The follow-up to Animal Crossing: New Horizons will have big shoes to fill when innovating on the customization features introduced in that game. The way Animal Crossing: New Horizons improved player agency in the development of their island with the ability to place furniture outside, choose where buildings will be placed, and even terraform the land made it the most customization-heavy game in the series. However, despite these improvements, it lacked one major customization aspect that could be a game changer for the series if it's added to the next Animal Crossing game.

A big part of the draw of the Animal Crossing series, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons in particular, is the ability for players to create their ideal towns filled with their favorite villagers. This aspect of the series was so popular in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that players would grind Island Tours looking for the specific character they wanted to move into their town, and some even were willing to shell out real-world money to acquire the most coveted among these residents. With all the effort some players went through to get their ideal townsfolk, it's a shame the game didn't allow players to directly customize other aspects of these characters, such as their clothes.

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Animal Crossing Should Give Players More Customization Options for the Residents of their Town

Historically, when a villager moved into the players town in the Animal Crossing series, they had a pre-established house design and layout as well as clothing they'd wear. If players wanted to change anything about the outfit or furniture of their villagers, their only options were to gift them the items or put new clothing designs in the Able Sisters' shop and hope their villagers would wear them or display them. To improve upon this aspect of the series, the next Animal Crossing game should give players the ability to more directly control what their villagers wear and how they design their houses.

Animal Crossing already gives players a lot of room for creativity when designing their own character and home, and these features should extend to the other residents of their town as well. Many players enjoy creating unique islands and towns based around a specific theme, with many Animal Crossing horror-themed towns being quite popular. It would be a huge improvement for islands like these if players could customize each individual house in their town rather than just their own to better fit the theme they are going for.

The franchise already has the perfect template for this level of customization in a game like Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer or the Happy Home Paradise DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Rather than relegating this feature to a separate game or mode, the next Animal Crossing game could integrate the housing design aspect of Happy Home Designer into the base game to allow players to achieve a custom look for each of their villagers homes. This mechanic could further be extended to include clothing and accessory customization for each specific villager to complete the customization options available to players.

While some players like the surprise of seeing their villagers wearing the silly custom patterns they've made or strange accessories they've gifted them, others prefer to have the consistency and control that direct customization features would offer them. For better or for worse, the Animal Crossing series has really leaned into the doll-like aspect of the games with Animal Crossing: New Horizons' customization options. If the series wants to take this style of gameplay to the next level in a future entry, it only makes sense to give players the ability to customize the rest of their town's residents beyond just their player character to suit their preferred designs.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for Nintendo Switch.

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