Animal Crossing: Best Friends Forever!

Animal Crossing: Best Friends Forever is an upcoming animal crossing game released on Nintendo Switch 2, codeveloped by Nintendo and CHZYGames. It is a new installment in the mainline animal crossing series. Like New Horizons, Best Friends Forever takes the route of expanding a part of Animal Crossing's core gameplay and building an entire game all around it. This time around, the game is built around the mechanics of making friends with the villagers and NPCs in your town. 
=== Species ===
Villager Species
Species 	Number of Animals	Status/Changes
Alligators	9 	No Change
Anteaters 	8 	No Change
Bears 	16 	No Change
Birds 	16 	No Change
Bulls 	6 	No Change
Cats 	24 	1 New
Chickens 	9 	No Change
Cows 	6 	2 New
Cubs 	18 	No Change
Deer 	12 	No Change
Dogs 	17 	No Change
Ducks 	18 	1 New
Eagles 	10 	No Change
Frogs 	18 	Jambette Redesign
Goats 	8 	Velma Redesign
Gorrillas 	11 	1 New
Hamsters 	9 	No Change
Hippos 	7 	No Change
Horses 	15 	No Change
Kangaroos 	9 	1 New
Koalas 	10 	No Change
Lions 	8 	1 New
Monkeys 	10 	1 New
Mice 	16 	No Change
Octopi 	6 	2 New
Ostriches 	11 	No Change
Penguins 	14 	No Change
Pigs 	15 	No Change
Rabbits 	22 	No Change
Rhinos 	7 	No Change
Sheep 	14 	No Change
Squirrels 	19 	No Change
Tigers 	8 	No Change
Wolves 	11 	No Change
Foxes 	5 	NEW
Owls 	5 	NEW
Sharks 	4 	NEW
Bats 	7 	NEW
Spiders 	4 	New
=== Personalities ===
The 8 main personality traits have all returned and are now unisex, meaning that an animal of any gender can have any personality type. Additionally, 4 new personality types have been added: Nerdy, Gloomy, Clumsy, and Cautious. Some villagers have been altered for these new personalities, for example, fan-favorite Ankha now has a Gloomy personality, and recently added Mouse Petri has the Nerdy Personality.
The Dialogue has also been altered so that certain villagers will have character-specific dialogue lines. Not necessarily anything major, but characters with makeup will now be able to talk about makeup and their routines, characters like Ribbot will talk about their robotic appearances, etc. 
== Getting Started ==
Within your first moments of playing, you are on a subway train traveling through a tunnel to get to an unspecified destination. A friendly-looking cat named Rover approaches you and inquires about your name and destination. There is now also a third option when he asks you for Gender, being neither.
He talks a little about his own goals to travel the world and visit as many towns as he can. Before you can say goodbye, he asks you to take his phone number, and you write it down in your phone book. This is a new feature that allows you to call NPCs and villagers over for fun activities. After this, your train finally arrives, and you step out into the town where you will start your new life.
=== Town Layout and Buildings ===
Every town comes equipped with a bunch of buildings. The town is the main area where you meet up with your villagers. There are a ton of buildings that are important to the function of the town. As you go along in the game, you will unlock new opportunities to construct new buildings, unlock new services, or just overall have the game be a better experience. 
=== Villager Relations ===
The villager relations in this game have a progression system consisting of roughly 3 phases. The first is the New Arrival phase. During this phase, villagers will be hesitant to talk to you, and depending on personality they may just straight up avoid you. Talking to them in this phase is very helpful, and so is writing letters. However, doing any of these things too much and too quickly will cause your villagers to be weirded out and may turn them off from interacting with you. Below is a table of some sample interactions in the New Arrival Phase of the game.
Personality	Behavior 	Sample Response to Starting Conversation 	Dialogue for too much conversation
Jock 	Will not actively avoid the player, but will try to ignore them. 	"Uh... hey! You're kind of interrupting a big workout sesh, [Catchphrase]"	"Listen, It's not like I don't like you, I just don't wanna talk right now, [Catchphrase]"
Lazy 	Will act pretty much the same as normal, but will not seek out the player 	"... Oh, sorry, am I in your way or something, [Catchphrase]?" 	"I'm about to take a power nap, I'd suggest walking away from me... for a few minutes."
Smug 	Will act show-offy and is one of the only villager types to seek attention, sometimes will just ignore the player. 	"Heh, want me to grace you with a piece of [Name], eh?" 	"I got a reputation to keep up here. Buzz off for a bit."
Cranky 	Will actively avoid the player at the start. Sometimes will try to ignore them. 	"What do ya want? I don't have all day." 	"Ugh, I don't want to talk to you anymore. Just leave me alone."
Sisterly 	Will feign friendliness but will mostly try to ignore the player. 	"Oh... HEY! I was just uh... looking for you, [Catchphrase]. What's up?" 	"Yeah... uh, could you walk a few miles in the other direction for like, an hour? Thanks!"
Normal 	The only genuinely friendly villagers at the start. They act pretty normally but are still shy and won't seek the player out.	"Hi! How's it going, [Player Name]?" 	"I'm sorry, but I'm not really feeling it right now. How about later, [Catchphrase]?"
Peppy 	Will actively seek out the player sometimes, and actively avoid them other times. 	"Hey hey hey there! You want an autograph?" 	"Omigosh, I'd love to talk, but I'm actually like, super busy right now, [Catchphrase]"
Snooty 	Will avoid the player actively at all times. Sometimes will approach them, but this happens very rarely. 	"It's you... Is there something I can get you, [Catchphrase]?" 	"Why can't you just disappear from here? I don't want to talk, and I never will!"
Nerdy 	Will try to hover around the player sometimes, but flee when they start actively paying attention to them. 	"Fascinating... Is there something I can do for you?" 	"I've been a bit behind schedule, probably best for me to get going, [Catchphrase]!"
Gloomy 	Will be mostly apathetic to the player's existence and ignore them. 	"...What is it?" 	"I just.... need a break.... leave me alone..."
Clumsy 	Will try to flee the player but will pay attention to them when they get close. 	"Oh, you surprised me? Do you need something, [Catchphrase]?" 	"I think I might've lost my words here. Just hang back for a while, I swear I'll talk to you again!"
Cautious 	Will always ignore the player, and if the player gets too close they will run away from them. 	"HYA! Oops, sorry, just my reflexes. Can I help you?" 	"I've got a bit of a rough feeling in my stomach, I should go lie down..."
After at least a week or two of talking to your villagers, doing tasks for them, and taking them to special events, you will progress to the second and longest phase of friendship. This phase is simply referred to as "Friendly". In this phase, villagers will appreciate your company and occasionally seek you out for things. This is the most common phase to be in and can last anywhere from a month up to about 3 months. After this, the villager will progress to the final phase of friendship, which is Best Friends. After you reach this rank, the villager will have a random chance to give you their photo (20% chance per interaction.)
Additionally, you can now interact with your villagers in more in-depth ways. Once you are on friendly terms with a villager, not only will they begin to try and initiate events with you, but you'll be able to invite them out for special events around town. 
=== The Town ===
In addition to the various interactions one can have with the citizens of your town, you are able to interact with the various NPCs in your town. These characters also start off somewhat distant from you, but after certain milestones, they'll begin warming up to you and can eventually become great friends with you. 
The town is made up of 2 areas. The first is structured very much like your traditional animal crossing town. It has villager homes, a general store, an airport for travel, and a couple of other important buildings. The second area is built similarly to the city in Animal Crossing: City Folk but with a greater number of buildings and an increased focus on higher-end shopping or job opportunities. 
=== Town Hall: ===
The town hall is the workplace of Isabelle, your town's Mayor, and the vessel for you to interact with your town. She has a number of special features that she can offer the player as their reputation with both her and the villagers increases. This ranges from viewing your public rating, being able to suggest new flags or town tunes (don't worry, it doesn't take too long to unlock), being able to relocate your home, relocate buildings, seek out current trends, or approve new town events. 
Category:Animal Crossing (series)
Category:Animal Crossing Games
Category:Games
Category:Life Simulation Games