If you haven’t picked up on a trend in my gaming coverage at Sketching Details, I’ll clue you in on some constants. The games I enjoy are horror games, rhythm games, and rpg/adventure games. I like Rogue-like mechanics and the ability to play a game over and over with new experiences each time. I am fiercely loyal to franchises I’ve enjoyed in the past and will always give a series the benefit of a doubt if something goes wrong.
Sometimes, I just fall out of love with one of these games, and it’s okay. There are two I’m thinking of in particular that kind of make me sad.
First up is Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch. I stand by my (mostly) glowing review from when it launched. This is the best Animal Crossing game yet. All the features, character interactions, and growing list of activities you can do on your own island are a lot of fun. I just can’t be in that space right now.
So what happened? I pushed too hard on the events. Many people escaped into this colorful world of larger than life animal friends during quarantine related to Covid-19. I always planned on playing the new game and was excited to have so many new gamer friends to play with online.
However, the lack of real person to person interaction wreaked havoc on my mental health. Specifically, my OCD got really bad. I would spend upwards of four hours a day cleaning parts of my house to keep me safe from the virus. I was also playing Animal Crossing at least five hours a day. I HAD to get all the collectibles, and meet all the characters, and pay off all my bills, and build all the objects, and get every hidden treasure in the events that rolled out every few weeks.
I burned myself out. The game wasn’t fun anymore. It wasn’t a silly escape, either. It was a daily chore to win at a casual game meant to be played a little bit here and there. The breaking point was the Easter event, where you literally could not take three steps without getting another egg. I had to have them all to get all the items to make Zipper happy and get the grand prize items for the event.
I also have terrible memories of how cruel the villagers would be in the original Animal Crossing if you didn’t interact with them every day. I have responded poorly to negative character interaction since the first generation of Tamagotchi. I used to cry if I found out my Neopets were starving because I couldn’t play for a few days. My heart can’t take super cute characters being lonely or in pain.
I haven’t touched Animal Crossing since May. I don’t feel guilt about this like I did when I finally gave up on New Leaf on the 3DS. I just know that if I return now, my island will be covered in weeds and villagers who missed me. When I go back (spooky times must be coming in the fall), I’ll just start a new game with a new island and try to take it easy.
The other title really disappointed me in ways you’ll never fully appreciate. I have been looking forward to Pokemon Sword & Shield DLC since it was first announced. Shield was the most fun I had playing a new Pokemon game since Pokemon Snap on the N64. I bought into the universe and all of its quirks from the start.
The first of three DLC chapters started well for me. I got to battle a new kind of Slowpoke in a train station and meet my rival, a psychic trainer who studies at a dojo on a new island. I eagerly jumped into the new world, running through the grass and seeing who my new friends would be.
Then I spotted them. My favorite Pokemon. The GOAT. The one true power in this franchise. I’m speaking of course of Jigglypuff. This adorable pink puffball with the voice of an angel has been my favorite since the anime first aired in America. I could finally get one for my Shield team.
They destroyed my precious child. The Wild Area mechanic, where you wander the world and can encounter, battle, and capture free range Pokemon living in harmony with each other, automatically puts all the characters at level 60 in the DLC. That’s fine. I like a powerful Pokemon. But these wild Pokemon have the same default moves that you’d find on a level 5 Pokemon.
That means my sweet Jigglypuff was as useful as a wild Kakuna in Viridian Forest: not at all. To make a native Jigglypuff worthwhile, I would have to go to a Pokemon Daycare and breed it with a Ditto. Then, I’d have to hatch the egg and raise it from level 1 to level 60+ so it could actually be competitive. That’s a lot of grind that could have been avoided if Game Freak (the developers) put a little more thought into the value of wild Pokemon at such a high level. Sure, this isn’t a new problem in the series (a wild Pokemon will always be less evolved but slightly stronger than one you raised from a younger level), but they actively made an admitted mediocre Pokemon bad by just raising stats without changing any moves.
It’s a silly reason to stop playing, and it’s not the only reason. I spent hours trying to complete the second of three challenges at the Dojo to advance the story beyond the “here’s the new lore” phase. It was not worth it. I haven’t touched the game in weeks because I’m so disappointed in the needless grind they instituted at the start of a new Pokemon adventure.
These are just two of the bigger examples. There are other games I fall in and out of love with all the time. Teamfight Tactics is the best or worst competitive online game I play depending on what they do with each update. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled The Binding of Isaac/Afterbirth more times than most people have ever played matches in the game. It’s natural to move on from games. My OCD just makes that honeymoon period so much more intense and consuming, so the inevitable falling out of favor hurts a little more.
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