We need Animal Crossing tarot cards

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival does many things, like make you work for all the best content and provide a surprisingly fun survival simulation. Most importantly, it illustrates the need for even more Animal Crossing merchandise. We need tarot cards.

It’s all Nintendo’s fault, really. The company gave us a peek at something provocative, so of course we’ll want the full product. Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival has random visitors appear throughout each session. One of them is Katrina, a fortune-telling panther. If you land on her space on your turn, she’ll lay out five tarot cards. The one you pick will have a positive or negative effect for one in-game week, depending on whether the card is in its normal position or reversed. These cards all have Animal Crossing characters on them.

Allow me to repeat myself. Katrina is telling people’s fortunes with cards starring the cast of Animal Crossing. Only six are available in this game, corresponding to numbers one through six on the dice. I’ve seen five so far and can report that Katrina is The Magician (I), Isabelle is The Priestess (II), Gracie is The Empress (III), Phineas is The Emperor (IV) and Cyrus and Reese are The Lovers (VI). They’re as fantastic as you’d expect such a thing to be.

Which is why Nintendo needs to make them a reality. It could work. There are over 450 villagers and over 50 special characters in the series. There are 78 tarot cards in a deck, with 22 belonging to the Major Arcana and 56 in the Minor Arcana. The 56 Minor Arcana cards are divided into four suits. Now, Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival already establishes special characters like Katrina, Isabelle, Gracie, Cyrus and Reese as Major Arcana characters. The Minor Arcana could be villagers grouped by species or personality type.

I mean, Nintendo has a background in playing cards anyway. They’ve been making them since 1889. There have been themed decks of hanafuda and standard playing cards with Nintendo characters sold before. A set of Animal Crossing playing cards were even available as a Club Nintendo reward. Tarot cards wouldn’t be some crazy deviation from the norm.

Nintendo could even make some real money off of possible Animal Crossing tarot cards by, wait for it, having them double as a set of amiibo cards. Use them with Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival!! Tell your fortune! Put some of the cards on the side and use most of the Minor Arcana as regular playing cards! It would be great.

Animal Crossing tarot cards need to happen. For the good of the fandom. We deserve them.