The Next Animal Crossing Would Be Wise to Riff on Stardew Valley in One Big Way

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 16, 2024 64 Views 7 Min Read
The Next Animal Crossing Would Be Wise to Riff on Stardew Valley in One Big Way

With the Nintendo Switch 2 on the way, fans are speculating about what titles will be released alongside the console. Animal Crossing has been a top contender in discussion, especially considering the massive success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, new installments in a franchise always need to separate themselves from their predecessors in some way. The next Animal Crossing game could achieve this by taking inspiration from Stardew Valley.




Many have suggested that Animal Crossing’s next installment will separate itself by adding more villagers and villager types. This is the most plausible way that this new game will distinguish itself. However, adding new farm mechanics to Animal Crossing could add to its cozy atmosphere while also adding new game play for players to enjoy.

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Current Animal Crossing Farming

Of course, Animal Crossing has toyed with farm mechanics over the course of the franchise’s history. The most obvious example is produce in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Crops include carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, sugarcane, tomatoes, and wheat. These crops are used primarily for cooking ingredients, though they are also used to craft some items.


However, the growing mechanics for crops in Animal Crossing are a tad lackluster. Crops planted from seed take up to three days to fully grow and will produce one to three vegetables depending on how much a player waters the plants. For example, two days of watering results in three crops, one day results in two, and no days results in one. Once a plant is harvested, it will regrow starting at the second stage of growth.

How Animal Crossing Could Become a Farming Simulator

While the watering mechanic for produce is interesting, it can certainly be improved. Animal Crossing has the benefit of functioning in real world time, while Stardew Valley runs on in-game time. Animal Crossing’s real world clock would be an incredible and unique feature to apply to farming by varying growth times based on crop type, maintenance, and more.


Additionally, watering is the only way to develop crops as farm game play is very simple in New Horizons. A new Animal Crossing game that marketed itself as a farm that villagers could visit, rather than a town or an island, could cement itself as a farming simulator to rival Stardew Valley, especially considering how well established the franchise is. Therefore, farm mechanics in New Horizons should be expanded upon to include fertilizer, plowing, and so forth.

Certain crops could also be available depending upon the seasons. Pumpkins in Animal Crossing: New Horizons already have a festive reputation, with the vegetable used to craft Halloween items. If a farm-themed Animal Crossing installment used the game’s real-world clock to affect crop growth, seasons should also affect which crops can be harvested and grown, once again, in the same vein as Stardew Valley. This change could also inspire which crops Nintendo chooses to add to Animal Crossing, as the current number of plants is far too low for this mechanic to work.


New Additions to Animal Crossing’s Farming

Even farm-like elements of Animal Crossing outside of New Horizons’ crops could be expanded upon or improved in a farm-themed Animal Crossing installment. Fruit trees could benefit from explicitly being a part of gardening or farming mechanics in a hypothetical future installment. Rather than picking fruit from trees indiscriminately, players could grow fruit in more realistic ways. This change may be controversial as it would be directly changing a game mechanic that’s existed in Animal Crossing for quite some time. However, Nintendo could justify this with the help of the hypothetical game’s explicit farming theme and a greater variety of fruit crops.

Ultimately, details of the next Animal Crossing game likely won’t be revealed until Nintendo has unveiled its next console, and possibly even later. Until then, fans can get their farming fix in Stardew Valley and try their hand at produce in Animal Crossing.


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