OST of the Day #57: Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 9 AM

Hey Steemit!

If you're unfamiliar with this series, basically I share a soundtrack and my thoughts about it, and I highly recommend listening to the song while reading! 😊

If you haven't caught the last couple of posts, I dedicated the month of April to island-themed songs! In celebration of the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (which I have been religiously playing ever since), I thought island songs would be fitting. And we covered songs that were not only island-themed, but quite nostalgic as well, with games as old as me!

Anyway, now that May has finally arrived, I thought I'd kick it off (and as a nice round up to the previous month) with a song from ACNH itself!

Source: blog.usejournal.com

I'm sure everyone knows of ACNH, or have at least heard of it by now, but just in case anyone hasn't, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a 2020 life simulation video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth main series title in the Animal Crossing series. New Horizons was released in all regions on March 20, 2020.

In New Horizons, the player assumes the role of a customizable character who moves to a deserted island after purchasing a package from Tom Nook, a tanuki character who has appeared in every entry in the Animal Crossing series. Taking place in real-time, the player can explore the island in a nonlinear fashion, gathering and crafting items, catching insects and fish, and developing the island into a community of anthropomorphic animals.

Source: Business Insider

New Horizons was a commercial and critical success; selling 5 million digital copies in its first month! It has received universal acclaim from critics, with many praising its gameplay and customization options. The game's success has been partially attributed to it being released during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, with players seeking a sense of escapism and social interaction amidst worldwide quarantine orders.

Source: Attack of the Fanboy

The very first AC game I played was Animal Crossing: New Leaf on 3DS and I really liked it a lot, but soon I kinda just left it. Then when the mobile version came out, I started playing that whenever I was bored waiting for the bus/trains and stuff. So I was really excited when they announced that the Switch was gonna get a new AC game.

And when I first saw the Nintendo direct for ACNH way back in June at E3 2019, I was so excited! The trailer was so well done, and the visuals were amazing! I really liked this commercial they did too:

The anticipated release for the game was gonna be late 2019, but later got pushed back to March 20, 2020. This was unfortunate, but with Nintendo trying to avoid crunch times and maintaining a healthy work-life balance (while also shipping a really quality game), I think many people understood. Not to mention, this was a highly anticipated sequel to a mainstay of Nintendo series, so there was definitely pressure on the dev team to get this version right and bug-free (heh get it).

Source: Gamer Rewind

Anyway, on to the song of the day!
So in one of my previous posts, I made the mistake of saying that ACNH doesn't have the hourly music that was a key element in Animal Crossing games. And I'm so glad to be proven wrong. Back then I was still in the prologue phase (when Residential Services is still a tent), and you don't get the hourly music until you've completed the prologue (which is around 4 days in real time).

While the music during that early game period wasn't bad, it was mostly an acoustic guitar with maracas. And after playing the game for a few hours a day, it gets old real quick.

But when I finally got past the prologue and heard the hourly music, I was so happy! It felt like the game was really starting at the point. And I think the wait to get the hourly music was a nice touch actually, since it made players appreciate it all the more.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my favourite hourly song today! It was really difficult choosing a specific one, because they're all really good and have their own unique charm, but the one I keep coming back to is definitely this one:

This is the song that plays at 9 AM in-game, and it's definitely one of my favourites. While I don't actually play at 9 AM in real time (it's waaaaaay too early for a nightowl like me), I always end up playing a few hours behind real time so I can still listen to the awesome morning music to get me in a good mood.

The synthesiser is definitely the highlight of the song, with it carrying the melody most of the way. But the acoustic guitar on harmony and the bongos are especially good to really give this song that bossa nova vibe, which is definitely my kinda jam while going about my morning AC routine.

Source: Outsider Gaming

I have to give kudos to the dev team at Nintendo; they did an absolutely phenomenal job with New Horizons ! While there can be minor improvements here and there, the overall gameplay is so smooth, the soundtrack is great and the customisation options are practically limitless! And while you can totally play ACNH solo, it really rewards you for playing with others and there are so many active communities now on reddit and discord; which is so great given the times we're in right now.

Speaking of, if you play ACNH and are looking for people to play with, you can add me! My friend code is: SW-6259-6079-7594!

Ignore the Reg date btw, I didn't time travel; I just forgot to change my date on the first day I played (I'd been playing Pokemon Sword before then). 😅

Thanks so much for reading! Time for me to get back to my island! 😅

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

Check out my previous post in this series!
OST of the Day #56: Super Mario Sunshine - Bianco Hills 🌄