Iwata Asks: Animal Crossing Nintendo 3DS - New Details as Mayor

Iwata's gotten around a lot lately, this time sitting with the human folk behind the latest Animal Crossing adventure on Nintendo 3DS.

Embark on a real time adventure with new and familiar faces in New Leaf, the latest in the series for Nintendo 3DS.

Satoru Iwata and the team, two directors - Ms. Kyogoku (Director), Mr. Moroeki (Director) and Mr. Takahashi (Design Leader) discussed what differentiates this one from the last.

There were early concepts passed around in the initial development stages - including "Gold Dust digging" to compliment the traditional fishing, as well as the ability to build outdoor scenery like bridges and benches. With players now able to customise a lot more of the surrounding village as Mayor would make visiting "more fun" and unique.

However adding the Mayor as a playable character as was added quite late as the team felt that simply building these new items wasn't quite enough. Tortimer was already a key figure in the Animal Crossing universe, so we end up seeing the poor chap retire and the player essentially taking over.

There will be an initial hurdle when stepping into these shoes, but once completed players will have free rein as mayor.

The role also influences shops - players can tweak opening hours, with items paid with donations from residents. However, you may end up forking the bill from your own pocket. Interestingly, if players "don't do their job properly as mayor", none of the townsfolk would complain (a contrast to the likes of Sim City for example). There's also a ceremony for building your first bridge, and planting a tree to make players settle into the role.

The team also discussed the iconic Mr. Resetti - whether his blunt nature is still applicable as supposedly young girls weep at the very shadow of this brutal mole. No joke.

A handful of new animals were mentioned, but the team is running low on recognisable ones - so are even looking into different breeds of dogs! There's Lisa an alpaca, Reiji a sloth and a tapir who runs the Dream Emporium - whose roles are closely attributed to their real-world personalities.

In terms of items, there's about 1.5x the number of items in previous entry, City Folk. The team hope that players don't consider these as filler, but items that would want to be used to decorate the new homes. There's a hope that when players visit other homes, they would want to come back to improve their own.

Connecitivity is a big aspect of Animal Crossing, and in New Leaf players can upload their data to a server in the "Dream Emporium" so others can come visit - there's no requirement for friend codes, nor does it affect their village directly. There'll also be two tiers of engagement - things players can do with regular 3DS pals, and specific extras for those considered "best friends". Bless!

Players will also be able to exchange chat messages with Besties when online.

A fair bit of thought went into the extras, like region specific gifts for certain customs - like a plate of 12 grapes for the Spanish New Year - that are only accessible by visiting a friend at a certain time of year.

Translation via NeoGAF.