Would You Change Villagers’ Personality?

[Fey]

We’ve often talked about which villagers might be suited for a different personality than the one they currently have.

Let’s say you were able to actually assign them whichever one you wanted—would you consider doing it?
Why or why not?
What could it change about your lineup, theme etc.?

For example, I’m still holding on to the hope that Shino will be snooty or uchi—if she’s peppy, I would be very tempted to change the personality to one I envisioned her with. I’d definitely have some qualms about it though, especially with the more “established” villagers (i.e. the ones that have been in the game for longer)

 

[oak]

There's so many peppy rabbits, I would change Gabi & Pippy to uchi's. Mira is the only uchi rabbit villager and we don't vibe.

 

[Khaelis]

Honestly, changing one's personality is extremely artificial and quite frankly immoral... but its a video game, so I guess I could be a bit more lax with those morals.

Playing a save file on Animal Crossing where one island could have Skye be a Normal villager, but on another save file years down the line she was a Uchi villager would be a pretty neat concept.

 

[AlyssaAC]

I’m not sure. Personally I think their personalities are all fine. I wouldn’t change anyone of them. However I do agree with some people. Some of the villager species do have too many of one personality.

 

[Fey]

Honestly, changing one's personality is extremely artificial and quite frankly immoral... but its a video game, so I guess I could be a bit more lax with those morals.

That moral dilemma is what makes this question so interesting to me. It’s just a game and they aren’t real—plus Nintendo themselves have reassigned some of their personalities between versions—but it still feels surprisingly “wrong”. I still might do it when given the chance, but not without some hesitation.

 

[Moritz]

Yeah of course
If I could have villagers I actually liked while having all the personality types, I'd do it in a heartbeat

 

[Bluebellie]

I would change Ribbot to lazy or cranky. I think his design is amazing, however he has a jock personality. He was always wearing sport clothes and really weird glasses in my town. I hated it. He constantly had the sporty shades on. They were hideous. It ruined his whole look. I feel like if he was another personality he wouldn’t wear this.

 

[Fey]

It’s kind of neat how it’s been staying at an almost even split!

Aside from Shino, I’d consider making Tangy into an Uchi. I really like both her and Bunnie—especially as a duo—but two Peppies is just too much for me. I could easily see her taking on the big sister role!

 

[Croconaw]

I don’t think I would. All of my villagers have personalities that suit them. I wouldn’t change them. The only personality I really dislike is snooty, and none of my villagers have that personality. I don’t care for personality. I care for aesthetic, color, and species.

 

[zenni]

I would be interested to see if their personalities change over time! Maybe their "core" never changes, but there could be subtypes that they cycle through over time. For example, a cranky old man slowly opens up to you and becomes the sweetest grandpa... and then goes back to being cranky if you don't visit him often It's not so much that I forcefully "change" their personalities, but my actions can lead to little shifts in their manners. I'm probably asking for too much haha

 

[nekomimi]

genji being a jock always weirded me out esp since his e-reader card painted him as more of a worldly poet of all things. maybe smug would've suited him better when it was introduced

 

[Hylian Spectre]

Although I find myself sometimes wishing to myself "Oh darn! If only X were X personality" for the aesthetic, I don't think I'd actually change the personality of a current villager that I have. There are some villagers who I just couldn't imagine being anything but what they are, and that's kind of the magic of it all to me.
I can certainly understand the appeal though for hardcore creators who have very set-in-stone ideas for their island.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I'd really like another sisterly/uchi cat optional than Katt, and sometimes I feel like there's too many cats that I like that are normal and snooty. I wish I could turn one of them into sisterly.

Sisterly is frustrating in general, IMO, because that personality has the least number of villager options.

 

[Fey]

I'd really like another sisterly/uchi cat optional than Katt, and sometimes I feel like there's too many cats that I like that are normal and snooty. I wish I could turn one of them into sisterly.

Sisterly is frustrating in general, IMO, because that personality has the least number of villager options.

I think NH made it really obvious how disproportionately few Uchis there are (because everybody started with one, and there was so much overlap between who had the same Uchis vs Jocks).

I wouldn’t have minded—would’ve welcomed, in fact—if the new villagers had an unbalanced lineup (i.e more than one Uchi)

 

[nightglow]

I would prefer adding to the list for balancing purposes just like species (looking at you octopi). We have a lack of uchi for example. And we have too many dogs that have the lazy personality. So maybe add new ones that have uchi, and add more dogs (dog breeds we haven't seen) that have other personalities.
Others have made the excellent point about the rabbits.

 

[Flicky]

I don't think I would.

What I would like to change, however, is the villagers' negative reactions towards you:

(image source)

If I hit them with a net, I expect a little bit more '*insult*' and less 'ur mean ' from them. That's the only 'personality' change I'd opt for.

 

[Marshmallows]

I wouldn't want to choose the villager's personality because I feel each one should be themselves and the fun is getting to know them. But I do wish personalities were more varied and not gender locked. Why can't there be lazy females? Or preppy/smug jocks? Messy gross lazies that talk about bugs and just normal nice lazies that want to eat. I also think their hobbies and species should play a much greater role in their dialogue. So you could have a jock female who is sisterly, but also likes science/books. Sheep should complain about the heat more, and birds should complain about the cold, for example. I also wish there was a greater shift in dialogue as characters warm up to you.

My island is full of peppies and normals because those are the character designs I like most, and it'd be nice if there was more differences between them, but choosing their personality seems too Sims to me. I don't want to be basically their creator. At the same time I'm thrilled we'll get to help them redesign their homes... even if I feel like that's partly stripping their personality as well.

 

[Sander]

Honestly, changing one's personality is extremely artificial and quite frankly immoral... but its a video game, so I guess I could be a bit more lax with those morals.

Playing a save file on Animal Crossing where one island could have Skye be a Normal villager, but on another save file years down the line she was a Uchi villager would be a pretty neat concept.

I get your point, but most of the personalities in AC aren't fixed traits (or even personalities to start with). I mean, I've seen people around me going to the gym each day, talking about routines constantly & fast forward a few years later - totally different interests. It's not my intention to 'humanize' our favorite villager friends, but I do think it would be interesting if our favorite villager friends would develop in that way as well. Even the game developers changed personalities of some of our villagers throughout the years.

 

[Khaelis]

I get your point, but most of the personalities in AC aren't fixed traits (or even personalities to start with). I mean, I've seen people around me going to the gym each day, talking about routines constantly & fast forward a few years later - totally different interests. It's not my intention to 'humanize' our favorite villager friends, but I do think it would be interesting if our favorite villager friends would develop in that way as well. Even the game developers changed personalities of some of our villagers throughout the years.

Interests aren't really personalities, though. I could understand if you see someone at the gym and they're happy-go-lucky and two years later you see them at the gym again and they're totally miserable and awful to be around. That'd be a difference in personality. Changing how one acts as a whole is what I find immoral, not changing what one enjoys, etc. But it is a game, so I can look past it to a degree.

In Animal Crossing, their personality is how a villager speaks, etc. That personality does handle their 'interests' to some degree, yes. But the first thing you see in a personality is how they act.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I would change the snooty villagers I like to a different personality, as I find the personality very boring (much more boring than the normal personality, which I adore).

I would also want to change the cranky villagers I like to not be cranky, as I do not like the personality, or the low voice in which they speak.

I guess for me, I like a lot of villager designs in every personality type, but I would rather have repeats of the same personality, which does not particularly bother me, over personalities I do not like. Different villagers give me different interpretations of the same personality so I am okay with multiple of the same type.

but I just find the cranky and snooty personalities not particularly interesting or likable, and so changing the personalities for me would be to avoid some types, not to change the balance of personalities. That’s just me though, no offense intended, obviously.

i kind of like having villagers who don’t look like the exact stereotype of their personality. It make it more interesting in my opinion. I really love the idea of Shino as a peppy, for example, and it would increase my interest in her.

Even though I would want to change this though, I don’t know how I would feel about it as a feature in the game. I know it sounds very wishy washy but I don’t know if having certain things like this in the game would actually make me happier, or improve the experience of playing (though admittedly for me there is not much room for improvement) and I think it would probably make the game worse, though I cannot articulate exactly why.