Did you set of favorite villagers change with New Horizons ?

[Boccages]

I've played every Animal Crossing iteration the day they came out going back to the Gamecube.

Going in on May 20, 2020 I had a set of favorites that went something like this.

1. Pate
2. Olive
3. O'Hare
4. Canberra
5. Friga
6. Roald
7. Ozzie
8. Broffina
9. Monique
10. Murphy

While I was playing NH (2020-2022), some of the villagers I liked got pushed down the pecking line, and new ones rose up quickly on my top 10 list. Now my top 10 consists of

1. Olive
2. Pate
3. Claude
4. Norma
5. Gonzo
6. Weber
7. O'Hare
8. Ozzie
9. Canberra
10. Dotty

Did this happen to you & Why ?

 

[Clock]

Not really, but just Flora ended up becoming somewhat one of my favorite (not all time favorite villager though) . In fact, the (all time favorite) is still not in my island.

 

[Croconaw]

It didn’t. I’ve always preferred the dog and wolf villagers. I couldn’t imagine my favorite villagers changing with the game.

 

[Xara]

not really, but i’ve honestly never really had a set of favourite villagers. i have my absolute favourite villagers, who are my favourites because of their design and/or sentimentality, and then i have my regular favourite villagers (too many to list lol), all of whom i pretty much love equally. if you were to ask me to list my top 10 favourite villagers, i don’t think i’d be able to do it lol. i’d be able to rank my absolute favourites (5 or so villagers), but after that i’d blank because like i said, i love the rest of my favourites equally.

my favourite villagers did change a bit in new horizons, though. beau used to be my #1 favourite villager, but while he’s still the villager that means the most to me and i’ll never have a town without him, my #1 favourite is now shino. audie and kiki also became absolute favourites of mine. i have villagers that i love now who i didn’t care for in previous games, such as margie and pietro, and i have villagers who aren’t as special to me as they used to be, such as fauna and lolly.

the last ac game i played before new horizons was new leaf, and i was much younger then. i was 11 when i got the game, and 15 when i played for the last time. i’m almost 21 now, so my tastes have definitely changed a little lol. i’m more open to getting to know villagers i think are ugly and/or who i didn’t like in the past, and i’ve been able to discover new favourites as a result. in new leaf, i swore to reset my town if pietro ever moved in, and now he’s one of my favourites now that i’ve given him a chance. fauna, zell and lolly used to be absolute favourites of mine because of connections i made with them in new leaf, but that connection isn’t really there anymore in new horizons. they’re just cute, regular villagers to me now lol.

 

[Bluebellie]

Some of them did.

In new leaf I had:
1. Lucky
2. Hamphrey
3. Nan
4. Muffy
5. Rodeo
6. Roscoe
7. Raddle
8. Mathilda
9. Cole
10. Ken


In New Horizons I have:
1. Nan
2. Agnes
3. Cole
4. Rodeo
5. Roscoe
6. Avery
7. Cube
8. Mathilda
9. Barold
10. Raddle


I still like the grey/black villager color scheme, but some of them did change. I decided I didn’t quite like the look of Muffy, Lucky, Hamphrey and Ken in New Horizons, so I swapped them out.

 

[Boccages]

Some of them did.

In new leaf I had:
1. Lucky
2. Hamphrey
3. Nan
4. Muffy
5. Rodeo
6. Roscoe
7. Raddle
8. Mathilda
9. Cole
10. Ken


In New Horizons I have:
1. Nan
2. Agnes
3. Cole
4. Rodeo
5. Roscoe
6. Avery
7. Cube
8. Mathilda
9. Barold
10. Raddle


I still like the grey/black villager color scheme, but some of them did change. I decided I didn’t quite like the look of Muffy, Lucky, Hamphrey and Ken in New Horizons, so I swapped them out.

That's a whole lot of change.

Is it only based on the character's fur color ?

 

[Bluebellie]

That's a whole lot of change.

Is it only based on the character's fur color ?

Yes I wanted them to all be darker tones, and for their map picture pics to not be smiling. I wanted them to also match with my human residents and for their houses to match each other and the surrounding areas. Now you can change the exterior of their houses, but back then when I decided on my villagers we couldn’t. They all have their same exteriors they originally came with, except for Rodeo. You can call him the exception.

Spoiler

 

[Akeath]

Pietro used to be my favorite Smug by far and my top villager. But I don't like him as much in Horizons. In New Leaf, I feel like the Smugs were a little more zany and performance-oriented, which really fit Pietro. But in New Horizons Smugs seem a little more fashion and trend focused instead, and Pietro no longer fits that as well. Plus sheep have a lot less fluff in New Horizons. They also wear full shirts instead of scarfs so less of their wool is visible, which is unfortunate with Pietro's tie-dye wool especially.

I also used to like Lazy villagers a lot more in previous games. Prince was one of my very top villagers. I still like him in New Horizons, but there's a grosser side to Lazy villagers. I now prefer extremely cute looking Lazy to counterbalance the gross factor. So instead of ones like Prince or Lucky that I found funny, I'm going for extreme cuteness like Marshal, Sasha, or Stitches.

I also used to despise virtually every Snooty. They were just too mean. But in New Horizons they've been softened so there are a lot of Snooty I suddenly like - Julia, Ankha, Francine etc. are now desirable even though I couldn't tolerate them on my island in New Leaf.

Also the bulk of my play time in New Leaf was before the Amiibo update. So at the time I only had and knew about a small number of villagers. By the time New Horizons came out I'd gotten a bunch of amiibo. Through that I became aware of more villagers that I liked but weren't super popular. Such as Groucho, Drago, Axel, Apple, and Marcie. And I tried ones that ended up growing on me but that I didn't originally care for as much, such as Bob and Gruff. I also think I've moved away from more simple but cute designs (Like Maple and Bonbon) to more gimicky ones like Tia and Merengue as I've aged.

 

[Firesquids]

Let me see, my New Leaf town is now full of wolves, but if I remember correctly, my favorites were as follows: Julian, Merengue, Shep, Punchy, Kyle, Ankha, Zucker, Skye, Tangy, and Kid Cat. My favorites have changed a lot as my New Horizons roster consists of Judy, Bianca, Rod, Tangy, Diana, Ione, Lily, Julian, Muffy, and étoile.
I think the change in the dialogue for the smug and lazy villagers is really what affected my choices. I don't like the smug personality nearly as much as I did in New leaf. Shep was one of my favs in NL, he kept moving back in right next to me over and over again, and I found that very endearing. Shep lived in my NH town for a short while though and I felt he was totally different now, and I just don't care for him anymore. I also really hated his new horizons house design but that can be changed with HHP.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I can't comment too much on it as ACNH was my first AC game, but the lazies in New Leaf I like a whole lot better than in NH, enough that it would effect my list of favorite villagers.
I have hope that future games may tone down bug talk though.

 

[Olimar]

My favorites absolutely changed! With almost 400 villagers I think it's healthy to be open to different ones and find new friends. Especially with the changes they make to personalities' dialogues, behaviors, etc. I think relying on favorites to remain the same and remain "top 10" status can be ineffective at enjoying the game. I know not everyone is going to agree with that way of playing, but it definitely helped me, because...

At first, I tried to get my favorites from New Leaf on my island, those being Julian and Peanut, but it didn't feel like them. They were so HD compared to New Leaf that they just looked so different than what I was used to. And their personalities' dialogue was just different enough that I wasn't used to them using the phrases that they used or talking to me how they do in NH. It made them feel so foreign and hard to connect to, even though those same phrases/dialogues with others in their personality types ended up being charming and what drew me to new favorites.

I would say from New Leaf Julian and Peanut were my Top 2, with Nan, Flora, Del, and Agnes being others that I favored.

In New Horizons, my favorites are June, Hazel, Paula, Klaus, Boyd, Buck, and Stu.

One of the things I'm looking forward to most in whatever main game comes next (assuming there will be one) is what villagers I will fall in love with and make my best friends.

 

[FaeLeaf]

Big time. I’d say only a couple are still in my top favorites.

I do feel like with how watered down and bland the villagers are, I’ve become LESS attached to any specific villagers and just kind of have flavors of the month. Which is sad to me. They’re just like moving decorations now that I choose to go with my island’s theme instead of being significant characters that I want to bond with.

 

[moon_child]

A bit because I’m crazy about Sasha. But the rest pretty much stayed the same. There are other villagers tho that I never really paid much attention to in previous games but I loved them more in NH either because their design improved so much or just because I got to spend more time with them like Merry. She became a new fave. Chief was also my fave cranky wolf but NH wouldn’t give me him and I ended up with Fang and fell in love with him. Now I like him better than Chief. The others pretty much stayed the same.

 

[-Blue-]

My favorite villagers from NL and NH mostly changed because the amiibo cards weren't available from the start. So I grew used to some of them that I kept. It's sort of 50/50 that some returned.