I'm a little Elf with 18,500 mortgage

December 3, 2003 | 1 Comments

I hate being sick. There's nothing I can do but laying around and watch some crappy TV shows. So I thought I'll cheer myself up by playing this game I just rent called Animal Crossing (GC). At a first glance, it looks a lot like Harvest Moon, this farming RPG that I enjoy quite a bit which is why I rented the game to begin with. But as I was playing it, I started to wonder if I was wrong after all.

Maybe I was in a foul mood what with the sickness and all but I became even more depressed while I was playing this game. The game started by forcing me to buy a house (since the character that I play has just moved to this new town) even though it is obvious that I don't have a lot of money at this point in time in the game. So as result I have 18,500 Bells (the currency that Animal Crossing uses) mortgage. Now I remember why I haven't bought a house yet in real life! On top of things, the person who sold the house to my character in the game decides to take advantage of the fact that I have a mortgage by forcing me to work for him. At first I thought it's a good idea until I found out that I was being paid a slave wages.

All of this will be fine and dandy and I'll considered it as a challange within the game had the rest of the experience within the game is pleasant. But no, not only I have a mortgage, I also found out that my virtual neighbours are bunch of annoying snobs who talk in this annoying manner where they call you names like 'sweet-pea', 'cuddles', etc. Hey, just like in real life! *groan*. Did I mention that I also happen to be this little Elf with a bad taste in clothing? The worst part of it all is the fact that the game seems to refuse to move forward unless you've finished a particular task. For example, until I finished introducing myself to the rest of the townsfolk, I can't seem to do anything else to pay the debt that I have to my employer. And maybe I'm wrong about this, but I also seem unable to sell the apples/items that I've found throughout the town at this early stage of the game.

Anyway, if any of you have played this game longer than I have, can you tell me if it gets better later on? And for those of you who are interested to give it a whirl anyway, check out IGN's Animal Kingdom's review (which is very positive - so maybe it's just my mood after all).

© memento 2003