Animal Crossing: New Horizons details – cloud saves disabled “to avoid manipulating time”, more

A new batch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons details have surfaced as part of a developer interview with French website Gamekult. We learn that there will be support for the Nintendo Switch Online app with voice chat, Switch’s touch screen, and (probably) amiibo. Cloud saves won’t be available, however “to avoid manipulating time”.

Gamekult’s interview was conducted with director Aya Kyogoku and producer Higashi Nogami. Translations from the discussion can be found below, courtesy of Miketendo64.

In New Horizons, you have introduced the Nook Phone. Do you also plan a dedicated application in real life to synchronize exchanges?

AK: We want to make sure that everyone can play without making this kind of companion app necessary to enjoy the experience. That’s why we prefer to avoid making it a pre-requisite. That being said, we will take advantage of the Nintendo Switch Online application for voice chat, and we are also planning other things for the future through this service.

Do you plan to take advantage of touch to play or customize items?

AK: We wanted to make sure that New Horizons used many features of the Switch, both un-docked and docked. When users play in docked mode we want to make them easier to handle with a traditional control method. To answer your customization question more specifically, there are My Design elements borrowed from New Leaf that will be in New Horizons.

HN: In summary, we designed the gameplay for a classic grip but there will also be elements designed for touch-screen play.

With the introduction of cloud saves and automatic saves, how will you handle Mr. Resetti’s interventions?

HN: New Horizons will not be compatible with cloud backups to avoid manipulating time, which remains one of the founding concepts of the series.

Can you confirm that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be compatible with the amiibo range?

AK: Given the number of cards and figures available, we obviously think New Horizons will be compatible with amiibo, but I can not tell you more about this compatibility at this stage of development.