Talk:Doubutsu no Mori+

Merge with Animal Crossing

A merger was originally agreed upon for this page to move to Animal Crossing, however the results has since been reversed due to recent developments. -- PanchamBro (talk • contributions) 01:15, November 8, 2022 (EST)

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page.

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To me, Animal Crossing is simply the localized version of Doubutsu no Mori+, as both games are similar enough to be considered one and the same, just with some differences. Rather than being a separate page, the differences should be labeled under a regional differences section (As I have already made) instead of a separate page.

Please state below whether you support or oppose. --LoneShadowStar (talk) 19:11, May 3, 2018 (EDT)

I would  Support this, for the reasons stated above. --LoneShadowStar (talk) 19:11, May 3, 2018 (EDT)

I would  Support this, since the changes between the two games are insignificant (such as characters wearing differently coloured clothing; is that really enough to get the game a separate page?) Drago (talk) 13:16, May 3, 2018 (EDT)

I definitely  Oppose the merge. The fact that DnM+ itself is an entirely separate game from Animal Crossing should be enough to keep it as its own page. Also, I'm not sure why the only differences listed on the DnM+ page are the minor ones.Zoekay (talk) 18:02, May 3, 2018 (EDT)

@Zoekay Do you have any proof that they are separate games? Most of the time you will find that the majority consider Doubutsu no Mori+ to be the Japanese release of Animal Crossing, myself included, with relatively few differences. Unless you provide me a credible source, my stance on the two games being the same will remain. As for the list of differences, the majority of differences listed on that pages are minor and were not necessary to include on the Animal Crossing page, unless you are referring to Doubutsu no Mori e+, which has enough original content to get its own page. --LoneShadowStar (talk) 19:11, May 3, 2018 (EDT)

@LoneShadowStar I honestly cannot tell if your response is supposed to be a joke, but I did laugh a couple of times when reading it. Anyway, nothing you wrote makes sense.

• Doubutsu no Mori+ (which featured different content and gameplay) was released in a different region, in a different language, during a different year, under a different name, in a different sized box than Animal Crossing. That sounds "separate" enough to me!
• Doubutsu no Mori+ came out before Animal Crossing, so it cannot be "a Japanese release of Animal Crossing".
• E+ was never mentioned.

If you look on this very page, it says "Doubutsu no Mori+ almost has the same game code as Animal Crossing. Doubutsu no Mori+ is GAFJ, Animal Crossing is GAFE in the US version, GAFP in the PAL version", meaning the games are recognized as different versions of the same game officially by Nintendo as well, despite the code or gameplay differences. Also, I've taken it upon myself to further compare DnM+ to Animal Crossing. I have done similar work with the Animal Crossing series (by myself and as part of a group) before. Not to mention my history of speedrunning both games. - unsigned comment from Zoekay (talk • contribs)

@Zoekay I'm still not convinced by this:

• The Japanese version of Animal Crossing: New Leaf was also released in a different region, in a different language, and in a different year.
• Animal Crossing was effectively a non-Japanese release (translation) of Doubutsu no Mori+.
• I have not much knowledge about code, so someone else will have to make sense of that. Drago (talk) 13:26, May 5, 2018 (EDT)

@Zoekay Ok, maybe I sort of rambled in my previous statement. Sometimes I write faster than I think, but I'm saying that unless you have a good reason to say they are separate games entirely, I won't change my mind. Also, your sources, in agreement with Drago, don't really prove anything. Countless games have been released in other regions in different languages in different years, maybe with different content, but that doesn't mean that they are entirely separate. A good example is Tomodachi Life. The Japanese version, named Tomodachi Collection: New Life was released one year before the western release (2013, compared to the 2014 release out west), but they are still considered one and the same due to common similarities.

Maybe it's just your opinion, and I apologize for my rant if that is the case.--LoneShadowStar (talk) 14:13, May 5, 2018 (EDT)

Just making a comment for now. I'm right in the middle of supporting and opposing. The two games are very similar, but of course it's just not a mere port (given all the changes). At the same time, as an Animal Crossing wiki, we're not exactly inclined to try to limit our number of articles, and I feel this article could be greatly expanded with more details, a gallery subpage, etc. I'm going to explore a bit more and encourage others to contribute to this discussion, since we're currently not at consensus. ~SuperHamster Talk 22:08, May 8, 2018 (EDT)

I actually hadn't noticed that the game code seemed to imply that Animal Crossing was the English counterpart to Doubutsu no Mori+. For everyone's clarification, the 'game code' being referred to here is the ID marked in small letters at the bottom of the GCN disk, you can see it better on this promo disc or the European disc. Each game has a unique three letter identifier (in this case GAF) followed by either E (North America), J (Japan), or P (PAL Territories). I think that is probably the biggest piece of evidence for such a merger, actually, and I agree with you that Doubutsu no Mori+ is the Japanese version of Animal Crossing.

I've spent too long writing this reply, but the longer I thought about it... the more I realized that you're right. I  Support the merge. Before I changed my mind, I had made a long argument basically stating that the Japanese version of Animal Crossing is much more different than any other localization, but even then, we don't give any other Japanese-version its own page (unless it was only released in that territory). We do need to add a section that documents these changes in better detail, and they may one day get their own page, but I think that for now it can just be a section on the Animal Crossing page.

P.S. I'm finally scanning in item images from Doubutsu no Mori e+ so the localization changes can be documented as the Japan-only item models are the same between DnM+ and DnMe+. (talk) 19:33, June 4, 2019 (EDT)

I  Support this as well, after some deliberation. The Animal Crossing (GCN) article details the differences pretty nicely, and we could easily slot in the changes from Doubutsu no Mori into that article as well. This just doesn't seem inherently notable as AC is just a localisation of the same game, not necessarily a separate game in its own right. It would also dramatically simplify organisation across the wiki, and indeed we already have merged the two in some areas (e.g. List of villagers). --Dorsal Axe (talk) 18:15, March 8, 2020 (EDT)

Old discussion but I'm also leaning a bit on merge. If the differences are only minor, it's best to have only a small list between the two in the Animal Crossing article. ™ 19:31, March 8, 2020 (EDT)

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The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page.