There are a number of places that make up the towns of
Animal Crossing, with shops being the main place to get items. With this
planned Switch outing, I created a map that included a shopping district full
of various shops and places, with the previous part of Crossing to the New Life
looking at a few of those places.
Games Hire, Destinations, Favoured Fortunes, and the
Arcade were talked about last time, with all four featuring connectivity in a
big way. The shopping district features a lot more, though. Those places will
be detailed here. The map of the shopping district is here again, so you don't need to refer to the last post.
And to start with, the two places that will start the
shopping district off. The general store of Timmy and Tommy, with their uncle
Tom at Nook’s Homes. Both have seen a bit of a change to reflect other changes
within the game.
The general store now stocks something of every item
category in the game. So why would you go to those other stores if everything
is available here? Because there’s a 100% cost increase on every item on sale.
So why would you go here once you have access to all the other stores? The
lottery returns. For every 10,000 bells spent at the store, you’ll get a
lottery ticket. At the end of every month, you can return those tickets to the
store for a chance at winning some rare or even character exclusive items.
As for Nook’s Homes, it is now able to expand to include
more designs. The themes available have increased, and for those basic themes
you are now able to select from ten colours to paint it. The outside of the
home isn’t the only place where customisation options have increased. Remember
the interiors? Remember paying a mortgage to have to expand? Not any more. You
pay for exactly what you want, with the ability to now have a custom layout
across a 30x30 space. You’ll start off with a 5x5 space, and have to expand,
with the custom layouts available from the 15x15 space.
The detail of that custom space is all dealt with by
Nook, who you’ll talk to to access the room layout menu. With this extra
ability, you can design the interior of your house to be as basic or as weird
as you want. It doesn’t come cheap, with each piece of wall being 5000 bells
[per space used], but it now allows those who really love designing their house
to show off to friends an extra way to manage the space. And of course, don’t
forget about the dream world you can make through Favoured Fortunes. Such
expanded design options will come in real handy for those who go the extra
mile, especially since wallpapers and floors can be spread in individual
sections of the house now.
You might have been thinking about the 100% cost increase
of those items unavailable elsewhere but at the general store, but that has
been fixed. Leif’s Leaves holds the shovel, axe and watering can, along with a
range of plants. As stated in the last post, Destinations has the fishing rod,
bug net, and swimsuit. The post office gets writing paper. The slingshot and
timer are available from Games Hire as items you keep. That just leaves the
home décor.
New store Interior Antics is where to go for furniture,
carpets and wallpaper. By being separate from the general store, more items can
be displayed, with the carpets and wallpapers being on display as they would
look in your house with signs giving name and price. This store will
occasionally get a whole set together – displayed in a special area of the
store that can only be bought as a whole package. No discounts if you already
own part of the set.
The Museum now takes up three floors. The ground level
hosts fossils, paintings, and exotic items [found on the islands you travel to
with Destinations]. In the basement is the aquarium, with the insectarium on
the top floor. The gift shop and custom exhibits have gone, since everything
they offered are now elsewhere.
Gracie returns with her store and expensive items, along
with adding a few more items to that collection. The Post Office remains much
the same as it always has, aside from the addition of selling paper-based items.
The Police Station once again acts as the lost and found and the best way to
see if any special characters are hanging around.
Club LOL returns with KK Slider and Doctor Shrunk holding
the fort once again. As ever, you can learn emotions from the good Doctor,
though he once again returns to his comedy act on stage. KK is still doing his
DJ act every night except Saturday nights – where he’ll once again play the
songs he’s famous for. However, he’ll also head out of the club on occasion on
these times for the fresh outdoors. He’ll be at the beach, lake, or train
station’s café at these times.
The Able Sister’s shop sells everything clothing related,
much as it has always done. It also features an upgrade. At first only Mabel
manages the store with Sable at the sewing machine as always. The main priority
will be tops and bottoms, though an accessory or footwear will show up a few
days within the week. Labelle returns after an upgrade to bring more
accessories into the store, with Kicks bringing a lot more footwear to the
store. I had thought whether it would be wise to put Shampoodle in with the Able
Sisters’ store, but there would be too much inside, so it has now separated
into its own space.
All these places are sure to put a strain on the number
of times you’ll be looking at things and visiting the various shops, which
brings up a new way to shop. Just as you can sell items in bulk, you can now
buy in bulk as well. When in a shop, just select an item to view its name and
price, and decide to add it to the basket. Once you’ve browsed and added
everything you want, just head to the store owner to buy it all. If you leave
the store without doing so, you won’t have bought or stolen it, as it will all
return to where it was.
Re-Tail, while not a part of the shopping district, is
just as important. It’s the place where you sell things, and get furniture
customised. And customisation, as has been told quite a bit, is a larger thing
within this ideas haul of mine. With the power of the Switch, I’m confident
there will be a greater focus on it – in all areas – and so the next Crossing
to the New Life will be looking into the campsite and the town and the various
ways to customise them.
Crossing to the New Life Series