[deleted]

[-Lumi-]

Oh, I definitely do, lol. Part of why I have two normals, two lazies, and two snooties at the minute is because I love their designs. I try to have one of every personality but at the minute I'm missing a smug and I can't see myself getting rid of any of my double personality villagers for a while. I love being able to walk around my island and see my cute villagers.

Like you said in your main post, the dialogue is pretty lackluster in this game. I don't find myself talking to my villagers as much (especially because there's no real penalty for not talking to them... no more random move outs), so I just enjoy their aesthetic, basically. I love how Sherb looks, even if his dialogue tends to be a carbon copy of Egbert. So I just don't talk to him as often, lol. But it's always cute to see him singings, or wandering around with his little bag, or soup, or taking pictures, etc. I wish the dialogue was better in the game but since it's not I'd rather have villagers I think are cute to look at.

I would like to round out my personalities and eventually get a smug type but I dunno. I love all of mine at the minute! I think I'd be more apt to let Phoebe or Bam move out sooner than I'd let go of one of my repeat personality villagers because if I am going to be picky about personalities the jock and uchi ones are my least favourite.

 

[watercolorwish]

I used to feel bad picking a villager based on looks but more shame on the game for not expanding upon individual villagers or programming them to be their own thing other than personality hive mind lol

 

[AkaneDeath]

I like to have at least one of every personality for the dialogue but how I choose which one is mostly based off their appearance. Then once I have the six slots, I just choose whoever I like the looks of best to fill in the remaining slots.

 

[moonlights]

Appearance does influence who I want on my island, but I do think what I find cute would differ to the next person. There are plenty of lower tier villagers I love, and many higher tier villagers I don't like the look of.

I think developing each individual villager's character is a big task since there are hundreds of them so I don't see a problem in choosing villager's based on appearance. Also keeping in mind villager interaction is something many people don't care about and they recruit certain ones depending on their island's aesthetic.

I remember being a kid playing Wild World and not caring what any of my villagers looked like though lol, sometimes it is nice to just pick any villager without regard for appearance and see how much you click with them.

 

[Ingrid]

Poor Rodney gets a bad rep but I have him on my island and think he's a gd villager wee cheeky chappy I call him but he's always nice and even gave me his beloved pinball machine as a present lol.

 

[Marshmallows]

Definitely looks for me! That's how I ended up with 3 peppies and 3 normals....

In the beginning I cared more about having the different personality types, at least to see what they had to say, but now since I feel like I've heard everything, it doesn't really matter and I choose based almost solely on looks. I cycle villagers often enough, so I never really feel bored. Also I feel like they each have their personality... like Flora and Twiggy are both peppies, but they act different because of their hobbies.

I do wish they had more to say, though. Just general personality... I get too many dialogues about other residents' preferences, short things like "wonder what I'll do today", and boring gossip about burying bells. More stories, more gossip between villagers, or more quirky pieces of advice would be a welcome addition.

 

[ForbiddenSecrets]

I mean a smug is a smug is a smug. How they look might change how we precieve them but it doesn't change that every villager in a personality class are practically clones. Because of that, how they look, dress, and decorate their house is important to me because it's the only distinct characterization they have.

 

[Uffe]

With only 8 personalities in the series, it kind of makes sense to choose your villagers off of their appearances. What I don't understand is why most people go with popularity than originality. There's about 400 villagers in the series, but many want only the popular ones, so it never made sense to me when people requested new villagers.

 

[Moritz]

With only 8 personalities in the series, it kind of makes sense to choose your villagers off of their appearances. What I don't understand is why most people go with popularity than originality. There's about 400 villagers in the series, but many want only the popular ones, so it never made sense to me when people requested new villagers.

I think its a combination of, there being a reason why they are popular (sherb is adorable come on) and exposure to the villagers.
The more people talk about certain villagers the more aware of their existence people become.

Such as I know who Bob is because a youtuber has them as their favourite villager. There are lots of villagers who's names I don't know because I've never met them myself and no one goes on about them.

I mean I do agree with you. I think Bob is hideous and can only put the love for him down to a cult mentality XD

But yeah, I think its down mainly to what people know about and how some villagers just have wide appeal in general.

 

[Gashlycrumb]

Looks are all that we're left with so

Honestly though I don't blame people for wanting only villagers they find aesthetically appealing bc that's seems to be kind of their main function now? Interacting with them isn't an integral part of gameplay and they are basically designed to stay out of your way and look cute while you decorate and play online with your real friends. If you want any kind of depth to their personality beyond aesthetics you kind of just have to make it up yourself, as a lot of people here have said.

And I don't feel like that's a bad thing necessarily, but I do think it's the reason that a lot of older players find the newer games wanting in terms of dialogue. The dialogue for the villagers is pretty interchangeable now outside of their basic personality types, which makes it really easy to make a villager whatever you want them to be(with their looks/house as sort of a jumping off point/inspiration), but also makes them pretty boring if that isn't your thing.

I think the deciding factor in all this is whether you prefer to have a game that mainly serves as a creative outlet to imagine your own characters in vs a life sim that gives you already interesting characters to build a relationship with.

 

[moo_nieu]

Both. If I was going off of looks only, I would have more normal villagers bc I tend to favor their designs. For me the dialogue becomes too repetitive with over 3 of the same personality, so I care about personality also. I always have one of each. I don't understand how someone could pick all of their villagers solely on personality when there are only 8 personalities; the looks have more variation

 

[Foreverfox]

I haven't voted in the poll yet, but I choose based on both. For instance, I have a "natural-looking" aesthetic going on with my villagers. However, I do take personality into account. I don't much care for the sisterly villagers, but I also don't want to have an island full of smug and normals (my favorites), so I have all of the other personalities represented as well.

For me, since I don't care for the uchis, looks was the best way for me to choose which one I would have on my island to start with, then I'd see how I bonded with them from there. It took 3 I think before I settled on Reneigh, which I struggled with because I love her design but she was on the border of "not natural looking" for me.

 

[Felix Felicis]

The problem is they are definitely not unique, they all talk the same if two of them are from the same personality and it's pretty sad. For example, if you talk to Lucky and he says 'I love eating' and you talk five minutes later to Sherb, maybe he will say the same thing exactly and I don't know if I'm clear.

People often says personalities are worse than in NL or WW. That's true. I completely dislike the way sisterly and jock are talking, for example. It's all the time the same dialogue, so what left? Physical appearence. Imagine you want one villager of each personality, plus one cranky and one smug because you like them a little bit much than others (it's my case haha) to reach 10 villagers, would you prefer a villager you find ugly or pretty? I think it's easy to answer because it will be surely your only peppy villager: you want one you like and be careful on who joins you.

If everyone was unique, which is pretty impossible, personality could definitely enters more in consideration.

 

[sleepydreepy]

Yeah in my opinion thats 100% the point. Because there are only 8 (I think?) personalities, people generally like to choose one of each for their town (to minimize the feeling of dialogue repetition), and these are chosen based on looks. Regardless if you go for traditionally "popular/cute" or "ugly/weird looking" villagers, you are still making a choice based on their apperance. I personally choose villagers who look cool or cute to me, such as Sly, Huck, and Ankha, while I pass up villagers like Wart Jr. and Zell because I don't like how they look. Since personality isn't exclusive to villagers (every "type" has the same dialogue, etc.) I don't know how else you would pick villagers to live on your island.

 

[_Rainy_]

Like others have stated, I think looks are part of their personality. There isn’t much to distinguish them from one another so looks are a big factor. Or if the villager fits into the Island theme or esthetic. Most of my villagers are chosen for sentimental reasons, the popularity of the villager doesn’t matter to me I like what I like and as long as I’m happy it doesn’t matter.

 

[Sgt.Groove]

I try my best to pick out the oddball villagers, so I guess it's more personality than looks for me. Though I have some fancy villagers like Vivian and Tammy.

 

[-Blue-]

I picked the villagers because I had them on NL and previous systems and they held a sentimental value because of that. They're mostly just for looking now though, because I just can't be bothered to jump through their regurgitated daily responses. And it's clear by the poll that is the main reason for most people.

If it were not for the sentimental value, I would probably just have any other villager and it wouldn't make a difference. I do hope they upgrade them more. Give us more incentive to talk to them so that it becomes less about looks and more about personality again.

 

[Imbri]

Yes, there are some villagers I don't like the look of, so I don't have them on my island, but if I chose solely for looks, I wouldn't have kept my starters, Cherry and Snake.

 

[Rosch]

I consider the look first, then the personality. It can't just be one or the other.

 

[maria110]

I agree with everyone who said it's looks but personality. Plus what one person considers cute is different from another person's idea. So, hopefully, most villagers will find happy homes on people's islands. I remember looking at the popularity tier list online and feeling kind of sad for the ones in the bottom 50. I had Snooty and liked her and I was surprised by others of my villagers not being very popular when I liked them a lot. Some villagers have poor designs though. It's kind of weird, for example, when you see a villager whose appearance clashes with their personality. But other players may disagree with me. I know Tabby has a lot of fans and maybe even Truffles has some fans. I also don't like it when their eyes are "x"es. Like, yikes. Are they dead?