I think if there’s one new zone/feature that could be added it’d be to step it up from the little shops and strip mall into a full blown 2 or more story mall! Especially since they’ll be going the way of the dino it’d be super nostaligc, slap on some crappy music, a bunch of new shops (Which also means a bunch of new gags: maybe a stinky candle shop for example?) And it’s a new low stress place to hang out.
Other ideas for a mall:
Food Court
Video Game Store (Bring them home to your condo)
Clothing Store for base characters
Spencer’s Clone for goofy tacky edgy stuff
IMAX type theater
Shoe store
Random vendors between stores, knockoff anime merch, bad t-shirts, sunglasses etc.
Escalators with risk of catching your shoelace and maiming you
Dead Rising References
Wishing Pool that accepts player currency
Other capitalistic garbage that invokes nostalgia in REAL 90S KIDS
Underground, maybe? Like, keep the escalator where it is but rip out the subway, replace it with a shopping center, and then attach the subway to that. So, basically, when you spawn at the subway, you walk through the shopping center and then up the escalator as usual.
Either that or gut the tower lobby and revamp it to be a mall like it was in Lobby 1. Bring a bit of the past back.
I think the second idea is probably the best option, but I think the tower lobby would need to be made a bit larger to fit all of the stores in it. I feel like it might take a lot of effort to be able to change up the tower lobby’s layout enough to fit an entire mall in there, but then again the tower is pretty big so idk.
an alternate idea I thought of while writing this was that the shopping mall could be placed where the west stores are right now. the side of the plaza the west stores are in is pretty much empty (besides that one path), and the shopping mall being there would be a really nice way to fill up the plaza a bit more, imo. There could also be some entrances on the sides of the mall so the mall doesn’t get in the way of the path, and the area where the east stores are currently could also maybe be used as a dedicated spot for Seasons (if that isn’t just gonna be in the mall), with a nice garden area around it.
this reply isnt really structured at all since I thought of a lot of stuff while writing this and im just hoping this makes sense/is easy to read
Not a bad idea. I’ve also just remembered that there’s that whole other island they have yet to do anything with. I mean, sure, judging by the trello, they definitely have plans for it but maybe, if the new location isn’t gonna take up the whole island, they could stick it over there