Rory understood me!!

[zarf]

This is gonna sound dramatic af but I need to share this with someone. So today I got this letter from Rory:

I freaked. out. At first I thought this was one of those after-party letters, but that's impossible! Rory's birthday is this Sunday!! I've been spending this entire week preparing for it. I've wrapped a present, bought a bunch of balloons from Nooks & even made custom designs to set during the fireworks show (which is on the same day)! There's no way I'd miss his birthday. So then I thought... could this be him thanking me in advance? Does Rory know I've been preparing for his birthday? Did he notice the bday decorations I put out?? DOES HE KNOW I LOVE HIM??? I actually started shaking LMAO it was exciting!!!

But then a few minutes later it hit me... OH.

IT'S A REPLY LETTER.... Rory is replying to what I sent him!! I had sent Rory a letter a few days ago saying something like "I'm making a special present! Look forward to your birthday!" and completely forgotten about it. I think somehow he understood and it triggered this response from him. And he'd only just replied today (or maybe he replied a while ago and I'd only just noticed LOL)

Still it made me really happy. I've only ever gotten generic responses from him before. I had no idea villagers could reply based on what you've written?? This letter put me through a rollercoaster of emotions!! Now I'm curious to know what keywords villagers can understand. Has anyone else received a special response to a letter? What did you write in it? And just saying; if you have a villager whose bday is coming up, you should try sending them a letter like I did!!

 

[-Mars-]

Although she is no longer with me and I've cycled her in and out of my island multiple times
when I first got my favorite villager next to Drift of course, Lily I sent her a letter telling her I think she is really cute and I hope she has fun on the island and enjoys all her new friends
she sent me a reply letter thanking me for making her feel welcome and that everyone on the island has been so kind to her and that the island is a great community
it melted my heart

 

[zarf]

Although she is no longer with me and I've cycled her in and out of my island multiple times
when I first got my favorite villager next to Drift of course, Lily I sent her a letter telling her I think she is really cute and I hope she has fun on the island and enjoys all her new friends
she sent me a reply letter thanking me for making her feel welcome and that everyone on the island has been so kind to her and that the island is a great community
it melted my heart

OH MY GOD!!! THAT IS SO PRECIOUS I would've just cried on the spot?? Thank you for sharing! Now I gotta remember this for the next time a villager moves in!!

 

[Croconaw]

I told Bones in a letter that I was looking for a kiddie stereo. He replied in a letter the following day, and the attached present was a kiddie stereo. It was probably a strange coincidence, but I like to think he understood me. This was in the Gamecube version — as I don’t even think the kiddie stereo exists in New Horizons.

 

[Rosch]

I'm not sure but perhaps the game have some "keywords" that picks the villager responses in these letters.

Because Rory's birthday is close, maybe using the word "birthday" on the letter you sent triggered this reply.

As for Lily, perhaps the words "fun, island, friends" and the fact that she's new triggered such response.

Regardless, these are heartwarming and wholesome. Thanks for sharing and reminding me that I should write letters to my villagers more often... which I haven't done since May 2020.

 

[smug villager]

That's so cute! I have been meaning to invite Rory to my island and I'll take this as a message that I should get to it.

 

[-Blue-]

There are definitely key words that trigger different responses from the villagers. Sometimes I wrote out a well thought out letter that any human would understand and the AI/villagers would respond how they couldn't understand what I had wrote.

This was on the GameCube and NewLeaf version. I wonder if you send a villager a letter with 'Happy birthday!' when their birthday isn't for 4+ months later if they would respond the same way. I kind of want to try now.

 

[zarf]

There are definitely key words that trigger different responses from the villagers. Sometimes I wrote out a well thought out letter that any human would understand and the AI/villagers would respond how they couldn't understand what I had wrote.

This was on the GameCube and NewLeaf version. I wonder if you send a villager a letter with 'Happy birthday!' when their birthday isn't for 4+ months later if they would respond the same way. I kind of want to try now.

I actually ended up testing! They'll just give a generic response. I'm guessing it only counts if you send the letter after the villager's bday has been announced on the bulletin board. Not 100% sure tho. And YEAH I always get those responses in the older games. I'd pour my heart out into a letter just to get a reply that's like "Haha you're so funny!"... so getting this reply from Rory was just... WOW... feels amazing to be acknowledged. Such a small thing but it makes him feel alive. Shame tho that it's hidden behind the clunky letter system.

That's so cute! I have been meaning to invite Rory to my island and I'll take this as a message that I should get to it.

Yoooo go for it!! Rory's a roarsome guy!! I hope you'll love having him as much as I do!!!

Also since it's on topic, here's what I made for Rory's present! I also had a flexing arm design like but ended up scrapping it cus it was kinda ugly LOL. Idk if these will actually translate well into fireworks but I guess I'll find out tonight!!

 

[Fey]

I always send my villagers a letter welcoming them to the Island—they will definitely understand and specifically thank you for reaching out so soon after moving in.

(When Graham was my forced camper, I welcomed him as a “temporary Island visitor”—sadly he didn’t get the hint and made himself comfy permanently)

 

[Iris_T]

Wow, that's quite nice
(since I barely write letters to villagers I didn't know they could sometimes answer like that, seems I've been missing out!)

 

[Eevees]

This is too cute!!

 

[pawpatrolbab]

This is so awesome! I had no idea that they actually recognized what you were writing to them (I gave up on sending letters because of this but maybe I'll pick it back up lol).

 

[tiffanistarr]

I told Bones in a letter that I was looking for a kiddie stereo. He replied in a letter the following day, and the attached present was a kiddie stereo. It was probably a strange coincidence, but I like to think he understood me. This was in the Gamecube version — as I don’t even think the kiddie stereo exists in New Horizons.

I also had a similar experience in the GC version. I remember asking Huggy for a dresser in a letter, since those were the only way to have storage in your house. She sent me a letter back and it had a dresser in it. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I was pretty stoked about it!

 

[Mutti]

I do sometimes get reply letters when i send a welcome letter to whoever moves onto my island. I give gifts wrapped for birthdays and never had a letter like yours

 

[Xara]

awe, his letter and you going all out for his birthday is genuinely so sweet!! i honestly haven’t really bothered with sending letters in this game since it doesn’t give you any friendship points, but this has lowkey made me reconsider. villager letters can be so sweet sometimes, and it really is awesome when they actually reference what you wrote instead of sending some random/ generic reply back.

i hope rory had a great birthday on your island!

 

[NebulaNights]

It’s soo neat how villagers respond to you in letters. I never had the time to send one in New Horizons, but now after reading this, it makes me want to when I start playing again.

 

[Kitsuragi]

what?! this is so cool! ive not really sent many letters in new horizons but now i totally will, i didnt know they actually responded. at least, dom never did.

 

[zarf]

awe, his letter and you going all out for his birthday is genuinely so sweet!! i honestly haven’t really bothered with sending letters in this game since it doesn’t give you any friendship points, but this has lowkey made me reconsider. villager letters can be so sweet sometimes, and it really is awesome when they actually reference what you wrote instead of sending some random/ generic reply back.

i hope rory had a great birthday on your island!

Thanks!! His birthday was great lol he cried manly tears. I remember reading how letters don't increase friendship points when the game first launched, but I didn't know that's still a thing? I always thought it was just a glitch or something... I mean, I'm still gonna send em anyway but dang it kinda sucks that they haven't fixed that :/

 

[CuriousCharli]

I told Bones in a letter that I was looking for a kiddie stereo. He replied in a letter the following day, and the attached present was a kiddie stereo. It was probably a strange coincidence, but I like to think he understood me. This was in the Gamecube version — as I don’t even think the kiddie stereo exists in New Horizons.

Just wanted to say, yes they do! I'm not sure why Nintendo decided to change the names of some sets. I think its the block set that you craft, you can recolour it to have the original colours.


Honestly this whole thread is wholesome and it inspires me to want to write to my villagers again ♥
I kinda suck at writing to them since in NH it didn't really benefit anything (Nintendo at the time made it so it didn't really go towards friendship and felt a bit pointless) or so I convined myself because well... I lost motivation. I get the odd letter thats been super sweet and I've kept.
This one time, quite early on in my game play actually, Bunnie sent me a message, I took a video of it the opening of it and the gift but it said "Sometimes, If I'm feeling lonely or scared of vampires... I'll sleep with a stuffed toy! So, if you ever freak out about floor vampires, grab a fluffy buddy and sleep tight!" and inside was a Mama Panda. I LOVE stuffed animals and pandas, in fact, I have been looking for a while to get my own stuffie of a Panda. I know this is probably a generic Peppy message especially since this was way before the 2.0 updates but... It was like she was trying to comfort me because... I went through something quite terrible and at the time it didn't bother me but looking back... it means so much. This girl has been with me for 15 years aprox, she has transcended 3 games with me, she knows me. I even break the wall sometimes and tell her about what we did in Wild World and New Leaf sometimes. You see my character close the door, you bet immediately I put it in my bedroom and that's where she stays, with her family ♥

 

[PacV]

Happens too in New Leaf. Every time when my Villagers have Birthdays, i always send them a letter. His reply almost all the time is: “Thank you so much for the Birthday letter”.

Also, when you send them a welcome letter, they do understand it too.

Is cool to see that sometimes they do understand what you're saying.