I was curious does Animal Crossing have a history of adding new villagers to every game that comes out? Is it the same number every time or has it shrunk or does it vary? I think it was 24 villagers introduced in New Horizons right? 16 brand new and 8 remodels.
Of the brand new we got: cat, elephant, cub, bear, goat, sheep, wolf, horse, hamster, deer, rabbit, squirrel, mouse, octopus, monkey, and eagle.
Species that were not added too were: Bull, Chicken, Cow, Duck, Frog, Gorilla, Hippo, Kangaroo, Lion, Pig, and Tiger.
Do you foresee other "lost and forgotten" villagers of the past getting a make over and being reintroduced? Just kind of thinking about what we may see with a new animal crossing game in the future.
What species do you think will get a new villager in the next game or what species do you hope gets a new villager in the next game?
Also, when was the last time a new species was introduced in the series?
I think we just got eight new villagers who did not have Amiibo’s for the longest time. I really hope we get a new dog villager. The dogs are my favorite villager species of all time. Surprising. I know.
*The last species introduced were deers and hamsters, on NL.
*The amount of new villagers/residents varies everytime, as each version of the original game had different villagers, WW cut more than half of them and had 18 new ones and CF reintroduced 42 and added 18. NL is the king of adds, with more than 100 new villagers and 70 returning ones- it also only cut 1. NH only added 16 new and 8 returning but didn't cut a single one.
I think having 413 possible residents/villagers is already a lot, even a bit saturated; so I'm fine with a low amount of new/returning neighbors being added. And of those, a new species would definitely be the best option- and if possible, not a single new dog or cat or the like, there are too many of those. I'd prefer they follow the path they set on NH and keep adding more hobbies, more foods/drink, maybe even more handheld items in general that make each of the residents feel unique and alive.
I mean for a game called "Animal Crossing" I would've expected more animal species to the series. The main issue I have with AC and I know some may disagree with this is that all the villagers just feel too similar to each other no matter what their personality is. I sometimes wonder if they would've take their time to make new personalities that give them more character to them so that way they stand out from other villagers.
One of the reasons why people liked Raymond so much from 2020 is because of the way he looked. They didn't care about his smug personality since no matter what smug villager you get they would talk the same way as each other. After a year went by nobody seem to care about him anymore and now all of a sudden the new villagers Sasha and Shino are popular even though their personality is the same as most of the other villagers.
I really hope in the next mainline AC game they would try and at least improve the villagers personality because making 413 villagers and letting them have the same personality really isn't enough to branch out and try new ideas with new personalities and animal species. I am also shocked that I didn't even know that villagers from the original AC never made an appearance but some of them were brought back, but again the personalities are all the same. Maybe I would be more excited for the new villagers have the personalities been new. I am not hating, I am just being really honest here.
That honestly reminded me that all the Raymond and Marshal hype has died down drastically with the new villagers. I think that people got very over-hyped from the new villager update with Sasha and Shino. In my opinion, if someone like Shino was just another regular villager you saw through out all the Animal Crossing games, she would have a lot less recognition and just be treated like a random villager in New Horizons.
Like you said, all the villagers have very similar personalities. Sasha is a lazy so you’ll just hear him talk about bugs all the time, and Sasha is a peppy so you’ll hear so much about how she wants to be a pop star. The thing is people only like them because they look cute. So many people just want Sasha because he has sparkling eyes and more feminine traits then any other villagers, but in reality they’ll just have a bright teal rabbit talk to them about how they slept on the floor while talking to a roach last night.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like if Nintendo gave each villager their OWN personality. I know that probably couldn’t happen, but I wonder if Nintendo could’ve at least given the villagers something to differentiate them dialogue-wise from the other villagers. It gets very repetitive of the fact that the only difference between their dialogue is if they are assigned to 1 out of the 8 personalities.
