Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you change your appearance at any time, and appears to not force a gender choice on your character

[Theorymon]

This was discussed in the New Horizons hype thread, but I think this news is big enough to get its own thread!

The Japanese Animal Crossing Twitter has shown this recently:

https://twitter.com/doubutsuno_mori/status/1232502607651864576?s=20



https://twitter.com/doubutsuno_mori/status/1232502610160054272?s=20



I realize using google translations isn't the best, but the first tweet seems to say something to the jist of Tom Nook only asking for your Birthday, your name, and your initial passport picture. "Get dressed as much as you like and become yourself who you want to be!" is in the first tweet.

It appears this means that in New Horizons, your gender isn't defined in the game at all, so you're free to determine how you define your gender in the game! We don't know how pronouns are used in the game yet (in past titles, they only used pronouns for you if another villager brought you up), and it seems like you can choose "Lad" or "Lass" as an optional addition to your passport.

Additionally, you're able to completely change your appearance at any time in the game by using a dresser or mirror, so you aren't stuck with your first character design anymore! Also, no more stupid surveys!

There's still some details that aren't clear, but I think with what we know thus far, this is a great and surprisingly progressive step for Animal Crossing!

 

[Neiteio]

If I have to choose, I might be a girl since all of the clothes looks good on them. But it would be nice if we can just freely change at any time like in Splatoon.

 

[GasProblem]

So like Pocket Camp? Good.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

very positive step forward for nintendo and the series, the game seems to be doing a lot of things right. kinda related in regards to inclusivity, i saw this article a few days ago:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Marks Nintendo's Next Step Toward Inclusivity

An overview of Animal Crossing's history with race, and its next steps in increasing diversity in the series.

www.fanbyte.com

 

[starblue]

Less than 1 month for this masterpiece!

 

[Deleted member 39479]

Game of the forever. I can't freakin wait.

 

[PlzUninstall]

Good to hear. Makes me even more excited for this game!

I noticed there're only 8 hairstyles in the character creator. I'm guessing there will be some hidden away as haircuts you can get ingame. Hoping for a broad mix so that curly hair people can be happy!

 

[Aprikurt]

Fantastic. Love that customisation. Reminds me of Saint's Row, bizarrely.

 

[Theorymon]

Good to hear. Makes me even more excited for this game!

I noticed there're only 8 hairstyles in the character creator. I'm guessing there will be some hidden away as haircuts you can get ingame. Hoping for a broad mix so that curly hair people can be happy!

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Pretty sure we've seen some characters in the recent direct footage that have goatees, so I'm guessing some apperance options like hairstyles are unlockable.

 

[RagnarokX]

My plan was to make a male and female villager like I did in New Leaf, but now I don't have to. Probably still will for storage/decoration purposes, but still.

 

[Timelord19]

The only thing permanent is your debt to Tom Nook.

 

[RagnarokX]

Good to hear. Makes me even more excited for this game!

I noticed there're only 8 hairstyles in the character creator. I'm guessing there will be some hidden away as haircuts you can get ingame. Hoping for a broad mix so that curly hair people can be happy!

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Pretty sure we've seen some characters in the recent direct footage that have goatees, so I'm guessing some apperance options like hairstyles are unlockable.

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From the Direct:

You can buy hairstyles in groups of 8 using Nook Miles.

Goatee might be a makeup tab option.

 

[Deleted member 48434]

I really do hope pronouns are included in some form, I personally would rather have the game refer to me with pronouns that go with whatever gender I wish to play the game as, instead of skirting around it or just using they for everyone.

Supposedly "Lad" and "Lass" are unlocked titles, so who really knows how that would work, may only be a multiplayer thing. I think it also implies that we can eventually unlock more titles, like maybe 'Miss', 'Master', 'Lord'

Pretty sure we've seen some characters in the recent direct footage that have goatees, so I'm guessing some apperance options like hairstyles are unlockable.

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Pretty sure facial hair is just an accessory, and also existed in previous games.

 

[Aprikurt]

I wonder how those who thought terraforming was too much customisation will respond to this...

 

[Static]

Might be sorta bummed if that means we're losing Shampoodle. I appreciate customization but I loved the contextualization of styling to be an in-world thing, not just... you rearranging your features at will when you stepped up to a mirror.

 

[fleet]

will somebody please. PLEASE just put me in a coma until this game comes out

 

[Clov]

This is great! Wonderful improvement from the previous entries. This sort of stuff makes me genuinely happy to see.

Can't wait to be an enby on my Animal Crossing island!

 

[Kamala]

The news just keeps getting better and better! As someone who changes their character a lot and often has regrets... being able to change anything at anytime is amazing!

 

[RagnarokX]

Pretty sure facial hair is just an accessory, and also existed in previous games.

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They're already wearing an accessory, though.

 

[Teriyaki Blues]

Yeah, I'm ready for this.

ETA: These are the options that were shown in the short videos released via Twitter yesterday, and we already know there are even more options available to purchase from the Nook Mileage program. Top is character creation at the start, bottom includes options that seem to unlock around when you upgrade your tent to a house via a vanity (furniture item).

 

[Efejota]

Uh... I really wonder how the translations will work exactly, then. There's always some turn-arounds, but in my language gender is implied on the adjectives and nouns, so it could feel like every animal is doing an effort everytime they talk to you to avoid mentioning your gender, so it could feel weird.

Stuff like "are you upset?", "welcome to _", "are you ready?" or "villager" all imply gender to give some examples. Can be worked around it, but I hope it doesn't seem jarring ingame. That said, I really trust Nintendo's translations. Easily some of the best in the industry.

Edit: I know it's not that convenient, but I do hope you still need to pay to change your hair. Don't care if they give you a catalogue there instead of the usual questions, but it made getting a haircut seem like a relevant experience.

 

[Deleted member 48434]

They're already wearing an accessory, though.

Click to shrink...

I recall that you could wear more than one accessory in older games too I think
Just as long as they don't overlap on the face.

 

[.exe]

Very cool. I wonder if your name can be changed too.

 

[ZeoVGM]

Great if true. Hoping for some official confirmation on the gender choice stuff soon.

 

[RagnarokX]

Very cool. I wonder if your name can be changed too.

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Well, the last tab is a pencil and isn't part of the cosmetics options. Probably.

 

[Voyevoda]

I swore to myself I wouldn't buy a Switch Lite before there was more info on SMT V, but my God, I'm this close...

Game looks amazing.

 

[Mediking]

Additionally, you're able to completely change your appearance at any time in the game by using a dresser or mirror, so you aren't stuck with your first character design anymore! Also, no more stupid surveys!

Click to shrink...

This is beautiful 😭

 

[MasaI'm1]

I'm actually pretty surprised Nintendo out of all developers is doing this, great progress for them if true!

 

[Deleted member 5086]

That's a really nice touch. Good on Nintendo. Being able to play as a black girl was one of the best things about Pocket Camp, so I'm excited I can do so in a proper animal crossing game.

On a similar note, since it sounds like more hairstyles can be unlocked, I hope there'll be some nice curly hair options. That seems to be missing from the base options.

 

[Supermanisdead]

Click to shrink...

 

[Vitet]

Click to shrink...

Ok Boomer.

 

[Sea lion]

Glad the specifically promoted creating a person of colour. Looks like they realized they fucked up massively in past games.

 

[Deleted member 5086]

Glad the specifically promoted creating a person of colour. Looks like they realized they fucked up massively in past games.

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I noticed that they chose to have a person of colour on the cover, too.

It does seem like they're focusing a bit more on diversity during the pre-release campaign too, for example, the recent direct.

 

[Jaq'or]

Bless this dev team.

 

[Neoxon]

If there is a gender choice, hopefully they give you a non-binary option.

 

[Zacmortar]

Im not liking all devs' answer to this era of gender self discovery being "no gender at all" and being vague. Is it seriously so hard for them to just add a pronoun option?

Reminds me of that bethesda brand of romance where gay characters didnt actually exist, its just no romance had any actual gender coded interactions so it felt lifeless

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Im not liking all devs' answer to this era of gender self discovery being "no gender at all" and being vague. Is it seriously so hard for them to just add a pronoun option?

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Animal Crossing has generally never had dialogue referring to the player by gender-specific pronouns anyways, they refer to player as "you" and any allusion to a secondary player-created villager is always "they" regardless of the gender they chose.

 

[Neoxon]

Seems like they don't ask you for gender at all, just your name & birthday.

 

[Zacmortar]

Animal Crossing has generally never had dialogue referring to the player by gender-specific pronouns anyways, they refer to player as "you" and any allusion to a secondary player-created villager is always "they" regardless of the gender they chose.

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Yeah and that vague they forced on everyone is always disappointing. Atleast its not an often thing in AC, so it wont actively take me out of it like it does in a lot of other games.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Yeah and that vague they forced on everyone is always disappointing. Atleast its not an often thing in AC, so it wont actively take me out of it like it does in a lot of other games.

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I mean is it actually disappointing with Animal Crossing though?

 

[Zacmortar]

I mean is it actually disappointing with Animal Crossing though?

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Yes? I would like to be referred to with my preferred pronouns in any game? I love AC but it doesnt get a special exception.

 

[Dr. Mario]

Ok Boomer.

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Damn that works perfectly, lol.

 

[Asbsand]

Animal Crossing: Everybody's special so nobody is special.,

EDIT: Not talking about the gender. I'm really cool with non-binary. I'm talking about the idea that you can just change literally anything after it's been set up.

EDIT, EDIT: I just realized this goes against what people are probably happy about which is that you can transition with this feature. Well, I suppose. You know what would've been more charming though? If there was a salon like Harriet and it said "Transition" and you actual get the trans treatment in the game. But no, just another drop down GUI, completely impersonal.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

Are there really only eight hairstyles to choose from?

EDIT: Nevermind I watched the second vid in the tweet ignore me lol

 

[ShyMel]

Animal Crossing has generally never had dialogue referring to the player by gender-specific pronouns anyways, they refer to player as "you" and any allusion to a secondary player-created villager is always "they" regardless of the gender they chose.

Click to shrink...

Pronouns might not have been used specifically in dialogue but playing as a girl or boy did change how certain characters would speak to the player.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Pronouns might not have been used specifically in dialogue but playing as a girl or boy did change how certain characters would speak to the player.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a specific moment where that happened really. Wouldn't a jock like Scoot want to lift weights with you regardless of gender?

 

[Dee Dee]

Also, no more stupid surveys!

Click to shrink...

RIP Rover. :(

Uh... I really wonder how the translations will work exactly, then. There's always some turn-arounds, but in my language gender is implied on the adjectives and nouns, so it could feel like every animal is doing an effort everytime they talk to you to avoid mentioning your gender, so it could feel weird.

Stuff like "are you upset?", "welcome to _", "are you ready?" or "villager" all imply gender to give some examples. Can be worked around it, but I hope it doesn't seem jarring ingame. That said, I really trust Nintendo's translations. Easily some of the best in the industry.

Edit: I know it's not that convenient, but I do hope you still need to pay to change your hair. Don't care if they give you a catalogue there instead of the usual questions, but it made getting a haircut seem like a relevant experience.

Click to shrink...

As a translator for German myself, my god, I love all you beautiful devs out there giving people more choices to create characters and have them addressed as they want themselves, but if your in-game text system doesn't support all the complex intricacies of what these choices imply for the text, then why bother. Then again, I worked on a game that accommodated for that, and translating a simple sentence with a placeholder took 4 times as long since you had to add every single variation for German as available text alternatives... Translating video games is agony.

Pouring one out for all the AC translators out there. I hope you guys didn't lose too much sanity over this game, just so that I can unwind with my best buddy Filbert (who, by the way, has been a cross-dressing Squirrel defying AC gender norms ever since the Game Cube days!).

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a specific moment where that happened really. Wouldn't a jock like Scoot want to lift weights with you regardless of gender?

Click to shrink...

I'm pretty sure Kapp'n has different dialogue for girls sometimes. He definitely tries to set romantic mood if you're a mixed gender couple rowing with him. Always awkward for me and my brother...

 

[ShyMel]

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a specific moment where that happened really. Wouldn't a jock like Scoot want to lift weights with you regardless of gender?

Click to shrink...

KK is another example.

 

[Pargon]

Im not liking all devs' answer to this era of gender self discovery being "no gender at all" and being vague. Is it seriously so hard for them to just add a pronoun option?

Click to shrink...

While asking your pronouns would be best, I'd much rather have the game be "genderless" where you can change your appearance at any time and wear anything, than have a binary choice at the start of the game which cannot be changed later.

 

[Zacmortar]

While asking your pronouns would be best, I'd much rather have the game be "genderless" where you can change your appearance at any time and wear anything, than have a binary choice at the start of the game which cannot be changed later.

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It shouldnt have to be one or the other