# What is going on with Harriet?



## Tiffany (Nov 15, 2021)

Her shop has been closed for 3 days now. Does she just close up once you get all the styles? I have all the shops open fyi.


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## Faux (Nov 15, 2021)

Yeah, once she taught you her 7, she doesn't do haircuts anymore.


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## Girlyliondragon (Nov 15, 2021)

Faux said:


> Yeah, once she taught you her 7, she doesn't do haircuts anymore.


That's... a bunch of bull tbh.
Why introduce such a limited new feature and then never do it again???? I can't believe they nullified my pink poodle thanks to the mirror. ;.;


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

Girlyliondragon said:


> That's... a bunch of bull tbh.
> Why introduce such a limited new feature and then never do it again???? I can't believe they nullified my pink poodle thanks to the mirror. ;.;


Wow so that really does happen? As the AVGN would say "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!" I mean seriously they brought her back and she was only useful for new haircut styles and now she is no longer useful? That is just a major slap in the face for people who wanted her back and now she gets treated dirty.


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## Faux (Nov 15, 2021)

Idk, I like seeing her able to wander around now.
Harv is just as ' useless ' as she is, really, but even worse because he rarely gets to leave his post.

I prefer when the NPCs aren't limited to standing around in one spot, I let Harv wander my island literally until the update.


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## xSuperMario64x (Nov 15, 2021)

does she go away after the hairstyles are obtained? or can she still be seen standing around?

if she goes away im never getting another Harriet cut again lol. not missing her again.


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## Blueskyy (Nov 15, 2021)

Faux said:


> Idk, I like seeing her able to wander around now.
> Harv is just as ' useless ' as she is, really, but even worse because he rarely gets to leave his post.
> 
> I prefer when the NPCs aren't limited to standing around in one spot, I let Harv wander my island literally until the update.


She’s even more useless because her dialogue is way more limited. I talked to her as she roamed the plaza and she just repeated the same dialogue over and over


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

Blueskyy said:


> She’s even more useless because her dialogue is way more limited. I talked to her as she roamed the plaza and she just repeated the same dialogue over and over


This is almost as useless as Gulliver its after when you get all of the prizes and the golden shovel he just becomes irrelevant. I feel likes some of NPCs on this game are not treated fairly well as others. Don't get me wrong it was nice to see them back, but compared to past AC games they had more things to do and things to say, but now its like when you are done with them you don't have to talk to them anymore.


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## Faux (Nov 15, 2021)

xSuperMario64x said:


> does she go away after the hairstyles are obtained? or can she still be seen standing around?
> 
> if she goes away im never getting another Harriet cut again lol. not missing her again.


She wanders around eating soup, sitting out by the lodge and stuff.  She goes everywhere on Harv's island. :>


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## cocoacat (Nov 15, 2021)

I was disappointed she stopped cutting my hair as well. Wish she'd still offer to change your hairstyle and color to something random or of our choosing with limited hours or something. 

Also Harv? I don't know..... 

Glad to see her back even in a limited role, but could have been better.


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

cocoacat said:


> I was disappointed she stopped cutting my hair as well. Wish she'd still offer to change your hairstyle and color to something random or of our choosing with limited hours or something.
> 
> Also Harv? I don't know.....
> 
> Glad to see her back even in a limited role, but could have been better.


Now I have to wonder what other NPCs have a limited role, I mean I forgot that Gulliver was in this game thats how forgettable he is and I haven't seen Gulivarrr in long time.


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## xSuperMario64x (Nov 15, 2021)

Faux said:


> She wanders around eating soup, sitting out by the lodge and stuff.  She goes everywhere on Harv's island. :>


oh okay, that's good! I love seeing her when I go there ☺



cocoacat said:


> I was disappointed she stopped cutting my hair as well. Wish she'd still offer to change your hairstyle and color to something random or of our choosing with limited hours or something.


yeah they should've fleshed her out a bit more, she's one of my favorite NPCs and I would like to see her in at least a somewhat prominent role again.

	Post automatically merged: Nov 15, 2021



RoxasFan20 said:


> Now I have to wonder what other NPCs have a limited role, I mean I forgot that Gulliver was in this game thats how forgettable he is and I haven't seen Gulivarrr in long time.


Tortimer is just a means to access storage lol

though tbf he's never had _that_ big of a role in any game.


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

xSuperMario64x said:


> oh okay, that's good! I love seeing her when I go there ☺
> 
> 
> yeah they should've fleshed her out a bit more, she's one of my favorite NPCs and I would like to see her in at least a somewhat prominent role again.
> ...


I mean at least Cornimer is here but only in "Fall" season and yeah I would agree he's basically the "Storage Shed" at Harvs island.


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## RollingAntony (Nov 15, 2021)

She's part of the worldbuilding of the game. She specifically mentions she left her old job behind to live a a more "free" life and this decision seems to stem from reconnecting with Harvey and helping him fulfill his dream co-op. She get the hair stylist-itch when the shops begin to open and that's why she teaches you some hairstyles but they are limited- she's only doing it to get that itch out of her system and is happy staying with Harvey. So... she teaches some exclusive hairstyles and also contributes to the lore of the franchise.

That's a far better role than just cutting your hair. Unless she had some amazing dialogue and character beneath the "what hairstyle do you want, sugar" that no wiki/video I can see from past games lists.




RoxasFan20 said:


> This is almost as useless as Gulliver its after when you get all of the prizes and the golden shovel he just becomes irrelevant. I feel likes some of NPCs on this game are not treated fairly well as others. Don't get me wrong it was nice to see them back, but compared to past AC games they had more things to do and things to say, but now its like when you are done with them you don't have to talk to them anymore.


Can you please point me where can I see all the dialogue and different things a character like Harriet did on previous game? I'm not aware that a character such as her, who only ran a store and apparently only appeared outside her designated workplace on WW at The Roost (which she can also do on NH), had such a wide array of dialogue and activities. Thanks for any link you can provide.


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

RollingAntony said:


> She's part of the worldbuilding of the game. She specifically mentions she left her old job behind to live a a more "free" life and this decision seems to stem from reconnecting with Harvey and helping him fulfill his dream co-op. She get the hair stylist-itch when the shops begin to open and that's why she teaches you some hairstyles but they are limited- she's only doing it to get that itch out of her system and is happy staying with Harvey. So... she teaches some exclusive hairstyles and also contributes to the lore of the franchise.
> 
> That's a far better role than just cutting your hair. Unless she had some amazing dialogue and character beneath the "what hairstyle do you want, sugar" that no wiki/video I can see from past games lists.
> 
> ...


Harriet: https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/w..., sugar!-,Harriet,costs 3,000 Bells per style.

Gulliver: 








						Gulliver
					

You should take life easy, my friend! Just go where the wind blows and the current takes you, like a seagull floating in the briny blue!Animal Crossing Gulliver (ジョニー, Jonī?, Johnny) is a seagull in the Animal Crossing series. His only function is to reward the player with special items of...




					animalcrossing.fandom.com
				



.

I don't want to start an argument but this is what I found and this is what they were before an past AC games.


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## RollingAntony (Nov 15, 2021)

RoxasFan20 said:


> Harriet: https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Harriet#:~:text=you are, sugar!-,Harriet,costs 3,000 Bells per style.
> 
> Gulliver:
> 
> ...


Yeah, the wikis you listed don't have any kind of activity or dialogue listed outside of their standard thing they say. Just like on NH. 

Harriet for example, is only listed as being able to cut your hair (and on WW, appear on The Roost). On NH, Harriet contributes to the worldbuilding, cuts your hair and also appears at The Roost. Gulliver has the same kind of thing of helping him on any game. On some games you look for parts and or others you answer a question. I guess having to answer a question gives him more dialogue on NL, but it's the same role (giving you "world" items). Since you said "_ but compared to past AC games they had more things to do and things to say, _", I thought you had more concrete proof of these other things to do/say. Thanks anyway.


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 15, 2021)

RollingAntony said:


> Yeah, the wikis you listed don't have any kind of activity or dialogue listed outside of their standard thing they say. Just like on NH.
> 
> Harriet for example, is only listed as being able to cut your hair (and on WW, appear on The Roost). On NH, Harriet contributes to the worldbuilding, cuts your hair and also appears at The Roost. Gulliver has the same kind of thing of helping him on any game. On some games you look for parts and or others you answer a question. I guess having to answer a question gives him more dialogue on NL, but it's the same role (giving you "world" items). Since you said "_ but compared to past AC games they had more things to do and things to say, _", I thought you had more concrete proof of these other things to do/say. Thanks anyway.


Again don't wanna start any arguments but to each their own. You may not have played the past AC games to understand how well the NPCs were, but I am going to not debate this, this is another topic for another thread. Since its getting off track since its only focused on Harriet, so lets just not let this drag on.


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## peachycrossing9 (Nov 15, 2021)

I was wondering the same thing since Harriet has just been wandering around on Harv's for days now and I thought maybe my game was broken lols. But I guess I must have already unlocked all the hairstyles. I'm not too fussed if she's not useful now, she was never really a favourite NPC of mine. I don't see the need to get upset about it when there's so much other stuff to do anyway.   

I only liked like 1 of her haircuts as well so that's unfortunate.

	Post automatically merged: Nov 15, 2021



Faux said:


> Idk, I like seeing her able to wander around now.
> Harv is just as ' useless ' as she is, really, but even worse because he rarely gets to leave his post.
> 
> I prefer when the NPCs aren't limited to standing around in one spot, I let Harv wander my island literally until the update.



Very true, and you don't see anyone complaining about how useless Harv is xD. I think it's cute that they wander around the other shops tho :3


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## Tiffany (Nov 15, 2021)

Well that makes sense. I was wondering what was going on. I prefer her role in nh to nl. For one we had to spend 3,000 bells for a random cut and and if we didn't like it were stuck with until at least the next day(I can't remember for sure if it was daily or less often, not counting if she was closed of course). And you had to pay her to get rid of the bedhead hair too. At least here the styles are free and immediately reversable. I am happy to have the mirror to do what I want when I want for free.


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## Girlyliondragon (Nov 15, 2021)

Tiffany said:


> Well that makes sense. I was wondering what was going on. I prefer her role in nh to nl. *For one we had to spend 3,000 bells for a random cut and and if we didn't like it were stuck with until at least the next day*(I can't remember for sure if it was daily or less often, not counting if she was closed of course). And you had to pay her to get rid of the bedhead hair too. At least here the styles are free and immediately reversable. I am happy to have the mirror to do what I want when I want for free.


3000 bells is very easy to get in NL tho, pocket change even (_*Points to money rock*_), and your cuts from her were never even random, they just required a guide that you had to use to get the hair you wanted that frankly, for some you kinda learn the ranges for by memory eventually.
Yeah it was once a day, but after a while of getting your hair changed from her you unlock more hairstyles from her in the form of being able to have the opposing gender. Plus idk, I always liked going to her everyday until I unlocked the opposing hairs, and then lessening to once a week once I do. The routine gave me an incentive to go back to her shop.


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## Paperboy012305 (Nov 15, 2021)

Oh my, I never got around to this to know, but now I do.

If there was a way for Harriet to actually get more activity is by a minor update (If there are somehow going to be more) with new hairstyles only unlocked by her. Or maybe Mii Masks even, why haven't they returned?


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## EmmaFrost (Nov 15, 2021)

I was sad to discover she only had a few hairstyles to teach :/ I was hoping she’d be able to give us the hair bow wig style from new leaf!


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## Tiffany (Nov 16, 2021)

Girlyliondragon said:


> 3000 bells is very easy to get in NL tho, pocket change even (_*Points to money rock*_), and your cuts from her were never even random, they just required a guide that you had to use to get the hair you wanted that frankly, for some you kinda learn the ranges for by memory eventually.
> Yeah it was once a day, but after a while of getting your hair changed from her you unlock more hairstyles from her in the form of being able to have the opposing gender. Plus idk, I always liked going to her everyday until I unlocked the opposing hairs, and then lessening to once a week once I do. The routine gave me an incentive to go back to her shop.


i know how easy it is to get bells thats not the point. its having to spend money for a style you might hate(there wasnt a guide at first and some people wouldnt have known about it when there was) and being unable to change it back right away. I did use the guide to make sure i got the hair i wanted, i had and have no desire for opposite gender hairstyles


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## bestfriendsally (Nov 16, 2021)

Faux said:


> Yeah, once she taught you her 7, she doesn't do haircuts anymore.



i noticed that too, once i got the last one that i got from her...


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## cool sword (Nov 16, 2021)

shes just vibin


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## Airysuit (Nov 16, 2021)

Oh that makes me sad  i kinda thought she would be able to give you a random haircut and color once a day after she finished teaching you... that would've been cute


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## CinnamonCrab (Nov 16, 2021)

Yeah, it's too bad!! I was kind of sad when she wasn't at the chair anymore, but it's nice to see her relaxing around the island too. It'd be nice if she could still give us a haircut from time to time, though. At the same time, I'm soooo glad I don't have to google for my hair style every time I want to get it.


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 16, 2021)

I hate to sound like that guy but adding Harriet back was pretty pointless, because we already have a feature in the game where we can choose our hairstyles from a Mirror/Vanity. Also you can get a lot of hairstyles from the Nook Mile shop.


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## RiceBunny (Nov 16, 2021)

I’m almost tempted to not learn the new hairstyles just so I can keep her at the campsite. I wondered what her purpose was considering we can just change how we look with a mirror, so it makes sense she wouldn’t be very useful after learning the new hairstyles. I still think they should’ve given her more purpose, like there could be hairstyles only she could do(because you know, she’s a professional and all)


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## Moritz (Nov 16, 2021)

RiceBunny said:


> I’m almost tempted to not learn the new hairstyles just so I can keep her at the campsite. I wondered what her purpose was considering we can just change how we look with a mirror, so it makes sense she wouldn’t be very useful after learning the new hairstyles. I still think they should’ve given her more purpose, like there could be hairstyles only she could do(because you know, she’s a professional and all)


She doesn't leave.
She just wonders around it instead doing different activities in the day.


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## vanivon (Nov 16, 2021)

RiceBunny said:


> I’m almost tempted to not learn the new hairstyles just so I can keep her at the campsite.


she always stays at the campsite even when she's done teaching you hairstyles! she just spends her time hanging out and vibing once she's done.

honestly re: the general topic, i think it's fine if harriet doesn't have much "purpose." she's here to support harv with his co-op, not continue her career since she retired from it. the seven hairstyles are there to represent the seven shops because she was inspired to do some hobby hairstyling one last time like we already knew she was made obsolete by the mirror's existence and people complained about her not being included in the game due to it then, i think it's nice they found something to do with her even if it's finite. past that, there's really nothing more she CAN do here except what she does. which is vibe with harv. it's nice to see her in general the same way it's nice to see any npc they brought back in some way.


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## Faux (Nov 16, 2021)

RoxasFan20 said:


> I hate to sound like that guy but adding Harriet back was pretty pointless, because we already have a feature in the game where we can choose our hairstyles from a Mirror/Vanity. Also you can get a lot of hairstyles from the Nook Mile shop.



It wasn't pointless.  People wanted her back.  She's back.
She exists to do more than cut hair now, even if we don't find " value " in her sitting down and eating soup, or just saying hello to you and then moving on with her day.
Doesn't make her pointless, though.  I love seeing her there.  Not every NPC has to do something for me to add joy to my day.


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## JKDOS (Nov 16, 2021)

I'm actually glad she closes her shop. I was saying before the update came out how terrible it would be to learn 7 haircuts from her and then have her be a broken NPC. Having her wander around the island and hanging out with Harv is so wholesome and cute.


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## amemome (Nov 16, 2021)

I'm honestly happy just to see her having a good time on vacation away from the monotony of work. I'm still trying to pay for all the shops right now and it's really sweet seeing her bust out the good ol' scissors once in a while to celebrate the big co-op milestones. No pressure to perform, just organic inspiration!


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## VanitasFan26 (Nov 16, 2021)

Faux said:


> It wasn't pointless.  People wanted her back.  She's back.
> She exists to do more than cut hair now, even if we don't find " value " in her sitting down and eating soup, or just saying hello to you and then moving on with her day.
> Doesn't make her pointless, though.  I love seeing her there.  Not every NPC has to do something for me to add joy to my day.


Well I guess there is charm to her, but still.


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## ForbiddenSecrets (Nov 16, 2021)

While I think it would be cute to get a random style of the day from her I’m not mad at her purpose.  She’s flavor to the camp and I really like that. Honestly I wish we had more of that vibe. Like if an NPC could be caught wandering your island with no ‘job’ every now and again with just some taking a walk dialogue or something.


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## daringred_ (Nov 16, 2021)

this is undoubtedly going to be an unpopular opinion, but i honestly wasn't _too _thrilled to see her "hippie-fied" for this game. not entirely sure why she couldn't have just stayed a successful career woman making money out of a past-time she loves _and _be harv's "love interest". could've been that she's only at the co-op on certain days and disappears for others because she's managing her business in the city or that she's progressed to having a whole branch of hair salons now and the one at the co-op is her latest venture so she can offer hairstyles inspired by the other shops/nature. (or, as was my original hope, have a rotating stock of exclusive hair accessories and wigs.) i didn't care for her selection of hairstyles at all, so she was pretty useless for me anyway, but it's nice to see her wandering around even if i don't care for her updated design too much. definitely think slightly more could've been done with her in way of a shop of her own though.


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## Hypno KK (Nov 16, 2021)

I don't mind this at all. I think they mostly just brought her in because people missed her and as a fun bonus but (other than fleshing out Harvey's island a bit more) she doesn't have much of a point. I like Harriet but honestly prefer the mirror system, it's MUCH less of a hassle to have to visit her and check a guide to make your hair look the way you want it to. I think a better option would be to have her set up a shop to sell wigs and hair accessories or something.

There are other NPCs where you're pretty limited because you're likely to get all the items or features they offer sooner or later and after that there isn't much of a point in talking to them. If you finish the museum there isn't much reason to talk to Blathers or visit Redd's boat, if you've gotten all items from Gulliver there's no reason to talk to him, etc.. That's ok by me. I'd rather have those features even if they end at some point than not have them at all. Extending them indefinitely wouldn't be feasible. I agree they could have more things to say but people would still complain about them becoming "useless" after a while. I don't think they're useless, they add to the world and make it feel more alive even if you're not interacting with them.

I've said this before in another thread but I'm only annoyed by the way the game handles NPCs when we're missing unique features -- Celeste's constellations, working for Brewster, etc.


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## Regalli (Nov 16, 2021)

Honestly, because the mirror is so much better for customization options in general than paying to get a hairstyle and only getting the ones you want via guide, I think Harriet’s just an unfortunate casualty on that front. I definitely wouldn’t mind if she teaches hairstyles outside your handful of presets (provided those presets aren’t all for straight hair and curly hairstyles are only via Harriet, which would be bad), or becomes the way to offer non-natural hair colors in a future game, but the mirror made her role redundant and choosing your look directly rather than answering a quiz you don’t realize will decide your look for the rest of the game (and you had to use an elaborate workaround via tanning to get a darker skintone AT ALL) is just… so much better as a design choice. And it’s convenient to be able to decide which of a couple hairstyles I feel like using at any given time by just previewing them and seeing how I feel. It’s a bit like how villagers giving you reactions makes Dr. Shrunk a beloved but structurally unnecessary NPC. (Though I certainly wouldn’t mind going back to Club Lol or something as the reaction method in a future game where it would fit in, whereas the mirror is just so much better.) Or how autosave renders Resetti unnecessary entirely.

I think the issue is that, especially as they wanted to do the desert island theming this game (meaning a train wouldn’t make sense as transit, meaning they wanted to limit NPCs in the early game so the Nooklings handle selling items and a postcard stand in the airport rather than a full post office,) a lot of NPCs just didn’t have clear roles anymore, and a lot of other features needed reworking. (For instance, constellations are much harder to work in with a game that doesn’t use Wild World’s dual screens and log-world approach, or Club Tortimer where it’s hard to moderate meeting with strangers in a game whose primary demographics are actual kids and then a sizable contingent of young adults.) Plus a couple characters filling new roles seemed like logical takeovers for existing ones (CJ and Flick with selling bugs and fish and making models, and by that point why not make them MCs of the reworked tourneys,) one existing character’s development across a couple games made her a good candidate for the fashion check role (Label, and even if her clothes selection is limited I’m proud of her,) and I think they just wanted to let Joan retire finally. But it still ends up unfortunate if a character you really loved no longer has a clear role - I’m sad the pelicans are unnecessary. Even if I’m proud of Label, I do think Gracie would have killed it with an island makeover herself. And it’d be nice if next game they figured out how to reincorporate some of the NPCs some more, or came up with a spinoff that utilizes some of the other characters. But finding them roles as the series develops is a legitimate challenge.


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## dragonair (Nov 16, 2021)

She got a new man and now she's acting different.


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## Leebles (Nov 16, 2021)

I love her and Harv hating capitalism so much that they refuse to work and rely on the player to finance their commune...get your bag queens work DOES suck


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## horan (Nov 16, 2021)

I've played all of the past games, so I'm not truly understanding the argument people have that she has less to do in this game as opposed to that of past games. I see her more often as I'm more likely to frequent Harv's island than I was to go to her shop specifically once I had my hair done up the way that I wanted it lol. Through the past games, it seemed like most people would complain about the lack of ease in customization when those things were only available through the NPC. Seems like people just want it both ways


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## xara (Nov 17, 2021)

i actually don’t really mind her role in this game. sure, her only having 7 hairstyles to teach is a bit underwhelming, but they’re nice hairstyles (at least imo), and her hanging out with harvey is pretty cute! i’ve never cared for harriet much, but it’s nice to have her in new horizons, even if all she does is chill from now on. plus, like @/horan said, i also frequent harv’s island much more than i did harriet’s shop in new leaf, so it’s not like i’m never gonna see her or that she no longer exists. she’s just vibing. :’)


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