Rebirth

Shortly after making the previous blog post, I decided it was time to start work on the new town. 

To save time, I set my 3DS XL's clock back two weeks, to August 19th. I would have set it to August 16th, the day Camazotz was started, but decided against it to avoid clashing with the Bug Off and Fireworks Show. After doing everything that could be done in "Day 1," I changed the 3DS's clock to August 20 and played out "Day 2," and so on. Once both the new town's and Mabure's clocks are the same, I'll let the time flow normally from then on. 

This update goes to "Day 4." As it's technically several days in one update, this is going to be a long post.

So what did I decide to call the new town? After much mental debate....

I settled on the town name of "Yūyake" (from here on out spelled as "Yuyake" for convenience's sake; the macron's a bit hard to replicate on an English keyboard). It's a Japanese word that means "sunset" (according to Google Translate, which we all know isn't exactly reliable, so I may be off here), which ties in perfectly to the theme I'm planning for the town.

The mayor's name is Madeline. The particular Madeline she's named after is a character from one of my stories, in the same vein as Nagako and Rosaline. Her namesake is a medium.

Now for a confession: While this is indeed the appearance I settled on for Madeline and this is indeed the town name I chose...I actually didn't get the town right until the third try. I took a few pictures during the failed first attempt, however, and so I'll post those now.

So the initial greeting party consisted of a chicken, a bird, and a bull. Madeline didn't seem too pleased with them, but that's only because my epic picture-taking skills caught her in mid-blink. This happens quite a bit over the course of this update. I actually kind of liked the initial line-up...with one big, fat exception. You might recognize who I'm talking about over the next couple pictures.

Isabelle did her usual early-game thing by telling Madeline to come to the town hall so they could discuss her (accidental) role as mayor.

Now onto the big, fat exception. Against all possible odds, T-Bone was a starter in both Camazotz and Yuyake take 1. I was not happy to see him again, considering he was one of the reasons why I chose to ditch Camazotz.

The other two were thankfully much better than that. Midge here was someone I was unfamiliar with, but she's cute and I thought I could get used to her. In fact, I wound up liking her quite a bit; she's actually one of the villagers who made it into the real Yuyake. You'll see more of her soon.

Just like Camazotz Yuyake also started out with a chicken, although this time it was Benedict, who I recognized from Andrew Arcade's Let's Play of New Leaf. I liked him in that LP and was happy to have him here, but sadly he didn't carry over to the real Yuyake.

After talking to the welcoming party, Madeline headed over to the town hall, where Isabelle started registering her only to forget that Madeline didn't even have a place to live yet. After recognizing her mistake she sent Madeline to Nook's Homes.

Madeline didn't know where to live just yet, so she wandered around a bit before settling on a somewhat narrow spot between the river mouth and the cliff before the beach. In the process, she learned that Yuyake's native fruit is the apple, just like Mabure. This sadly carried over to the real Yuyake, but given that the only loss was the inability to make tons of bells selling foreign perfect fruit to Re-Tail (when beetle farming is more convenient) it's not too much of a loss.

 Nook prepared the spot for her by erecting temporary housing before running off to calculate the cost. Madeline, for her part, made her way back to the town hall...but that was about where I decided this version wasn't worth keeping and ditched it.

Besides the fact that I didn't want to deal with T-Bone for a second town in a row, I wasn't quite sure I liked where I put Madeline's house. Plus the Town Hall and Re-Tail were awkwardly placed, and the layout had a ton of ponds scattered around.

In case you're wondering, the two villagers in Take 1 Madeline didn't get to meet or even see were Annalise and Curly, a horse and a pig, respectively. I've met Annalise while campsite resetting in Mabure, but I've never seen Curly in person. I like the horses and I don't mind the pigs at all, so I probably would have wound up liking both. But we'll never see how that would have turned out.

The second attempt didn't even make it past Rover; all of the maps he pulled out for that go were decidedly subpar. The third attempt could have ended in the same way, but there was one map I decided I could work with.

From here on out this update's about the real Yuyake. I have to say, I'm awfully pleased with it so far.

The start of Take 3, completely identical to that of Take 1.

The grand welcoming again, although this time the lineup's quite a bit different. There's still a bird, but this time the other two villagers were a deer and a squirrel.

Blah blah no you're the mayor, I'm certain of it, blah blah town hall.  Let's just meet the other residents, yes?

The bird is Peck, and he is a jock. Like Annalise I'm mostly familiar with him from campsite resetting in Mabure. He's somewhat problematic for reasons I alluded to earlier and will become explicit later on, but so far I like him quite a bit. If nothing else he's got an interesting design.

The resident cranky is Bruce (who I keep wanting to call "Buck" for some reason) the deer. As you can see, he's a massive improvement over T-Bone. Not only is his design much better, he's also a deer, which I haven't had yet but really like the look of.

Filbert the squirrel was the last of the welcoming committee. I didn't know what to think of him at first, but after spending some time with him I have determined that he's definitely sticking around.

Once again the native fruit were apples. While I would've liked something different from Mabure, it's not really a deal breaker for me.

Somehow Yuyake got a special visitor on the first day: Katrina. Since at this point in time Madeline didn't have the lovely phone she made it a point to go see her later on.

Not certain if I like the positioning of these rocks. They look like a pain to weave paths around.

Isabelle registration stuff; nothing you haven't seen before.

Nook, take 2.  Not a whole lot to say here, other than that this time Madeline had an idea of where to put her house.

In this case it's close to Yuyake's one pond, fairly close to Re-Tail (in the same vein as Avril's house in Mabure). 

 Nook set the tent up and went on his merry way, and this time Madeline made it to the town hall without me resetting.

 Isabelle stuff, Isabelle stuff, Isabelle stuff, Isabelle stuff....

This time around I decided to give Madeline a birth date that wasn't my own. Given the character she's based on I felt a winter birthday would be most fitting and so I settled on a random date in February.

 After registration was complete, it was time for the tree-planting ceremony.

Like I mentioned I set my 3DS XL's clock back two weeks to make up for lost time, so technically the date here is wrong.

Also worth noting is why Peck's presence is something of a problem: As I mentioned earlier, Midge also made it to Yuyake, which means the town has two birds. I don't like having repeat species, to the point that Becky's presence in Camazotz was a big factor as to why I reset. However, in this case it's actually not that bad. Midge and Peck are both really likable (as opposed to Becky, who I disliked enough to whack with a net when a villager who wasn't her tried to move), and plus their contrasting color schemes actually fit the town theme pretty well.

That bug is a petaltail dragonfly who was smart enough to appear when Madeline didn't have a net to catch it with. I believe I mentioned that the petaltail is my favorite bug in the game, so you can imagine how aggravating this was.

Two full bushels of apples later and Madeline earned enough money to buy a shovel and a bug net (sadly too late to catch the above petaltail).

While wandering around she took the time to meet the animals she hadn't met yet, starting with Penelope.

Penelope might look familiar if you've been following the blog up until this point; she was actually the first camper in Mabure in a long while that I saw outside of campsite resetting. While there I didn't consider it worth the effort to try and win her over since I have two peppies in Mabure already, here there's nobody else to steal her thunder. And considering that, I think I like her enough to make her a permanent resident of Yuyake. I don't mind the mice at all, and Penelope is cute.

 Now onto Midge. She's a normal villager, which already earns her major points with me, and plus she's adorable. In my opinion she's quite a step up from Merengue. So she's a definite keeper, even with Peck around.

More Isabelle tutorial stuff, yay. Yes I know how to place and move furniture; you've told me 5 times now!

Another thing about Yuyake: It's mirrored from Mabure. The railroad and the river go from left to right instead of right to left as they do in Mabure (and did in Camazotz), and the museum is on the left side of Main Street. It took some getting used to.

 After finding the money rock and catching some bugs, Madeline earned enough to pay off the down payment and earn herself a proper house.

Celebrate good times, come on!

Sadly the Able Sisters didn't have anything interesting on "Day 1."

And Sable's back to being antisocial, although this'll be remedied soon enough.

That being said, I've made it a point to buy something from both Nookling Junction and the Able Sisters each day just so I can maybe obtain the gardening shop/Kicks/Shampoodle faster than I did in Camazotz. On "Day 1" Madeline bought this samurai helmet, and wound up wearing it for the remainder of the "day."

Afterwards she headed to Katrina's tent. I believe this the first time I've showed it on the blog.

 Katrina told Madeline that disaster was headed for her and offered to tell her how to avoid it for the same price as a tool.

Katrina referenced Pascal and told her that her lucky item was a skirt...which the Able Sisters didn't have that day. Incidentally Avril did buy a skirt for the new mayor in preparation for the start of the new town, but Madeline didn't go over to Mabure on "Day 1."

After that Madeline knocked off the last of the Isabelle tutorial stuff for "Day 1" and got a watering can for her efforts. The rest of "Day 1" was spent getting the villagers out of tutorial mode and gathering money for future endeavors.

Sadly for her Katrina's foretold disaster struck when she pulled out this boot with no way of getting rid of it...at least for now.

Now onto "Day 2."

More tutorial stuff!

And yet more of it!

Thankfully all the dull tutorial stuff ended pretty quickly and Madeline quickly found the day's move-in: Mira. Sadly the newcomer chose the most inconvenient place to move in at, which is a bit saddening as she later proved to be a pretty cool villager in her own right.

Bruce knows how to decorate, and is also the proud owner of the only garbage can in Yuyake. He's also shown himself to be a bit needy; out of all of Yuyake's current villagers he's probably requested the most favors. That garbage can certainly came in handy when Madeline needed to get rid of that boot, though. If Bruce ever formally invites Madeline over before Avril can give her a garbage can, I'm going to see if I can buy it off him.

 The loan to expand to a larger home really was a "mere trifle," for Madeline quickly earned the money (though part of it was due to luck; Re-Tail was buying dorodos on premium that "day").

She didn't want to stick with that dinky house for much longer, and so she quickly expanded.

The most notable capture of the "day": a soft-shelled turtle. Oddly enough the caption here is different from the caption I usually get for catching one of these (It's usually "Don't suffer shell shock!").

This was about when I decided Yuyake was going to last much longer than Camazotz - Peck just so happened to donate part of the incredibly rare and unorderable sloppy series to Re-Tail. Naturally Madeline bought it up on the spot.

Bruce asked for a moth and so I jumped ahead a few hours to seven (which just so happened to be the actual time; to change the "day" I set the initial time back to 5 PM). I decided it was a good enough opportunity to send Madeline to collect the stuff lying by Mabure's train station. As you can see here her outfit's gotten an overhaul from the outfit she came to Yuyake in. I considered getting her a hair styling too, but decided her current hairstyle worked well enough on its own (despite being the same style as Avril's).

Now back to the town hall for yet more infodumping. At least Isabelle has the admirable trait of being able to run on one hour of sleep.

The first thing Madeline did was change the town tune. It is now Dearly Beloved from Kingdom Hearts; in fact, it's the exact same arrangement as Camazotz's town tune. 

 Afterwards she had Isabelle go over the town development permit. Her starting approval rate stood at 32 percent; quite a bit less than Danielle's initial 50, but then again Madeline also started a bit earlier.

After that it was time to call it quits and move on to "Day 3."

 The big event of the day was meeting Mira properly. Rabbits are odd-looking; uchi villagers tend to be odd-looking, so you'd think a combination of the two would be freaky. Mira is indeed a bit odd-looking, as rabbits tend to be, but she's nowhere near as bad as Tiffany was. In fact, if her house wasn't in such an awkward location I probably would be keeping her, but alas.

Then Midge pinged her with what I initially assumed to be a favor, but turned out to just be random chitchat. Random odd chitchat, at that. Apparently, Madeline needs to dedicate herself to flamenco dancing to obtain happiness. Sadly that sort of dancing isn't really possible in Animal Crossing, and the closest equivalent is still quite a ways off for Yuyake.

 The other big event of the day was meeting Tortimer down at the docks after speaking to him during the loading screen. After this "day," Madeline can go to the island whenever she wishes.

Madeline had already received her HHA acceptance letter, so upon walking in to Nook's Homes to confirm that her home was indeed expanded she got to meet Lyle.

Then she talked to Midge again to learn that Midge wanted to return something to Filbert. She brought the item to Filbert as soon as she could. She never did find out what it was, but she got a reward in the form of a foreign cherry. She kept it in storage for future planting.

 Speaking of Filbert he was also the first in Yuyake to change his catchphrase. Instead of his default "bucko," he now says "nutjob." Couldn't think of anything better for him to say.

Later still Filbert decided to be the first to invite Madeline over to his house. An appointment was scheduled for 5:30 PM, and Madeline arrived right on the dot.

 Filbert's house is completely amazing, by the way. So pretty, and the squirrel's got good taste in music.

Yes, I do like it that much. Don't change it around too much, please?

 In between the notable updates Madeline spent a lot of time carrying out minor favors for the townsfolk and catching lots of museum specimens. In fact, she was so busy that she accomplished the needed 100% approval rating in a mere "day." Isabelle sent her town development permit in for processing, and that was it for "Day 3."

"Day 4" was the final "day" I played out before my 3DS XL ran out of battery.

The biggest event of "Day 4:" Crazy Redd pays his first visit to Yuyake. Madeline chose to carry out the daily routine before paying him a visit, however.

The second biggest event of the day: finding out where the next newcomer would be placing his home, not to mention who said newcomer would be. I know who Shep is; though I've never met him personally, I can say I'm happy to have him in Yuyake. Plus he's in a great spot.

Madeline also got to meet Kapp'n, although she didn't head to the island this "day."

 After tending to the townfolks' needs as best she could (Penelope notably wanted a centipede, but no matter how many times Madeline struck rocks with her shovel she couldn't find one. She couldn't even find a pillbug), Madeline made her way to Crazy Redd's tent.

Unlike the first times he visited Mabure and Camazotz, he only had one real artwork today; the mystic statue. Madeline bought it and went on her merry way.

 For her last act of the day, Madeline decided to enact the bell boom ordinance in Yuyake. I considered going with the Beautiful Town ordinance like in Mabure until Yuyake's time travel period was over, but decided against it just because I didn't want the town to be overrun by flowers and the Bell Boom ordinance would be useful for paying off home loans and future PWPs.

And for tonight that is enough for Yuyake. The next update will likely shed light on who the final two initial villagers will be, as well as some rearrangement as the town regains the progress lost to the reset.

Until the next one, folks.