Amiibo Festival only existed to fill a spot in Nintendo's Wii U library, like Mario Tennis Ultra Smash. It's really unfortunate. I have to agree that it's definitely evident in the game, specifically through a number of nuances I noticed in the Board Game. I have not unlocked all the mini games yet (I believe I've yet to unlock the Card Battle game...) nor have I actually played the other ones extensively, so I'm just gonna go off on the board game only.
I strongly believe Animal Crossing, other than Mario, is a very suitable series to use as a foundation for a board game, as well as other sorts of genres, since Animal Crossing's premise is doing whatever you want; a lot of the "objectives" in Animal Crossing can be fleshed out into their own little things. It works imo. I'm not so much annoyed at Amiibo Festival for not being another traditional entry as much as I am that they failed to push the game to its full potential. This actually could have been my favorite party game ever but well I mean, whatever. Anyway, a huge trend I notice in the Board Game is "wow, this is a cool idea, but it's not enough of it"; for example, placing Public Works Projects in the board game? That's freaking awesome. Making your own boards is really cool. But here's a better idea; how about using our own towns as boards? Maybe that's too ambitious, so how about something basic, something so basic, I'm surprised it's not the case; there are only a set number of properties you can place PWPs on. I find that absurd. Granted, I don't like how tedious New Leaf's PWP placement process is ("you cannot place a street lamp here as there is a river about 20 miles away from us, if I'm going to exaggerate), but at least that gives you reasonable freedom. Here, it's clear a small amount of different layouts can be achieved with placing PWPs on the board. If the player was given a lot more freedom towards customizing the board, this could've had many players spending countless hours making their own personalized town.
Also, people complain that you have to constantly place amiibos on the gamepad each turn. I actually find that to be ok, because the concept is supposed to directly emulate a board game. One may ask, "why not buy an IRL board game then"; good question, but I just see this game as a typical board game, just in a different coat of paint, so I'm okay with playing it as such. What is not okay is what something someone mentioned a while ago; guest players can use the gamepad's buttons. The amiibo placement on the gamepad is fine, but it contradicts the guest player's means of playing the game. The fact that someone has to grab what is essentially the board itself every time it's their turn is quite jarring and awkward. "But wait, not everyone will have an amiibo" Then honestly, not because of how "awkward" the amiibo placement is, but because of how guests will play the game, they should not have made it so that amiibos are how you roll the die. Speaking of guest players, only guests can play as villagers. Even worse, the villagers are all preset with default outfits. Even more worse, the Villager amiibo himself doesn't do anything!!! THAT IS PROBABLY MY BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE GAME. Oh, sorry, it does do something, it makes a gold statue of villager in the town plaza... ok....
I have a whole lot more to say, like, a giant mountain of things to say, both good and bad. But I'm really tired. I just want to throw this out there; what makes me more frustrated than the game itself is a lot of people thinking "of course it was going to suck," "I knew it," "it was inevitable," etc. No, you didn't know. Perhaps these types of games aren't for everyone, but several people were hellbent on hating this game day 1, simply for what it is. I mean, if you go "this game looks bad because it's a board game" and then someone goes ahead and says "yeah, it's a bad game because of -blank-, -blank-, and -blank-" specific issues, then you just can't say "I knew it", because no, YouTube comment section demons, you chose to close your ears as soon as this wasn't shown to be New Leaf HD. I love it when series branch out or just change into different experiences. What comes after doesn't necessarily ruin the preceding game (i.e. Paper Mario -blank- vs.... idk, Thousand Year Door?). What I can't stand is when these new experiences I'm so excited for end up being less than amazing, in this case, being mediocre at best, leading to people going "yes, i was right, because it was different". I will continue to love the games I already love and show disdain for the games that have disappointed me, but it will always be based on how well the game was doing its job, versus simply for what it is. I do want an AC Amiibo Festival 2; I see this game as an actual Animal Crossing game, just not a great one by any means. I refuse to believe a good Animal Crossing party game is impossible to make.
