Is Animal Crossing: New Horizons Still Worth Playing In 2023?

Recommended Article

• ACNH: Changes To Personality Types Of Villagers

  Today, we’re jumping back to some Animal Crossing Lore, this time surrounding the Personality types of Villagers.

  Now Animal Crossing New Horizons, and the past titles are full of interesting facts, back stories, and hidden details you may not know. For example, only Jock or Big Sister villagers can be your 2 starting Villagers in New Horizons, which I’m sure you knew, but did you know the next 3 are always Peppy, Normal and Lazy… in that order… It’s pretty interesting.

  Speaking of Villager Personality types, there is another very interesting phenomenon that the Personality of several Animals has actually changed. It’s true, there are 18 Animal Crossing villagers, that at some point or another have had their Personalities switched to a different type. This typically occurs when a new Animal Crossing game is released…

  With that out of the way, here is every Personality Change, in Animal Crossing.

  

  Big Sister

  I thought we’d highlight these as their new Personalities Types, and of course probably the ones you recognise them to be! So, what better place to start than Big Sister, given you will always encounter one, when you first start a new Island. There are six Big Sister Villagers in Animal Crossing. They are Sylvia, Ursula, Paula, Charlise, Plucky and Faith, and in previous games, their respective Personality Types are different.

  The characters of Sylvia and Ursula have always been Snooty in the past. But when they returned to New Leaf, their personalities became Big Sister. Paula, Charlise and Plucky used to be Peppy, but again returned to New Leaf as Big Sister.

  And Faith was originally a Normal Koala, and after being missing from several instalments of Animal Crossing, returned to New Horizons as Big Sister. We’ll discuss why these changes occurred towards the end of the article, but it’s not really surprising to know Big Sister Villagers saw some of the most changes, given it is the least common Personality Type.

  Cranky

  Next up, we have Cranky Villagers. As far as I know, there are three villagers of this Personality Type. Likewise, their previous Personality Types were not like this. These include, Harry, T-Bone and Dobie.

  Harry is the second Villager whose Personality has changed so far. He was a Jock Villager before. But after returning to Animal Crossing City Folk again, his Personality became Cranky. And T-Bone and Dobie were previously Lazy, before returning to New Leaf as Cranky. Until New Leaf, it wasn’t common to change Personality Types, but 3 Villagers do pre-date this game, with Harry being one of them.

  Jock

  Speaking of Personality Changes that pre-date modern Animal Crossing games, we have 1 Jock Villager. Although Rowan’s previous Personality Type was not what it is now, it is certain that he is now the only villager that has become a Jock.

  Rowan once was a Cranky, but when he returned to Wild World, he was switched to Jock.

  Furthermore, it’s not surprising to know only 1 Villager was changed to Jock, given Jock is the most common Personality Type.

  

  Smug

  Next up, we have Smug Villagers. In total, there are 7 Smug Villagers as you know them now, who started out with different Personalities, and they are O’Hare, Curlos, Ed, Leopold, Kidd, Huck and Roswell. By the way, you can decorate them with ACNH Items if you like.

  O’Hare and Curlos debuted in Animal Crossing with the Cranky Personality Type, before returning to New Leaf as Smug. Ed and Leopold, were originally Jock, but once again returned to New Leaf as Smug. And Kidd, Huck and Roswell debuted as Lazy Villagers, before switching to Smug.

  All of these Villagers saw Personality Changes in New Leaf, except for Roswell, who returned to New Horizons as a Smug, after being absent from the Series for several games.

  Second to Big Sister, the Smug Personality Type is the least common, so it makes sense it saw some of the most changes. Snooty.

  Now, Snooty is another Personality Type that only saw 1 change. Violet the Gorilla, who debuted in e+ is of course a Snooty Villager. However, she originally had the Peppy Personality Type, and it wasn’t until she returned to City Folk, she become Snooty.

  Also Read: Animal Crossing New Horizons: Updates & Changes In June 2023

  Violet was only 1 of 2 Villagers to see a Personality Change in City Folk. Making her and Harry the joint-second Personality Changes, overall, after Rowan.

  Reasons

  Now, in total there have been 18 Personality Changes over the years, with 1 in Wild World, 2 in City Folk, 8 in New Leaf, 5 in Welcome Amiibo and 2 in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

  Interestedly, as of editing this article, there isn’t a single Lazy, Normal or Peppy Villager right now that used to have a different personality types.

  Now, there are 3 primary reasons for the changes that did happen, though. The first reason is that those who were originally Islanders became residents before appearing in future games.

  The second reason is that the new Personality Types were filled after Smug and Big Sister were introduced in New Leaf. And the third being an attempt at balancing some of the Villager Types and Personality Types. To this day, Jock and Normal Villagers are the most common, and Smug and Big Sister are the least common.

• ACNH: How Could Splatoon 3 Affect The Next Animal Crossing Game?

  You probably know that many of the same people, who work on Animal Crossing also work on the Splatoon franchise. I mean the new Splatoon 3 DLC literally has characters that are inspired by Animal Crossing New Horizons.

  Also, this fact is heavily cited as the reason that New Horizons stop receiving support due to the launch of Splatoon 3. I think it's safe to say that a fair amount of Animal Crossing fans have negative feelings towards Splatoon because of this, although it's never been confirmed. this is why Nintendo actually moved away from New Horizons. It is strange that we never got Inkwell.

  However, this connection might actually be a really good thing for the future of the Animal Crossing series. In the past, I've discussed how the launch of Splatoon 3 has given us hints on how this team and Nintendo might aim to tackle the next Animal Crossing game and that the way they released updates in DLC for the previous platoon game Splatoon 2. I actually laid out the path for how they ended up releasing updates in DLC in New Horizons a few years later.

  

  Now that we're nearly six months into Splatoon 3 and we've had updates and DLC announced. This bodes really well for the future of Animal Crossing if Nintendo decides to use a similar approach once again, like they did with Splatoon 2 in New Horizons. As long as the content is good enough, it will attract more and more new players and stimulate them to consume ACNH Items in the game.

  Nintendo has announced that they'll be releasing two waves of DLC for Splatoon 3 filled with all kinds of exciting content for the franchise. I think like a lot of you, I was really surprised that we only got one wave of DLC for New Horizons despite how well the game sold. I think seeing two waves already for Splatoon 3 and possibly even more in the future shows that Nintendo really took that criticism on board. And hopefully, they've learned that generally speaking players want more content not less.

  Related: ACNH: 8 Updates & Changes You Should Know In March 2023

  The same could be argued that they're releasing big updates every three months or so. When New Horizons had lots of large gaps, they've kept it much more consistent in Splatoon 3. So, this could definitely be the case for the next Animal Crossing game. Don't get me wrong though I do wish they were doing this right now for New Horizons instead as the next game could be a while off.

  

  Now, the very first wave of DLC that they announced was Splatoon 3. It actually gave me a really interesting idea. You see wave one of the Splatoon 3 DLC was a return to Inkopolis from the very first Splatoon game.

  Effectively, this DLC is just a new hub world for you to enjoy. It's kind of a reskin of what you can do in the usual hub world. But it kind of makes me wonder if Nintendo would take this approach and maybe bring back something like the city from Animal Crossing City Folk that we could visit in a DLC for the next Animal Crossing game.

  The concept honestly seems really similar and I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo did decide to do that approach after all Nostalgia is incredibly popular. We know it sells really well. I mean I just look at the Pokemon games, so I could definitely imagine Nintendo using the Nostalgia from the old Animal Crossing games in DLC waves and such.

• Animal Crossing New Horizons: Why Nook’s Cranny Update Vanished?

  One thing in New Horizons that still confuses me to this day is why Nook’s Cranny only upgrades one time. 

  I think most of us were generally expecting that we would see some form of upgrade for the shop, like we had in pretty much every other animal crossing game. Even if this was just one more final version to tie up things nicely to add another stage of progression, that would have been a fantastic update. But it never came aside from us expecting an upgrade because of the past games. We actually had some evidence seemingly that Nintendo was planning an upgrade, too. Thanks to data mines. 

  Now, if you don’t know what a data mine is effectively, certain people will look through the code of a game to see what interesting things they can find. Often, this gives us a good idea of what future updates we can expect within a game. For example, we knew way back in 2020 that Brewster and The Roost would be coming to the game, which they finally did later on in 2021. In fact, pretty much every day to mine proved to be accurate in the end. All of these data mines came from Ninji over on Twitter, who proved themselves to be an incredibly reliable on accurate data miner. 

  

  However, one of these data mines specifically about Nook’s Cranny seemingly never happened, at least as far as we know. Ninji shared way back in 2020 that a third Nook’s Cranny was referenced in the game's code, but not much else was detailed about it. This would have appeared to be a third upgrade since at that point we already had two versions that are still in the game to this day. But even with the 2.0 update coming and going and major updates being discontinued, this upgrade for Nook’s Cranny seemingly never came. So, what exactly happened?

  There are a few ideas that make sense. The first is that Nintendo did plan on adding a third version Nook’s Cranny to the game. But for some reason, they scrapped this idea. Sometimes data mine content is something that Nintendo was working on, but they changed their mind for whatever reason. Maybe they just preferred the idea of having a more quaint shop on what is originally a deserted island and feeling like a more elaborate version wouldn’t really fit the style of the game. Or, perhaps plans got canceled when Nintendo upgraded halves Island, creating a whole bunch of new shops of players to use there.

  Maybe they felt like an upgraded Nook’s Cranny would have been pointless with the variety you get in halves. It’s also possible that this code was misinterpreted and Nintendo never really planned a third version of the NookShop. Maybe it was actually regarding the second floor of Nook’s Cranny, which technically you can access using some glitchy methods. Nothing is actually up ther,e but it’s still a space with a modeled staircase.

  

  Technically, Nook’s Cranny also got minor upgrades, too. With new limited time, items being added and a complete inventory of new ACNH Items being made available, there with a 2.0 update. It’s not really a different version of the shop itself, though, but maybe this is what Nintendo actually meant to begin with.

  Whatever the reason, the absence of this bird from Nook’s Cranny is really sad for me. I think having a much bigger space to shop in would have been fantastic. You could have brought back Gracie, who could have run the high end of the shop and just generally provided players with more options, which would have been really great. This is how it wasn’t basically every other game, so I would have liked it to be this way in New Horizons, too. 

  After all, New Horizons is the most advanced of all the games, so it feels odd to me they went backwards in this one particular way. At the end of the day, we may never know what happened to this third Nook’s Cranny version if it even truly existed.

  Ninji, like most other Animal Crossing data miners have now basically retired from the game as it’s been out for so long and updates have stopped. So, these sorts of things will remain a mystery unless Nintendo ever specifies what content they would have planned on adding to the game. But they couldn’t. That would definitely be a really cool thing to learn if they ever shared their information, although sadly, Nintendo is honestly pretty secretive about this kind of thing.

• Animal Crossing: Changes In 2023 Festivale Event

  This year, Festivale falls on February 20th, which sees Pavé stop by the Plaza for the 3rd time since New Horizons launched back in 2020.

  Festivale is, of course, inspired by Mardi-Gras Celebrations that take place on the last day of Carnival. During the Event, we will be able to collect limited-time Feather crafting materials and exchange them with Pavé for exclusive Festivale-themed items.The Event itself plays out much the same as in previous years, given it is a reoccurring Holiday Event.

  However, after experiencing the update of this event, players should also notice some changes! Now, unlike Halloween, or Toy Day, for example, the day of Festivale is celebrated on different dates each year. This is because the Festivale takes place 40 days before Bunny Day. Something Pavé discusses with us in The Roost, where he reminds us of Festivale’s connections with Lent.

  

  In 2023, Festivale takes place on February 20th, which directly affects the Event, and introduces us to the most notable change you can expect to see, compared to previous years! Because Festivale takes place on February 20th, it’s celebrated much earlier than usual, and actually falls in the Winter Season. Sometimes Festivale falls in the first week of March, putting it in Spring, but because it’s much earlier this year.

  When Pavé visits, our New Horizons Island will still be covered in Snow. Something that didn’t occur last year, given Festivale, was celebrated in Spring, once the Snow had melted.

  Interestingly, Festivale will now continue to take place in Winter, instead of Spring, for the next 3 years. So it’s going to be sometime until Festivale can be celebrated in Spring again…

  Now, in case you’re wondering, despite Festivale happening during the Winter Season this year, there’s no risk of any Snowfall. This is mainly because the weather is basically good during the event and you can hardly see Rain or Snowfall. In addition, at this year’s event, you will still see Confetti floating above the island. This feeling is very cool, just like in spring.

  Now, whilst the date change, and the season Festivale occurs in affects everyone, the next change will depend on the last time you played through Festivale. If you haven’t played since launch, or you’re new to New Horizons, this next segment will definitely help you. 

  

  As you know, Feathers and Rainbow Feathers are a large part of the Festivale Event. Feathers can be traded with Pavé or used to craft Rainbow Feathers, and Rainbow Feathers can be traded with Pavé or used to customise Festivale-themed ACNH Items you’ve already got. But a new feature that was introduced for the first time last year is that Cyrus can now be used to customise Festivale Items with no Rainbow Feathers. 

  This saves valuable time catching feathers in-order to craft Rainbow Feathers, and means you need fewer Feathers all round. But the importance of this change to Festivale, is that Feathers aren’t really needed outside of the Event anymore.This is because previously, you may need to hoard Feathers to use outside of the Event, in case you wanted to customise Festivale Items in the future. 

  Fortunately, thanks to Cyrus, there’s now no pressure to do this anymore, saving space in your storage and time hoarding Feathers. Of course, with or without these changes, Festivale remains much the same, with Festivale Event items also available to purchase from Nooks Cranny in the lead up to the Event.

  However, it’s worth remembering, if you trade enough times with Pavé, you can earn the Festivale Float, which is exclusive to the Festivale Day itself. So it’s still worth taking part.

• Animal Crossing: Eshop Is Closing Soon!

  This is your 30 day reminder that the eShop is shutting down. And unfortunately, we are less than a month away from losing several Animal Crossing games and applications probably forever. 

  On March 27th, so literally in 30 days’ time, Nintendo is shutting down the eShop on both the 3DS and Wii-U family of consoles. Of course, this is bad news for fans of many franchises, but it actually affects a huge Animal Crossing Library of content that will no-longer be accessible once the eShop closes. 

  Animal Crossing Wild World

  The most notable is, of course, Animal Crossing Wild World for Nintendo DS, which can be purchased on the Wii-U’s virtual console. This one will hurt the most, because it’s a fully fledged, complete, mainline Animal Crossing game. And honestly, this is a game that introduced many features we know and love to the Animal Crossing series for the first time. 

  Currently, as things stand, once the eShop shuts down this time next month, the ability to play Wild World digitally, and in an unscaled resolution, on a TV, will be gone. So, if you own a Wii-U, and you think you might be interested in playing Animal Crossing Wild World one day in the future, make sure you download it now, just in case. 

  

  The good news is, the e-Shop shutting down on the Wii-U doesn’t seem to affect Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, because it’s not available digitally, and you can pick physical copies up pretty cheaply. 

  Other Animal Crossing Content

  Moving on, the eShop closing on March 27th also affects a lot of Animal Crossing content on the 3DS. Digital versions of Animal Crossing New Leaf and Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer will, of course, be removed from sale. 

  From this time next month, we will no-longer can download these games digitally, and tie them to our Nintendo Accounts. 

  Again, another big hit to the Animal Crossing Library, but given we can still play these physically, it doesn’t hurt as much as the Animal Crossing applications that will be lost when the eShop shuts down forever. These include Photos with Animal Crossing, the Animal Crossing Clock and the Animal Crossing Calculator. 

  Photos With Animal Crossing

  Photos with Animal Crossing is an application that utilises the AR functionality of the 3DS and allows you to interact with Animal Crossing villages in the real world. You basically place some AR cards on the table, which can also be printed off a computer, and use your 3DS’s camera to bring in Animal Crossing villagers to take photos (one of the ACNH Items) with. This has kind of been replaced with the AR feature in Pocket Camp, but it’s still sad to know this will be removed forever when the 3DS eShop shuts down. 

  Photos with Animal Crossing are free on Japanese consoles, so I highly recommend downloading while you can. Unfortunately, it’s not available in the US, but Download Codes were available for European users from various outlets, so it might be worth checking some old emails to see if you ever received one. Just search your inbox for photos with Animal Crossing. 

  

  Animal Crossing Clock & Animal Crossing Calculator

  The Animal Crossing Clock and Animal Crossing Calculator are two Nintendo DSi Ware applications that were released for the Nintendo DSi, but are still available on Nintendo 3DS. At least for 30 more days. 

  They’re pretty self explanatory in terms of the features they offer, but they’re pretty significant titles in the Animal Crossing Library and again, once the eShop shuts down, they’ll be lost forever. And whilst there are always chance games like Wild World will one day make it to the Switch, these Animal Crossing-themed utilities will probably never be remade, or re-released.  

  So, if you want a little piece of Animal Crossing history, make sure you download these before March 27th. Now, the only thing I haven’t really covered is Animal Crossing Plaza, and that’s because this community-based platform on the Wii-U is already discontinued.   

  Unfortunately, the servers behind this application were shut down years ago. There is some good-news though, online functionality, like visiting friends in New Leaf, and the ability to download patches and updates for everything else, will continue to be available once the eShop shuts down. 

  So, in short, whilst the games and applications will be lost forever in 30 days’ time, the ability to enjoy them, and use their online features will continue for some time. 

• Animal Crossing: 3 Best Villagers In The Franchise, And Their Rankings

  In Animal Crossing, there are about 400 villagers. Because of the sheer number of villagers, it's difficult to rank the best characters in the franchise. Fans have loved these villagers since the release of the first Animal Crossing game. Because these villagers are different, they have a unique species, personality type and sense of style. As the most popular game in the series, it's only in recent years that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has allowed villagers to fully capture the attention of fans.

  Fans have had a lively debate about which villagers in Animal Crossing series could be called the best characters. From a character like Ankha, who has become popular with fans because of the success of New Horizons, to a character like Cherry, who is very cute, the best character always sparks discussion. Whether they're the cutest, the trendiest, or the smartest, they're the best villagers in Animal Crossing.

  

  No. 3: Cherry

  Cherry from Animal Crossing is a big sister dog villager who is hard to hate and a typical cute sister villager. Although she's one of the more recent villagers added to the game, many players have come to love her after being introduced to New Leaf, and her own charm has given her a unique place in the hearts of fans.

  

  In this colorful and cute village, she not only loves rock music, but also has a sense of gothic fashion, which makes her a breath of fresh hair. In addition, her home is very different from the tidy houses of other villagers. Her home contains many strange elements, but they are very special and avant-garde. Overall, Cherry is not only a cute villager, but also very eccentric, which is why fans love her.

  No. 2: Ankha

  Animal Crossing: New Horizons has some passive-aggressive lines, and snooty villagers may be responsible for it. But if any snooty villager can be called the best, she is Ankha who is loved by many. Ankha is a cat with an ancient Egyptian theme, but she's not the only cat. In fact, she has been very popular with fans since the release of the first Animal Crossing.

  

  There may be some players who don't like the idea of a villager that's so tied to the theme, but Ankha is the best example of it working well. From her cobra headgear to her pyramid-themed house, they are very stylish. It is precisely because of this unique fashion sense that she is the most fashionable villager in the game. If you want to add some unique flavor to any island or town, Ankha is the best choice for you.

  No. 1: Marshal

  When Marshal first appeared in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, despite being a new villager with an effortlessly smug persona, there was nothing stopping the villagers of Animal Crossing from wanting to befriend him. Marshal has a cotton candy-like appearance, with pink cheeks and an angry expression. If you judge his appearance by the standards of squirrels, he is also very cute.

  

  The smugness that Marshal displays makes him unique in the game. But what fans really love about him is that he not only has lively and cute elements, but also a perfect combination of sweet and sour. Only this one is enough to win over any player on the island he reaches. In Animal Crossing, Marshal is worth anyone's experience, if not considering those unique fashion sense and unique style of the house.

  Since Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be updated from time to time, in order to give you a better gaming experience, you can browse iggm.com. Here, you can get relevant information and required product services:

  • Items( Such as Cafe, Brown and more)
    

  • Bells

  • Nook Miles Ticket