Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a charming game filled with plenty of silly lines of dialogue, and one that you’re going to hear a lot is about a sea bass:
“I caught a sea bass! No, wait–it’s at least a C+!”
It’s an amusing pun that helps to take the sting away from catching such a common fish, but then you’ll read it a few more times and it will lose its charm. When you’re desperate to catch something better, the line becomes something of a taunt, and even the Nintendo employee who wrote it doesn’t want to read it anymore.
Posting on his own Twitter account, Nintendo localization producer Rob Heiret confirmed he wrote the line, and said he’s tired of the joke. He also shared a small secret about how the joke was originally written.
If you’ve played the game, you’re tired of the sea bass joke. I get it. *I’M* tired of the sea bass joke, and I wrote it. But here’s a secret about the sea bass joke:
It was originally “I caught a sea bass! Well…maybe a C- bass…)— Rob Heiret (@Rheiret) May 10, 2020
And when we were workshopping the fish jokes, someone pointed out that, as a joke people were going to see many, many times, generally along with disappointment they didn’t catch something better, maybe it would be better to spin it positive. Make it a C+ instead.
— Rob Heiret (@Rheiret) May 10, 2020
Is it funnier? Not especially, but it does line up more with your Villager’s emotions every time they catch one. When Tom Nook is wondering how you’re going to gather up the bells to pay for your latest home expansion, a sea bass just isn’t going to cut it.
One of the best ways you can make bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is by playing the “stalk market,” which has fluctuating turnip prices that you can sell for big profit. It’s only available for a limited time each week, and you can check out our Animal Crossing turnips guide for help becoming an expert day trader. You can also learn all about fishing in our Animal Crossing fish guide.
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