Animal Crossing has always been anti-instant gratification. By design, you have to take your time, wait for days to pass in real time, and complete a seemingly endless list of chores to build a meaningful life with your animal friends. The slowness is part of its appeal. But with New Horizons, some of that slowness became tedious: crafting its many items one at a time, painstakingly building cliffs and rivers by hand, picking up and placing objects one by one.
The Pokemon series has been in need of serious evolution recently. 2022's "Pokemon Legends: Arceus" switched up the traditional Pokemon RPG formula by introducing real-time combat elements, a semi-open world, and a new way of story progression. It was a breath of fresh air for the franchise that had a stagnating turn-based battle system. Whereas "Arceus" was a prequel to the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl games, the newest entry "Pokemon Legends: Z-A" is a sequel to the "Pokemon X and Y" ones.