A minor detail in Animal Crossing: New Horizons can help players tell real paintings from fake ones, preventing gamers from getting embarrassed by Blathers’ discerning eye. Filling up the museum in Nintendo’s life simulation game is a long-term project and players will be tasked with fishing, bug-hunting, and evaluating Animal Crossing art pieces to keep Blathers, the museum curator, happy. This will mean hunting down genuine works of art around the island and bringing them back to find a new home in the art exhibit. The problem is, finding out which ones are real and which ones are forgeries has always been a struggle. Especially when Redd attempts to sell a player a fake, costing them quite a few bells.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons contains many ways for players to obtain works of art. Paintings can be mailed or gifted from certain types of villagers, and players can also purchase paintings for a hefty price at Jolly Redd’s Treasure Trawler. The thing is, while Redd has plenty of real paintings for sale, the sly fox also tries to unload forgeries on the player. There are tell-tale ways to spot a real painting from a fake one, such as remembering the 14 paintings that are always real. Paintings like Calm Painting, Glowing Painting, and Warm Painting don’t have forged versions, so players can confidently purchase any of them from Redd. For other paintings, like the Academic Painting, players will have to use their own discerning eye to spot a fake. If they do purchase a fake, they don’t have to wait until Blathers reveals it’s a forgery.
A minor detail discovered by Reddit user PandorasPandas showed players how they can tell a real painting from a fake one. Nintendo added painting certifications to real paintings in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so players know which paintings are real. The certifications appear on the back of the painting, and those without them are shams. The trouble is that players cannot discern whether there are certification papers on the back while buying paintings from Redd, as the camera won’t let them pan in the right way. However, this trick can help players know when they’ve scored a real-deal painting before being embarrassed by Blathers when they bring the painting to the museum curator.
Here’s an extra detail Nintendo added to paintings. Real paintings have certifications stating it’s real but fake paintings won’t. from AnimalCrossing
The fine details in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are what make the game so special. In the real fine art world, there is a process of documenting who possessed a painting before the current owner and for how much it was sold. These documents show the succession over years and even decades, and they help provide greater authenticity to a work of art. It’s incredible that Nintendo added that into Animal Crossing: New Horizons with a minor detail many have missed.
While the detail won’t necessarily save a player any bells from Jolly Redd’s trickery, it will help them spot which paintings are real and which are fakes as they decide what to hang up in their home or museum, and what to trash. Being caught with a forgery isn’t the best look, so now players can avoid the embarrassment.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available on the Nintendo Switch.
Source: PandorasPandas/Reddit