The Animal Crossing community generally agrees that Tom Nook is the franchise’s unofficial “villain.” He lures players onto an uninhabited island, then puts them to work restoring, decorating, and even terraforming it. He graciously “gives” players a house, which places them in exorbitant amounts of debt, while he sits back and watches you do all the work and makes you pay for the privilege of doing it.
The argument falls apart when you look closer at it. Sure, Nook has you pay for the house, but he charges no interest and places no deadlines on payments. He’s willing to purchase fruit, sticks, bugs, and miscellaneous other trinkets that you find lying around on the ground. All in all, there are worse landlords out there.
Besides this, Nook’s “bad guy” status pales in comparison to another character who’s much worse. This character terrorizes villagers, rearranges houses at a whim, and determines the literal physical layout of the island. In other words, the worst character in Animal Crossing is you, the player.
Animal Crossing Players Have Way Too Much Power
Decide Your Neighbors’ Decor And Clothes
Imagine moving into a new town and being immediately crowned its mayor as soon as you set foot in it. That’s essentially what happens to players in the Animal Crossing franchise. Regardless of your previous qualifications, the town’s other residents simply accept you as their new leader.
And lead you shall, often with an iron grip. From this moment, you decide where all the villagers live, where every exterior item belongs, and even what clothing animals wear. It’s a tremendous amount of power, and players are given it all, no questions asked.
Viewed from the villagers’ perspective, your character is far more nefarious than Tom Nook. The player holds the power to create and destroy, to change the way you dress and speak, and even move your house around as they see fit.
When they get bored, they simply stop showing up. And, instead of moving on, the island becomes frozen in time in whatever state it was when the player abandoned it.
Until one day, they return to either resume their responsibilities as the town’s mayor, or delete the island completely.
Animal Crossing Villagers Sometimes Have It Rough
Animal Crossing Is Wholesome, Except When It’s Not
Lucky for the NPC residents of Animal Crossing islands, towns, and cities, the franchise’s community is largely a wholesome crowd. They treat their favorite characters with love, don’t trample on flowers, and never regift presents from villagers.
That is, as long as the character isn’t on a player’s most-hated list. When players dislike a character, they tend to really dislike them and do their best to get them to move out. It’s been disproven that hitting villagers with a net will make them want to move out, but players will often find other ways to be rude to their disliked NPCs.
Some players temporarily trap their hated villager by digging holes around them or building “cages” outside their houses. They ignore them for days, in the hopes that they’ll move out. And, when they fail, they change their catchphrases and gift them ugly clothing and bad decor items.
Even when players aren’t messing around with the residents, they might be up to some other shenanigans. For instance, players trying to form a rock garden can force rocks to spawn next to each other by placing evenly spaced custom design mannequins throughout the island.
Imagine waking up one day as one of the villagers and stepping outside to find your beloved home island invaded by dozens of creepy mannequins. I, for one, would want to move out immediately.
It’s Nice To Be The Main Animal Crossing Character
Sometimes, We Are The Bad Guys
The amount of control that you get in Animal Crossing can make you either a benevolent or wrathful leader, and sometimes both. Yes, you can make the island pretty and perfect. But you can also actively work to drive out villagers you don’t like, dictate the layout of the island, and literally move mountains on a whim, like some nightmare HOA.
Living in the Animal Crossing universe as a villager must feel like a nightmare. Imagine what the game would feel like if there were an NPC who could do everything that players can do, and constantly took advantage of it. You might wake up one day to find that your home now sits atop a cliff with no way off, because it fits the aesthetic. Good luck!
It’s a good thing that we’re the main characters in our Animal Crossing games. If any other character had even a fraction of our power, it would no longer be the wholesome experience that it is.
- Publisher
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Nintendo
- Genre
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Social simulation
- Mode
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Single-player, Multiplayer
- Platform
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Nintendo Switch
- Rating
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E
