Rhythms of the Everyday in Animal Crossing

Some days you wake up and it’s winter and it’s raining and that isn’t going to change, no matter how much you wish for it to be a warm May afternoon. On those kinds of days, the only thing you can do is make the most of it. And how else can you do that but by not only accepting the gloom, but leaning into it? Get comfortable, crack open a good book, and start listening to one of the dozens of YouTube videos called something along the lines of “Animal Crossing music + rain sounds.”

It’s fascinating that there’s a segment of the internet where Animal Crossing ‒ a game primarily about getting outdoors and hands-on with everything that’s out there ‒ is synonymous with cosying up and listening to the rain. But it also seems an inevitable side effect of how the game itself does weather and seasons. Just like in real life, there’s no escaping winter and showers in the Animal Crossing series. Both changing seasons and variable weather have been a feature since the very first game released in 2001, and they’ve remained a constant right up to the release of New Horizons in 2020. 

In both real life and Animal Crossing, you actually wouldn’t want to skip through cold seasons and bad weather. Despite the general dreariness of these kinds of days, look a little closer and you’ll find that they have their own charms: snowfolk, coloured lights, firework shows, the appearance of the Coelacanth. (Okay, maybe you can’t find one of these at your local beach just because it’s wet out – but have you tried?) And of course, there's having a coffee with Brewster and enjoying the noise of the falling water on the roof, or simulating the same experience in your actual home with a good YouTube video.