Ably.Saucey
Count your Many Blessings
I've been thinking about this over the last FRIGID few days, both from the perspective of a fan looking forward to a new game and from a business perspective, so I'll be dealing with each subject from those perspectives.
Wild hopes of a fan Vs. leaving emotion and sentimental favoritism out of it as much as possible.
Loosing Current Villagers/Current Villager being replaced
I believe that all the villagers we've had in New Leaf will be staying for New Horizons.
All 333 regular villagers and the 50 Welcome Amiibo villagers, in my mind, are as good as confirmed for the following reasons:
On My Nintendo, they have for 80 platinum points, the Official Animal Crossing (note: Animal Crossing as a whole, vs just for New Leaf) Calendar. If they intended if for New Leaf, I believe they would have specified.
The Calendar also notes the birthdays for NPC's which I would wonder what role, if any, they have in New Horizons, such as Resetti and Tortimer and Pocket Camp NPCs like the Ok Motors brothers.
Since there is no fanfare for villager birthdays in Pocket Camp or Happy Home Designer, that leaves New Leaf and New Horizons. -and we've covered the phrasing there.
Also, Amiibo Cards. Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards were wildly popular and highly sought after, the Welcome Amiibo Update in 2016, really revived many players interest in New Leaf and in Animal Crossing as a whole.
With the ability to always have a favorite villager or every villager on hand, plus bringing back 50 villagers from previous games, really gave older players who played those earlier games a good does of nostalgia. (plus more control of house placement, that was an excellent feature.)
I doubt that Nintendo would remove characters that have a card (ergo making the card useless) and are Official Animal Crossing. (grandfathered in, as it were)
The Calendar does not include the 9 Game Line Crossovers (i.e Epona, Wolflink) and the 6 San Rio (i.e Rilla, Toby), which could hint that they won't be returning for New Horizons, but considering that they aren't "Animal Crossing" Villagers, it's possible they just didn't include them in the calendar. I believe it's understandable for Nintendo not to carry them over into the next game, if they choose not to do so.
I also believe there is plenty of room to add any number of possible new villagers (and it looks like we might be getting some) without loosing any current ones.
Villagers from Earlier Games Returning.
As a fan:
I'd love to see forgotten villagers from previous games return!
At my last count, there are sixty-seven villagers that could be brought back from previous games that weren't in HHA or New Leaf.
I'm on the fence regarding speculation on whether they'll return or not, I do believe that bringing them back would be a smart business move on Nitendo's part, many people who grew up playing the various installments of Animal Crossing now are adults with adult money, reintroducing all the older villagers would be a possible tipping point for them to purchase the game (and a switch) for many who may not be that interested in the game. Childhood Nostalgia is a strong pull.
We haven't seen any evidence of them considering bring back villagers, new ones or at least new nfcs are possibly and confirmed, however, I believe if they surprise us with everyone back, I don't think very many people would be dissapointed.
New Horizons has many surprises to be sure, considering how liberal Nintendo is being with information. (sarcasm)
Wild hopes of a fan Vs. leaving emotion and sentimental favoritism out of it as much as possible.
Loosing Current Villagers/Current Villager being replaced
I believe that all the villagers we've had in New Leaf will be staying for New Horizons.
All 333 regular villagers and the 50 Welcome Amiibo villagers, in my mind, are as good as confirmed for the following reasons:
On My Nintendo, they have for 80 platinum points, the Official Animal Crossing (note: Animal Crossing as a whole, vs just for New Leaf) Calendar. If they intended if for New Leaf, I believe they would have specified.
The Calendar also notes the birthdays for NPC's which I would wonder what role, if any, they have in New Horizons, such as Resetti and Tortimer and Pocket Camp NPCs like the Ok Motors brothers.
Since there is no fanfare for villager birthdays in Pocket Camp or Happy Home Designer, that leaves New Leaf and New Horizons. -and we've covered the phrasing there.
Also, Amiibo Cards. Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards were wildly popular and highly sought after, the Welcome Amiibo Update in 2016, really revived many players interest in New Leaf and in Animal Crossing as a whole.
With the ability to always have a favorite villager or every villager on hand, plus bringing back 50 villagers from previous games, really gave older players who played those earlier games a good does of nostalgia. (plus more control of house placement, that was an excellent feature.)
I doubt that Nintendo would remove characters that have a card (ergo making the card useless) and are Official Animal Crossing. (grandfathered in, as it were)
The Calendar does not include the 9 Game Line Crossovers (i.e Epona, Wolflink) and the 6 San Rio (i.e Rilla, Toby), which could hint that they won't be returning for New Horizons, but considering that they aren't "Animal Crossing" Villagers, it's possible they just didn't include them in the calendar. I believe it's understandable for Nintendo not to carry them over into the next game, if they choose not to do so.
I also believe there is plenty of room to add any number of possible new villagers (and it looks like we might be getting some) without loosing any current ones.
Villagers from Earlier Games Returning.
As a fan:
I'd love to see forgotten villagers from previous games return!
At my last count, there are sixty-seven villagers that could be brought back from previous games that weren't in HHA or New Leaf.
I'm on the fence regarding speculation on whether they'll return or not, I do believe that bringing them back would be a smart business move on Nitendo's part, many people who grew up playing the various installments of Animal Crossing now are adults with adult money, reintroducing all the older villagers would be a possible tipping point for them to purchase the game (and a switch) for many who may not be that interested in the game. Childhood Nostalgia is a strong pull.
We haven't seen any evidence of them considering bring back villagers, new ones or at least new nfcs are possibly and confirmed, however, I believe if they surprise us with everyone back, I don't think very many people would be dissapointed.
New Horizons has many surprises to be sure, considering how liberal Nintendo is being with information. (sarcasm)
