Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete Review (iOS & Android)

It’s hard to imagine how long it’s been since Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp first launched on mobile. It’s been a whopping seven years since we’ve had the pleasure of decorating our campsites and inviting friendly animals to enjoy what we have built. But while the game started off as a cozy and adorable way to escape from the hustle and bustle of life, it quickly became bogged down by the usual nuisance of mobile gaming: microtransactions. Worse? The microtransactions didn’t immediately feel frustrating. It started off small: a small buck here to hasten the process of crafting a tent, a small buck there to get better costumes for your cute, little animal friends. 

Gradually, the game added more and more ways to entice you into giving up your hard-earned money that soon, you were spending way too much on a game that is meant to provide stress relief. Even unlocking some of the most exciting characters took cashing in a few bucks to be able to add them to your playthrough. And sure, it was possible to play the game without ever giving in to the debacle of spending hard cash on a game. However, the pressure just kept growing more and more intense. You started to spend too much time waiting on in-game processes to complete and equally too much money unlocking the good stuff. 

No More Micro Transactions

So, when news came of the complete write-off of the game in favor of a new title dabbed Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete, one that only asks of you a one-time fee and grants you the comfort of never having to see one more ask for cash, fans were elated. And not just fans but gamers who never played the game because of its microtransactions model. There’s certainly much to be grateful for in the new title. So, let’s get down to breaking down all the good stuff (and bad stuff, if there is any) you can expect in our Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete review.

Now, to be fair, there isn’t much that has changed from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to the Complete version. The biggest change, besides removing all microtransactions, is in name only. Well, even the removal of the microtransaction bit retains some of the inherent currency system of the old game. See, previously, your in-game currency was Bells. Farming bells are pretty easy.

All you need to do is complete quests, level up, sell collectible and craft items, buy and sell produce, or sell materials and flowers you have no use for. In turn, bells help you buy items from the marketplace, craft new furniture, upgrade your campsite, or buy collectible items. However, the previous version introduced a premium currency: Leaf Tickets.

Stingy Much?

Unlike Bells, you could buy Leaf Tickets with actual money. Or you could sacrifice your time and earn it by leveling up, constantly logging in to the game to gain daily rewards, completing timed and stretch goals, or completing Leaf Ticket maps. All of these are a grind, taking quite a lot of time, effort, and commitment. It hardly makes sense when the allure of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is to provide a sense of relaxation after a hard day’s work. Or rather, the more arbitrary, talk to friendly animals and make them happy when you have time to spare in the bathroom, on the commute, at work, you know, the little nuggets of time you get to put in some quick gaming on the go. 

Eventually, it became frustrating to have to grind to avoid giving in to paying for stuff locked behind a paywall. And if you’re wondering, yes, Leaf Tickets are that attractive, giving you the options to catch multiple fish or bugs at once, thus earning you more Bells, getting a throw net and honey, entering the quarry to get more minerals for crafting to upgrade your campsite, and the most attractive: Fortune Cookies. These give you a random themed costume or furniture, which is the heart of playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. So, when the developing team decided to scrape off Leaf Tickets in favor of Leaf Tokens, I was happy. 

What’s New?

See, Leaf Tokens cannot be paid for with actual cash. And sure, fundamentally, Leaf Tokens serve the same purpose Leaf Tickets did. However, they are no longer a means to lure you into spending your hard-earned money. Now, earning Leaf Tokens is entirely in-game, with the best route being to complete new events. When I said that the changes to the microtransactions system is in name only, I meant that the Leaf Tokens are still highly precious. They get you exclusive stuff and can still speed up crafting time. They do everything Leaf Tickets do. And so, if you did experience the pressure to stack up on Leaf Tickets before, chances are the new game will still impose the same pressure on you. Still, it’s nice that you will never see those pop-up notifications reminding you of yet another gazillion ways to spend money.

But otherwise, there is other new stuff to get excited about in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. Well, first of all, you can carry your progress over to the new game, although you cannot carry your Leaf Tickets. The new game is now available offline. If you’re worried about visiting your friends’ campsites, there will be a new Camper Cards system. These are customizable in-game cards you can create, adding details like your favorite animal and trading with your friends using a QR code. Your friends can then collect your cards and add them to a new location called Whistle Pass. Here, gifts will spawn from time to time, and you can enjoy performances by K.K. Slider at the mountain at 7 P.M.

Thumbs Down?

For all the exciting new features, though, there are some that have been removed from the new game. The most significant one is the shift to offline mode. It means features like time-limited events and their consequent rewards won’t be available. The same goes for cloud saving. This means your progress is tied to your device, including collectables, friendships, and decorations, making it difficult to hop from one device to another. Meanwhile, you cannot uninstall the game, at least not if you want to retain your progress. 

Still tied to the offline functionality, since the game doesn’t keep track of the time online, you can easily manipulate time to speed up crafting processes. However, cheating the system could result in some glitches. You could miss out on some rewards or tasks, although the exact implication is still unclear. Meanwhile, you could lose significant items and resources. Leaf Tickets were not transferable from the original game to the new one. And so, if you didn’t cash your hoarded tickets before the original game closed, you lost quite a lot. The transition may have caused the loss of resources like fortune cookies and others.

One-Time Fee Versus Microtransactions

As much as the removal of microtransactions from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete makes it all the more attractive, there are still some cons to consider. The consistent income developers receive often motivates them to release more content updates and even create time-limited events. With a one-time fee, though, the developers could easily abandon the project. I mean, the game is called “Complete,” which could quite possibly mean no more stuff, no more collaborative events with other players, no more goodies and exciting costumes, simply no more than what is already present in the game as is. 

Verdict

For the most part, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete is very much the same as the original game. You still design a snowy campsite. You meet lots of new and returning characters from Animal Crossing. Decorating your campsite is the most fun, especially when you set up new furniture and stuff that starts to attract more animals. Or you can indulge in gathering fruits and bugs and fishing to raise friendship levels. The quest for your neighborly animals to like you burns hotter than ever. But now, you only need to pay a one-time fee of $9.99 to play the game. However, keep in mind the price will jump to $19.99 on January 31, 2025. Afterwards, there will be no microtransactions bombarding you. No buying Leaf Tickets; just cute, relaxing fun.

While the ridding of all microtransactions has come with tantalizing benefits, it also has presented some cons to consider. The offline functionality could easily be the game changer that defines how relevant this game will be in the coming years. In any case, gamers have been playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for seven years now, even with microtransactions present. With the Complete version, newcomers are likely to hop on the train of designing and decorating a fun campsite for their animal friends. It remains to be seen whether gamers will continue playing the game years from now, especially with the high chance of no more content updates.