Timmy or Tommy?
Tommy. As someone who has been quiet and shy throughout my life, I find him relatable and endearing. Sometimes, I'll make a point to do business with him instead of Timmy.
Digby or Isabelle?
Isabelle. Digby's all right, he has a cool design, but I never interacted with him much because I barely Streetpassed anyone in New Leaf.
Labelle/Label or Gracie?
Gracie because of all of the fantastic furniture sets and Gracie-exclusive clothing; that said, I've never been able to polish her car to her high standards in the GameCube game.
Mable or Sable?
Sable because we get to know her through the gradually unlocking dialogue if we keep interacting with her daily.
Blathers or Celeste?
Blathers. While I love both since birds are my favorite types of animals in the world and owls are cool, I'm going to have to give this one to Blathers. I bought Wild World on the Wii U eShop before it closed down, but I haven't started a town in it yet, so I've never gotten to see her fully back in that game. Blathers has been around since the GameCube game and his personality quirks of being scared of bugs and his tendency to ramble, tying into his name being Blathers, is fun.
Wilbur or Orville?
Wilbur. I like his lingo and his aviator sunglasses.
Harvey or Harriet?
Harvey because I like his hippie design and personality and how he would feed the birds in New Leaf. Harriet's good too though.
Reese or Cyrus?
They're both good in their own ways, but I'll say Cyrus because he does the customization work. He could make miniature fossil models in New Leaf.
Pelly or Phyllis?
I love all three of the Pelicans, but leaning Phyllis because her gruff, rude attitude stands out more than Pelly's niceness.
Nat or Flick?
Nat. Unpopular choice. While Flick is cool in his own ways, I prefer Nat's big, bulbous eyes on the sides of his head like a real chameleon. He's more visually interesting. Also, his little explorer outfit is cute and I like his accent.
C.J. Or Chip?
Chip. I don't hate C.J. but I'm not all that fond of his streamer/influencer character; I mean, it makes sense and works in the modern day, but it's just not for me. Chip's kind of nostalgic for me from the GameCube game.
Daisy Mae or Joan?
Joan. Her eyes look cool, she has tusks, and I like that Sow Joan is a play on the Dow Jones in line with the Stalk Market being a play on the stock market.
Niko or Wardell?
Wardell for his character. Niko's got a nice design though.
Lyle or Lottie?
Lyle. He makes me think of
Gil from The Simpsons. Nothing against Lottie, Lyle just amuses me more.
Frillard or Shrunk?
Frillard has a more interesting design, but I never really experienced much of him since I didn't play Wild World yet and
really did not enjoy City Folk and dropped it very quickly.
Gulliver or Pete?
Gulliver since he has more going on with his travels, both on the seas and in space, plus the whole Gullivarr pirate alternate personality(?).
Tom Nook or Isabelle?
Tom Nook. Guy's a saint, letting us pay him back for his work at our own pace without tacking on interest.
Tom Nook or Redd?
Redd. He has more personality and is our supplier for art pieces.
Chrissy or Francine?
Francine since I prefer her eyes over Chrissy's. I prefer when villagers have more "realistic" eyes and am not fond of big, sparkly eyes like Chrissy and Judy have. That said, I do find the juxtaposition from those big sparkly eyes to when they're surprised or shocked and their eyes get really small. That's fun.
Additionally, while pink is one of my favorite colors, I like Francine's blue better than Chrissy's pink.
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I will say, with characters I chose like Nat and Joan, I feel like there was more of a "grittiness" for lack of a better term with the older designs. C.J. and Flick are too fresh and appealing, Daisy Mae's too cute; Nintendo's smoothing the edges off and making characters that appeal to a wider audience, while I'm drawn more to these "uglier" designs that don't necessarily have mass appeal to the widest swath of the population possible but stand out more and are more interesting as a result.