Well, here we are. Part of me can’t believe I did this, and the other part can’t believe it took me this long when I’ve been hyperfixated on ACNH since the end of October. But, after months of obsession and yearning, I finally caved and ordered a second Switch so I could build another island.
This obviously was not my first move out of the gate. My first move out of the gate was to set up a second user on my first Switch, back when I only had one Switch, and try to make another island that way. It now turns out that the game data is tied to the device rather than the game card or the user account, and, rather than giving me a brand new island, it instead tried to set up my second user as another Jelly Cove resident. And if you are at all familiar with my attitude towards roommates, you will know that the idea of an islandmate was intolerable. I must say I did not realize I had ordered the Hong Kong edition until I saw the AC adapter and noticed that the writing on the box was mostly in Chinese, but I suppose these are out of circulation by now, so I got whatever they had. I mean, it’s fine. It still talks to me in English, so we’re good.
Anyway, long story short, I broke down a couple of weeks into June and ordered an ACNH special edition Switch, because I’ve been wanting one anyway and also so I can tell my two Switches apart. Switch, case, and game arrived a week later, and then last weekend I locked myself in my hermit cave apartment and set up my new island, named Mossflower in case anyone was wondering if I liked Redwall at all. (And my new character is named Nona, in case anyone was wondering if I liked the Locked Tomb at all.) I have now been playing for a week, and I have zero regrets. I paid off my tent and collected enough bugs and fish to blow off Blathers’s feathered bottom on the first day, and I had my museum tent by the second. As of this writing, I have the first-gen Nook’s Cranny and the full-blown museum, I’ve moved in three villagers, my Resident Services building will be fully upgraded by Monday, the first of the Able sisters has found her way to my island, and I’ve paid off my first housing loan and signed up for the second.
Today was particularly good, because I caught a coelacanth and my first-ever moon jellyfish. I’m very excited. I love all jellyfish, but moon jellyfish are my special favorites.
All of this is absolutely insane, and it really goes to show how different it is starting a game when you already know what you need and how to play. I have been trying to remember how long it took me to pay off my tent and my first housing loan on Jelly Cove, but I know for a fact that I did not have the tent paid off on the first day. I’ve been playing very aggressively this time around, and it feels great. I don’t feel like I made the wrong decision in ordering a second Switch. My only real difficulty has been in keeping myself from cheating and transferring money and goods from Jelly Cove to Mossflower, because I want to build this island completely from scratch. I will admit that I did connect my two islands and gift myself some clothes from Cnidaria’s wardrobe, but that’s slightly different because I wasn’t wild about my starter outfit and Cnidaria never wears the clothes I brought over. As a side note, it was very surreal visiting myself.
Highlight of the week: getting the DIY wardrobe recipe from Tom Nook. Yes, really. I was literally going crazy pulling my clothes out of storage and then putting them back every day, and I was thisclose to shipping myself one of Cnidaria’s unused wardrobes because I’d completely forgotten that you only get the wardrobe recipe when you attend the customization workshop. I’m glad I managed to restrain myself long enough to find out, I would’ve been annoyed as shit if I’d ended up with two wardrobes.
And, after all the time I spent wondering which villagers I was going to get, I already hate three of them and I’m gonna ignore them right off my island ASAP. Also, I find it hilarious that Nana turned up on Mossflower when I already have her on Jelly Cove.
In terms of island theme, I’m planning on a bookish, Redwallish aesthetic (obviously), which means I will be looking for mouse and squirrel villagers for that authentic Redwall vibe. Apple and Nana can stay for now, but Lyman, Deirdre, and Anchovy have got to go. Literally why are there so many ugly villagers I do not understand. Gimme the mice and squirrels, I got no room in my heart for a lime-green koala bear with a unibrow. Like, I’m sorry, Lyman, but I really don’t like jocks.
As to why I wanted a second island in the first place, there’s a couple of reasons, but the biggest one is that I have realized over time that I don’t have the heart to fully develop Jelly Cove, but I still want to experience terraforming. I love my little island just the way it is, and, while I might put some work into neatening up my buildings a bit – the random placements of both businesses and villager houses are driving my OCD ass a little bit crazy – I have no desire to take away its pockets of wilderness. Mossflower, on the other hand, is fair game. I wanted a second island because I wanted an island I could fully terraform without regret, an island I can start over and over if I get bored with it. Additionally, I want to download Happy Home Paradise, and, while creating vacation homes doesn’t quite fit with Jelly Cove’s MO, it absolutely does with Mossflower’s. (As a more minor reason, I love filling in the Critterpedia, and I am going to be so very sad when I have caught everything there is to catch on Jelly Cove. This is why I need an island I’ll have no qualms about restarting.)
Right now I have no plans to restart – I just got here, and I actually really love the current layout of my new island. There’s a couple of large clearings that I think will do nicely as social hubs when I get to the point where I’m ready to start moving buildings. For now, however, I have a lot of things to work on, so I’m happy; and, since I’m not focused on keeping my house away from the rest of the village the way I am on Jelly Cove, there’s no limit to what I can do with this island. Jelly Cove will always be my first island, but Mossflower is a blank canvas, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
