You only need the AC amiibos or the AC cards to play the game , you don´t need them all though, just the ones that you are going to use, one per player. The game will be a free download but it looks like is going to have a retail release too with all the amiibos.

Also the game is compatible with Happy Home Designer on 3DS on some way.

Although I still despise that we're getting this instead of a real Animal Crossing, the fact that I only need to buy some cards or figures makes the game go from "Not today, Satan" to "Maybe I'll pick it up at some point"

Amiibo aren't

So its not free then...

Yes, I was thinking on bying some of those amiibo just because they are extremely cute lol

I guess now I would have a better reason, I´m still very pissed, but I´m glad that Nintendo is not selling us this as a full retail game. If the cards are confirmed, the probably you can play this with a friend for maybe 5$ 

It still costs money, but considering you need amiibos, it's pretty nice that you don't have to spend money on the base game.

Cards are cheap though

Hey, not bad. Not bad at all... ; ) I'll get an amiibo or two, try to talk my friends into getting diff ones, and give this a shot. Maybe.

Yeah but the point is that one of the main concerns of this game was that you would have to buy the game and on top of that, the amiibo. 

In reality, to download or buy the game is free, but you need to buy figures or cards to make the game work properly, which still makes the cost of the game less than the regular MSRP.

Though I do agree the title needs to be changed a bit.

That's what I thought.
The package version will probably be like $40-50 including 4 amiibos.