Villager Conversations Past and Present

[LoyalDragonfly]

One thing I've seen a lot repeated on this forum regarding New Leaf and New Horizons is the lackluster feeling people have about "villager dialogue". Popular opinion seems to be that the best villager dialogue came from ACGC and/or Wild World. I like the dialogue in New Leaf... but I've played neither ACGC or WW, so I'm really curious about what the dialogue was like in those games.

One thing I'd like to know is whether or not villager dialogue means the conversations that villagers have with one another, because honestly, I love those in New Leaf! I'm always seeing new conversations, and it's really fun to see the different personality types interact. My absolute favorite is the smug/lazy conversation about making peanut butter sandwiches, but most of them are likely to get a smile or a chuckle out of me. My only problem with them is that you need to book it over to the villagers when they start emoting at one another, because the window to see what they're saying before the conversation ends is very small.

I'm going to be starting on a game of ACGC for the first time soon, and I have to say that one of the things I'm the most curious about is getting to experience the older villager dialogue for myself. Still, I'd like to hear from people who prefer the older games' dialogue. What about the new games' dialogue makes it lackluster in comparison? Lack of variety? Misrepresented personality types? Lack of 'teeth' from snooty and cranky villagers (everybody really is way too nice in New Leaf)?

 

[LadyDestani]

I've only played ACGC and New Leaf. In my opinion, I preferred the dialogue in ACGC over New Leaf because it evolved over time. By that I mean that not every villager started out being nice to the player (crankies and snooties were especially mean), but as you built your friendship with them over time you could actually see the change in dialogue as they became nicer to your character. That was a huge feature for me because it made the villagers feel more alive. I understand that some of the things they said could be hurtful and would need to be toned down if the game were released today, but for me it wasn't so much what they said as how they warmed up to your character if they had pleasant experiences with you and got cold if you did mean things to them. That's the experience that I think is missing in New Leaf where all of the villagers start off being nice to your character and stay that way.

With that said, I still love the dialogue from New Leaf and get excited every time I see a new piece of dialogue. And I love catching the villagers having conversations with each other. It's just that the dialogue doesn't evolve based on your actions so it feels less alive. That's why I want mean villagers back because without the meanness to balance out the niceness, it all feels the same to me and there is very little variation between personalities or villagers.

I also want to say that I haven't played the GameCube in ages, so I could be remembering things with nostalgia goggles, but that's how I recall it.