As always, these blurbs are mainly about the video games I’m currently playing. Unedited thoughts spring up in my mind, mostly game-related, sometimes not. Or a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different!
If you like these bits of gaming thoughts, you can find the previous ones here.
Returning to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
I can almost hear you thinking: Why are you writing about an old app game that’s been out for seven years? Well, after all those years, Nintendo has made a move no one was expecting: the current Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp will end on November 28th, 2024, to be replaced on December 3rd by Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, a paid version without micro-transactions and subscriptions that will keep the general gameplay.
Now, I must admit I hadn’t looked back at my game for a long time, but this announcement has made me check back in again. It was sweet to be welcomed back to my campsite, which I had constructed painstakingly years ago!
And somehow, I had forgotten all about The Cabin, where other animals resided, patiently waiting for me to return. It’s like stepping back into a time capsule!
Animal Crossing in Your Pocket?
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is not Animal Crossing in your pocket, as it was dubbed upon release in 2017. The Animal Crossing series usually shines because it respects your time and lets you set your own goals. Whether it’s customizing your home, making friends with villagers, or simply enjoying a quiet moment, the charm lies in its gentle, open-ended nature.
In Pocket Camp, you are met from the start with an overwhelming flood of notifications, prompts, and rewards. It feels more like chasing the myriad of exclamation marks on your screen, and that is not the essence of what Animal Crossing is about.
Playing the game years ago often left me feeling unsure of just what I had accomplished by doing the tasks set before me. Was the item I had just crafted a special one? And what did I have to do to get more wood or wool? Or was it all just a lottery of what resources I would earn? And even though I was willing to study up on the specifics of the game, there was just too much to keep track of.
The introduction of the subscription Pocket Camp Club cinched it for me. I have never paid real money for my gameplay in Pocket Camp, and I was certainly not going to pay a monthly fee!
So, is this change to Pocket Camp Complete a good one? I hope so. Personally, looking at the description, it seems as if this might be positive for players like me who never took the Club subscription. The one-time fee is perfect, no more micro-transactions. Hopefully, it will focus more on the gameplay I love: creating the campsite, collecting furniture and items and finding peaceful but still engaging gameplay. But I love the social part, too, and I wonder how that will turn out.
What to Expect from Pocket Camp Complete?
So what are the differences between the old and the new game, and what can we look forward to? For a lot of people, the fact that it won’t require constant internet access is a bonus. The downside of this is that online features involving friends, such as the Market Box and gifts, are removed. The only way other players can interact with each other is by scanning a player’s QR code to receive their Camper Card. This card will feature your in-game image, which you can make posing with a villager against a customizable background. The card displays your name and level and features a QR code that other players can scan to add that card to their Camper Card list.
And then there’s Whistle Pass, a new location in the game, where the friends whose Camper Cards have been registered appear. K.K. Slider performs each night at 7 PM.
In addition to the items and events released in the past seven years in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, new items and events have been added to Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. However, there will be no more new events and cookies after October 2025.
There are no in-game purchases where you could buy Leaf Ticket, instead, it uses Leaf Tokens which are earned through gameplay.
If you have a subscription to the Pocket Camp Club, that will end of course. Along with that, the following, and I totally understand that’s really a bummer if you’ve enjoyed them so much in the past years.
- Fave Photo / Album
- Pocket Camp Club Journal
- Planner step count stickers
- Shorten Craft Time feature
- Stamps
- Seasonal-event rewards from the Merry Memories Plan
- Camp Caretaker history
- Members-only discounted items
If you are going for the new game, you better make sure that your current game is tied to your Nintendo account so you can transfer almost all important player data from one game to the other, including your level, Bells, friendship levels, inventory and warehouse items, layouts of the campsite, cabin, and camper, and current and saved outfits. Keep in mind that this will only work until Pocket Camp shuts down on November 29. After that, you can’t link accounts.
The new game is available for a one-time cost of $9.99. However, if you’re joining after January 31st, 2025, the price will double to $19.99. I must say I’m really looking forward to the Complete version!
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