Landscaping in Animal Crossing is frustrating, we all know that. But trust me when I say that despite the frustration, the controls work in its favor. Yes, having to tear down and rebuild cliffs, rivers and the like is super time consuming and clunky. I’m not disputing this and I feel the same way. Having such a… complicated system serves to do a few things for the player, though.
Because of the potentially massive time — and more importantly — Bell investment, you really have to plan out your layout. You don’t want to spend hours making everything look *just right*, to find out that everything is off by one tile. You especially don’t want to bankrupt yourself with fancy bridges and inclines only to have to tear them down later. I’m definitely not speaking from experience.
So you should always carefully plan out your terraforming and make sure it works out. Unless you thrive on chaos and suffering, you masochist.
Here’s my point: this system makes you think outside the box. Your plans may not always work out, and that’s okay. But just like people finding ways to batch craft without spraining their thumbs, it’s up to the player to think creatively and critically to fix any problems they run into. This could be anything from using the custom design system to your advantage, to manipulating the environment to create the scenario of your dreams. Some people even merged techniques to bring back Brewster! Kinda.
In a divisive move, I have posted a Tik Tok, don’t let this push you away.
By the time you reach the end of your terraforming, you’ll come to appreciate the work you’ve put in to reach that point. The harder you work bringing everything together, the more pride you’ll feel in the finished product, no matter the scale.
That’s why no matter how janky the controls may be, and how infuriating it is to create a whole fourth level only to find out you can’t go that high, thus ruining the idea you had for a legendary house plot… it’s all worth it in the end. Despite the cute exterior, this game wants you to work hard for your island.
Joy-con drift is seriously killing my vibe, though.
