services placement, water outlets" if those are things you are really wanting to be different a fresh new start in starting over is the better choice. these are the things that helped me. ALSO I want to add my opinion about time traveling when restarting over .. if you are wanting to just restructure your island - time traveling makes it a lot less stressful .. but if you wanting to play the game over, time traveling may take that fun away from you again ... just my opinion if this help anyone besides what Ryan had to say ...
I have no creativity so my island always looks so dull and everyone else’s looks so stunning! I try my best though! I really want my island a nice cottagecore theme!
Take your time! Due to the rush of new players during quarentine theres alot of pressure to have "tHe PerFect IslAnD" which isnt really the point. Animal crossing is always changing, think about it. The shop rotation, the seasons, the items, the villagers, and by extension your town. I've been playing since March and ive been tweaking things and thinking of new ways to fix things and so on. Im sure your "dull" island still has a unique charm about it! Also, everyone has creativity, its just that some people "unlock" it easier than others.
You're not alone. I flattened mine then got so overwhelmed. I'm not very creative at all and had no idea where to start.... the middle, top to bottom... I don't have a clue 😂
As someone who has also done both, on the same island unfortunately, I definitely also recommend flattening first. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but there are so many cool ideas and generous people in this community to help you with any blocks. And as a last resort if you do restart, I do recommend having a friend hold anything you would love to move to your new island. That way you're not losing all you progress.
My bf let me take over his island, so I moved all his stuff to my island and then restarted his island. Best of both because we didn’t lose much and the beginning of the game is fun.
I did that with my brother! For the longest time I would play animal crossing on his switch, so when I bought my own switch, we bought another ACNH game and moved all my stuff into that game then restarted the island on my brothers switch so he could play animal crossing too. He actually kept resetting it until he got different fruit to me, so we could get all the fruit without buying switch online we also chose different hemispheres so we could get different items from different seasons.
I'm gonna reset, but don't want to lose everything, so I'mma move my items and things I can to my friends island, reset, then get my stuff back :) IO wasn't happy with my island, even with so much time in it. I didn't like my fruit, nor the resident services building. It wasn't too close, but I had an idea but it can't be where it is either. It is also really messy, also my rivers, I liked where they were, but I wish they had different mouths. (One at E and other at S) So I consulted my friend and she helped me finalize my decision! Its gonna time, I have everything I own on the floor to move to her island, but she can't get on during this time so I'm just enjoying this island while I can and crafting everything I can, getting doubles of diys I like, etc! I'm a lot happier with this decision and I can't wait to reset!!! :) Even though I will lose my 3 permanent villagers, (Bob, got him in 1 ticket, Agnes, got lucky, she was random, Whitney, like 5 tickets.) I'm okay with it because I have tons of screenshots with them and can eventually get them back!
So I was thinking about doing this with my bfs sister so I don’t lose everything and this was a sign for me! I couldn’t decide on flattening or restarting but I’ll definitely do that and restart 😁💗
Lost my mojo for this game with everything going on in the world. Haven’t touched it for months. Thank you for this video, it’s given me the courage to just restart fresh and begin again 🥰👍
I went on a hiatus (same with another AC fanatic friend I have) and it was a nice break. Sometimes, even for things you love, you just need to step away for a bit.
I was addicted at first and played over 400 hours then fell in to a bit of a rut (not just in game but in life too...). I picked it up again Halloween night because I didn't wanna regret not getting any recipes or taking part, and it sort of rekindled my love for it. I started decorating today and I think ill be playing it more often. So I reccomend that you pick it up again and just take it easy. Talk to your villagers and check out the stores. See how it goes :)
@@vacationbonerschool this is what I’ve done over the past week and I’ve really been enjoying it! I’m taking my time and having so much fun discovering some of the updates I missed when I stopped playing 😊
I decided to restart for the new year so my day 1 was New Year’s Day and I’m gonna try and make it my goal to play all 365 days even if it’s just for an hour a day
I would say to keep in mind too that you always have the option to restart. So if you start by flattening your island and you reach a point where you're like "Yeah this is not working for me..." then you could decide to restart instead! But once you restart, that's it, you've restarted and you're back to square one. So I would say if you're considering restarting, but you're on the fence, you might as well at least try to flatten your island first and see if it sparks inspiration for you.
I was totally worn out playing, then I restarted my island entirely and it’s actually been so refreshing and rewarding to collect everything again - and different things of course - and recreate a whole new island. Has really instilled a renewed love for the game for me. I’m on week two now!
The only pro for restarting, in my case, is to change my island's name. I just used a random island name generator and I really have no connection with my current island's name. So instead I opted to flatten my island because I also didn't like my past design. Now, however, I'm stuck rebuilding half of my island and either being too lazy or not feeling creative enough to rebuild the other half. The undone 2nd half is really starting to overwhelm me though so you're tip of flattening only a section would've probably helped me.
I feel every single word that you say. I'm in this struggle, that I destroyed my island multiple times piece by piece and now all I have is an uncomplished unsatisfying island with thousands of items everywhere on the ground! I don't know what to do, I don't know what to build. So I'm searching for inspirations on other islands, in videos, on instagram etc. And in other times i wanna take all my money to the next store and buy a second switch for a new start. It's difficult for me and it's freaking me out, but I think, one day I will complete my island. 2021 is my ACNH year. :DD THX for the video.
I flattened my island but on the second layer so the entire thing is raised up and separated from the beach and its been so fun to design every little detail so I recommend flattening your island if you don’t want to restart!
I’ve wanted to redo my island for a long time, I had this horribly unkept bamboo area, flowers everywhere- it was a mess. I never wanted to log on and play.. it broke my heart. I decided to change it after watching your very first video of you flattening your island. My island is far from being perfect, but I’ve started making it look better and enjoy logging on now.
I flattened my island back in May and sorta regret it. I wish I kept the natural landscape of my island, and then build more/less from there. It just felt like a waste of time for me personally :(
I was just struggling with this idea, and I'm not overly creative, so the thought of starting over seemed easy. But I started flattening parts of my Island bit by bit, and moving houses and buildings to different areas. It's starting to look very nice! I'm proud of what I've done so far even though I have a lot more to do
I don't use the internet on acnh it makes it so I don't get anything from others and I have to do everything myself no custom paths nothing it makes everything so nice to walk around and see what IVE created rather then using the internet I flatten my entire island in the beginning and now I'm slowly building it up and it's coming along nicely I would recommend trying this as well as try not to do what others do but instead change them so you make something you love
Nothing compares to the magic of early game though, there's something new to look forward to every day. You don't get any of that again unless you restart.
I remember playing new leaf and getting excited for later in the day when I planned a meet up in my house with a villager or in their house, I also remember hating a villager since they were being creepy about a new villager that had moved in, I liked that the villagers were constantly nagging you for chores and stuff. I love new horizons but I feel if you couldn’t decorate outside like in other ac games no-one would play
This video motivated me to flatten out my island. For months Ive been barely playing the game because I burned myself out sooo hard with grinding to set up my island, spending millions of bells moving buildings and many days avoiding villagers/events just so I can keep designing. Eventually I stopped playing the game all together. I ended up never finishing the original idea I had and even despised it. I never knew what 'aesthetic' to pick for my island and decided to just copy someone elses layout and go from there but as you can see it didnt work out. I contemplated losing all progress again (for the second time) and starting over or just leaving my messy, ugly island as is. I never even considered just redesigning because of how hard the burn out was. But after watching this and a couple other videos I finally came up with my own original idea for my island that combines all the aesthetics I love! Its going to be a combo of urban, suburban and rural areas, which includes both city-like and nature-like parts of my town and lots of little sections I always wanted to do like a flea market, carnival area, nature park etc. Im so excited and know I have hundred of hours ahead of me and million more bells to go but Im confident I can do it and will end up happy with my island in the end. Thank you so much for all your videos and especially this one. :)
I decided to flatten but I’m doing it in sections because I was not ready for the full flatten. It has been helpful to revive my designing creativity so I would recommend it. It is a very long process, tho.
What I’ve done and what I’m very happy with is I restarted my island but had a friend hold on to important stuff that I wanted to keep. It took a while to go back and forth then restart then go back and forth again, but in the end I really am happy with how my island is going so far. I’m not close to finished with it but I’m almost there but even more happy with my new island than I ever was with my old one! But this is my personal opinion, for my friend flattening his island for him was easier.
I flattened my island once, but i hated it. I kept saying to myself: "its not complete yet, it'll be very good when its ready." but it went nowhere. I'm planning to flatten my entire island again. If you have tips how to make it all aesthetic and stuff, i would love to hear them! :)
I just re-work areas I am not happy with. I cannot imagine deleting and losing everything including your villagers! I learned to accept my resident service location and airport and work around it, flattening would be the way to go for sure. I just re-work areas I am no longer happy with. My struggle is creating a pathway and flower placement/arrangement. I just have 1 more forever dreamy and once my island is done I can’t wait to just explore and enjoy the work I said and finally take some down time and not be on AC 24/7. I feel if you flatten entirely and delete then that is just way too much work and more hours spent on it. I can’t wait to have it finished and just enjoy it with my villagers.
I returned my switch lite and got a new switch from a different store due to errors with the lite. So I was forced to restart. On my old island I restarted about 3 times. And this time I changed my mind of the theme a few days after I’d moved all my houses. So I decided to move everything to the beaches and flatten out my island to design it from scratch - I hadn’t done much work on it in the beginning. I think the concept of flattening everything out as soon as I got terraforming was great for my creative juices
When I first got island designer, I flattened my island and pushed everything to the back and made it symmetrical. Eventually I had no drive to do anything more with my island, so I flattened it again and built it up in a much more natural way, and I'm so much happier with it now.
I realized after 4 months of playing that I looked for all the wrong things when picking my original layout (pretty much everything I based my choice on was changeable) and the direction I was taking my island build/design was making me unhappy because I had no vision and was making no progress. Chose to delete save data and restart a few days ago and I'm so so happy with my decision so far.
whenever I want to redo my island, I never completely flatten my island. I figure out where I want stuff and build my island as I go so I spend less bells
This is such a great video! For me personally, as someone who has both restarted AND flattened their island, I would only recommend restarting entirely if there's something about your island that you hate that is unchangeable. For example, I restarted my island because I hated having double south river mouths, I hated my native and sister flowers, and I did not like my orange airport. I restarted for non-double south outlets, native roses, peaches, and a blue airport, and I have no regrets whatsoever! It kinda sucked losing all my museum progress, but the other stuff bothered me so much that it was still fine for me. Now I'm rebuilding my island for the 3rd time after flattening because I feel like I've improved at terraforming and have a bunch of ideas that I failed to implement well on my 2nd island design. Each time I rebuild, I feel more and more satisfied with my newest design and feel like I'm continuously improving it with each attempt.
Ive just taken my island a section at a time, when I get stuck I just leave it as it is till I get more inspiration. I love your island looking amazing 😊
I had a 5-star island with 10 villagers I loved, and I restarted. I wasn't crazy about any parts of the island, and there was a lot of wasted space. I parked some things I really wanted to keep on my husband's island (which I also restarted, lol). I wanted to fill the museum again and have a reason to go villager hunting, so now, I can and do!
i started by flattening everything but then got overwhelmed and restarted. i was so excited bc i feel like i rushed through the beginning since it was so exciting i wanted to move fast. i was nervous about villagers but i got amiibo chips for the ones who i really wanted. all depends on mindset with the game tbh. plus i love my new town layout hehe ☺️💜
I tried to flatten but got so bogged down by the time required to rebuild. Restarting and playing again from the beginning has been fun rather than feeling like a chore! But I’m not a completionist and I don’t get attached to having certain items or villagers, I can always find them again. Restarting is the way for me!
I enjoy your mornings and chill so much 👏 I totally agree with you about flattening instead of restarting, if I had to restart my Island I feel I would be very unhappy with giving everything up after hours upon hours of digging, diving, fishing catching and shopping, not to mention sucking up to the neighbors lol. Your Island is simply beautiful ❤️. Thank you for sharing 👍👍 Stay safe healthy and happy 😃
I restarted my island a while ago and just hit 5 starts for the first time since I got the game and I am so happy I did. I didn’t care if I lost all my items or villagers or whatever. I just wanted to be happy again and come back to the game without feeling stressed cuz of the area I messed up and didn’t know how to fix at the time. Now! I’m happy and still constructing things and love playing it everyday again.
Ive been having the same contemplation! Started the process of clearing and flattening my island today! A LOT of work but Ive invested real money into my island and I dont want to lose all those DIYs and fish/bugs!
After 300ish hours I actually decided to do a by-section flattening. It was the most manageable option for me since flattening everything out in one go seemed to be so tedious and will eventually tire me out.
I recently lost my island in a freak accident. All my save data was lost. I had around 980 hours on that island. At first, I was completely devastated, but it turns out that it was kind of a blessing for me. I was able to totally restart my island and I already love it probably more than my old island. I don't think I would have ever been able to make the choice to completely flatten my old one and rebuild because of how much work I put into it, but now I'm able to create something that I love even more than that old island.
I restarted bc I wanted to make a disney themed island (just generally I'm not a huge designer) and on my old island I absolutely hated where my old resident service was. I had a very kind friend who allowed me to use their island and hold all my items so I wouldn't have to start off completely fresh. Playing through the beginning was so refreshing and wonderful, I did begin terraforming a while ago but I really loved the natural-ness of my new island more so than my old island. But in some ways I truly miss my original island, where I spent the days of quarantine, and I made my first neighborhoods and the rambling way I had my first island.
I restarted my island, I had a southern hemisphere island and I don't think the events and seasons quite work that way so I restarted to a northern hemisphere island.
I think I'm going to do a major re-design of my island soon. I've only done major changes to a few small areas since March, so pretty much all my buildings are based around my OG layout. Even though I still happily play my game every day, I love the design element and I've had an idea of what I want my island to look like for a while. I played around with an island designer tool for a bit after watching this, and I'm super excited to get started!
when i restarted my island i only had maybe 100 hours in but i spent 3 hours restarting the startup convo to get the exact island layout i wanted and now my island is 100x better (to me) than it was before even though i still dont have the same fish i had before
I'm in the process of flattening my island. The thing that's frustrating to me is that you can't move more then one building and have to wait a while day. The only idea I have for my new island is that I'm going to go overboard with trees, then make the path. I also like the idea of having 2 or 3 villagers in different areas around the island. Right now I have them all in one area.
I restarted my island a month into playing and it was not my best moment since that I got myself a second switch because I could never restart again but may flatten my old island as I like your idea of reforming all bit by bit....thanks for your videos!
I really had no choice but to restart. At first I was kind of doing the thing you mentioned of tearing down and rebuilding sections at a time (I definitely don't have energy to do it all at once, plus there was some stuff I wanted to keep), but I started getting sick of the way everything looked and the thing that really bothered me was my town name. I wanted something more whimsical sounding to fit my foresty/fairycore concept, it sounded like the name of a town or something, not a forest. For some people I bet this is probably not a problem and they can easily just ignore it, but for me it was really bothering me and making me lose even more motivation for designing. That's when I first got the idea that I should maybe just restart, and then I started thinking more about how I could get a better resident services location (I think I had the one that is like, as close to the airport as you can get. I had found a way to work around it and make an entrance I was happy with, but I knew that with more space I would have even more freedom to make any kind of entrance I want.), I'd get to start the game from the beginning again but with all the hindsight and knowledge that I have about 6 months in, then I thought of a name for a new island, and at that point my mind was made up lol. I got on my switch and deleted the save data to restart immediately, it was very impulsive. This was back in early October now, there are some moments where I miss my villagers or get annoyed I don't have a certain diy recipe/piece of furniture I used to have (I'm not bothered by having to restart the museum over again though, I find it enjoyable to watch it evolve as you get more things so I'm enjoying experiencing that from the start again), but overall I don't regret it and am really happy with my decision. I think the fact that I know I had already tried everything I could with my original island before restarting helps solidify my confidence that it was definitely the right choice for me though, so I agree that in most cases if you're unsure you should at least TRY flattening it out and rebuilding some areas first, if you don't wanna waste all the time it would take the flatten the whole thing down. Also, I realise I can just find people online to get the diys and furniture I want, but I'm a little afraid of doing that because I'm scared if I get everything I want too fast, I'll get bored too quickly? Don't know if anyone else feels that way haha.
For the "idk if I will get to bored to quick" I have never reset and am not going to (kudo's to you I'm just attached TO MUCH to games) but you WONT I say that from experience because right now in redoing my nooks to look like a creepy pet shop (ik it's weird lmao) but I found LOTS of diys and furniture like I got the dog house and the bird cage diy and got the black public bench and I honestly just gave me more design options
My brother and I share the switch but he doesn’t play animal crossing. I used his account to put another house in my island. I really liked decorating my house! I had so many furniture sets I wanted to use but I didn’t want to change any part of my house. Adding my brothers account gave me a whole other house to start decorating! I recommend it if you’re like me an love interior design, have a blank spot on your island you don’t know what to do with, or are scared at the idea of changing everything but still want something new to do.
I actually really like this! Thank you for the advice! I'm not happy with my island design, and want to redo the whole thing, but I love my villagers too much, and couldn't bear to part with them. I'm definitely going to start flattening my island, one day at a time.
I just flattened the front of my island. It was super boring and flat and I wanted to change it. I haven’t done a ton of decorating yet, but I already like it a lot more.
i was torn for a few weeks about whether to restart my island or to flatten it when i finished the version of it i had planned back in june. for me the main pro of flattening it was that i would be able to save my dream of my original island forever, and could visit it for the nostalgia. as i won't be updating my dream until the next version is complete, i figured that i could hopefully get someone on youtube to tour it so that i could watch it on their channel for that instead. so far it's a no go, but WHO KNOWS eh? it'll certainly be a few months, there's time. if i could've afforded a full switch and not just the lite, i'd do it myself, but alas.
I ended up flattening my island rather than restarting completely for pretty much all the reasons you mentioned. I think the only big downside I've encountered from doing it this way was the fact that having all that empty space can be intimidating when deciding where to start. I've definitely found myself looking at empty patches of grass and going "what on earth do I do with this?" So I'd say to flatten in sections rather than all at once if you do flatten.
For me, I think it just comes down to what you really want. If you are looking at the design aspect, or you don’t want to lose everything, then 100% flatten your island. But if you want something new or, something different to do, or anything like that, then restart your island.
my answer to friends who've asked me about this is always restart. its usually because they want to continue to play AC but feeling bored with their current island setup. so I suggest to them to grab seasonal items and spare DYI's they have and store them on a friends island and restart. Picking an island and starting the game with only a couple of residents on it is a special time in AC and after halloween I will do the same.
You’ve given me the inspiration and confidence to begin flattening. Even if i start to get discouraged, ill find ways to map out everything and find some inspiration for what i want to do. My theme is going to be a cottagecore but with fairycore and japanese influence (mainly a zen rock garden in one spot, theyre soo pretty) Wish me luck!! 🥰
I’ve flatten my isle. Then raised up the way I wanted. But I don’t regret resetting it first: the game is WAY more fun while you are discovering (or re-discovering) new things from the ground up.
I both flattened and restarted my island. Ultimately, I am glad I restarted and I would probably do it again too! For me, hitting the restart was easy. I do not get attached to my junk in my storage or the stuff on my island and I like having a fresh piece of land since I never fall in love with a layout. With all that being said, I still would flatten first, and as you redesign decide if it's worth starting over. Once you collect inspiration or find a purpose for your island decor, then it will be easier to decide which option is better. Also, keep in mind you're playing style. If you are a perfectionist and a collector, then flattening might be better. While some less attached folk (like myself) may actually benefit from starting over. Finally, if you don't want to touch the game then don't! Let yourself take a break, collect inspiration, and then come back to it when it sparks joy. It's easy to fall into the grind culture of a game, but ACNH is meant to be played at your own pace. You decide how you play and when you play. There aren't terrible consequences for your break time (except the copious amount of weeds/fossils and villagers being worried). Both your terraforming tools and restart button are always there when you're ready, so don't feel rushed to make a decision!
I’ve been tempted to demolish and start over but I know myself well enough to know that I would get overwhelmed. So I’ve just been going area by area and refining my terraforming and moving structures if I have to. I enjoy the process and am happy to not rush it.
I completely started over but it was because I didn’t like my island outlets and my resident services, like you said I was expecting to be able to move those things and was disappointed when I couldn’t. It was hard I had some great villagers that I didn’t want to lose but I got them again and I have made way more progress on my restart island than I ever had on my original! I did however play smarter the second time, I automatically moved characters onto the beach when I could and I put the Ables on the beach as well so once I got to 3 stars all of that process was out of the way and then I started terraforming the way I wanted and slowly moved buildings and houses where they needed to go. Overall it was a better experience the second time around.
To be honest I tried flattening but I just couldn't get it the way I wanted, mostly because of the building placement, so I just restarted. Personally I like the feeling of recollecting everything from scratch.
My island got accidentally deleted when I got a new switch and I had all the terraforming unlocked and sooo many items. So unless you want to restart your island to change the name, I recommend just flattening!!! sell extra stuff that don’t fit in your storage and get the bells and buy it back later!
I've flattened my island multiple times and I recently came to realise that the reason it never works for me, despite me having drawn out plans and invested all my bells in moving my villagers around, is that I just don't like my island layout. I chose my island at 9am on the day the game released and I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to move my pier or my river outlets, so I just chose one with a pretty lake. I'm now in the process of ensuring I get all my villagers' photos & then I'm going to store some of the event items, all my NMTs and the photos on my friend's island while I restart mine. And this time I know what I want & I'll have a plan to enact the moment I start playing.
Am playing Animal Crossing since 15 years, and the theme what most people forgot, coz of the terraforming in ACNH, is about friendship with your villagers as neighbours and especially getting their pictures of each one of them, which isn't easy at all. I also dont let one villager go, if they wanna leave, until they give me their pic one day, this is also a nice completion, to fulfill one aim of the game, and for about over 4 to 5 hundreds animal crossing characters, is this an amazing job!! What am so intersted in your beautiful island is the ground pattern you have used. Did you create that yourself? like your videos too.
My island doesn’t even look like anything yet, but i’d flatten, trying to catch up again and get all of that progress again sounds like a pain in the butt.
I hadn't played my game in over a month. I kept feeling like I had NOTHING left to do in my 400 hour game. I impulsively decided to completely flatten my island. Like, completely. And it's the best choice I've made. I love my island now. Took about 20 hours over a few days. But it was so worth it. Even now, I still have things I need to terraform and areas to decorate and now I feel like I can actually enjoy the game again because there are things to do.
I flattered my island and I’m in the process of redoing everything! Really liking it much more now! Got the same path as you but I find it hard to know what to fill all the spots with 🤔 your island looks so amazing!
I'm a new comer to AC (end of August) and watching your videos has been a huge help. My mindset became that AC is more of a island designing game more than anything else :) It's helped me from spending hours everyday figuring out what to do (and losing productivity elsewhere in my life) and only dedicating some time during the day to AC in designing my island. I've flatten out 1/2 my island and stopped being worried about making sure I move everything into the ~perfect spot~ so I didn't move it again (which caused alotttt of delay In getting anything done). 🤷🏼♀️ So, far I'm loving my islands progress!
I restarted but I don't mind. I like my new island layout so much more (airport and res locations, river mouth locations). But, I'm gonna try not to over terraform, but use the default layout as kind of a foundation, and build cliffs/rivers around it...only tear down original layout if I absolutely need to
I restarted my island because my RS was 5 spaces from my airport and I hated it! However i got a friend to look after my hybrid flowers, spare DIYs and rare furniture.
I'm one those people who keeps thinking of restarting😅 one thing stopping me is when I did this in new leaf I got in a cycle of playing and restarting. You bring up alot good points and pros/cons to it, I think also can depend on how people like to play the game. At least with having terraforming now gives us more options change things up
My brother logged into this game before despite him barely playing. I always felt like i didn't have any purpose on the island because everything revolved around him. I restarted after he stopped and i have never felt any regret towards restarting. Sure doing the same stuff can be annoying but i honestly love experienceing the story for the first time despite already have playing for 4months
I’m flattening mine, and even though I hate my airport and residential services, it’s not as bad as losing all the progress I have made. I have every single buyable item catalogued and I can’t even fathom trying to get everything back.
I got a second switch specifically to have a game that I can restart guilt-free, if ever desired. Flattening? Heck no. Too much work; not enough reward. Almost guilt-free, when I have so many nice residents, especially Merry. I had no idea until after I ran into her and invited her that she'd become so popular.
I had finally what I considered the perfect island until I started thinking about redoing it since I had over terraformed, changed the language on my switch (which makes my name and the town stand out in a way Im not pleased about), and thought about redoing my first ever gamecube town in New Horizons. But with a twist. No terraforming more than just touching up or adding/changing slight parts in the river. Treating construction like I was really having to dig it myself. But even after this video, I still can’t decide and I don’t want to have to wait to get a switch lite (too broke and will be that way for some time).
Thanks for a great talk on Flatting or restart. I'm going to Flatten just can't lose all I have gotten over the last year and half. Appreciate your ideas.
I just tweek. Whenever I don’t like an area of my island, I live with it for a little while until I get a better idea for that spot I might like better. And I’ve left my island “unfinished” at this point, on purpose. To have room for new updates and items I’ll want to incorporate in the future. I’m not sure what the pressure to “finish” the game is. It’s a game with no finish. It’s a game that for me is supposed to be a slow burn of a game. No rush, no pressure. Just make stuff you like. And if you wind up hating that area. Change it later.
I flattened my island few months ago. I came up with the idea for my map even before I started playing and the more I played the less I liked it. After removing everything I wanted to design pretty and impressive island. So I was gathering inspiration and making plans while playing on completely flat island. After some time I got tired. Doing only daily tasks became so boring that I didn’t play. New season came and I felt bad for not playing so I started to play through every day I missed. After 3 months I’m finally at the same day as in real world. I tried building island during this 3 months and I had half of it. Unfortunately I really hate it. So now I’m flattering it again. No matter what I build I just don’t like it and I want to flat it and start again and build better.... which is tiring
This video got recommended to me at the perfect time, as I have been deciding weather I should flatten my island, or keep it as it is (right now I barely play the game as I very dislike how my island looks), and now after seeing the pros and cons, I have made the executive decision as representative of my island to flatten it and start from the beginning. I will definitely need a lot more bells, because I want to do tons of cataloging with people to get more cool furniture, and also just so I can build new inclines, and bridges, and also move houses around. Hopefully this doesn't take too long as I really want to start building :D
I know this vid is a year old, but wanted to say thanks! I stopped playing right before Bunny Day #2, but the new Direct announcement has me inspired to return. Thanks for this great video on flat vs new. I’m excited to get started FLATTENING my island. 👍
I ended up flattening my original island design. I started the game on launch day and wanted to make a forest theme right away. However, I lost interest in it when cottagecore and naturecore got really trendy. So I flattened and have been working on a more "Town" type feel, like New Leaf.
I have done both as well. Agree that the pros and cons are a personal preference. I enjoyed both but if I could only do one I would probably start all over only because I enjoy the villager hunt process. Have a great week Ryan 💚💙
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Flatten
Restart
or the extreme option: get a second switch bc you're too attached.
i would honestly pay £300 to keep my memories. seriously, if i was that desperate for a new town that i'd reset it, then i would rather buy a new switch. seriously. you can never buy your past back, you might want it.
edit: i feel like it's less important if you have video recordings of it
how about 3 switches 😅
Eep I literally did the extreme option a week ago and I’m SO happy that I did
Leaning towards extreme LOL.
@@Yanessa97 do it!! Haha 😂 I did and it’s the best! Now I don’t have the regret of starting over and losing everything! And I get to have double the villagers!
it’s so interesting to me, as someone who has played animal crossing since 2003, when people say they’re “done” with their island. i think acnh is a great game but i feel like the animal crossing charm was lost a long time ago. original games were about friendship between you and your neighbors and living a real life in a small town. the design aspects of acnh i feel like are great and cool but it makes people see an end game to a game that was never meant to have one. i feel like a lot of people design their islands to show to others/please others and don’t just play to become friends with their neighbors and have an escape from reality. this game has pressure. it’s just interesting how the series changed so drastically
true. i think it’s because of the internet and social media though, showing off islands that everyone wants for their own and there’s a real sense of competition. plus, the villager dialogue is more stale than it used to be so that’s not everyone’s priority. villagers are mainly used for aesthetics now especially with their house exteriors
The villagers are so stale and I can't stand it 😩
I've heard so many people say they don't even talk to their villagers because they don't care about them. Kinda sad.
@@cozyskyjurnee I recently watched a video where the person said “I don’t ever talk to the villagers really, it makes it easier to kick them out” and I guess it’s just a different playing style? I love chatting with my villagers everyday, personally.
@@cozyskyjurnee i’ve started playing my wild world game again and the entire point is to talk to your neighbors. there are some that are mean and grumpy sometimes and some that are nice. it’s like real life. i run errands for them and make plans to hangout and if i forgot to do those things for them they get upset. the game makes me laugh and feel a variety of emotions and it’s something new horizons doesn’t do for me :/
I have never fully completed my island design as I just simply don't know what to do with it. I realized it was because I tried to force this symmetrical idea upon myself. Now, I am planning on flattening my island as well and moving buildings around. It is going to be a long process especially w/ school but I will take my time. Love your videos and thanks for always giving me design inspiration xx
Ahh I remember my struggle with wanting a symmetrical island haha I’m glad I ended up not sticking with it and am really enjoying the scattered layout. Your island is gonna turn out great, I know it! 😁
I had the same feelings about mine that I restarted it. I got a better layout that I liked but I missed everything I had accumulated. All those fish and bugs plus my favorite villagers gone.
I was lucky to get two of them back in the first week. Next time I’m going to flatten. It will take lots of bells. Haha
My island will always be a work in progress but I’m ok with that.
I think it’s so sad you can’t have multiple islands like just imagine being able to do Cottagecore, kawaii and a horror island all in one game :/
Tha'd be so cool if they added in the ability to buy "mini" islands or something of the sort! It'd give a good chance for the millionaires to spend their bells too!
@@yeahokaycoolcool wait yeah that's genius
You can if you separate your island into parts with barriers like rivers and panels. I’m considering doing that myself since I can’t pick a theme so I think I’ll make my island a bunch of mini islands
@@kays9007 I tried, I made a corner for japanese inspired part the middle is cottagecore and the other end is really foresty. I had to redo the japanese side now, because of the custom patterns, I couldn't afford to have both the path and japanese urban street design :(
Nintendo should DEFINITELY do that. Like you can buy another island and the Nooks and Isabelle and Able sisters will come with, but your villagers will stay so you can have new ones on your second island. Nintendo HELLO
I've just flattened my completed 5 star island and it feels so good to have all my villagers/items but just start fresh!
Damn i am thinking to restart for real. I can always find my favorite stitches 🌝
How long did that take? I haven't played AC in months cause im too lazy to flatten
You are so wise, Father.
Chase you rock dude!
Hey chase should I re start?
Hey chase!
You aren’t wrong 😂
Wow very cool random verified youtuber I don't know
i restarted my island two weeks ago, at 750+ hours. i was s unhappy with the location of my plaza, which caused me to be unhappy with everything i tried to do with my island. let's just say - i hated this place, and everytime i load into the game not even my favorite villagers could make me happy
over a long process i moved most of my money, furniture and other stuff to my best friends island and deleted mine. it took me maybe 15 resets to find an new island to work with
ofc it's sad that i lost all my stuff, i'm crying so bad over my lost diys and my museum progress BUT restarting my island was the best thing i could've done. i don't feel "depressed" over it anymore, i like the stuff i do and finally i'm getting all the fairycore vibes i wanted to have on my old island
also playing the game from scratch on again, with the experience i had before, made it easier for me to plan things out and finish the tutoriel as fasr as possible. all in all it's funny to play it again from a whole new island, even tho a little part in me kinda regrets it.
well didn't mean to write such a long comment, just wanted to share my thoughts D:
also i'm very sorry for all the mistakes i've made, english is not my first language
so uhhh .... have a nice day whoever read it to this point
I personally would rather flatten my island because I wouldn’t loose EVERYTHING ( like my villagers, friendship levels, & buildings )
The problem I had with flattening is that is costed millions of bells to move everything. And basically I was poor. So yeah, I destroyed my 5 star Island...
@sweeze i actually have everything almost unlocked, redd, nooks cranny upgraded, muesem upgraded , able sisters, campsite, 3 star island , island designer as stuff. but like my island looks so ugly. and im a lazy person to fix it. so im thinking to restart. but lowkkey i will loose all of my villagers.
@@thisaintit yea haha i restarted but now on my new island i got a few mil bells and yea but im flattening the one i legit restarted on so im tryna go smart cuz i have like 7mil bells
I flattened my 700 hour island and went with a new theme that I wanted to do. I've never been happier and more invested in the game. It's such a struggle to flatten, but once you do and make the first new area you feel soooo rejuvenated and the creativity just flows. I recommend not focusing on everything not being even with the exception of some parts. That way you can just go and do without worrying about symmetry. You may end up liking it more!
The MAIN thing for ME on making this decision is "Do I want to PLAY or do I want to only re-create?" that is the question I asked myself and what you should ask yourself - - - when I flattened my 1000+ hour 5 Star island" I wasn't happy with the island layout because a lot of it was learning .. now that I have learned a lot about terraforming and creating,, I flattened it to re-create the island the way I wanted. I got to keep my villagers and all the hard work I did around fossils and stuff I collected. If you are burnt out and wanting to play and its not so much about the island - than restarting fresh over is a good choice... that is what you need to ask yourself before doing it. Also ask yourself if you are wanting a whole new island layout (airport entrance, resident services placement, water outlets" if those are things you are really wanting to be different a fresh new start in starting over is the better choice. these are the things that helped me. ALSO I want to add my opinion about time traveling when restarting over .. if you are wanting to just restructure your island - time traveling makes it a lot less stressful .. but if you wanting to play the game over, time traveling may take that fun away from you again ... just my opinion if this help anyone besides what Ryan had to say ...
Very well said.
I have no creativity so my island always looks so dull and everyone else’s looks so stunning! I try my best though! I really want my island a nice cottagecore theme!
Take your time! Due to the rush of new players during quarentine theres alot of pressure to have "tHe PerFect IslAnD" which isnt really the point. Animal crossing is always changing, think about it. The shop rotation, the seasons, the items, the villagers, and by extension your town. I've been playing since March and ive been tweaking things and thinking of new ways to fix things and so on. Im sure your "dull" island still has a unique charm about it! Also, everyone has creativity, its just that some people "unlock" it easier than others.
You're not alone. I flattened mine then got so overwhelmed. I'm not very creative at all and had no idea where to start.... the middle, top to bottom... I don't have a clue 😂
As someone who has also done both, on the same island unfortunately, I definitely also recommend flattening first. It's easy to get overwhelmed, but there are so many cool ideas and generous people in this community to help you with any blocks. And as a last resort if you do restart, I do recommend having a friend hold anything you would love to move to your new island. That way you're not losing all you progress.
My bf let me take over his island, so I moved all his stuff to my island and then restarted his island. Best of both because we didn’t lose much and the beginning of the game is fun.
Yeah I’ve done that too when I bought my new switch. Moved everything to my daughters island and restart the game 😂
I did that with my brother! For the longest time I would play animal crossing on his switch, so when I bought my own switch, we bought another ACNH game and moved all my stuff into that game then restarted the island on my brothers switch so he could play animal crossing too. He actually kept resetting it until he got different fruit to me, so we could get all the fruit without buying switch online we also chose different hemispheres so we could get different items from different seasons.
I'm gonna reset, but don't want to lose everything, so I'mma move my items and things I can to my friends island, reset, then get my stuff back :) IO wasn't happy with my island, even with so much time in it. I didn't like my fruit, nor the resident services building. It wasn't too close, but I had an idea but it can't be where it is either. It is also really messy, also my rivers, I liked where they were, but I wish they had different mouths. (One at E and other at S) So I consulted my friend and she helped me finalize my decision! Its gonna time, I have everything I own on the floor to move to her island, but she can't get on during this time so I'm just enjoying this island while I can and crafting everything I can, getting doubles of diys I like, etc! I'm a lot happier with this decision and I can't wait to reset!!! :) Even though I will lose my 3 permanent villagers, (Bob, got him in 1 ticket, Agnes, got lucky, she was random, Whitney, like 5 tickets.) I'm okay with it because I have tons of screenshots with them and can eventually get them back!
So I was thinking about doing this with my bfs sister so I don’t lose everything and this was a sign for me! I couldn’t decide on flattening or restarting but I’ll definitely do that and restart 😁💗
Lost my mojo for this game with everything going on in the world. Haven’t touched it for months. Thank you for this video, it’s given me the courage to just restart fresh and begin again 🥰👍
I went on a hiatus (same with another AC fanatic friend I have) and it was a nice break. Sometimes, even for things you love, you just need to step away for a bit.
Yeah I did take a two week brake from it acnh
I restarted my island just to decorate it but once I got 3 stars I didn’t play much and it was like my journey was over
I was addicted at first and played over 400 hours then fell in to a bit of a rut (not just in game but in life too...). I picked it up again Halloween night because I didn't wanna regret not getting any recipes or taking part, and it sort of rekindled my love for it. I started decorating today and I think ill be playing it more often.
So I reccomend that you pick it up again and just take it easy. Talk to your villagers and check out the stores. See how it goes :)
@@vacationbonerschool this is what I’ve done over the past week and I’ve really been enjoying it! I’m taking my time and having so much fun discovering some of the updates I missed when I stopped playing 😊
I decided to restart for the new year so my day 1 was New Year’s Day and I’m gonna try and make it my goal to play all 365 days even if it’s just for an hour a day
That’s my goal too. And I’m gonna try not to TT .
I wish I could do that but its too late and I haven't got a new switch yet either since i'm not reseting my first island lmao
I would say to keep in mind too that you always have the option to restart. So if you start by flattening your island and you reach a point where you're like "Yeah this is not working for me..." then you could decide to restart instead! But once you restart, that's it, you've restarted and you're back to square one. So I would say if you're considering restarting, but you're on the fence, you might as well at least try to flatten your island first and see if it sparks inspiration for you.
I was totally worn out playing, then I restarted my island entirely and it’s actually been so refreshing and rewarding to collect everything again - and different things of course - and recreate a whole new island. Has really instilled a renewed love for the game for me. I’m on week two now!
I've been moving things around on my island, like homes and making new space. It's looking nice again.
The only pro for restarting, in my case, is to change my island's name. I just used a random island name generator and I really have no connection with my current island's name. So instead I opted to flatten my island because I also didn't like my past design. Now, however, I'm stuck rebuilding half of my island and either being too lazy or not feeling creative enough to rebuild the other half. The undone 2nd half is really starting to overwhelm me though so you're tip of flattening only a section would've probably helped me.
I feel every single word that you say. I'm in this struggle, that I destroyed my island multiple times piece by piece and now all I have is an uncomplished unsatisfying island with thousands of items everywhere on the ground! I don't know what to do, I don't know what to build. So I'm searching for inspirations on other islands, in videos, on instagram etc. And in other times i wanna take all my money to the next store and buy a second switch for a new start. It's difficult for me and it's freaking me out, but I think, one day I will complete my island. 2021 is my ACNH year. :DD THX for the video.
I flattened my island but on the second layer so the entire thing is raised up and separated from the beach and its been so fun to design every little detail so I recommend flattening your island if you don’t want to restart!
I’ve wanted to redo my island for a long time, I had this horribly unkept bamboo area, flowers everywhere- it was a mess. I never wanted to log on and play.. it broke my heart. I decided to change it after watching your very first video of you flattening your island. My island is far from being perfect, but I’ve started making it look better and enjoy logging on now.
I flattened my island back in May and sorta regret it. I wish I kept the natural landscape of my island, and then build more/less from there. It just felt like a waste of time for me personally :(
I was just struggling with this idea, and I'm not overly creative, so the thought of starting over seemed easy. But I started flattening parts of my Island bit by bit, and moving houses and buildings to different areas. It's starting to look very nice! I'm proud of what I've done so far even though I have a lot more to do
I don't use the internet on acnh it makes it so I don't get anything from others and I have to do everything myself no custom paths nothing it makes everything so nice to walk around and see what IVE created rather then using the internet I flatten my entire island in the beginning and now I'm slowly building it up and it's coming along nicely I would recommend trying this as well as try not to do what others do but instead change them so you make something you love
Nothing compares to the magic of early game though, there's something new to look forward to every day. You don't get any of that again unless you restart.
Just what I needed on a crappy day
i hope tomorrow will be better for you, stay strong!
Tm will be beter!!
I remember playing new leaf and getting excited for later in the day when I planned a meet up in my house with a villager or in their house, I also remember hating a villager since they were being creepy about a new villager that had moved in, I liked that the villagers were constantly nagging you for chores and stuff. I love new horizons but I feel if you couldn’t decorate outside like in other ac games no-one would play
This video motivated me to flatten out my island. For months Ive been barely playing the game because I burned myself out sooo hard with grinding to set up my island, spending millions of bells moving buildings and many days avoiding villagers/events just so I can keep designing. Eventually I stopped playing the game all together. I ended up never finishing the original idea I had and even despised it. I never knew what 'aesthetic' to pick for my island and decided to just copy someone elses layout and go from there but as you can see it didnt work out.
I contemplated losing all progress again (for the second time) and starting over or just leaving my messy, ugly island as is. I never even considered just redesigning because of how hard the burn out was. But after watching this and a couple other videos I finally came up with my own original idea for my island that combines all the aesthetics I love! Its going to be a combo of urban, suburban and rural areas, which includes both city-like and nature-like parts of my town and lots of little sections I always wanted to do like a flea market, carnival area, nature park etc. Im so excited and know I have hundred of hours ahead of me and million more bells to go but Im confident I can do it and will end up happy with my island in the end. Thank you so much for all your videos and especially this one. :)
im gonna be getting a switch for my birthday in december and the days are going by like years, your channel is my only salvation, love u ryan!
I’m getting a switch for Christmas but like you the days are going so slow!
same, im getting a switch for christmas :D
I am getting a switch in december too for christmas, i'm so excited. I feel like november is never gonna end ! Its going so sloow
Merry Christmas to y'all :D
Enjoy your switch :) im saving up for one now. Hoping I can pick one up around the first of January
I decided to flatten but I’m doing it in sections because I was not ready for the full flatten. It has been helpful to revive my designing creativity so I would recommend it. It is a very long process, tho.
What I’ve done and what I’m very happy with is I restarted my island but had a friend hold on to important stuff that I wanted to keep. It took a while to go back and forth then restart then go back and forth again, but in the end I really am happy with how my island is going so far. I’m not close to finished with it but I’m almost there but even more happy with my new island than I ever was with my old one! But this is my personal opinion, for my friend flattening his island for him was easier.
I flattened my island once, but i hated it. I kept saying to myself: "its not complete yet, it'll be very good when its ready." but it went nowhere. I'm planning to flatten my entire island again. If you have tips how to make it all aesthetic and stuff, i would love to hear them! :)
Do something that you haven't seen before to make your island unique like I turned my nooks into a pet shop
I just re-work areas I am not happy with. I cannot imagine deleting and losing everything including your villagers! I learned to accept my resident service location and airport and work around it, flattening would be the way to go for sure. I just re-work areas I am no longer happy with. My struggle is creating a pathway and flower placement/arrangement. I just have 1 more forever dreamy and once my island is done I can’t wait to just explore and enjoy the work I said and finally take some down time and not be on AC 24/7. I feel if you flatten entirely and delete then that is just way too much work and more hours spent on it. I can’t wait to have it finished and just enjoy it with my villagers.
I returned my switch lite and got a new switch from a different store due to errors with the lite. So I was forced to restart. On my old island I restarted about 3 times. And this time I changed my mind of the theme a few days after I’d moved all my houses. So I decided to move everything to the beaches and flatten out my island to design it from scratch - I hadn’t done much work on it in the beginning.
I think the concept of flattening everything out as soon as I got terraforming was great for my creative juices
When I first got island designer, I flattened my island and pushed everything to the back and made it symmetrical. Eventually I had no drive to do anything more with my island, so I flattened it again and built it up in a much more natural way, and I'm so much happier with it now.
I realized after 4 months of playing that I looked for all the wrong things when picking my original layout (pretty much everything I based my choice on was changeable) and the direction I was taking my island build/design was making me unhappy because I had no vision and was making no progress. Chose to delete save data and restart a few days ago and I'm so so happy with my decision so far.
whenever I want to redo my island, I never completely flatten my island. I figure out where I want stuff and build my island as I go so I spend less bells
This is such a great video! For me personally, as someone who has both restarted AND flattened their island, I would only recommend restarting entirely if there's something about your island that you hate that is unchangeable. For example, I restarted my island because I hated having double south river mouths, I hated my native and sister flowers, and I did not like my orange airport. I restarted for non-double south outlets, native roses, peaches, and a blue airport, and I have no regrets whatsoever! It kinda sucked losing all my museum progress, but the other stuff bothered me so much that it was still fine for me. Now I'm rebuilding my island for the 3rd time after flattening because I feel like I've improved at terraforming and have a bunch of ideas that I failed to implement well on my 2nd island design. Each time I rebuild, I feel more and more satisfied with my newest design and feel like I'm continuously improving it with each attempt.
when you restarted did you keep your bells or did you just get rid of everything and completely start from scratch
@@eviex2577 I kept a lot of my items (including bells) because I had some friends help me out. :)
Am i the only one that LOVED resseting there island? One of my fav parts is completing all the missions!
Ive just taken my island a section at a time, when I get stuck I just leave it as it is till I get more inspiration. I love your island looking amazing 😊
I had a 5-star island with 10 villagers I loved, and I restarted. I wasn't crazy about any parts of the island, and there was a lot of wasted space. I parked some things I really wanted to keep on my husband's island (which I also restarted, lol). I wanted to fill the museum again and have a reason to go villager hunting, so now, I can and do!
i started by flattening everything but then got overwhelmed and restarted. i was so excited bc i feel like i rushed through the beginning since it was so exciting i wanted to move fast. i was nervous about villagers but i got amiibo chips for the ones who i really wanted. all depends on mindset with the game tbh. plus i love my new town layout hehe ☺️💜
I tried to flatten but got so bogged down by the time required to rebuild. Restarting and playing again from the beginning has been fun rather than feeling like a chore! But I’m not a completionist and I don’t get attached to having certain items or villagers, I can always find them again. Restarting is the way for me!
I enjoy your mornings and chill so much 👏 I totally agree with you about flattening instead of restarting, if I had to restart my Island I feel I would be very unhappy with giving everything up after hours upon hours of digging, diving, fishing catching and shopping, not to mention sucking up to the neighbors lol. Your Island is simply beautiful ❤️. Thank you for sharing 👍👍 Stay safe healthy and happy 😃
I restarted my island a while ago and just hit 5 starts for the first time since I got the game and I am so happy I did. I didn’t care if I lost all my items or villagers or whatever. I just wanted to be happy again and come back to the game without feeling stressed cuz of the area I messed up and didn’t know how to fix at the time. Now! I’m happy and still constructing things and love playing it everyday again.
Ive been having the same contemplation! Started the process of clearing and flattening my island today! A LOT of work but Ive invested real money into my island and I dont want to lose all those DIYs and fish/bugs!
After 300ish hours I actually decided to do a by-section flattening. It was the most manageable option for me since flattening everything out in one go seemed to be so tedious and will eventually tire me out.
I recently lost my island in a freak accident. All my save data was lost. I had around 980 hours on that island. At first, I was completely devastated, but it turns out that it was kind of a blessing for me. I was able to totally restart my island and I already love it probably more than my old island. I don't think I would have ever been able to make the choice to completely flatten my old one and rebuild because of how much work I put into it, but now I'm able to create something that I love even more than that old island.
I believe you did a very good job describing the differences, now up to everyone to make up their own minds on restarting or leveling their island.
I restarted bc I wanted to make a disney themed island (just generally I'm not a huge designer) and on my old island I absolutely hated where my old resident service was. I had a very kind friend who allowed me to use their island and hold all my items so I wouldn't have to start off completely fresh. Playing through the beginning was so refreshing and wonderful, I did begin terraforming a while ago but I really loved the natural-ness of my new island more so than my old island. But in some ways I truly miss my original island, where I spent the days of quarantine, and I made my first neighborhoods and the rambling way I had my first island.
I restarted my island, I had a southern hemisphere island and I don't think the events and seasons quite work that way so I restarted to a northern hemisphere island.
I think I'm going to do a major re-design of my island soon. I've only done major changes to a few small areas since March, so pretty much all my buildings are based around my OG layout. Even though I still happily play my game every day, I love the design element and I've had an idea of what I want my island to look like for a while. I played around with an island designer tool for a bit after watching this, and I'm super excited to get started!
I’ve been thinking about this constantly. Thank you!!
when i restarted my island i only had maybe 100 hours in but i spent 3 hours restarting the startup convo to get the exact island layout i wanted and now my island is 100x better (to me) than it was before even though i still dont have the same fish i had before
I'm in the process of flattening my island. The thing that's frustrating to me is that you can't move more then one building and have to wait a while day. The only idea I have for my new island is that I'm going to go overboard with trees, then make the path. I also like the idea of having 2 or 3 villagers in different areas around the island. Right now I have them all in one area.
I restarted my island a month into playing and it was not my best moment since that I got myself a second switch because I could never restart again but may flatten my old island as I like your idea of reforming all bit by bit....thanks for your videos!
I really had no choice but to restart. At first I was kind of doing the thing you mentioned of tearing down and rebuilding sections at a time (I definitely don't have energy to do it all at once, plus there was some stuff I wanted to keep), but I started getting sick of the way everything looked and the thing that really bothered me was my town name. I wanted something more whimsical sounding to fit my foresty/fairycore concept, it sounded like the name of a town or something, not a forest. For some people I bet this is probably not a problem and they can easily just ignore it, but for me it was really bothering me and making me lose even more motivation for designing. That's when I first got the idea that I should maybe just restart, and then I started thinking more about how I could get a better resident services location (I think I had the one that is like, as close to the airport as you can get. I had found a way to work around it and make an entrance I was happy with, but I knew that with more space I would have even more freedom to make any kind of entrance I want.), I'd get to start the game from the beginning again but with all the hindsight and knowledge that I have about 6 months in, then I thought of a name for a new island, and at that point my mind was made up lol. I got on my switch and deleted the save data to restart immediately, it was very impulsive. This was back in early October now, there are some moments where I miss my villagers or get annoyed I don't have a certain diy recipe/piece of furniture I used to have (I'm not bothered by having to restart the museum over again though, I find it enjoyable to watch it evolve as you get more things so I'm enjoying experiencing that from the start again), but overall I don't regret it and am really happy with my decision. I think the fact that I know I had already tried everything I could with my original island before restarting helps solidify my confidence that it was definitely the right choice for me though, so I agree that in most cases if you're unsure you should at least TRY flattening it out and rebuilding some areas first, if you don't wanna waste all the time it would take the flatten the whole thing down. Also, I realise I can just find people online to get the diys and furniture I want, but I'm a little afraid of doing that because I'm scared if I get everything I want too fast, I'll get bored too quickly? Don't know if anyone else feels that way haha.
For the "idk if I will get to bored to quick" I have never reset and am not going to (kudo's to you I'm just attached TO MUCH to games) but you WONT I say that from experience because right now in redoing my nooks to look like a creepy pet shop (ik it's weird lmao) but I found LOTS of diys and furniture like I got the dog house and the bird cage diy and got the black public bench and I honestly just gave me more design options
My brother and I share the switch but he doesn’t play animal crossing. I used his account to put another house in my island. I really liked decorating my house! I had so many furniture sets I wanted to use but I didn’t want to change any part of my house. Adding my brothers account gave me a whole other house to start decorating! I recommend it if you’re like me an love interior design, have a blank spot on your island you don’t know what to do with, or are scared at the idea of changing everything but still want something new to do.
i don’t think i’ll ever be ‘done’ with my island
I actually really like this! Thank you for the advice! I'm not happy with my island design, and want to redo the whole thing, but I love my villagers too much, and couldn't bear to part with them. I'm definitely going to start flattening my island, one day at a time.
I just flattened the front of my island. It was super boring and flat and I wanted to change it. I haven’t done a ton of decorating yet, but I already like it a lot more.
i was torn for a few weeks about whether to restart my island or to flatten it when i finished the version of it i had planned back in june. for me the main pro of flattening it was that i would be able to save my dream of my original island forever, and could visit it for the nostalgia. as i won't be updating my dream until the next version is complete, i figured that i could hopefully get someone on youtube to tour it so that i could watch it on their channel for that instead. so far it's a no go, but WHO KNOWS eh? it'll certainly be a few months, there's time. if i could've afforded a full switch and not just the lite, i'd do it myself, but alas.
I ended up flattening my island rather than restarting completely for pretty much all the reasons you mentioned. I think the only big downside I've encountered from doing it this way was the fact that having all that empty space can be intimidating when deciding where to start. I've definitely found myself looking at empty patches of grass and going "what on earth do I do with this?" So I'd say to flatten in sections rather than all at once if you do flatten.
When I get tired of New Horizons I plan starting New Leaf... but really enjoyed the video! Flattening sounds better than restarting...
For me, I think it just comes down to what you really want. If you are looking at the design aspect, or you don’t want to lose everything, then 100% flatten your island. But if you want something new or, something different to do, or anything like that, then restart your island.
my answer to friends who've asked me about this is always restart. its usually because they want to continue to play AC but feeling bored with their current island setup. so I suggest to them to grab seasonal items and spare DYI's they have and store them on a friends island and restart. Picking an island and starting the game with only a couple of residents on it is a special time in AC and after halloween I will do the same.
You’ve given me the inspiration and confidence to begin flattening. Even if i start to get discouraged, ill find ways to map out everything and find some inspiration for what i want to do. My theme is going to be a cottagecore but with fairycore and japanese influence (mainly a zen rock garden in one spot, theyre soo pretty)
Wish me luck!! 🥰
I’ve flatten my isle. Then raised up the way I wanted. But I don’t regret resetting it first: the game is WAY more fun while you are discovering (or re-discovering) new things from the ground up.
If undecided, I'd be inclined to try flattening it first to see how that went, and then restart if still not happy with it.
I both flattened and restarted my island. Ultimately, I am glad I restarted and I would probably do it again too! For me, hitting the restart was easy. I do not get attached to my junk in my storage or the stuff on my island and I like having a fresh piece of land since I never fall in love with a layout. With all that being said, I still would flatten first, and as you redesign decide if it's worth starting over. Once you collect inspiration or find a purpose for your island decor, then it will be easier to decide which option is better. Also, keep in mind you're playing style. If you are a perfectionist and a collector, then flattening might be better. While some less attached folk (like myself) may actually benefit from starting over.
Finally, if you don't want to touch the game then don't! Let yourself take a break, collect inspiration, and then come back to it when it sparks joy. It's easy to fall into the grind culture of a game, but ACNH is meant to be played at your own pace. You decide how you play and when you play. There aren't terrible consequences for your break time (except the copious amount of weeds/fossils and villagers being worried). Both your terraforming tools and restart button are always there when you're ready, so don't feel rushed to make a decision!
I’ve been tempted to demolish and start over but I know myself well enough to know that I would get overwhelmed. So I’ve just been going area by area and refining my terraforming and moving structures if I have to. I enjoy the process and am happy to not rush it.
"a podcast that's not really a podcast" that's gotta be your catchphrase now for this series hahaha
I completely started over but it was because I didn’t like my island outlets and my resident services, like you said I was expecting to be able to move those things and was disappointed when I couldn’t. It was hard I had some great villagers that I didn’t want to lose but I got them again and I have made way more progress on my restart island than I ever had on my original! I did however play smarter the second time, I automatically moved characters onto the beach when I could and I put the Ables on the beach as well so once I got to 3 stars all of that process was out of the way and then I started terraforming the way I wanted and slowly moved buildings and houses where they needed to go. Overall it was a better experience the second time around.
To be honest I tried flattening but I just couldn't get it the way I wanted, mostly because of the building placement, so I just restarted. Personally I like the feeling of recollecting everything from scratch.
My island got accidentally deleted when I got a new switch and I had all the terraforming unlocked and sooo many items. So unless you want to restart your island to change the name, I recommend just flattening!!! sell extra stuff that don’t fit in your storage and get the bells and buy it back later!
I've flattened my island multiple times and I recently came to realise that the reason it never works for me, despite me having drawn out plans and invested all my bells in moving my villagers around, is that I just don't like my island layout. I chose my island at 9am on the day the game released and I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to move my pier or my river outlets, so I just chose one with a pretty lake.
I'm now in the process of ensuring I get all my villagers' photos & then I'm going to store some of the event items, all my NMTs and the photos on my friend's island while I restart mine. And this time I know what I want & I'll have a plan to enact the moment I start playing.
Am playing Animal Crossing since 15 years, and the theme what most people forgot, coz of the terraforming in ACNH, is about friendship with your villagers as neighbours and especially getting their pictures of each one of them, which isn't easy at all.
I also dont let one villager go, if they wanna leave, until they give me their pic one day, this is also a nice completion, to fulfill one aim of the game, and for about over 4 to 5 hundreds animal crossing characters, is this an amazing job!!
What am so intersted in your beautiful island is the ground pattern you have used. Did you create that yourself?
like your videos too.
The 5 AM background music just makes your island more dreamy. ☁️
i'm scared to start fresh because of losing everything, the event items, villagers, my catalogue.
but i do miss starting from the start
My island doesn’t even look like anything yet, but i’d flatten, trying to catch up again and get all of that progress again sounds like a pain in the butt.
I hadn't played my game in over a month. I kept feeling like I had NOTHING left to do in my 400 hour game. I impulsively decided to completely flatten my island. Like, completely. And it's the best choice I've made. I love my island now. Took about 20 hours over a few days. But it was so worth it. Even now, I still have things I need to terraform and areas to decorate and now I feel like I can actually enjoy the game again because there are things to do.
My gosh it speaks for it self, flatten it... Your island is so very beautiful. Best I've seen yet. Stunning!
I flattered my island and I’m in the process of redoing everything! Really liking it much more now! Got the same path as you but I find it hard to know what to fill all the spots with 🤔 your island looks so amazing!
I'm a new comer to AC (end of August) and watching your videos has been a huge help. My mindset became that AC is more of a island designing game more than anything else :) It's helped me from spending hours everyday figuring out what to do (and losing productivity elsewhere in my life) and only dedicating some time during the day to AC in designing my island. I've flatten out 1/2 my island and stopped being worried about making sure I move everything into the ~perfect spot~ so I didn't move it again (which caused alotttt of delay In getting anything done). 🤷🏼♀️ So, far I'm loving my islands progress!
I restarted but I don't mind. I like my new island layout so much more (airport and res locations, river mouth locations). But, I'm gonna try not to over terraform, but use the default layout as kind of a foundation, and build cliffs/rivers around it...only tear down original layout if I absolutely need to
I restarted my island because my RS was 5 spaces from my airport and I hated it!
However i got a friend to look after my hybrid flowers, spare DIYs and rare furniture.
I'm one those people who keeps thinking of restarting😅 one thing stopping me is when I did this in new leaf I got in a cycle of playing and restarting. You bring up alot good points and pros/cons to it, I think also can depend on how people like to play the game. At least with having terraforming now gives us more options change things up
My brother logged into this game before despite him barely playing. I always felt like i didn't have any purpose on the island because everything revolved around him. I restarted after he stopped and i have never felt any regret towards restarting. Sure doing the same stuff can be annoying but i honestly love experienceing the story for the first time despite already have playing for 4months
Honestly for me, time traveling has been crucial to preventing burnout with this game.
I’m flattening mine, and even though I hate my airport and residential services, it’s not as bad as losing all the progress I have made. I have every single buyable item catalogued and I can’t even fathom trying to get everything back.
I got a second switch specifically to have a game that I can restart guilt-free, if ever desired. Flattening? Heck no. Too much work; not enough reward. Almost guilt-free, when I have so many nice residents, especially Merry. I had no idea until after I ran into her and invited her that she'd become so popular.
I had finally what I considered the perfect island until I started thinking about redoing it since I had over terraformed, changed the language on my switch (which makes my name and the town stand out in a way Im not pleased about), and thought about redoing my first ever gamecube town in New Horizons.
But with a twist. No terraforming more than just touching up or adding/changing slight parts in the river. Treating construction like I was really having to dig it myself.
But even after this video, I still can’t decide and I don’t want to have to wait to get a switch lite (too broke and will be that way for some time).
Thanks for a great talk on Flatting or restart. I'm going to Flatten just can't lose all I have gotten over the last year and half. Appreciate your ideas.
I just tweek. Whenever I don’t like an area of my island, I live with it for a little while until I get a better idea for that spot I might like better. And I’ve left my island “unfinished” at this point, on purpose. To have room for new updates and items I’ll want to incorporate in the future. I’m not sure what the pressure to “finish” the game is. It’s a game with no finish. It’s a game that for me is supposed to be a slow burn of a game. No rush, no pressure. Just make stuff you like. And if you wind up hating that area. Change it later.
I flattened my island few months ago. I came up with the idea for my map even before I started playing and the more I played the less I liked it. After removing everything I wanted to design pretty and impressive island. So I was gathering inspiration and making plans while playing on completely flat island. After some time I got tired. Doing only daily tasks became so boring that I didn’t play. New season came and I felt bad for not playing so I started to play through every day I missed. After 3 months I’m finally at the same day as in real world. I tried building island during this 3 months and I had half of it. Unfortunately I really hate it. So now I’m flattering it again. No matter what I build I just don’t like it and I want to flat it and start again and build better.... which is tiring
This video got recommended to me at the perfect time, as I have been deciding weather I should flatten my island, or keep it as it is (right now I barely play the game as I very dislike how my island looks), and now after seeing the pros and cons, I have made the executive decision as representative of my island to flatten it and start from the beginning. I will definitely need a lot more bells, because I want to do tons of cataloging with people to get more cool furniture, and also just so I can build new inclines, and bridges, and also move houses around. Hopefully this doesn't take too long as I really want to start building :D
I know this vid is a year old, but wanted to say thanks! I stopped playing right before Bunny Day #2, but the new Direct announcement has me inspired to return. Thanks for this great video on flat vs new. I’m excited to get started FLATTENING my island. 👍
I ended up flattening my original island design. I started the game on launch day and wanted to make a forest theme right away. However, I lost interest in it when cottagecore and naturecore got really trendy. So I flattened and have been working on a more "Town" type feel, like New Leaf.
I have done both as well. Agree that the pros and cons are a personal preference. I enjoyed both but if I could only do one I would probably start all over only because I enjoy the villager hunt process. Have a great week Ryan 💚💙