Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Manga Fixes Game's Biggest Problem

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ manga tackles one of the game’s long-standing complaints, and it shows the potential for how the game could improve.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has proven itself to be one of the most beloved entries in the captivating life simulator series. Released in 2020, New Horizons is still a success to this day. It has evolved the series from a life simulation into an open-ended sandbox where players can freely create their dream island, and it has received a lot of praise for this. However, while one part of the game thrives, another seems to falter in comparison: the villagers.

Thanks to their colorful personalities and unique dialogue, villagers are part of what makes Animal Crossing’s game loop so appealing to many players. From humorous stories about their daily lives to strangely insightful life advice, the villagers are the heart and soul of Animal Crossing. But this uniqueness was absent in New Horizons, making it a common complaint online among the fan base. This is where the Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Deserted Island Diary manga succeeds in the game, as it provides a comically exaggerated version of some of the villagers looking to give back their individuality.

The manga shows how villagers can be

One of the most popular villagers online for his dashing looks and smug attitude, Raymond appears in the manga in a completely different form than in the game. In the manga, he appears as a total narcissist, obsessed with looking at himself in any way possible. His obsession with himself led him to go so far as to paint himself in gold and pose for Blathers’ museum as his masterpiece. The manga shows an aspect of Raymond that is completely absent from the game, showing a more nuanced side of him as opposed to the smug personality trait the game diminishes of him.

The same can be said of Lucky, who in the manga is portrayed as an imitator of murder movie villains in the eyes of the main characters. Of course, he’s not trying to harm anyone, since all efforts are just his way of being nice to the main characters in the manga. For example, his bath is a blazing hot cauldron, and he serves ice cream from a casket. In the game, Lucky also suffers the same fate as Raymond, being classified as a lazy personality type and therefore only interacting with the player in a specific way.

There is potential for personality diversity

When looking at these two examples, the game suddenly feels lacking in how it handles the villagers’ interactions and personalities. This may be because out of the 400 villagers in New Horizons, only eight personalities are distributed among them. These personalities established groups of dialogue that rotated throughout the interactions. However, many people find that these things are repetitive and lead to boring interactions. An update in 2021 secretly tweaked the dialogue system, but the change wasn’t enough for many players.

With just eight personality types and a steadily growing list, maybe it’s time to change the way villagers work in Animal Crossing, and the manga emphasizes this. The manga shows how active villagers can be in the right situation. Of course, adapting the comic to the game is almost impossible, as each villager will need a personality of its own. However, adding more personality types might make more sense for the development team. This is only an initial aid, so taking the villagers’ design into account (much like the manga does with Lucky) can also work.

How different designs can improve villagers

Like Lucky, the other villagers fall into one design theme, and these can function similarly to personality groups. For example, superhero-themed villagers can have unique interactions, such as discovering their secret identities. The same can be said for food-themed villagers and cyborg-looking villagers. Developers can design different image-based categories that can interact with new personalities to create an even more unique series of dialogues and interactions.

New Horizons is a significant step forward for the series in terms of giving players the tools to design their ideal getaway. However, the series needs to remember that it’s not just players who live in town. If the series wants to continue to prosper, it should turn its attention back to its colorful characters. Villagers are an important part of Animal Crossing’s identity. They deserve to be supplemented to give them a sense of individuality rather than relying on a handful of predefined personalities.

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