i kinda miss the villagers being mean

[McRibbie]

The game is constantly grading you in other areas, from Isabelle's island ranking, which gives you a multitude of different requisites that are necessary for being allowed to progress in the game at all, and the Happy Home Academy, which gives your home a rank every Sunday based on the game's arbitrary criteria for what makes the home complete. I don't see why the villagers can't also do that. Just like you can just ignore Isabelle or HHA (for the most part), there's no reason why the villagers can't also say their piece and just have you ignore them as well.

Also, I think you're taking my "morally reprehensible" line a tad too... literally?

I'm autistic, it happens

You make a valid point about it ranking you in other areas, and I'm gonna concede that yeah, it's possible. But I think that at the end of the day, like the fact that HHD/HHP has no actual ranking system, I think they ultimately don't want to. I think it ultimately doesn't fit into their vision of the game.

I think part of this is the "making the game friendly for everyone" part of things that people seem so intent to blame it entirely on, but I think it only explains so much in terms of dialogue changes. It only really explains stuff like them not calling you a "freak mental case" anymore (because duh, that's ableist) or them rewriting bits of dialogue in NH in updates to get rid of stuff that assumes you've got two feet, or the phrase "I can't breathe" just after the Black Lives Matter protests started.

It doesn't explain why they're being unfailingly polite towards you, with at best some mild sarcasm if you talk to them slightly too often... and I can't honestly say "yeah, the balance of power changing from the villagers themselves to you having control over basically everything isn't a factor in this at all, it's JUST because people complained"

 

[~Melody~]

@VITTO Me too! It made the games more interesting. And the villagers being chill 24/7 even if you gift them trash or forgot their bday is simply strange... even the so-called "snooty"/"cranky" villagers.

 

[MarkTheFreak]

In my opinion, I would love for the villagers to be ruder mainly because I’m sick of the same old super nice dialogue that plagues NH. It’s especially annoying with the Cranky and Snooty villagers where they’re just too nice, when they should be, y’know, cranky and snooty. The lack of character the villager dialogue has just makes me wanna talk to my villagers less because it’s just boring.

Honestly, they should go back to Wild World-era dialogue cause I feel like they got the balance between the snarkier and nicer dialogue just right.

 

[KittenNoir]

I do not miss it haha I play animal crossing to relax not stress out...

This is why I don't like having cranky type islanders...

 

[mouthrat]

no bc i 100% agree with this the villagers are super sweet in NH, i love how each personality type is quirky and cute in its own way. however, they need some more flavor. i've never played the original games before except for NL (and i didn't get far) so i feel like i'm missing out on some great dialogue. a lot of times, the dialogue gets repetitive, so having an insult thrown at you every now and again would make things a lot more interesting.

I'd really like to get it back as like a "optional" thing. Like you could go in the settings and turn it on/off, i feel like it was something that really gave the villagers more personality and it was legit super funny.

i also agree with the above, because there are definitely younger eyes that would take an insult way too seriously. however, maybe instead of just being able to turn it off or on at will of the player, maybe the feature could be integrated into the game more. for example, the feature would be dependent on age, where you'd have to be a certain age to unlock the "mean dialogue" or something. maybe that's taking it too far but i feel like it should be more involved in the game than just an on/off toggle.

 

[Dim]

Ikrrrrrr I remember Camofrog asked me to bring him a ball and when I did he threw it at me. The good old days… :[

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I never experienced the really mean villagers because I've only played NL and NH, but I've seen some of the dialogue and it looked like so much fun!

At the very least they should have made the cranky villagers in NH actually be more cranky, and the snooty villagers actually be more snooty!
Jocks are very much jocks, as are the lazies.. But cranky and snooty villagers only give off "I'm older than you are" vibes and not much more.

 

[nightglow]

I would be fine with them having dialog that expressed varied emotion or moods on randomly selected days. Or even saying how they don't like something on the island, the weather, or season.
I like WW dialog even though on paper, less dialog existed in it than NH. Elvis was a turd in WW btw.

 

[returnofsaturn]

You’re no longer just Villager Murabito, Random Schmuck Who Just Arrived In Town, a lowly noob ripe for hucksterin’ in an unfamiliar place whose only responsibility is paying off their house.

Yes, you totally got that right. I kinda wish we would go back to being a nobody, new villager. I don't want the villagers to suck up to meee, I wanna earn their love. ),: And if they were to go back to that I'd like if the villagers themselves could decorate the island some, I realize how some new players would hate that, but I think it would make it feel more real and still have the same new features but less of the "I am the god of this island" feeling...

 

[xxcodexx]

they can still be kinda mean. i had a visitor earlier and roald was telling me that my visitor should work out with him lol! i kinda thought that was mean in a funny way, and another villager told my visitor to check out the gallant statue...which is a giant nude man sooo theres moments of mean weird lol

 

[nightglow]

Yes, you totally got that right. I kinda wish we would go back to being a nobody, new villager. I don't want the villagers to suck up to meee, I wanna earn their love. ),: And if they were to go back to that I'd like if the villagers themselves could decorate the island some, I realize how some new players would hate that, but I think it would make it feel more real and still have the same new features but less of the "I am the god of this island" feeling...

I'd be ok with that if they were limited to thier yard. Like 3 or 4 blocks from their house on all sides. It would be a for real, that neighbor with ugly yard statues or that neighbor who had a party last night again. Lol
It could even be set up to where you can set up thier yard (and house) if you have a high enough friendship. I think the RNG yard could be hard to pull off. It may look like a yard sale.

 

[Xara]

same. i never played the gamecube ac, so i never got to experience the dialogue in it, but the screenshots i’ve seen are so funny lol. the dialogue in wild world was amazing, though. the villagers were snarky and sassy at times, which i loved, but i also loved that their hobbies and interests changed from time to time as well and that they’d talk to you about it. really gave them more personality.

i also preferred the ‘meaner’ dialogue because it made befriending villagers more rewarding and realistic — the more they warmed up to you, the kinder they spoke to you, and i really liked that. especially with the cranky villagers. they’ve kinda lost their charm a bit now that the dialogue feels like we’re best friends from the moment we meet. cranky villagers are just friendly grandpas now, which is endearing, but i miss when they were actually cranky at first and then would turn into a sort of caring grandpa over time.

but i do know not everyone would enjoy this, so like you said, it’d be cool if it was a feature that could be turned on and off.

 

[honeyaura]

Yes! I miss the edginess the villagers had. I never played the GC AC, but even in WW they had better convos. New Leaf they started to feel a little more watered down, but still better than NH. Now it’s like they’re forced to be nice, and their convos are half “It’s a nice day to eat __ and read ___” and anything along those lines. Just flat now.

 

[Firesquids]

My first experience with Animal Crossing was New Leaf, and I never went back to play the older games so I never got to experience the "mean" villager dialog first hand, but I'm lowkey fascinated by it. My favorite characters in media tend to be the ones that come off as gruff and grumpy but actually have a heart of gold. I think that it would be awesome if not every villager started off as your best friend. I imagine if you actually had to earn the trust and companionship of your villagers, it would help strengthen your bond with them. It would make becoming best friends with someone feel more like an accomplishment and less of a mechanic solely to get their photograph. I also think we are desperatly in need of more personality types, it's pretty rediculous imo that you can't have a different personality on each of your 10 villagers.

 

[-Blue-]

When most people say they wished villager's were mean again, they don't really mean that literally where everyone is at their throat. They just want variety. Right now, the villager's are just so boring and predictable. They have dialogue that feels like it ends too abruptly. I still hate the lines that uchi or peppy say.

'Oh hey what are you doing for the next 8 hours lol jk get bent loser'
'I played hide and seek by myself...I'm so lonely'

Who even wrote these lines and thought they came off as anything but awkward? We're playing what should've been a life sim with animal villagers. Of course we would want to hang out with one of the animal pals or do a game of hide and seek. It just boggles my mind.