4/6/2026
I've gotten awfully into the 'cozy' game genre as of recent, especially for the Nintendo 3DS. I'd personally give this title to the types of games that are either 'life sims' or focused more on creating than playing.
For ones I've liked:
I hadn't touched the genre(s) for a long time until a remaster for Miitopia came out on Switch, and I picked it up in 2024 a few years later. The game had a fantastic Mii-maker, with so much customization through the Makeup feature.
After experiencing the Mii creator there, I was left hoping for a remaster or sequel to Tomodachi Life. Low and behold, one was announced soon after I stopped playing Miitopia. Fun fact, I only did so because my joy cons gained stick drift, which would make Mii-creating very annoying. That was the third in my line of joy con controllers...
I bought a New 3DS XL a bit after it released in 2014, alongside Yo Kai Watch and Tomodachi Life. Later additions included Luigi's Mansion 2 and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (the star of this particular blog subset). That 3DS and its games ended up being sold to Gamestop years later in a decision I came to regret.
Flash forwards to 2024, and I purchased a New 3DS in August to mod and play all my childhood games on. Flash forwardser to March 2026, and I had the random inclination to pick back up Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
I started playing it the end of March. After almost a week, a blog site came to my attention. JVGS. His entries about Tomodachi Life were so interesting to me. Documenting your experience with a 'cozy' game sounded like such a fun thing to write. So, I became inspired to pick back up html after a year of stagnation, and create my own blogs. Ironically, I haven't read any of his New Leaf blogs yet...
Here's what happened in my first week of playing. There's not a lot of pictures, since I didn't have the hindsight to take many. So for this entry, enjoy my blocks of text!
After a quick train ride, I arrived at Feltine, and was shoehorned into becoming it's mayor on March 29th, 2026.
The residents greeted me there. Those being:
I liked this selection of Villagers. ...All except for Big-Top...
Like any good Animal Crossing player, I was dead set on destroying this individual. Allthough, I handled it in a more... literal way.
You see, on my original playthrough of New Leaf, I had this villager named Bill.
I don't know what drew me to him, but he became my favorite. So, with the help of some unconventional assistence, Big-Top was usurped by Bill in my village.
I took a few more... creative liberties before finishing messing with the save.
I placed my home near the bottom of the town. The down payment was a decent amount. I believe I paid it over three days. It definitely could've been done sooner, but I spent a lot of my funds on decorations.
Once Nookling Junction stocked most of the base tools, I began my journey into capitalism. Fishing became the real moneymaker. Or, would be, if I didn't donate half of my catches to the museum.
Bug catching wasn't panning out well. I suspect it's because I play during the later hours. It feels like there should be more insect activity than there is.
Three more Villagers moved in.
No idea how I'm paying that.
There was some doppelganger panic over April Fools
I forgot to play over Easter, since, ironically, I was working on this website.
A random guy--Gulliver--washed up on shore. He asked some trivia questions about France and remarked how we definitely weren't going to meet again.
I planted 3 orange trees at some point, and only 2 grew. Ankha moved in around where they were, so I can only assume that she built her home over one.
New Leaf's been very fun. I usually play games in big spurts, so it's nice to play one with a focus on slowing down. I'll add more entries as more events or occurances happen.
As for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my house's interior.
