In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players have the opportunity to commemorate the birthdays of their fellow villagers. Are there any ramifications if you choose to ignore them instead?
Every villagers' birthday is celebrated in the Animal Crossing series, and players are invited to join in the festivities. A party at a villagers' home is one of the festivities in New Horizons, and players can also choose to give a gift to the villagers as part of the festivities. Are there any repercussions, on the other hand, for possibly missing the celebration? And how do the villagers react when their birthdays aren't celebrated?
The birthday of one of the players will be requested by Timmy and Tommy near the beginning of New Horizons. When that day arrives, the villager with the highest friendship rating in the game - or a randomly determined villager if all of the players' friendships are equal - will be waiting for free ACNH items outside the player's house to escort them to a surprise party hosted by the other villagers. Players can then collect pieces from the Birthday furniture set throughout the course of the day.
Villager birthdays, on the other hand, operate in a slightly different manner than player birthdays. First and foremost, players will be reminded of the date and time of the birthday celebration, and they will be required to travel to the villager's home in order to attend. Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides them free ACNH bells with the option of presenting a gift to the villager while they are there. Sending a letter to the villagers, noting their birthday, and enclosing a gift will elicit a positive response from them, who will express their gratitude for the player's consideration of their birthday.
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it is possible to forget a villagers' birthday.
Despite the fact that the game encourages players to join in on the festivities with the villagers, it is not strictly required. It is true that not doing anything for a villager's birthday has few consequences, though they will react negatively to gifts that are poorly chosen, such as trash. According to the developers of New Horizons, they are fully aware that many players are unable to be present in-game on a daily basis, and as a result, villagers will make no mention of their birthday after it has passed. Players will also not be penalized for failing to attend a birthday party or for failing to send gifts to the villagers in any other way. Ignoring a villager's birthday also does nothing to encourage them to leave the village any sooner, as the process for determining which villager leaves is almost entirely random in Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
Relationships in the Animal Crossing series are relatively straightforward, and in New Horizons, there is little that can be done to seriously harm a player's friendships with the villagers on their island of choice. Furthermore, players who make use of the time travel mechanic - which can be accessed by moving the date and time on the Nintendo Switch forward or backward - will be able to return to any villager parties they may have missed. However, while it is possible that a sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons will introduce more free ACNH theme packs notable consequences to the feature (such as negatively impacting a player's friendship with the villager in question), players of Animal Crossing: New Horizons can rest assured that the game will not punish them if they forget someone's birthday for the time being.
