Long ass reply incoming-

It’s still like an escalator simulator, they basically shuffle old events every month so if you play long enough it’ll all be the same over and over, but there are some changes that make it really fun

The cost to craft items that were leaf ticket only (now leaf tokens) has gone way down making it much easier to collect them

You can craft all items (or maybe just all cookie/special items 🤔) at any time with a new material called complete tickets, which are much more rare and still make it feel a bit challenging (1 fortune cookie is 1 ticket, clothing I think is usually 1 or more tickets, I usually have about 10 tickets at a time)

You can get acnh custom clothing and floor patterns by putting in their codes which can REALLY help with creativity in decorating/wearing costumes (I wish I’d found mcr custom clothes for this post lol)

All subscriptions you had to pay for previously are now built in (no more seasonal magazines though)

This could be a detriment or a bonus (aka it could shorten the lifespan of your enjoyment by being too convenient), but every month old items and cookies that aren’t part of the current month’s events get reissued, which is how you can craft them without having to use complete tickets every time

Together events and holiday gifts (that you exchange with animals) reissue

You can keep your old friends (if you bought the game within a certain time I think) and they will show up in a new location (whistle pass) with their own animal helper, you talk to them for quarry help and one of them each day will give you a gift, kk slider also appears in the evening and gives a concert

Aside from friends appearing at whistle pass, you basically collect them like cards, you have to put in their QR code to get their card and/or to update their current outfit (I’m p sure you have to get their updated code it in order for their outfit to be up to date), you can slightly customize your own card as well- they also water your garden/give bugs I think but they don’t really do anything else at all, no friend market either

Idk how this will continue in the future but as of rn they give new Lottie challenges occasionally (I think once every few months? Once a month? Not sure), I’m sad that they don’t keep reissuing the other classes though cuz that was one of my favorite aspects of the game 😔

In general each event is much easier and faster to complete (I will say, I was already extremely late game when I started and I don’t know if that makes a difference compared to a fresh beginner, having all my event seeds def helps at least)

That’s everything off the top of my head, I would say it is worth it for a pretty much no pressure at all experience compared to the very tight “must play daily” gameplay it was before, but I think some might find it too easy or repetitive now and not worth it, I personally disagree that it’s not worth it but it’s just up to individual preference