Right off the bat, that page title comes to you via my discord mod Kat, who came up with rebears when I didn’t see it. It is a shame I will never outlive. I couldn’t put it on the page without messing up the flow of things because there is no way Jess could let a line like that slip by without comment. Sometimes you have to accept a reality that is not ideal.

I don’t think Jess ever intended to become friends with James. Originally he was just another tenant neighbor she barely knew, then he was someone who could be useful to her, then finally he got past all her barriers and became an actual friend. It may seem strange to say this but Jess is one of the least friendly characters. Even though she puts on a very outwardly friendly face most people never gain access to the real person she is, and you can never really be friends with someone who is just playing themselves in the world. She hides herself from people because she’s afraid they’ll try and make her responsible for their problems. For someone like her that’s a very reasonable fear. Humans have an innate tendency to use up competent people because they make things so much easier for them. A lot of the bad parts of her persona are a defense mechanism against getting taken advantage of. Ironically part of that defense is to try and strike first and get anything she can out of other people before they realize what she really has to offer. Deep down though Jess actually likes people. In a sincere way. Not in the performative way she put on for everyone else. The little side story of her slowly letting James in is a small illustration of her allowing herself to be human and vulnerable. James is just happy to be included in anything. Obviously he has things he desires, but mostly he’s just lonely and Jess gave him a way into a potentially much fuller life. It was self serving at first, but eventually she realized he was a decent fellow who didn’t deserve to be taken advantage of. Most people would look at that as the reverse of how a friendship should start, but I wonder if maybe Jess has the right of it. In my life I’ve been burned many more times by assuming good intentions in others than not. Maybe an extended period of probation is the smarter way to do things. I can only guess at this point.

In other news, I have been playing Animal Crossing again, as I’ve said before, to check out the content in the final update. I do a little upkeep and then I set about the task of doing one home design per night, or day, so I can finally unlock the ability to remodel homes on my actual island. I’m still a few homes away from that goal, but I actually don’t really like designing homes because they limit you so much. I never really finished Happy Home Designer for essentially the same reason. Although I did see something akin to an ending cinematic, so I achieved at least one level of “finished” in that game. In fact that may have been the only “ending” the game has since the point of the AC series is to just noodle around until you finally get bored. In any case they merged HHD and ACNL with the various updates, so it’s all of a piece now. The gameplay is so similar I have been having a hard time distinguishing between memories of the 3DS game and things I haven’t actually done on the Switch. In another week or so I will have done all the things required to unlock all the unlocks. Originally I was having to design a home and a hotel room once a night because of the hotel update, but it takes less time to unlock the hotel things. All of these various updates are a pretty clear attempt by Nintendo to give you something to actually do once you’ve paid off your home and set up your island how you want. They really didn’t take it as far as they should have IMO. The island needs to be at least 1.5 times bigger so you could design more area that isn’t dominated by homes. They also needed to update the villager AI to at least the level it had for the 3DS. In addition to that the animals really need to be able to interact with the things you place. Sitting in chairs is not enough. Playing with the toys, interacting with machines, they need to be able to inhabit the world better. If they ever make another Animal Crossing I hope they put in the effort to make the animals a little more grounded in their imaginary world.
In addition to these larger tasks I realized that I’m only 3 or 4 fish and a couple of bugs from having complete sets, so I’ve been tracking when I need to be around to catch them. The last few fish only spawn on the pier, which means I have to grind for bait, which sucks. I already don’t really like fishing in any game, but I’m so close I may as well suffer through it to get the golden rod. With the bugs it’s more a matter of timing than not liking the play pattern. I’ve already caught the bugs that are the hardest to catch mechanically. I just need to be playing when the others are available. If I do that I will secure the gold net and complete the gold tool set.
I actually earned the gold axe on accident the other day and I don’t even know what specifically I did that made it happen. Golden tools don’t really have any super special properties now, so I didn’t prioritize them back in the covid years. Mostly they just last a bit longer than other tools and require a rare drop to construct. Mostly I’m just doing these things for a sense of completion. It would be nice to have all the museum things. Speaking of which, I’m also searching for the final 2 art pieces. Unfortunately they are completely random. I just have to check the store every day and hope they show up. I have piles of all the other arts that are genuine, but are also in my collection. Unfortunately finding the “real” version of things doesn’t remove them from the rotation. I could potentially get them from another player, but there isn’t a robust community left, even with the new update. Most people already did the new things and dropped the game again. Still, if I randomly see a post from someone who is still playing on social media I’ll reach out and see if they have spare things to trade, or give. I think finding the final two arts is going to be the worst task of all the tasks. I caught several missing bugs and fish last week just because I happened to be stuck awake at an unusual time. Today I even caught a sea creature I had never caught before too. They don’t earn you anything as far as I know but I’ll probably try to catch all of them for the museum too as long as I’m doing everything else. None of this is advancing my career or life in any way, but I can’t spend every hour doing that any more than anyone else can.

Animal Crossing has a lot of untapped potential, but it looks like it has been abandoned for a pokemon clone. I can’t bring myself to play it since pokemon has gone so completely off the rails in the last decade. Tomodachi Life isn’t much better. I’m glad streamers can use it for content, but if you don’t have a bunch of friends who also like the weird… I hesitate to call it gameplay. Play pattern? Amusing observation intervention? Whatever it is. It’s funny ofr a few minutes but gets old fast. I’m not going to be persuaded to buy it and have it sit largely unplayed. Watching a few clips of it is more than enough for me.

Anyway, I should sign off and try and catch fish for a little while. At this point I’m just burning my time AND yours. You should burn yours with your own goals instead of listening to my little plans. I’ll see you on Friday. Until then, be sure to hit all six rocks every day.

Posts authored by Jackie

2998 ReBears, If You Will.