Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Review

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a mobile iteration of the much-beloved franchise Animal Crossing. Although it doesn't have all of the features of the original series, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp offers its own unique features that fit the style of the game. 

The gameplay in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Pocket Camp from here onwards) focuses more on the collecting and decorating aspect of the game rather than the usual day-to-day of befriending animals, filling the museum, and unlocking your island that the original series offers. 

That’s not to say that there aren’t things to unlock; however first I’d like to focus on a key difference between the mobile version and the original series.

You can choose which animals will be in your camp, housing up to eight. Unlike the original series where they will visit your island at random, you can actually work towards unlocking all of the animals for you to befriend; each one of them gives you clothes, furniture, and their picture.

You can level up your friendship with the animals in Pocket Camp much like you can in the original series, except that in this version you can see at what level your friendship is at. Upon reaching certain milestones in friendship you get some rewards, like the ability to change their clothes (I think this is a very lacking feature of the game because it feels Nintendo did the bare minimum) and invite them to your camp. Also, they will begin giving you requests to fulfill, including crafting an item that they will ask for, which will then be unlocked for you to craft as many times as you wish. Pocket Camp encourages you to level up every animal by unlocking their furniture and also reaching higher player levels, giving you more inventory space and 10 Leaf Tickets.

The main thing you do in Pocket Camp is collect Leaf Tickets which is the in-game currency you can get through hard work or purchase with real money. With these you can get the best furniture, clothing, and campsite terrains. For anyone that doesn't want to spend real money, there are several ways to get them. 

Unfortunately, Nintendo has gotten a bit greedy throughout the years, with several changes that were received poorly and later on reverted or changed. One of the main reasons I took a very long hiatus a couple of years ago was because it became very difficult to acquire Leaf Tickets; later fixes solved this issue. 

Although Leaf Tickets can sometimes be scarce and the events a bit demanding, Nintendo does bring back the furniture again through reissue events. You can then get them by using reissue materials or buying them with Leaf Tickets but this means that, through a lot of patience and intelligent usage of your resources, you can get some of the things you want. The keyword here being some, however. 

The problem isn’t so much the amount of Leaf Tickets you can get, but rather that some of the coolest furniture are in fortune cookies, which are the loot boxes you can buy for clothes and furniture. It’s easy to spend a bunch of your hard-earned Leaf Tickets and get a bunch of three-star items. Some people need many, many rolls before they actually get the five-star. Items that aren’t in a fortune cookie but instead you can buy straight up can still cost up to 350 Leaf Tickets. For reference, you can get 400 Leaf Tickets for the price of $15.98.

Since the game's main purpose is decoration, it can be easy to get discouraged if all you do is see furniture you want but can't purchase. Despite the measures taken by Nintendo to try to be more free-to-play friendly, it remains very hard to get some items to complete a particular campsite.

However, there is always a month-long event available that offers a constant influx of furniture and clothes that are free to get as long as you complete them. The same three events are repeated and ultimately give dozens of rewards such as Leaf Tickets, reissue materials, and pretty and themed furniture. Although sometimes the events can become stale, the biggest problem is when they become too demanding, like Halloween's gyroidite event that required players to get too many to actually complete it.

Every three hours the animals that are available to give requests are randomly reassigned, with the requests consisting of giving them the bugs, fishes, and fruits they ask for. Thanks to the addition of Pete’s Parcel service, fulfilling these requests is actually quite easy. All you have to do is have what they are asking for, click, click, and ta-da! Pete delivers it to them and you get the rewards. Although this is overly simple and takes only a couple of minutes to complete, I quite like the quick breaks I take every cycle.; ideally, you try to complete all of the requests to get the essences and materials you need to make amenities. 

Amenities are large furniture that you will have to craft to increase your max level with a type of camper based on their main essence, of which there are 11. They work pretty much like any other furniture because each camper will interact with it, however you cannot move them from their two designated spots.

Once you’ve completed all of the amenities, there are still some things to do, like sending Gulliver out on expeditions to get you goodies. Awesome goodies; things like animals, Leaf Tickets, and fortune cookies among other items. Another feature left to do after the amenities is the Happy Homeroom courses, which are small challenges you can complete if you have the required furniture; through completing them, you can earn levels that will give you things like Leaf Tickets and some materials specific to Happy Homeroom courses. 

Nintendo has also released two subscriptions that are meant to facilitate your gathering of items, however these have brought their own controversy because the longest-standing players have reached the limit of their inventory space, forcing them to either sell their hard-earned items or buy the $7.99 plan to expand their capacity. This shouldn't be a problem for newcomers, but it might become one down the road. Despite having played for several months already — often getting every item to finish the event — I haven't reached this limit yet.

To sum it all up, Pocket Camp can be a very pleasant experience as long as you have the ability and want to use money on the game. The graphics are cute, the gameplay loop can be pretty fun, and it is packed with constant events and furniture. But if you're looking for a game that will let you relax, chat with animals, and explore, this isn't the game for you. 

That being said, I suggest every Animal Crossing fan at least try the game and keep an open mind. As long as you don't forget what the game is meant to be about and don't expect it to be like the original series, you might find something pretty great to add to your day.