I had a villager come up to me today and tell me that she was leaving in a few days. I can't stand the thought that Piecaken is not a good village for everyone, so I convinced her to stay.
Now I find myself wondering – if villagers leave, is that a bad thing? Or is it like the real world, where people come and go and no harm is done? Will I eventually get replacement villagers?
Best Answer
There's no "punishment" for letting villagers go, the main gameplay reasons to keep the village "fresh", new people, new experiences, new furniture (the items a villager gives you is often related/from their interior decorating).
There is however the issue of character portraits. If you are nice to a villager for a long time they will eventually give you a portrait of themself which can be used as furniture. Each is unique to each villager and counts as a lucky item, good for large amounts of HHA points and (I believe) some feng shui.
The only way to get all villagers' portraits (an extremely daunting task likely requiring multiple years of daily play) or, more realistically, to get portraits for the villagers you like, is to keep villagers around until you get their portraits and send enough villagers packing to rotate in new villagers who's portraits (or company) you want.
Also note that the personalities of villagers (snooty, sport, smug) determine which public works projects they can request, so to unlock certain public works projects you may HAVE to let some personalities leave so that others of the required type move in.
Generally speaking, let villagers go if you only have a passing attachment to them (or none) and only keep a couple villagers "forever". Keeping too many villagers forever will keep gameplay a bit stale; you won't see all the personalities, species, individual characters or the interiors of their homes. Since it's somewhat rare (one a week in my experience) for them to ask if they should leave, I would recommend taking them up on it unless you really want them to stay, to allow for maximum variety.
Note that many villagers moving in/out will possibly replace trees or flowers (I don't believe their homes ever remove public works projects or rocks). If you have a Police Station this is less of a deal as the items removed will become "lost" in the lost and found at the police station.