For fans of the life sim genre, the similarities betweenDisney Dreamlight ValleyandAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsare pretty apparent. Both games allow players to manage a quaint village of friendly characters, customizing the experience to their liking with different furniture items and clothing options, and working towards building relationships with their inhabitants. However,Disney Dreamlight Valleyleans more into its adventure and exploration elements thanAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, setting up the successor to the latter to borrow some of the former’s more robust mechanics related to farming and cooking.
Ever sinceAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsstopped receiving major content updates after November 2021, many players have looked to fill the content void with alternative life sim experiences, andDisney Dreamlight Valleywas a natural fit for fans of the genre. DespiteDisney Dreamlight Valleystill being in early access, the game’s regular content updates have made it the go-to game for those looking to scratch thatAnimal Crossingitch. WhileAnimal Crossing: New Horizons' 2.0 Updated featured some basic cooking features, Nintendo should expand these mechanics to the level ofDisney Dreamlight Valleyin the next entry in theAnimal Crossingseries.
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The Animal Crossing Series is Due for a Cooking and Farming Overhaul like that of Disney Dreamlight Valley
Animal Crossing: New Horizons' cookingand farming systems are pretty bare bones compared to other life sim games with similar mechanics likeStory of Seasons,Stardew Valley, andDisney Dreamlight Valley. Players can grow certain foods by planting them in individual plots in the ground like they would bury any other item, and once harvested, can cook them into meals using specific DIY recipes. However, these dishes are mostly just for show and decorating players' homes as the only bonus they give from eating them is the ability to break rocks or dig up trees, just like eating any simple fruit would.
Food plays a much larger role inDisney Dreamlight Valley, where cooking meals can have more significant gameplay-altering effects. Players will need to eat food in order to replenish their energy, a necessary resource for using items imbued with magic, and meals can be created from a variety of ingredients either bought fromDisney Dreamlight Valley’s Goofy’s Stallor Chez Remy, gathered from around the different biomes, or farmed by the player themselves. In addition to energy replenishment, eating meals can provide other bonuses as well including faster movement speed, increased luck when gathering resources, and the ability to glide using magic.
The nextAnimal Crossinggame is in a prime position to incorporate some of these more complex cooking and farming elements to build upon the foundation built by theAnimal Crossing: New Horizons' 2.0 UpdateandDisney Dreamlight Valley. In addition to improving the system for growing crops to make it easier to build large plots of farmland, the nextAnimal Crossingshould include a variety of unique bonuses for different types of meals. Giving players the ability to boost their fishing luck or increase the currency they can earn from selling items for a short period would make cooking meals an essential part of gameplay.
Different ingredients could also yield meals with different abilities, such as cooking fish giving the fishing luck bonus, or certain types of fruit increasing the player’s movement speed. Expanding the series' cooking mechanics to include bonuses for players based on the types of meals they cook would greatly enhance gameplay options and could even justify the inclusion of abrand-newAnimal Crossingvillagerwho specializes in cooking and sells the player rare ingredients for their meals.Animal Crossing: New Horizonsalready contains a lot of elements that form the base of a robust cooking system, but the game doesn’t realize them to their full potential.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis available now for Nintendo Switch.
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