Nan, Oh my heartstrings 💕 Thoughts

[nightglow]

Goats haven't been my first pick of species. But, Nan has always been the only the goat I've had any interest in. I have her in my Wild World town now, and she is so darn cute. She seems sweet. She always looks like she is really happy when she walks around. (Except for when Pecan makes her feel bad, Pecan picks on poor Bill too in my town. And according to Bill, Pecan and Derwin stare into each other's eyes often.)

Nan does talk about bugs a lot, and I would prefer her to talk about other things too from time to time, like flowers, but the bug talk isn't in a weird or creepy way imo. In fact everyday I have played (granted I just started) she wants to see which of us will catch x bug first. I find it cute and something new horizons could have benefitted from instead of only "fetch me this bug".
She also talks about getting a bug for a pet.


Anywho... I can't seem to pin point why I prefer the model shape of Nan in WW over the model shape in NH. In WW she often looks so happy just walking. Skipping? But it is her normal movements. Is the animation different or more pronounced maybe? Maybe the torso being shorter is it? I feel like a lot of the models in WW have kinda a compact look. In NH, the goats heads seem to appear longer than in WW... Or maybe I am just giving a Nan a fair chance since I have her in a game.

In general I think I am more open minded to goat villagers now.

Anyone else love Nan?

 

[Croconaw]

I love Nan and Chevre. Chevre was actually my first favorite villager after meeting her in the Gamecube version. I find it easy to like the goats myself, being a Capricorn, lol. Although they aren’t my favorite species. The normal villagers are always so sweet, so it’s difficult to dislike any of them.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

As @Croconaw said, Nan — being a Normal villager, would be one of the few characters in the older games that'd actually want to be your friend in any given newly-created town, so it's understandable why you'd be attached to her. It's somewhat how I feel with Mitzi in Population: Growing! and AFe+, how I somewhat feel about Gala, Caroline, and Vesta in CF, NL, and NH, and especially Maple in WW. Speaking of WW...

Nan does talk about bugs a lot, and I would prefer her to talk about other things too from time to time, like flowers, but the bug talk isn't in a weird or creepy way imo. In fact everyday I have played (granted I just started) she wants to see which of us will catch x bug first. I find it cute and something new horizons could have benefitted from instead of only "fetch me this bug".
She also talks about getting a bug for a pet.

In general I think I am more open minded to goat villagers now.

Anyone else love Nan?

WW had this mechanic in which villagers would often have their dialogue altered to relate to a particular hobby they were interested in at the moment. Give it time, and she'll probably be focused on something else. Villagers challenging you to a contest was one of the better ways favors/tasks were handled in Animal Crossing, so every game would've benefited from it, honestly.

Anywho... I can't seem to pin point why I prefer the model shape of Nan in WW over the model shape in NH. In WW she often looks so happy just walking. Skipping? But it is her normal movements. Is the animation different or more pronounced maybe? Maybe the torso being shorter is it? I feel like a lot of the models in WW have kinda a compact look. In NH, the goats heads seem to appear longer than in WW... Or maybe I am just giving a Nan a fair chance since I have her in a game.

That's the movement every character shares. The "skipping" animation is really just the same animation used in other games (sans NH), just with a slower cycle, I believe. I find it more natural as it gives weight to these villagers. AC games from the original to CF, had a consistent art style to them, so villagers weren't as realistically proportioned as they would be in NL and NH. I do miss how our human PCs looked, sometimes...

In general I think I am more open minded to goat villagers now.

Anyone else love Nan?

I never had Nan in any of my towns, or island, but I'm sure I'd warm up to her quickly, otherwise. I do hold a soft spot for Pashmina, who unfortunately left my island on March (she was a starter islander). Thankfully, one was kind enough to let me adopt her.

 

[Nunnafinga]

I adopted Nan in New Leaf from another player on the old Animal Crossing Community(I think they're still around)website.I remember it well because the person I got her from had given Nan a cicada and that thing was so loud and annoying.I always liked her colors...the yellow and orange horns and curly 'do on her dark gray/black hair.I was glad she didn't change all that much for New Horizons.

 

[Sheando]

I prefer a lot of the older games' proportions too! I think a lot of villagers' head sizes were reduced in comparison to bodies (or the bodies were enlarged compared to the heads) to try to cutesify villagers like horses, hippos, rhinos, cows, etc. that got a lot of hate. But honestly, I found the WW proportions of the larger animals to be really endearing, and as much as I love New Horizons, I miss the charm of the truly enormous mouse ears or the long wolf snouts.

 

[Mars Adept]

The artstyle is definitely what I miss the most about the older games. The simple shading on 3D models and flat textures on things such as the trees’ leaves really gave it a charm, almost like a pop-up picture book. Starting with New Leaf they made the characters have taller proportions, got rid of most of the 2D graphics, made the night sky all shiny and coated in stardust, and put realistic shading on everything, most notably the ‘fur’ texture on the animals. It doesn’t fit what Animal Crossing was meant to be, and it also makes it more generic because there’s already enough realistic-looking games as it is. It’s worse in New Horizons, where the minimalistic UI (another thing where they’re giving in to modern trends) is an unpleasant contrast.

As for Nan, while I’m not a fan of the goat villagers, I don’t dislike her. I do think you got lucky as the villager purge from GCN to WW left only two goats, which both had the normal personality, and they didn’t bring back some/introduce new ones until NL. That means in WW and CF, there weren’t any male goats, and it was as difficult to get a goat villager as it was an octopus villager. (I had the other goat, Chevre, in my WW town at one point.)

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

The artstyle is definitely what I miss the most about the older games. The simple shading on 3D models and flat textures on things such as the trees’ leaves really gave it a charm, almost like a pop-up picture book. Starting with New Leaf they made the characters have taller proportions, got rid of most of the 2D graphics, made the night sky all shiny and coated in stardust, and put realistic shading on everything, most notably the ‘fur’ texture on the animals. It doesn’t fit what Animal Crossing was meant to be, and it also makes it more generic because there’s already enough realistic-looking games as it is. It’s worse in New Horizons, where the minimalistic UI (another thing where they’re giving in to modern trends) is an unpleasant contrast.

Hopefully this isn't too tangential to the OP, but I think the art direction in the newer games is more of a mixed bag, rather than it being a deviation of how the series is supposed to be stylized. These characters are still deformed, but I do appreciate the decision to make certain species realistically smaller than others. I also liked the way humans looked in NL, even if I have a soft spot for the slightly pudgier, cuter design in prior games. I don't particular care much for added knees and lack of toes (what humans were shown to have in the previous game) in New Horizons, though. I don't know why they decided to add pupils, as well. The added eyelid layers just don't work for most of the eye types that carried over, either. Coincidentally, it's the other way around with villagers. NL's villagers looked far skinnier than they should be, and it was especially jarring with cats. It also doesn't help that even though they were sleeveless all the time in the other games, too, the hem of their shirts hang higher, so everyone ends up looking like fashion disasters. NH decided to give some meat to these animals, and I think it's an improvement from whatever Nintendo were trying to do with NL. And villagers are finally wearing tops that actually look like tops, and not just painted-on clothing.

 

[nightglow]

Hopefully this isn't too tangential to the OP, but I think the art direction in the newer games is more of a mixed bag, rather than it being a deviation of how the series is supposed to be stylized. These characters are still deformed, but I do appreciate the decision to make certain species realistically smaller than others. I also liked the way humans looked in NL, even if I have a soft spot for the slightly pudgier, cuter design in prior games. I don't particular care much for added knees and lack of toes (what humans were shown to have in the previous game) in New Horizons, though. I don't know why they decided to add pupils, as well. The added eyelid layers just don't work for most of the eye types that carried over, either. Coincidentally, it's the other way around with villagers. NL's villagers looked far skinnier than they should be, and it was especially jarring with cats. It also doesn't help that even though they were sleeveless all the time in the other games, too, the hem of their shirts hang higher, so everyone ends up looking like fashion disasters. NH decided to give some meat to these animals, and I think it's an improvement from whatever Nintendo were trying to do with NL. And villagers are finally wearing tops that actually look like tops, and not just painted-on clothing.

I didn't give it much thought, but now I kinda wonder if in the future we could see a new villager that is chubby, like a chubby(fluffy?) cat since NH went through the trouble of adjusting height.