Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

I used to play this game waaaaay back then while waiting between the previous Animal Crossing (New Leaf) and the new one (New Horizons). It was a nice little game to pass the time and fill the gap between installments. But at some point it just became too grindy and greedy, so I ended up losing interest, even though it was super cute.

However, I heard the news at the end of November that they were going to release the full version of Pocket Camp with a one-time payment in December. At first I wasn't very sure if I wanted to buy it or not, but in the end I decided to just go for it (hey! it's just 10€!). And I have to say that I quite like it given the price. However, I also think you have to like the things that it offers because otherwise it'll just become repetitive, since it's a much more basic version compared to a full Animal Crossing game.

So what does it have? Well, mostly decorating and collecting items, but not in the usual way of a regular installment. You become a camp manager and you have to ensure your camp is great to get other animals to enjoy it. You can visit different locations, talk to campers and fulfill their request to increase your friendship with them. As your friendship level increases, you can craft specific furniture that they like so you can invite them to your camp. That's the gist of it.

For decorating, you have the campsite, your camper and the cabin. On top of that, your campers can interact with the furniture. You can also place a couple of amenities in the camp, which are similar to furniture but more elaborate and with even better interactions. And, for the campsite, you can set the foreground, ground, background, etc. Everything is very customizable. You can also have one of your campers as a helper and customize the clothes they wear (my current one is Lucky :D)

The thing I like the most in all of these is the variety. This game has a huge amount of furniture that can be crafted or bought, and it's all super cute. Event-based furniture, special items that make certain NPCs visit your camp (Tom Nook, K.K. Slider, etc.), lots of clothes, etc. It's also the reason why I was kind of salty that Animal Crossing New Horizons didn't have more stuff. Then again, New Horizons wasn't monetizing each set of furniture that was added, so...

There are a few mini-games, but they are super simple. There's an explorer game which is like a board game with Blathers in which you throw the dice and, based on where you land, you get items. The HH Academy, where you use the furniture you have crafted to earn points...but it isn't very complex since it's kind of preset. Fortune cookies, which is a gacha mechanic to get seasonal items. And so on with others that have a similar difficulty.

Most of these minigames were likely designed with the idea to get people to spend paid currency in the game (especially the cookies). It's not the case anymore, since you get plenty of that currency and there are no in-game purchases.

Seasonal events also take place, unlocking new items and clothes. Other things such as fishing, catching bugs and collecting fruit are there, but they're easier and there's no museum to showcase them. Regarding the online part, they've reduced it to camper cards that you can share online for other people to scan them and add you, but it doesn't do much besides having helpers in a mining minigame to get resources.

Personally I think it's a really cute game with lots of attention to the details. Even the loading screens take the time to put quotes from campers. It's not very deep in the interactions with campers, where it gets repetitive soon. Great for spending a few minutes here and there, relaxing, decorating the place and collecting things, which is what I expect in a mobile game TBF.

There are future plans to add more things, but I don't think there are any specific details. Ah, also, in January they'll raise the price to 20€, just in case you wanted it. Honestly, if they added more dialogs or something like the museum, that'd be fantastic. Wishing for that!

(Self-promo here, with the QR of my camper card haha)