As many of you know, I adored the incredible amount of time I spent with Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It was weirdly difficult when I decided to put the game down “for good,” but I knew it was what I needed to do so I could focus on other games. In just over a year of playing the game every day (save for one day when I was too sick to do anything), I did most everything the game had to offer. In that calendar year, I spent just over 600 hours in the game. That’s a testament to how much I adored all my townsanimals and the game at large.

So the other day I was thinking, what happened to Xanadu? Did it flounder into ruin? Did all the townsanimals leave? Was Maple still there and hanging on? She was my favorite, and I started to wonder, did I want that for her? Or did I hope she found her way to a town where the mayor was still present and active? Would my town be covered in weeds? Would all the townsanimals be upset at me for taking off?

Pretty heavy for a world that only exists digitally.

So I decided to pop back in for a visit.

Now allow me to qualify here that I took all the following photos with my phone and not with the in-game camera, so please excuse their consistently crappy quality. I can attest that these are some of the worst photos I’ve ever taken.

For frame of reference, these were the stats before I booted the game up yesterday. I’ve never understood why the game shows less than 400 days, as I easily put that in. Either way, that play time is pretty huge.

Isabelle was kind in welcoming me back. She’s the best!

This was as I first emerged from my house. Everything looked weirdly similar. I received a piece of mail from the post office updating me on my savings, as well as a letter telling me that Rhonda had moved, but otherwise, my mailbox was empty.

:(

I love mail. In real life and digitally.

Being gone for nearly a year and having only two letters (one of them being a financial statement) was a let down.

My first priority was finding Maple. I love her. She was at home and welcomed me. Just look at how adorable she is! I was so pleased to find her still living in Xanadu.

Right after, I cruised by the coffee house to catch up with Brewster. I had a nice cup of coffee and chatted with Tipper. Oh that sassy cow!

Then I stopped by my town hall. I was always into the zen themed town items, and I was so happy when I could change my town hall to reflect that. I also forgot about my awesome rainbow flag that I designed.

I’ve been a huge fan of rainbows since I was a kid.

After visiting Isabelle at town hall, she reminded me that I had finished yet another zen bench and that she had organized a celebration (she must have been waiting a long time!). Off we went to enjoy the festivities.

Next I stopped by to see Eunice, another of my favorite townsanimals. She was sweet as ever and I was glad to find her still in Xanadu.

I then went to ring my zen bell (CLONGGG), and visit my special white flowers that grow on the cliff overlooking the beach.

Then of course I had to go down to the beach to enjoy all the tropical goodness.

I decided to head back to my house to check out all the rooms and reminisce. This is the main room of my house. I love my open space and my fountains. Serene and relaxing.

My room to the left is my cabin room. I adore this room. I customized every possible thing with rainbows and that always makes me smile.

This is the back room, my character’s bedroom, and you can see that I was clearly obsessed with collecting mushrooms. And rainbows.

My room to the right was also cabin themed, but this one was a special room for all my “best friend” photos of my townsanimals. There’s Maple on the far left, followed by Beardo, Dora, Tipper, and Eunice. These were the photos of all the “best friends” I had living in my town when I left.

This side of the room was for the creatures who had moved away. I wasn’t super sorry to see some of them leave, but some of them I was quite sad about (e.g.: Rod, Goldie, Fuschia). I liked being able to remember them in this way.

Upstairs was my beach room. Please note the continued use of rainbows.

This is my basement. I kept all my really rare items there, and I loved going down there to dance around and interact with things. I’m especially proud of my museum statue. Getting that museum completed wasn’t easy.

I finished my trip by having a seat at my town tree. I love this tree. I love how it changes with the seasons, and I was glad to see it in the glory of summer.

Some things about my return trip that I was a little puzzled about are as follows:
There were only two weeds in my entire town. AFTER A YEAR.
I had more clovers pop up, but only those two weeds.
The townsanimals mostly conversed with me as normal. I’d been gone so long! I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

So, as you see, it wasn’t the experience I thought it would be, but it was a pleasant visit. I was just astonished at how things didn’t seem to change.

But holy cow am I glad that Maple was still there.

I’m not sure if I will go back to visit Xanadu again, but I feel happy knowing the town, and the animals, seemed happy as can be. Cheers to Xanadu!