I Paid Off My Loan And Bought A House In Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Quite a bit is “up,” Coach! I’ve got to be honest with you, these Animal Crossing: New Leaf days are going by in a flurry. Yes, I realize I’ve only been playing for three days total, but a lot has happened! Day two was probably the least eventful so far, but for posterity’s sake, I’ve got to document it.

So, day two with Animal Crossing: New Leaf began with home ownership! The fee was just under 30,000 bells for my one-room shanty. I visited Nook the moment it was done to start our usual dance of “loans” and payments. Fortunately, my ore discovery (Hey, an emerald!), bug catching and tree shaking for the day allowed me to pay off about 15,000 of it throughout the day.

The more exciting parts came after speaking with Isabelle. Now that I was an “official” citizen of Crawford, I had rights! I could get on the way to proper, mayoral duties. On the way, because you can’t just start going crazy with your new town. You need 100% approval from citizens and a house to get a development permit and when I talked to her, I was at 18. Sadface. Her “advice” for boosting the ratings wasn’t exactly helpful either. Putting a message on the bulletin board, designing a town flag with a likeness of its namesake and composing a new town tune (the opening notes of “Chocobo Samba”) only got me up to 26.

Sure, she said paying Re-Tail to take garbage I’d fish out of the ocean and river would also help, but Nookling Junction still isn’t selling a fishing pole.

I decided to gain approval the old fashioned way, by socializing with the neighbors. Letters were drafted, one in particular warning Truffles that, as a pig, she was probably a source of tasty bacon. Bonds were made and Daisy even dropped by my hovel for a visit. This system has much improved, as you no longer have to watch the clock and be at your home by a certain time. She just followed me to my house and walked inside after I entered for a brief visit.

I love you, Daisy. You’re tops until a deer or hamster moves to Crawford.

Speaking of visits, animals aren’t confined to Crawford! As I discovered during jaunts to the Able Sisters and Re-Tail, they’ll visit main street and sometimes show up while you’re in a shop. It’s interesting, because now it seems like they have lives outside of entertaining me. Hm…. I’m not quite sure I like that idea…

The joys of home ownership also bestowed another gift upon me, which I soon tested for myself. With residency comes an ID card that allows me to open my gates! After a quick 500 Bell ID photo in town, I rushed to the station to let a little visitor drop by. My guest came through via the power of the internet, bearing fresh apples to compliment the peaches scattered throughout Crawford. The visit was basically a brief meet and greet, so she could meet my prized villager Daisy, see where Rocket would be setting up his home and take a gander at my village’s layout.

So far, every change in Animal Crossing: New Leaf seems pretty positive and life in Crawford is good. The only “negative” change I can find so far is that the mole cricket is far harder to catch in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Even with headphones on, it’s more difficulty to discern it’s exact location, which means I had a series of 6-12 holes each time I searched for one, only to not capture it in time because I actually had to open the menu to swap between the shovel and net. Curse you mole cricket!

Day 3 should prove extra interesting, as it marks the paying off of a loan, the acquisition of a fishing pole, the beginning of a fashion empire and a visit to someone with a Japanese copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf to grab fruit for my soon-to-be-glorious orchard.