Players of simulation games turn to Animal Crossing for a farm sim with a twist: gamers can gather Villagers to settle in player Villages, with each Villager having unique personalities and the opportunity to interact with each other. Between rushing to harvest crops and constructing upgrades of buildings are now hijinks involving Villagers talking to each other and even bickering with one another, making the Animal Crossing a rather unique experience among farm sim fans.
Thanks to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, fans get a modern take on the Animal Crossing experience, now with more Villagers and the ability to customize items and furniture. However, despite New Horizons becoming everyone’s comfort game in the COVID-19 pandemic, some eagle-eyed fans may still notice some oddities in the franchise that just don’t make sense.
8 Only One Human In The World
Perhaps the main appeal of the Animal Crossing series largely has to do with the fact that the farm simulator isn’t just plainly about players managing a farm they’ve inherited. Rather, the minigame-esque element of interacting with Villagers of unique appearances and personalities make the game more entertaining than players expect. With older Animal Crossing games featuring weirder Villager quirks and dialogues, the franchise easily cements itself as a classic among players.
However, one weird thing about the series as a whole is the lack of other humans in the game save for player characters. As soon as they enter the game, they’re seemingly the only human character for miles until they meet other humans via multiplayer. While there’s always the assumption that entire communities of humans may exist elsewhere, the presentation of players being the only humans in the world may get lonesome quickly.
7 The Fourth Wall Scare
Given how intense and demanding taking care of a town in any Nintendo Animal Crossing game could get, restructuring one’s island via resetting can become an important decision for the dedicated player. However, more hilarious about this matter is the fact that the game takes note of these decisions as well. When players close the game without saving or do a particular number of resets, they trigger the appearance of a repairman-looking mole named Sonny Resetti.
Whenever Resetti appears, he almost always has a lecture about properly saving the game or taking care of one’s progress. Reset the game a number of times and Resetti will show frustration at the player as well. While this tidbit can make Resetti’s appearance a bit more endearing, this piece of Fourth Wall-breaking trivia can make the rest of the game inconsistent. After all, if Resetti resides in player islands, who else in the island knows they’re in a game?
6 Birthdays, With No Age
Similar to other life sims, one of the appeals of the Animal Crossing franchise has to do with players getting close with their Villagers through conversations and gifts. Such is the similarity between players and Villagers that they also have birthdays, encouraging players to find out what kinds of things Villagers love in order to serve as gifts. This is where something weird happens - as while Villagers predictably celebrate their birthdays every year, they don’t necessarily seem to age.
While Villagers aging might not necessarily become a bad thing for players as this means they’re in their villages forever, it does become a bummer for players who want to roleplay in the game. Not to mention, this opens quite a cluster of plot holes for players, such as Tom Nook having Timmy and Tommy as young proteges. If people don’t necessarily age in the game, that means Timmy and Tommy may stay kids forever.
5 To Dress Or Not To Dress
Almost all Villagers in Animal Crossing have some semblance of clothing - be it a top, a top and bottom, or even plain body-covering accessories such as aprons. With players being able to gift them clothes to wear, it’s evident that clothes are an integral part of a character’s design. In turn, it’s quite surprising when some characters turn up with barely or no clothes at all.
A glaring example of this is K.K. Slider, the guitarist dog popular across Animal Crossing fandom as the resident celebrity singer of the games. Wearing nothing at all, K.K. Slider has his guitar and trusty chair as a means to express his music. While K.K. Slider being an anthropomorphic dog means there shouldn’t be any problem about the clothes he wears, it remains a glaring inconsistency compared to his fellow Villagers.
4 Plants Follow But Also Break Nature’s Rules
One of the more delightful elements of Animal Crossing games from Nintendo have to do with its adherence to some semblance of natural order - plants grow and regrow based on a calendar, and fruit-bearing trees release fruits on certain days. Moreover, certain plants and fruits are only available based on the player’s chosen hemispheres, making multiplayer highly encouraged in games like New Horizons.
However, the game doesn’t necessarily adhere strictly to nature’s rules when it comes to the availability of some items. For instance, cherry and orange blossoms bear fruit according to a schedule, provided they’ve been planted on the player’s island. They might be tougher to acquire on the get-go, but at least planting them gives players a consistent yield. Thing is, cherry and orange blossoms aren’t able to bear fruit in cold climates - which can be a funny inconsistency for a game that tries to follow a basic sense of weather and climate.
3 The Animal Versus Anthro Problem
When players get exposed to enough Disney, they might ask: why is Goofy the dog able to talk, whereas Pluto the dog remains as Mickey’s pet? Such an occurrence also happens throughout Animal Crossing games, as food items players catch may coincide with some of the species of Villagers in the game.
For instance, players are able to catch sea life such as frogs and octopi when fishing. However, some Villagers like Puddles and Octavian are also based on frogs and octopi, respectively. Moreover, one of the game’s items is a cooked turkey, which can be disturbing considering that Thanksgiving mascot Franklin is also based on a turkey. Mayor Tortimer even hinted he wanted to eat Franklin for dinner in some games!
2 Conveniently Free Of Crime
One of the more surprising elements of Animal Crossing as a life sim is its rather interesting take on crime - in that it’s nonexistent. Considering the quirky nature of most of the early games, it makes sense to have a version of a crime mechanic where players who aren’t careful may have their items stolen from them. However, this feature is largely absent in the series, making it a breath of fresh air for players who simply want to chill.
While not necessarily an “inconsistency,” the lack of crime - and therefore law enforcement - across the island doesn’t seem in line with the existence of Redd. Opposing Tom Nook’s raccoon is Redd the fox. While also a vendor, Redd isn’t as “honest” as Tom Nook. In fact, in some games, Redd will deliberately sell fakes to players unless they’re able to spot the “real deal.” The fact that Redd is a scammer and the idea that there’s no law enforcement in the game can spell disaster, as no one’s there to tell him off.
1 The Money Tree Occurrence
With a game franchise like Animal Crossing boasting an air of consistency with its approach to biology, flora, fauna, and other gameplay elements, the novelty of being able to plant a Money Tree is a rather inconsistent take on lore. Granted, the Money Tree won’t always yield Bells so players can’t literally “farm” them. Regardless, the option of having a forest of Money Trees can ruin any planned immersion on the player’s part.
Of course, considering that this is a game franchise where everyone but the player is an animal, the existence of a Money Tree could be given a pass. However, considering the fact that the Money Tree is one of the few (if not the only) “unrealistic” plants in the game, its addition in a player’s island can destroy the suspension of disbelief.