Even months after its release, players are constantly discovering new things about Animal Crossing: New Horizons—like one particular fan, who noticed a neat little detail about everyone’s favorite pilot.
Redditor kyoshi_island posted a video of them fishing on a pier alongside Wilbur and his seaplane. In the video, kyoshi_island releases a black bass in exchange for blue marlin, and Wilbur is seen waving enthusiastically to the bass as it escapes to waters wholly unsuited for its species.
Animal Crossing’s town residents have become more reactive with each new installment of the franchise, but for the most part, reactions to the player and their antics—like catching bugs, fish, or falling into dig spots with buried pit fall seeds—are limited to villagers. It makes sense that they would be the only ones reacting to things players do in-game; after all, finding favored villagers and befriending them is one of Animal Crossing's main selling points.
But having NPCs like Wilbur—who mostly exist to perform services—noticeably react to things the player does around them demonstrates the developer's incredible attention to detail. Not even Kapp’n, the NPC responsible for transportation from the previous Animal Crossing games, gets to react to the player like Wilbur—probably because he’s locked into locations the player can’t reach while catching fish or bugs.
New Horizons is pushing the envelope when it comes to making characters feel fleshed out and alive. Who knows what cool detail players will discover next?
Source: Reddit