An Animal Crossing player has made it a tradition to make signatures of the villagers that leave their island. Whenever a villager leaves someone's island, it can be a sad loss for players to deal with. But this can make it a fond way to remember those who have been lost.
Villagers moving out is slightly different in Animal Crossing: New Horizons compared to past games. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, villagers can potentially move out without warning if the player doesn't tell them to stay prior to their moving date. But in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, villagers moving out is decided by the player. Whenever a villager has a thought bubble over their head, there's a chance a villager will bring up the topic of moving off the player's island. Animal Crossing villagers will no longer move out randomly whenever the player is away from their island.
Whenever a villager moves off of Reddit user StormyandPerc's island, they've taken the opportunity to write down their signature on an island rock. Villagers such as Antonio and Dora get specialized signatures in their style in remembrance of them. Meanwhile, Fang's signature is left at the corner of the rock with a darker color than all of the others. It's a different take on memorializing villagers that some comments state is a more wholesome approach compared to erecting a cemetery for them, which is a more common means of memorializing departed villagers.
There are hundreds of villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, some that players will pay millions of bells for, and others that players would want to kick off their island as soon as possible. Fans have made many a tier list deciding which villagers are the best and who is the least appealing. Villagers such as Raymond are still heavily desired for most fans, while Barold is a villager that many players tend to stay far away from. The spectrum of opinions on villagers is extremely varied from fans, and there are many villagers that players can form personal attachments to over time.
But there are some players that ultimately choose to let villagers go for various reasons, whether it be to let new villagers in or simply because they don't like who they've got. Some players can't wait to get rid of undesired villagers, while some that let villagers go miss them after they're gone. Hence why it makes sense to pay tribute to villagers that have moved out. This method of leaving villager's signatures on a rock is a small but tender reminder of those who have come and gone, and it can help players always remember those who have made their mark on a player's island.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on the Nintendo Switch.
Source: StormyandPerc/Reddit