Friday, June 14, 2013

Welcome to Animachi

For the last two days, I've been doing what every self-respecting 3DS owner has been doing for at least that long, if not longer--playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf as much as possible.

Granted, much of that time has been spent fishing and "hunting" various insects with my trusty butterfly net--as opposed to, you know, gardening or landscaping or planning the layout of the gyroid-filled mansion I'm sure to own in the future--but considering that's how I've spent 90 percent of my time while playing previous Animal Crossing games, I guess it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

That's not what you came here to read about, though, is it? No, I'm guessing you came here to read about--and see screenshots of--my New Leaf town and characters. Thankfully, I've got all of that in spades.

Below, for instance, is a snapshot of my female character, Aino--named after a figure from Finnish mythology--stepping foot into Animachi, my town, for the first time.



I came up with the name Animachi, by the way, by combining the first three letters of "animal" with one of the Japanese words for town or village. Fitting, don't you think?



Oh, and here's a shot of Animachi's first citizens (aka my welcoming committee): Rizzo, Barold, Snake, Winnie and Chevre. (My favorite at the moment is Barold, by the way--don't tell Snake!)



One of the first things I--er, I mean, Aino--did after getting settled in Animachi: buy a fortune cookie from the nearby Nookling Junction shop. (And, no, I don't know why Aino decided to wait until she was inside the museum to crack it open.)



Aino sports the above-mentioned "green hat" (aka the "hero's cap") in the screenshot below. Pretty nifty, eh?



Not so nifty: the fact that the river that runs through Animachi is infested with piranha. Not that Aino seems to mind.



Below is my male character, named--surprise!--Bryan. It could be said that he's probably a bit peppier than I am, and he certainly has a cooler 'do than I do, but other than that we're pretty similar.



Bryan's first task after stepping foot in Animachi: partying at Barold's crib. Sadly, the party was a bit of a bust, as Barold forgot to buy the pizza we were going to eat.



Oh, well, at least he got to check out Barold's pad--which, as you can see in the shot below, is the height of pre-industrial Russian fashion.



And with that the introduction to Animachi ends.

I'll more than likely provide another update on the lives of Aino and Bryan at some point in the future, but in the meantime, I'd love to hear all about your towns and characters in the comments section below.

Or, even better, open your town gate when you're able so I can experience it in person. Don't worry, I'll bring along a housewarming gift of a basket of peaches (Animachi's main fruit).

See also: 'Should I be a boy or a girl? (Or, my kind of silly Animal Crossing: New Leaf conundrum)'

51 comments:

michaelstearns said...

Animachi has some lovely locations! Is that blue-colored screen of an aquarium or some kind of park?


I assume New Leaf has some kind of screen capture function, or is there some general feature to the 3DS I don't know about?

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, yes, I should have labeled that one, eh, Michael? The blue screenshot was taken inside the local aquarium--one of my favorite spots so far.


And, yes, New Leaf allows you to take screenshots by pressing the L and R shoulder buttons at the same time. Nab them off the SD card and, BAM!, you've got yourself some clean-as-snot screenies :)

michaelstearns said...

Nice! It would be nice if you could do that with any game (I suppose it's up to the maker!)

thegaygamer.com said...

Yes, it definitely would be nice if you could do it with any game (at the OS level, basically) but, unfortunately, it's only done on a game-by-game basis at the moment :|

Zaphod65 said...

Very cool town. I hope I can visit and convince Winnie to move to Dunwich, ha-ha.



I love the screenshot feature and tend to abuse it all the time. I wish the 3DS was like the Vita and allowed it for most games.

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, peaches :| That said, I got a banana, durian, mango (I think) and pear from another friend a few days ago, so those should be ready to harvest and pass on soon. We'll have to trade!


We should meet up in one of our villages sometime soon--tonight, this weekend, whenever. Oh, and we'll have to make each other best friends! It's so useful to be able to see who's on line and who isn't.

thegaygamer.com said...

Hey, you can take Winnie, Terry! Not that I hate her or anything, but she's not my favorite. Just don't even THINK about stealing Snake or Barold, as they ARE my faves at the moment :)


Also, YES, I wish the 3DS allowed for screenshotting (?) in all games. I wonder if Nintendo could allow that through an OS update?

Zaphod65 said...

I came up with a name for my New Leaf screencap comics: "The Dunwich Hoarder." They're mostly innocent little vignettes from around town, but I'm having fun going into darker, adult-oriented directions. lol

thegaygamer.com said...

I love it, Terry--and I love the comics, too. Are you posting them anywhere other than on Twitter, BTW--such as on a tumblr or something?

Zaphod65 said...

I was posting them on Facebook and Twitter, but I set up a Tumblr this morning. I'm still figuring out how it all works, but they'll be at http://dunwichhoarder.tumblr.com/

thegaygamer.com said...

Awesome! Not only will I follow it, but I want to promote it, too :)

Zaphod65 said...

Ha. Thanks. There are only six comics on there so far, but I'm having fun making them and seeing where they go as more game options are unlocked.

thegaygamer.com said...

Hey, six is a good start, if you ask me. Anyway, keep them up! Maybe I'll write a short blog post about them and your tumblr this weekend. Would you be OK with that?

thegaygamer.com said...

BTW, my favorite activity in the game ALSO is stocking the museum. Well, along with regular old fishing, I mean :)

Lizzi said...

Hi there Bryan!
I love your female character :D
She look's so damn cute and Animachi ist a great name for your town.
Is there any chance, that we can visit each others towns someday? :3
I already unlocked the island and I would love to show you my town "Kitaya".
Yours Lizzi

thegaygamer.com said...

Hey there, Lizzi! Glad to hear you like Aino. She is cute, isn't she? That said, I'm looking forward to the time when I can change her hair :)


As for you visiting my town, or me visiting yours: yes! I'd love that :) Your town probably has more to offer than mine at the moment, so maybe we should start with me visiting yours?


Maybe we should connect via Twitter this weekend and set up a day/time??

Zaphod65 said...

That would be fine with me. :)

thegaygamer.com said...

GREAT! I'll likely either publish it this weekend or early next week...

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, I love Snake, so I'm pretty stoked. Also, Barold is surprisingly adorable, so I'm happy he's a neighbor, too.


Anyway, hopefully both of us will get some even greater neighbors in the coming weeks. After all, our towns can have 10 of them, right?


As for visiting each other: YES! I could bring you some peaches now, and soon I should have pears and mangos (I think) and durians and bananas.


The latter won't be available for a bit, though. Harrumph!


Do you have access to the island yet, or anything other than the starter shops, etc?

Kaze said...

I only have the starter shops so far, but I should have the island by tomorrow! So hopefully I'll have some more fruit to offer! ^^

I just changed my town to a night owl town since I usually stay up late! lol

thegaygamer.com said...

Seems I should have the island tomorrow, too, as Tortimer just visited me. Yeehaw!


I can't do any public works projects yet, though. I think I should be able to in a few days.


I wanna do some stuff! And plant fruit trees! And make clothes! Ahhhhhh!!!

Lizzi said...

Hi there Bryan!
Just tell me when you have time to visit my town :)
But I can tell you, it has nothing to offer yet :/
Still I would like to meet your Aino and add you to my "best-friendslist" in the game :D
I can't get enough of the game so just tell me date and time and I'll be there! ;)

thegaygamer.com said...

My town also doesn't have anything to offer yet, Lizzi :( That said, I should gain access to the island tomorrow, so at least there's that!


Maybe we should try connecting tomorrow? We could go to the island together. Would tomorrow around this time work for you? Earlier or later would work for me, too.


And, YES, we'll have to add each other as best friends :)

Lizzi said...

I already have access to the island so we have the chance to play the mini-game :)
Even if your island needs another day to appear.
Tomorrow would work out pretty fine for me.
It's sunday so I have the whole day to play AC :3
Awww I'm so excited! :D

thegaygamer.com said...

Me, too! So, maybe I should come to your village, since my island is in question?

Lizzi said...

That would be great :)
Thank you for having time for me :D

thegaygamer.com said...

Well, I could thank you, too, you know! Anyway, looking forward to it :)

thegaygamer.com said...

By the way, just wait until you see Aino's bunny outfit. She's stylin' :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, the best friend thingy's no big deal--I can walk you through it once we've connected (once we're in a town together). It's nice because it allows you to send messages to your 'best friends' even if you aren't in the same town. So, I could let you know I'm on line and my town gate's open, etc.


As for scanning QR codes: as far as I'm aware, you have to talk to the shy Able sister (Mable? I can't remember--the one at the sewing machine) once per day for a number of days--three or four, I think. After that, you're supposed to get an option when you talk to her that allows you to scan QR codes.


That's what I've read on line, at least. She's yet to give me the option, so I don't know it for sure yet!

Nate said...

omg your characters look so cute (: Whereabouts did you build your house? I built mine next to the waterfall.. it is so damn perfect. I wish my real house was next to a waterfall :/


We need to visit each others town soon ! I'll bring some oranges seeing as you have peaches as your local fruit (:

thegaygamer.com said...

Thanks, Nate! I built both of my homes on either side of a crook in the river than runs through the village. I should've posted a shot of the map!


And, yes, we'll have to visit each others' towns. Have we exchanged FCs already? I honestly can't remember...

Nate said...

yeahs we added each other a long time ago (: Can't wait to visit your town !!! Did you reset your game for your town layout or did you just pick the first one they given you? I almost resetted my game like 50 times. loool i think i have an ocd with this game.

Lizzi said...

Hi :)
Just tell me when to open my city-gates :D

thegaygamer.com said...

Actually, I didn't reset even once! I did say 'no' to the option given me at least once or twice, though :)

Lizzi said...

How do i invite you?

Lizzi said...

The gate is open.

Justin Difazzio said...

I love talking to her, since she's so taciturn and warms up to you. That was one of my favorite aspects of the last AC game. I love character growth. Well, hooray! Maybe she'll tell me about it soon.


And yeah...every time I look on my friend's list, EVERYONE is playing Animal Crossing. It cracks me up. Hope we get to play together soon!

thegaygamer.com said...

I like character growth, too, especially in a game like this :)


And, yes, it's amazing how everyone seems to be playing this game right now. Who would've thought it would be the game to really ignite the 3DS in North America??


Also, YES, let's play together soon. Really, we HAVE to go to the island together. Have you been yet? I went for the first time this morning and MY GOD was it fun! I probably could've spent the whole real-world day there, but in the end I decided it would be a good idea to do something else, too :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh! I'll check and see if they're still open in a few minutes. Have to take a break :)

Lizzi said...

Ok, I opened it again. :)

Justin Difazzio said...

I went yesterday, too! I whacked that coconut 102 times! So many! But I haven't seen it all yet. I wanted to mete it out a little at a time. So...maybe today I'll go back.

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh! I don't think I had access to that game when I visited earlier--or maybe I missed it? I participated in a bunch of fishing contests in order to win coins and also fished and caught beetles, etc., to bring back to Animachi with me :)

thegaygamer.com said...

OK, let me take a short break (5 minutes) and then I'll seek you out!

Justin Difazzio said...

Hm. I had a beginner course of hammer something-or-other...and yeah...I caught some CRAZY GOOD bugs. Sounds like we BOTH need to go back.

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, I had four options when I visited the island for the first time this morning: two were fishing contests, one was a matching game (dig up stuff that matches) and one was a fossil challenge.

Lizzi said...

Thank you so much for vitising me!
It was fun playing the mini-games with you :)

thegaygamer.com said...

No, thank YOU for having me. It was a blast! We'll definitely have to do it again soon, if you're up for it :)

Nightmare Bruce said...

Whoa, popular thread! If you've got time to fit another person in
sometime, I'd love to come to your place (or vice versa) with some
gifts/clothing designs. I have access to the island but have yet to go there...apparently there's stuff to do there besides fish/bug hunt?

It's
really nice to see everyone talking about AC these days, you never hear
about people playing 3DS and now it's a big phenomenon. It's really all I've been doing lately, haha--I'm working on a series of short comics about my town for fun.

Justin Difazzio said...

Hm. I'll have to go back. How strange that all events aren't open.

superphillip32 said...

I started a journal on SuperPhillip Central for my town. http://www.superphillipcentral.com/2013/06/animal-crossing-journal-new-leaf-edition.html


I hope that's okay to post. Anyway, I'd love to visit some of your towns or vice versa!

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, that's definitely OK, Phillip. After all, this is a New Leaf post :) Anyway, I'll check out your journal. Sounds fun!