Animal Crossing: New Horizons Will Include New Character Customization Options

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will add several new character customization options. The latest entry will allow you to choose your villager's skin color and alter any of their features during gameplay.

This is a big departure from past Animal Crossing titles, in which a brief quiz determined your character's features at the start of each game. According to New Horizons director Aya Kyogoku, you'll now control every aspect of your villager from the beginning. 

"Right from the start, you'll be able to choose the way you want to look," Kyogoku told Polygon. "All the facial parts or hairstyles are all gender-free. So you can select from a pool of hairstyles and facial features and then they're also changeable at any point in the game. So if you feel like a certain way one day, then you can make that change pretty easily."

New Horizons' customization options will include hair color, hairstyle, eye color, facial features, and, for the first time in the franchise, skin tone. In 2013's Animal Crossing: New Leaf, all villagers had pale skin, which you could only change by getting a tan. Seeking better representations of themselves, some players used save editors to permanently change their villager's coloring. 

It seems the developers have taken the desires of their fans to heart. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the most recent title in the series, spear-headed the move towards a more customizable experience. New Horizons promises to expand on that foundation.

Though originally planned for a 2019 launch, Nintendo announced at E3 yesterday that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will instead release on March 20, 2020. According to Nintendo's Yoshiaki Koizumi, they delayed New Horizons "to ensure the game is the best it can be." You can pre-order New Horizons now, though any planned pre-order bonuses have yet to be announced.