Do you think the characters are adults or children?

[Lynnea]

The normal, peppy and uchi villagers have the personalities of children, but on birthday's sometimes at villager houses they won't say their age but that they're "keeping their bucket list close". Which, is really depressing for a kids game lol.

 

[Blood Eclipse]

Well, you do have a point with your mother referencing when you were a child, but I always took it as when you were a toddler. In my opinion your character is either a preteen child or a teen, but I lean more to preteen. Animal Crossing can be for people of all ages, but its focus is more on kids than adults, so I think naturally your character would be a kid, too to reflect that demographic. One of the cranky villagers even tries to nickname you kid. but that's not exactly hard proof thay you are one either and if you count the only movie Animal Crossing had the main character was about the same height as all the other characters, but was, nonetheless, still a child, so there's that, too.

But as someone else stated, you can make the character out to be whatever age you'd like. They even have QR patterns and accessories to aide you. I wish your villagers could wear some of the accessories, too. It'd be fun seeing Doby walking around with a white beard or wolf link with a pacifier.

 

[Scarfy]

I believe the player characters are ambiguously aged precisely to make role-playing/projection easier, since I would guess most people name their character after themselves.
I skimmed some of the comments here and noticed some demographic talk so it's worth noting that animal crossing new leaf's largest demographic is actually young adult (19-24) women. Young girls (10-12) trail closely second! Curious whether that revelation made an impact on acnhs development.

 

[Alyx]

I voted children but then I thought about it. While the lazy villagers act a lot like children, the snooties and normals talk about their childhoods, so maybe it's varied by personality. I think they're adults now, after reading these replies.

 

[moonbyu]

i think they're adults. just a young looking one.

 

[Mars Adept]

They’re adults. They have furnished houses, can wield an axe without anyone batting an eye, and several hints in discussions imply what each character’s age is. If I were to guess ages, Tortimer is the oldest being in his 70s, Tom Nook is in his 30s, Isabelle is in her late teens, cranky and snooty villagers are about 50, Resetti is also probably 50, Farley and Serena are gods so they either don’t have an age or are thousands of years old, Wisp is a ghost which implies he was at one point a normal person or animal like everyone else but he died(the spirits in GCN may also be dead animals or people), and Katie is the youngest, but significantly older in New Leaf. I’d say she’s about 4 in WW/CF, and 10 in NL.

Alternate Interpretation: The entire game is actually a kid daydreaming about what they THINK adult life is like. This explains the weird way debt works, the scorpions and tarantulas, the constant letters from mom and sometimes dad as in reality the kid is obviously not ready to move away and live on their own, and the game lacking most of the more tedious responsibilities of adult life.

 

[carackobama]

I?ve always thought of them as a young adult (18-early 20s)!

 

[Hat']

I'd say adults or young adults because they all seem to be working (??) somehow, and well installed in the town and in kinda stable their life.

 

[Pikachueviaseedling]

I think ages are varied. I think most are adults, but others could be younger, such as Broccolo, Rosie, Apple, and Hamlet.

 

[Snowesque]

Based on how our mother referrers to us, in my mind it has always been 18. Young, but considered an adult.

 

[Mayor Monday]

I think the player is a young adult. In the previous Animal Crossing games, it was obvious that the player was a child. The target demographic has always been children for the most part, so I see why Nintendo would do this.

But there are plenty of factors as to why the player in New Leaf (soon to be New Horizons as well) is older. One is that the demographic for the Animal Crossing franchise as widened over the years. The second being that in order to fit the role as mayor, it wouldn't really look right to have a six year old running a town.

The hints to the player's age are obvious when it comes to the villagers' treatment of the player. Peppies and Uchis treat you as if you're around their age (and they are portrayed to be younger than, say, Snootys.) Snooties and Crankies are portrayed as the adult figures in town. They treat the player as if the player doesn't have as much experience as they do. Normals are like the young women of town. They seem older than you, but not by much.

Then you have the Smugs. They- like Uchis and Peppies- seem to be the same age as they player. Except Smugs flirt with you. This proves that the player is older than at least sixteen. It would be strange to say that the player is a child.

 

[John Wick]

A child going by the goofy look and the size, plus the letters from mommie dearest.

I'd like the option to look a little older. It would be weird to be tall in the game though, or to have facial hair.

 

[Biyaya]

I don't actually think about the characters as children or adults. I just think of them as humans, like how I think of the villagers as their animal species without consideration of their ages. I think everyone is aged ambiguously intentionally. Some of the NPCs have obvious junior and senior relationships and size differences to portray the age differences, but none of the villagers actually show their age, in my opinion. If the human characters are any age, I'd say it's either that of the individual player controlling it or based on whatever head cannon the player feels fitting when they play their game. Although, the character being a young adult does make sense. I mean, the premise of the game is moving out for the first time and making a life for yourself. It sounds like an adult thing to do. But again, the ambiguity is still there.

 

[ivanfox13]

I hadn't really thought about it too much. I always just assumed everyone was an adult seeing how they live on their own without parents.

 

[Halloqueen]

While they're all rather baby-faced and seem young from outward appearances, I generally see them as adults. I'm fond of the Mii Mask feature from Shampoodle and give all of my characters a more adult-looking head, though I do take those off sometimes to allow them to use the hats and accessories. It's kind of fun to come up with characters in my mind and then just jump into the Mii Maker and decide what they'll look like.

The good thing about the design of the player characters is that it's easy to see what you want to see and what is more relatable to you in the point of life you're at. I definitely saw the player characters as more childlike when I was, myself, a child.

 

[Romaki]

They seem like young adults who just moved out for the first time, like parents are constantly checking up and sending gifts in fear of you missing something essential in your new home and so on. ;D If you want to get technical, I'm sure you'd have to be considered an adult if you want to take out a loan at their bank, even if their idea of adulthood is different from our world.

 

[AntiJupiter]

I think they're a mix. The bears, kangaroos and chickens are definitely adults whereas the cubs are obviously kids. Some of the hamsters look extremely young, too.

 

[fluttershy300]

A mixture of both.

 

[Xara]

i don’t believe there’s any canon age so i think your character can be whatever age you want. my character is 18 so she’s technically an adult as i’m 18 irl and she’ll age as i do ;u;

as for the villagers, it kinda depends - for example, whitney could definitely be an adult but stitches, on the other hand, could be a kid ;;

 

[Weiss Schnee]

I'd most definitely say they fit both. Its a matter of whos playing that would make me decide.