History Main / OnlySixFaces

* ''LetsPlay/JackSepticEye'', ''WebVideo/{{Markiplier}}'' and ''WebVideo/ThomasSanders'' all play at least four different characters on their own, leading to fanart having this.

* Characters in ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' are only differentiated by hairstyles and accessories. Andy even changed her hairstyle early on to make her look less like Paige.

* Everyone in ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'' would be almost indistinguishable from one another if they all shaved their heads if not for the eyelashes and occasional orc fangs.
** Mookie is not above {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing it on occasion. One such example can be seen [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2009-05-01 here.]]

** In-story, the fact that Susan and Diane [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2007-10-13 look and sound identical]][[note]]and according to Grace, this extends to their entire body structure[[/note]] save for hair color and clothing choice [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2007-10-10 is noted]] and implied to be significant. [[spoiler: They're later thought to possibly be twins separated at birth when it's discovered they were born within minutes of each other, then half-sisters due to Susan's father cheating on her mother, then finally it's revealed they have an UncannyFamilyResemblance as Adrian Raven unknowingly fathered a child centuries ago that Susan is descended from and Diane is a contemporary child he didn't know he had; he had assumed for all his life that he was incapable of having a child]].

* ''Webcomic/TheToonTeensComic'''s only distinct facial features are Noodle and Chris's mustaches, Lilly's antlers, and Cesar's eye scar.

** One {{omake}} has Piroko and Piro [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/1132 side-by-side]]. Possibly a LampshadeHanging.

* Kristofer Straub's ''Webcomic/CheckerboardNightmare'' and its successor, ''[[Webcomic/{{Starslip}} Starslip Crisis]]'', have identical-looking humans except for hair and costuming. The strips don't suffer for this, though.
** Lampshaded in [[http://starslip.com/2006/03/09/starslip-number-210/ this]] ''Starslip Crisis'' strip.

In RealLife, different people have different faces -- barring identical twins or doppelgangers -- but this does not always hold true when it comes to media. Sure, a child, teenager, and adult of both sexes will be visually distinct from each other (often solely [[TeensAreShort by height]]), but beyond that... ''all bets are off''.

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the DVD commentary of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', in which all of the background and minor characters are "played" by the same, slightly-altered CGI model (dubbed "Universal Man"). Yes, even the female characters.

* ''LetsPlay/JackSepticEye'', ''LetsPlay/{{Markiplier}}'' and ''WebVideo/ThomasSanders'' all play at least four different characters on their own, leading to fanart having this.

** The resemblance of Ciel's new design from the remake of ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' to Mash Kyrielight from ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' has also [[https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddyrintard/comments/nogby9/mash_and_ciel/ drawn some ribbing]].

** Taken even further with the recent inclusion of [[spoiler:the ectobiological parents of the original protagonists]], whose features are similar on purpose. The most extreme example thus far being [[https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/File:John_Egbert2.png John]] and [[spoiler: [[https://mspaintadventures.fandom.com/wiki/File:Jake_English.png Jake]]]], whose facial features are exactly the same.

*** Even after considerable ArtEvolution, [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/1298 in a recent strip,]] resident MagicalGirl Yuki and her mother, Meimi, sport the same hairstyle.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' runs into this with the crowd scenes in the second volume. While the main characters are all reasonably distinctive, the dance scenes and the assembly scene show several copies of some individuals in each shot. In the first volume background characters were featureless silhouettes.

ImpossiblyCoolClothes, distinctive HairColors, and SignatureHeadgear can create an extremely powerful framing effect, meaning the rest of the character's design may be quite simple as a shortcut. The unfortunate result may be a fundamentally homogenized artstyle, exacerbated if the designs are simplified further for characters who must be easy to animate in large groups. Naturally this runs the risk of looking somewhat cheap, especially if the cast gets very large. This can be compensated with [[PaletteSwap color redesigns]], or [[LimitedWardrobe sticking a character habitually into one outfit]], because said outfit is more distinctive than the actual character. In contrast, homogeneous outfits (like school uniforms) tend to encourage faces to be drawn differently. Because of this, a character's outfit actually ''changing'' usually means its supposed to mark an emotional change in either them or how we're supposed to see them. A simple haircut can also mess up with who the character is very easily.

FacelessMasses takes this trope to the extreme. The opposite of CastOfSnowflakes, where even the most incidental characters' designs tend to be unique and well-defined. Sounds like but is unrelated to SameFaceDifferentName, which is about creators going by different monikers. A ''clever'' creator can work around this and create a ReusedCharacterDesign habit. See also GenericCuteness (every character has the same cutesy features), OnlyOneFemaleMold (all female characters have the same body type) and YouAllLookFamiliar (the videogame version).

* This is an actual documented issue in ancient art history. Surviving [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayum_mummy_portraits burial portraits from Roman Egypt]] resemble each other more than real people would. The painters must have mixed-and-matched a limited repertoire of features, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism. (This could also be due to Ancient Egyptian art's long history of making people look good, rather than realistic.)
* Porn artist Zimmerman (well known for [[RuleThirtyFour Rule 34-ing]] lots of cartoon characters, mostly Jessica Rabbit and Disney princesses) is amazing in how he can draw the same girl over 1000 times in a year, yet they are described as being different characters. Be even more amazed in the fact that he has been doing this for almost a ''decade'' and that his models range ''from Belle to Lara Croft''.

* Byzantine art is classified by gold backgrounds, pattern drapery and stylized facial types. Most figures in the paintings look like they are related to each other.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': Gary Larson, even stating the trope name, once said in an interview in 1998 that he never wanted to bring the same character back in any of the Far Side strips because it felt limiting and that one scenario he made would work with a character but not another. However he later said "Although admittedly, as the years went by, all my stuff got boiled down to about six faces.”

* For both ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' (1970) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Robin Hood|1973}}'' (1973), the (then) financially-strapped Creator/{{Disney}} re-used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihS970ymuC0 several]] ''iconic'' dance scenes from at least three different previously-released Disney animated films, most notably ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. Deja vu, much? The dance scenes in all previously-mentioned films were drawn from the exact same live-action source material (and, in some cases, Xeroxs of that material). [[note]] Both ''Robin Hood'' and ''Aristocats'' were released during the "Xerography" era of Disney animation, which occurred between ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'' (1961) and ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' (1977). During this era, rather than drawing each cell frame by hand, the frame of animation was rough-sketched, photocopied, and then slightly altered for the next frame. Also, whole shots and sequences (including the dance scenes) were re-used between films, and sometimes within the same film, to save money. This helped Disney barely survive the animation-bleak 1960s and 1970s. Disney had taken losses from both multiple animated 1950's films, and Disneyland's early years, when the theme park was less profitable than expected. [[/note]]

*** An example with this would be all non-hero monsters in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' and ''WesternAnimation/MonstersUniversity''. They designed about half a dozen different Bodies Eyes Limbs Etc, then implemented a process which could mix and match as well as alter the color and scale of each. The end result was the ability to generate hundreds if not thousands of varied monsters that each fell into a "family" based on which Body was used.

* In the Disney fandom this is called "Sameface Syndrome", a phrase which is commonly used as a criticism of face-recycling in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, often with detractors of ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}''. It's likely due to being designed by the same artist; however, Rapunzel from ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', Ariel from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', and Anna from ''Frozen'' have similarities. Rapunzel cameos in ''Frozen'', which has led fans to believe [[StrongFamilyResemblance she is Anna's and Elsa's cousin]], though nothing has been confirmed.

* An interesting case in the ''Fanfic/AvantasiaProtagAU'' series. None of the characters have canon designs, but since they're from [[RockOpera rock operas]], they have vocalists. And the band ''Music/{{Avantasia}}'' has four separate stories with some of the same vocalists "playing" different characters. In this fanfic series, each character has been given the face of their canon vocalist, and since it contains characters from all four canon stories, many of them have the same faces. Including the four main characters. This is lampshaded in series as everyone can see it and the fact is used in various plot points.

* In the earlier ''Literature/WarriorCats'' graphic novels by James L. Barry, there are hardly any variations in character design. This isn't a problem usually, because in the ''Graystripe's Adventure'' series not very many characters appeared at the same time, but in crowd shots it's very problematic. It's especially hilarious in the gathering at the end when there are four cats in the crowd who look exactly like Ravenpaw.

* ''Series/FlashGordon2007'' cast three near-identical brunette actresses in its three lead female roles, Dale Arden, Princess Aura and Bayliss. Then it cast a slightly older version of the same actress as Flash's mother. Then they had a duplicate Dale character, Helia.

* In a somewhat meta example, when a new series of ''Series/TheBachelor'' is teased, is has been commented on that the gallery of potential candidates for the titular Bachelor are often near-identical generic hunks.

** Several of the Pre-Raphaelites (Dante Gabriel Rosetti comes to mind) feature this, because they tended to have a few go-to female models they used for most of their pictures. The portraits could be more accurately titled "[Model] as/in the guise of [Goddess/Mythological Figure]".
*** Edward Burne-Jones only does one face, usually from the same angle (three-quarters profile) with the same long thick neck and broad shoulders. When it's supposed to be male he puts a beard on it and covers up the neck with armor. It's Janey Morris (his model) plays everyone in the universe. Particularly pronounced in his stained-glass windows in Birmingham St Chad's, where Janey Morris is Jesus, the Madonna and the hosts of heaven.

* For practical reasons this has been the case with most if not all doll lines, namely ''Literature/AmericanGirl'', using a few stock face moulds depending on the doll's ethnicity or unique traits if any. The only other things distinguishing the dolls from each other is their hair, skin colour, outfit and their backstories.
* Franchise/{{LEGO}} had a stock smiley face for all figures during the 70s and 80s. Sometime in the 90s they decided to use more different prints (like bearded man, guy with sunglasses, etc.). They do new faces regularly, but lines like [[Toys/LEGOCity City]] are still plagued with this - for example most of the policemen have the same grumpy expression, and there seems to be only three different female head prints; this is possibly justifiable in how City figures are supposed to be generic everymen with no designated characterisation. Conversely, licensed themes handle this better because the main characters need to be identifiable, but they still spam the more generic-looking heads like the [[Characters/MarvelComicsNormanOsborn Norman Osborn]] one (who accordingly was also [[Franchise/IndianaJones a Nazi, a Communist]], his own son Harry, '''''and [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the goddamn Batman]]''''') for mooks and guards.

** In ''BIONICLE'', the recycling of masks reached its most bothersome level in 2006 and 2007. In '06, the six Matoran sets were given the exact same masks in the exact same colors as the Toa Metru from '04 (okay, Dalu's was half a shade lighter), not recolors, which annoyed the mask-collectors quite a bit. They released a figure called Umbra the same year, who again was given one of those six masks, meaning that LEGO passed the chance to release a recolored mask twice under a year. In '07, the toy of Sarda was likewise given a standard Toa Metru mask. What's strange is that all the other reused masks of that year were recolors, and even Idris, who came packaged with Sarda, was given recolored mask for some added collectible value.

* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' falls into this trope at times. Since the introduction of Ray, Pat, and Roast Beef, it has been revealed that the majority of the animal population are cats (dogs have been established as typically non-anthropomorphic and excluded from the animal underground.) In keeping with Onstad's generally minimalist art style, most of the cats are interchangeable in terms of facial features. There are three or four body types, and a couple of heads to go with them, and generally the eyes, muzzle and ears of the cats are exactly the same (exceptions being Ray and his family, as well as his ex-current-ex-business partner-ex-girlfriend Tina, who have been identified as American Curls.)

* '' Webcomic/APTComic'' has a habit of one face per species, to emphasis the rest of the differences.

* ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': As most of the humanoid characters are depicted with BlackBeadEyes and next to no other facial features, one of the easiest ways to identify who is who at a glance is by their hair, clothes, & accessories. The extra features on non-humanoid characters allows for slightly more variation.

* ''Webcomic/{{Concession}}'' was originally like this, with cat, mouse, wolf and ''pangolin'' looking almost exactly alike. After being called out on this several times, the artist initially excused it by saying that a more realistic pangolin face would look ugly, but later redesigned the characters to look more distinct from each other.
* A common criticism of ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' is that the art style involves most characters having nearly identical facial features. [[http://i.imgur.com/vWxohvZ.gif This image]] is provided for examination. MemeticMutation has branded this expression B^U because it looks like said digits turned sideways, and by extension its author is often called Tim B^Uckley. He has gotten better at drawing faces as of late.
* Almost everybody in ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'' have the same exact face and body structure, and the same goes for the animated shorts as well ([[ArtEvolution though it has lessened a tiny bit]]). Granted, you can only really go so far when it comes to drawing stick figures in a gag comic. Got lampshaded in [[http://www.explosm.net/comics/2549/ this particular strip]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'''s simple style means that all the child characters have the same bodyshape and facial structure. This trend is carried over even into the more detailed shots.

** This is more so with the male characters Dom, Matsui and Inspector Masimichi Sonoda. As can be seen in [[http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/1119 this strip]] where Matsui has to be captioned to identify who he is. The other similar-looking man present is Dom [[SarcasmMode (obviously).]]

* Played with in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', which has Only Two Faces. The faces are male and female, differentiated by the position of the eyes and mouth (women have both positioned lower on the face, suggesting more delicate features and smaller chins; the difference is showcased by the storyline in which Roy uses the [[GenderBender Belt of Gender Changing]] and his features shift accordingly). However, in this case the [[JustifiedTrope trope is justified]] because they're, well... stick figures. [[BigBad Xykon]] is the only member of the cast who completely stands out, as he is a skeleton.

* Though he has no meme associated with him, Scott Ramsoomair of ''Webcomic/VGCats'' is often criticized of the same thing. Ironically, it used to be praised for ''not'' falling into this trope, before people started really paying attention and notice that most characters have the same insane look on their faces as the [[ArtEvolution art evolved.]] It could be related to the fact that he is obviously relying on his computer a lot more. While Leo and Aeris did always look like essentially {{palette swap}}ped versions of each other, it can be pointed out that the different facial expressions often look very similar now, I.E. pissed off character A looks like pissed off characters B, C, and D, or at least a lot more than before. It doesn't help that yes, they do tend to look pretty weird.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' is an especially egregious case, being that most of the characters are different ''species''. With few exceptions, nearly all the characters have flat faces, [[PieEyed pie eyes]], heart-shaped noses and buckteeth (including the carnivorans and ungulates), and are all the same size except for [[NonStandardCharacterDesign Lumpy]]. You could say this is StylisticSuck though, considering the show's premise.

* Some people suffer from a disorder called prosopagnosia (also called Face Blindness), the inability to differentiate between faces. To these people, real life people all look the same (barring hair color, skin pigmentation, body shape and very specific details such as scars). The fact that Real Life people generally don't have a [[LimitedWardrobe distinctive outfit]] or hairstyle makes interacting with people extremely confusing for people suffering from prosopagnosia.

** Pixar actually did this again with ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' where some of the background characters have the exact same vehicle body style! Arguably a JustifiedTrope in this case, with factories turning them out by the thousands...

* Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, the creators of ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'', would reuse themselves as the many different characters that appear throughout their web series, which occasionally led to some TalkingToHimself moments. This can be excused since the cast is pretty small (at least initially) and [[RuleOfFunny it's just generally funnier]].

* The ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone'']] episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" presents a future where everyone is given a government-funded surgical makeover at puberty, choosing their new face and figure from a limited catalogue of stock models. The effect was achieved in the show by having a handful of actors play multiple roles.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'', a few generic character models are used for minor roles and a few major characters are recycled. Art's model is used as a college student in the Another Believer montage and Franny's model is used for Lewis's mother. Which is [[OedipusComplex kinda creepy]] if you think about it.

* For both ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' (1970) and ''WesternAnimation/{{Robin Hood|1973}}'' (1973), the (then) financially-strapped Creator/{{Disney}} re-used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihS970ymuC0 several]] ''iconic'' dance scenes from at least three different previously-released Disney animated films, most notably ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''. Deja vu, much? The dance scenes in all previously-mentioned films were drawn from the exact same live-action source material (and, in some cases, Xeroxs of that material). [[note]] Both ''Robin Hood'' and ''Aristocats'' were released during the "Xerography" era of Disney animation, which occured between ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'' (1961) and ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' (1977). During this era, rather than drawing each cell frame by hand, the frame of animation was rough-sketched, photocopied, and then slightly altered for the next frame. Also, whole shots and sequences (including the dance scenes) were re-used between films, and sometimes within the same film, to save money. This helped Disney barely survive the animation-bleak 1960s and 1970s. Disney had taken losses from both multiple animated 1950's films, and Disneyland's early years, when the theme park was less profitable than expected. [[/note]]

* Franchise/{{LEGO}} had a stock smiley face for all figures during the 70s and 80s. Sometime in the 90s they decided to use more different prints (like bearded man, guy with sunglasses, etc.). They do new faces regularly, but lines like [[Toys/LEGOCity City]] are still plagued with this - for example most of the policemen have the same grumpy expression, and there seems to be only three different female head prints; this is possibly justifiable in how City figures are supposed to be generic everymen with no designated characterisation. Conversely, licensed themes handle this better because the main characters need to be identifiable, but they still spam the more generic-looking heads like the ComicBook/NormanOsborn one (who accordingly was also [[Franchise/IndianaJones a Nazi, a Communist]], his own son Harry, '''''and [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the goddamn Batman]]''''') for mooks and guards.

* ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' [[https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/reflection points out]] that this happens in Franchise/{{Batman}} comics (and other media) all the time (the comic itself is a clear aversion, thankfully).

* When a new series of ''Series/TheBachelor'' is teased, is has been commented on that the gallery of potential candidates for the titular Bachelor are often near-identical generic hunks.

* All the younger men in ''ComicStrip/ApartmentThreeG'' tend to look alike, at least in the later years when Frank Bolle is the artist.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends''. This is an especially egregious case, being that most of the characters are different ''species''. With few exceptions, nearly all the characters have flat faces, heart-shaped noses and buckteeth (including the carnivorans and ungulates) and are all the same size except for [[NonStandardCharacterDesign Lumpy]]. You could say this is StylisticSuck though, considering the show's premise.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Arthur's Quest: Battle for the Kingdom'', at least according to the ''Website/SomethingAwful'' [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/game-reviews/arthurs-quest-battle.php review]]: "You start out in....some town, somewhere. But this is a special clone town, one that's populated by about 12 people with about 3 or 4 unique looks. You'd think they would have at least bothered to make a few more models, or at least position the people so that identical twins aren't standing right next to each other."
* In ''Backyard Baseball'' and other ''VideoGame/BackyardSports'' games, all characters, besides the 30 main ones, are based off of a few models.
** [[CreatorsPet Joey]] is [[HighSchoolHustler Achmed]] with a light hair color/skin tone, and without a few inches or defined cheekbones. [[UncannyValley Why yes, they are good friends.]]
* The girls of the hentai ''Bible Black'' are not only limited to a single face, they all have the same body figure, and [=CGs=] featuring more of them will clearly show that they all have the same heights. It's like they are all clones with different hair and accessories.
** The anime series mostly attempts to avert this, as the character designer seems to have done their best at making the women as distinguishable as possible from one another. Character models show that, at least for the named characters, they attempted giving each male and female different figures and body types, and all of them are different heights. This is not completely averted however, as certain characters do look quite a bit alike and un-named background characters are sometimes identical to others.
* ''VideoGame/Bioshock2'' has this with the little sisters in the final cutscene (good ending).
* All 26 ''VideoGame/CyberGrannies'' have the same, gourd-shaped head. They do have different hairstyles, and in some cases, different skin tones, but their faces are all still basically identical.
* It's an awfully common thing for the awfully generic products that fill 90% of the DatingSim market. This is visible in almost everything, stock character designs, stock plots, stock character types, stock Photoshop glowing pink, etc. [[http://japanisnotoriginalatanime.ytmnd.com/ This YTMND animation]] gives a really good example.
** The characters featured in that animation are all designed by Naru Nanao; a couple of them even come from the same game. Her later designs vary a bit more.
** This also follows with anime based on h-games (''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'', ''VisualNovel/{{Kanon}}'', etc.) which tend to have only ''one'' face -- well, maybe two, one for boys and one for girls.
** Possibly the worst offender is Aoi Nishimata, possibly best known as one of the character designers for ''VisualNovel/{{SHUFFLE}}''. (Examples: [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nishimata-aoi-faces_8348.jpg One]], [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marriage-royale-prism-story-character-comparison-001_8390.jpg Two]], [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marriage-royale-prism-story-character-comparison-002_8767.jpg Three]], [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/50083/ Four]].)
** Forget stock 'designs', the game ''VisualNovel/OtobokuMaidensAreFallingForMe'' uses the same three character pictures for any random students who aren't part of the main cast. This includes several named characters who are part of the Student Council during Takako's plot.
* The guys of ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive'' are easy to tell apart, but the girls all have the same vaguely-childlike face, and the same build. It gets even more noticeable when you look at Team Ninja's fanart of Chun-Li and Cammy, though they tone down the former's HartmanHips. Close inspection reveals that there are, in fact, ''two'' female models in the game, the tall, incredibly well-endowed Caucasian, and the petite, yet still incredibly well-endowed Asian (or [[ButNotTooForeign half-Asian]]).
** Curiously, the older DOA titles used a 'trick' to get around this to a limited degree: character heights that varied (particularly among women) much more than other 3D fighters, where women overwhelmingly tend to be the same height. In particularly, shorter fighters have a handy advantage of ducking under attacks more easily, since their reach is rarely affected as well.
** ''Dead or Alive 5'' (and afterwards) made a point of giving the female cast different face models, which siblings most closely resembling each other, finally catching up, and advertised the fact. It also introduced Marie Rose, who, being a TokenMiniMoe (a first for the series), looks ''noticeably'' different from everyone else.
* Save for Campbell, Dr. Betruger, Counselor Swann, Theresa Chasar and Sergeant Kelly, the NPC's in ''VideoGame/Doom3'' have all the exact same Asian, middle-aged white or young white male faces. There are two black males in the first level, though, but that could be {{Hand Wave}}d [[EpilepticTrees as them being twins]].
* The [=NPCs=] in ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'', if they're plot-unimportant, will tend to look like clones of [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Dippy Dawg, Horace Horsecollar, or Clarabelle Cow]]. This is {{justified|Trope}} in that they're unused concept art and non-final character designs for the same characters. This is here because there were plans and potential to use a number of forgotten Disney characters and stands out more because the plot-important characters look wildly different from each other.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** Lampshaded at one point in ''VideoGame/Fallout2''. An NPC in New Reno describes a man the Chosen One has to find. Chosen remarks that he keeps seeing the same faces everywhere. The NPC hypothesizes that such poor genetic diversity is the result of the nuclear war. ''Fallout 1'' and ''2'' have around 5 sprite sets for unarmoured townsmen.
** In ''VideoGame/FalloutShelter'', all dwellers look the same except color and hairstyle, even those from the other ''Fallout'' games. This is because the game's art style is based on the in-universe [[ShowWithinAShow Vault-Tec cartoons]], where almost every human character looks like a variation of [[SeriesMascot Vault Boy]].
** Generally a criticism of ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''. The game's engine meant that faces tended to not have much variation, and didn't emote much. ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' fixed these problems, [[BrokenBase although fans still found fault with it]].
* Perhaps somewhat understandably, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' does this, with most races having only 8 faces per race/gender combination, and a [[PaletteSwap palette-swapped]] version of each face to give an alternate hair-color (the Tarutaru race has only 4 faces per gender, offering 4 sets of coloration per face instead of two). This is only a strict limitation on [=PCs=] and the quested NPC fellows (who were further limited to a subset of these), but even some story-important [=NPCs=] showed very little differentiation from these models (for example, Doctor Shantotto, who is Tarutaru Female face 4-A in relatively common mage gear, with some custom animations), and most general [=NPCs=] who are neither very young nor very old use the same faces as [=PCs=]. Also, each race/gender combination is identical from the neck down, with both sexes of Tarutaru being thus identical to each other as well.
** This is a complaint with quite a few [=MMOs=]. Most [=MMOs=] without extensive character generators tend to have very few facial choices per sex/race combination. ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', for example, tends to average somewhere around eight faces per sex/race combo, and usually only two of each of them look good enough to use most of the time. True, you can change hair color and shape, and facial hair, but that's really barely anything, and most of those favor heavily towards one style. Even one of the rare examples that shouldn't be, ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', tends to lean towards this; while they have a lot, lot, LOT of options, only a few are really, honestly usable for "normal" looking characters. The rest are a bit too close to UncannyValley half the time to be tolerable.
* Almost every ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' after ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'', characters in CG movies and other titles like ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' tend to look very similar. This expands to ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' above and ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals''. Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' which thanks to using realistic graphics is able to give the cast unique facial features, Cloud for instance has different features from other bishes like Reno or Rufus as well as Sephiroth. Tifa and Aerith notably avert this due to Tifa being modelled to have Asian looking facial features whilst Aerith is modelled to look more Caucasian, unlike previous media where they had same face apart from hair and eyes.
* A common source of mirth when talking about ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' is how every guard or scientist in the Black Mesa complex has the same face (well, for scientists there are three alternating faces). [[AscendedExtra This became more awkward when the models were given names and turned into unique NPCs in the sequel]]. Maybe they were short on employees and decided to [[ExpendableClone clone]] themselves [[WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware repeatedly?]]
** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' isn't much better; while there are more unique models for proper named characters, generic citizens share a pool of 15 models[[note]]excluding charred corpses and low-poly models[[/note]], nine male and six female - and what they do have in facial variety is made up for in [[TalkingToHimself having everyone voiced by the same two people]].
* ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'': Being simple, monochromatic, literal stick figures, the only thing that differentiates characters are the color of their shoes, and their hair, facial hair, and hats (if they have any of those). There's even a moment that acknowledges this, when Henry and and [[TooIncompetentToOperateABlanket Dave Panpa]] have to unlock a prison cell, and Henry attempts to do it by switching bodies with the prison cell's guard. Despite them being identical, Dave, along with Henry's other friends, ask "what did you do with Henry?" and attack the Henry-possessed guard. The fail text reads "What, you think all stick figures look alike?"
* VideoGame/{{Hitman}}:
** ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' has this in '''spades''', due to technical limitations of 2006 not allowing IO Interactive to easily make unique face models for every NPC. Naturally, this makes it incredibly easy to exploit.
** The''VideoGame/WorldOfAssassinationTrilogy'' downplays this trope, as while guards tend to look identical to one another, civilians are so numerous that it's inevitable twins will start popping up. It's downplayed as there's ''at least'' 30 or so face models for each gender, as well as varying textures and models for skin color, hair, arms, you name it, not to mention the different types of clothing and any gear they wear (such as watches or backpacks), meaning even if a face is the same as another NPC in a level, their hair or body likely isn't.
* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', there are multiple different characters who have the same face sprite but slightly altered, to the point where it isn't uncommon for first or second-time players to believe that different characters are one and the same.
* ''Franchise/TheIdolMaster'': While each game is visually distinct from one another, the girls and boys within each branch are distinguished only by their hair, body types and eyes. The early days of [[VideoGame/TheIdolmaster the main branch]] ran into this problem with its 3D models, but [[Anime/TheIdolmaster its anime]] managed to make it less noticeable; unfortunately, other main branch works made afterwards swerve back into this problem in their attempts to mimic the anime's art style.
* The old Infinity Engine games, ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', ''VideoGame/IcewindDale'', etc, were all full of color {{Palette Swap}}s and identical-looking [=NPCs=]. Even many quite-well characterized [=NPCs=] were virtual clones of a stock model. Protagonists were frequently not exempt, with one build, one basic outfit, and one face for the male and female of every race. Customization came down to hair, skin, and clothing colors. Despite this, major characters often had impressively detailed rich portraits.
* A lot of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' games (even later ones like ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat9 MK9]]'') suffer from this, as it’s extremely hard to differentiate human characters by their faces except by their skin colour, whether they’re wearing a mask, hat, glasses or have some kind of face marking or unique eye colour. Female characters in particular [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSEbdnF4w5CMejUyWN6NbHhxzI-Ivlg8JVUlg&usqp=CAU all]] [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRgiX2Nxg1s0AwAZh1o2XZhB2Jr1kD7ysKVbA&usqp=CAU had]] [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRS7DkLU1fl2JpA8UUnhhcdtPaqBL1fvPlfdA&usqp=CAU the same pouty faces]], which bleed over in other [=NetherRealm=] games like ''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'' and ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs''. Even ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatX MKX]]'' got criticised for this, with Cassie and Jacqui [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJQHVgO9--AKNc3gNt5LyvJuqPYKuwn85OCQ&usqp=CAU looking exactly the same]] save skin colour. ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' thanks to photorealistic graphics goes very far to avert this with [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0HGWIBFNkZ4pDpN-0RzY8Uijj30H13lv37g&usqp=CAU female characters]] (apart from [[StrongFamilyResemblance Sonya and Cassie]]) and the rest of the cast having different features from each other.
* Many, many Creator/{{Kairosoft}} games are guilty of this, in order to keep the size of their games down, to fit with their 16-bit retraux theme, and the fact that there's only 9 employees in the company including the boss.
** Their game ''VideoGame/PocketStables'' is the perhaps the worst offender of this trope, by having every guest that visits your farm appear indistinguishable from the others of their class type. All students look alike, as do all gardeners, salarymen, etc.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroDawnOfTheDragon'': Plus or minus some recolors and outfit swaps, all cheetahs, whether background extras or named characters, use the exact same model.
%%* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': Almost averted, since most of the inhabitants of Hyrule City fit this trope perfectly.%%How?
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': [[https://nintendoeverything.com/new-discovery-reveals-that-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-npcs-are-based-on-an-advanced-version-of-the-mii-format/ It was recently discovered by reverse engineers and modders]] that the game uses a more advanced version of Miis for generic humanoid NPC characters (referred to as "[=UMii=]" in the game's files), likely done to streamline the process of creating multiple different NPC models to populate the game's towns. The modders that made this discovery have found ways to actually convert regular Miis into this format, though it does have limitations (not all hairstyles and facial features like moles are supported).
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' had many alien background characters cycle through the same small number of faces. It was actually [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in-universe, when a Turian that didn't have much prior contact with humans couldn't tell what gender Shepard was, and later commented that humans "all look alike". The sequels brought more depth to character faces, but background characters still appeared with stock faces.
** The books provide an in-universe explanation for this; apparently, as civilizations grow more advanced and globalized, increased interbreeding causes racial identifiers to begin to disappear as the gene pool becomes more evenly spread out. Advanced civilizations like the Turians and Asari have become so genetically homogeneous, there are very few physical differences between them. This is one of the reason why most Citadel species tattoo their faces -- to make it easier for members of other species to differentiate between them. Humans are still young enough to show some racial diversity, but it's mentioned several times in the books that they are definitely becoming less visibly diverse than they once were.
** ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' was little better. There was only one face for each race, and only a couple for humans. Even the player character could only select from a few stock faces, and could quite possibly run into a face clone. The second game also had as a plot point the fact that The Handmaiden looks different from her five otherwise identical sisters (given a HandWave as being a trait of her species that makes all same sex siblings look alike) is a sign of her [[HeroicBastard illegitimacy]], not that you can tell since they all use the exact same model.
* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has this for all the minor NPC characters; those who are more important get a slightly different face along with different hairstyle/color and/or such.
* All the moles in the ''VideoGame/MolesWorld'' series (with the sole exception of the villain, Kula) have the same basic face design, with two oval-shaped black eyes, a red nose, and a mouth with one tooth visible when opened.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' does this oddly. There are dozens of unique {{character portrait}}s... but with each random NPC getting one from this selection, they get repetitive anyway, with it not helping that the portraits are always the same, not modified slightly the way characters in a work with this usually can be.
** ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' had it worse. While you got some variance in character models and faces, any time you talked with someone who got a voice (as opposed to simply using a text box), the camera would zoom in on you and the other character. There was only a single set of animations for all characters, so everyone in the conversation would go through the same pattern of head-tilt, eye-roll, hand-wave, head-tilt, eye-roll, hand-wave...
* Creator/TetsuyaNomura is often accused of succumbing to this trope. At least there's an in game excuse for all the characters that resemble each other in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' games. In ''Kingdom Hearts'' Sora, Kairi and Xehanort, each have several look-a-likes for various reasons. You can be certain that every single time you notice someone bears a physical resemblance to someone else, it will be significant. This is so rampant in the series that it almost ''wasn't'' a surprise when we found out [[spoiler:Vanitas looks like Sora]]. So far, Riku is the only core member of the main cast to not have a doppelganger, unless you count the Riku Replica.
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': The more detailed character art (as seen for each character's story) and the end of each characters' tales show that most of the female characters have nearly identical facial design, with their hair being the main point of difference. H'aanit and Ophilia share almost identical faces, as does Ophilia with Lianna ([[https://imgur.com/a/1mQvhn3 seen in Ophilia's end screen]]) and with Cordelia Ravus ([[https://imgur.com/a/1mQvhn3 seen in Therion's ending screen]]).
* The ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series' artstyle as of ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo20thAnniversary 20th Anniversary]]'' uses one head shape for ''every single humanoid, non-anthromorphic character'', regardless of age or gender. Most of those characters have the same eye shape as well, resulting in faces that vary only in eye color and whether or not the character has {{Blush Sticker}}s or "whiskers" like Arle, Amitie, and Ringo. Hairstyles and other accessories go a long way toward hiding this, but even then a few characters still stick out. (''Quest'''s Rebecca essentially being an off-colored Witch, for example.)
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'' is a glaring example, and it's especially grating when contrasted with the rest of its otherwise awesome graphics. The game's female cast has exactly three members (Lara, Ana, Sofia), none of them related by blood, all of them from wildly different backgrounds and origins, and yet all of them look so alike one could be forgiven for thinking they were sisters. The only things that really tell them apart are their clothes and their hair color. The men fare slightly better, with the main cast having unique faces and most of the mooks wearing masks anyway, but Jonah's likeness is recycled for Trinity's soldiers on a regular basis, and the Remnant fighters also tend to look like a nearby cloning facility left its doors open.
* Former SNK and current Capcom artist, "Shinkiro", possesses an almost photo-realistic (if slightly creepy) art-style. The thing is, all his characters have more or less the same face and their expressions seem limited to "serious", "creepy grin" and "manic grin".
* ''VideoGame/TheSims'':
** In ''VideoGame/{{The Sims|1}}'', there are only about 8 faces and 3 skintones (dark, medium, light) to choose from for each gender and age group (adult or child). In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheSims3 3]]'', this is changed and the "Create A Sim" options are greatly improved. However, in ''The Sims 2'', the NPC's or Townies often only have faces from the pre made faces in CAS, leading to various nicknames by fans (e.g. the mailwoman Dagmar Bertino has "Face 1", which is considered to be the prettiest face).
** Players sometimes invoke this by only allowing Face 1 and Face 2 townies to marry and breed with their playable sims, leading to challenge families where YouAllLookFamiliar.
* The ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'' series is a big offender when it comes to non-human characters. All characters who are Toads, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, etc. tend to have exactly the same face and body, sometimes being distinguished by their clothes or facial hair (or, in some Koopa Troopas' cases, shell color). And all Yoshis look exactly the same except for their color scheme (and many times, even the colors repeat). While all members of a species looking the same makes sense when they're enemies, it gets annoying when you're dealing with actual characters: It's impossible to tell if you're looking at the "main" Toad or a generic one, or whether the green Yoshi Mario rides through the different games in the series is always the same one. And the fact that [[ADogNamedDog the names of the "main" Toad and Yoshi are just "Toad" and "Yoshi" respectively]] doesn't help, either. Another example would be Kamek, who exactly looks like every other Magikoopa, with the only difference that he has a broom.
** The saddest part regarding the Toads is that there was an attempt to avoid this trope in the first two [[VideoGame/PaperMario64 Paper]] [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Mario]] games that boast [[http://imgur.com/a/HCB1SEC a fair share of unique designs]]. Unfortunately, ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar Sticker Star]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash Color Splash]]'' did not follow, and ''[[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing Origami King]]'' even turned it into a plot point. [[spoiler:Olly took a well-wishing message from his creator as an insult because he couldn't read it, saw his creator in the face of ''every Toad in the kingdom'', and wants to fold a thousand origami cranes to exterminate the entire species.]]
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsUX'': In one case, Richard mixes up Shizuna for Izuna as the twins look the same, and [[HypocriticalHumor Shoko laughs at all of them looking the same]]. Shizuna thinks the same about the Gundam-faces.
* Ufotable's work for the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' suffers greatly from this, even with non-affiliated artists creating the character designs. Look at [[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia Alvin]] and [[VideoGame/TalesOfZestiria Zaveid]], or [[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia Milla]] and [[VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria Velvet]], for example.
* ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'': Most cogs have unique head textures, and some have unique head models as well. The YesMan, Glad Handler and Mr. Hollywood are a noticable exception, having the same pale gray/white hexagonal head with closed eyes and a wide mouth with teeth baring.
* Creator/AkiraToriyama, maker of ''Manga/DragonBall ''(see the Anime & Manga folder), has been the character designer for a number of games, including ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' and every single ''VideoGame/DragonQuest''. And, true to form, nearly ''every single character'' in those games has a visual counterpart to be found in ''Manga/DragonBall''.
** They even used the small variations in character designs as a central focus in the character design system of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', where players could make hundreds of possible character models... using only about eight faces.
** In a couple of rare examples (such as ''Dragon Quest Swords'', where none of the characters have spiky hair/Goku eyes, and a few are wearing decidedly Baroque-era or gothic outfits) he breaks out of the six faces mold, but when he phones it in (such as with ''Tobal No. 1'' and ''VideoGame/BlueDragon''), it's really obvious that he is.
* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Tends to happen with most official art, including ZUN's own character art but also some of the official manga artists, such as Aki Eda ([[Manga/TouhouBougetsushou Silent Sinner in Blue]]) and Makoto Hirasaka (Manga/TouhouSangetsusei).
** One step up in the fighting games. As far as Alphes's character portraits go, everyone has the same face. Moe Harukawa's character portraits show this as well, with only one or two characters looking even ''slightly'' different.
* The 2005 video game ''VideoGame/TheWarriors'' has all gangs except the Warriors (who have the protagonist cast and 9 "New Bloods) use just 9 different characters, no more. Even then, in a lot of cases, one of the characters will be the gang's warlord who, as you'd expect only appears once, and as a boss, so apart from him/her, there are usually only 8 gang characters; what's more, you can often see several clones of the same character in one fight because you'll be fighting multiple gang members throughout the game.
* The 1996 versions of ''VideoGame/WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSandiego'' and ''VideoGame/WhereInTheUSAIsCarmenSandiego'' did this with its witnesses by taking a few figures and randomizing its color palette. [[FridgeLogic Ingenious]] when you realize that all the crooks are done up the same way.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' had this bad. A very obvious shortcoming of the game's graphics department was that there were only one or two models for merchants, old ladies, old men, hookers and so on, as a result of which most [=NPCs=] of a particular type looked like identical twins. This stands out even more because even named and important [=NPCs=] share some of these repetitive models.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' offers about 8 or 9 face options per race/gender. While many of the male faces get used, female faces are rarely used unless they're one of the couple of youthful, smooth faces available for that race, making female characters more likely to look like clones of eachother.
** One particular troll female face is known as "cutefase" (note spelling). Whereas other troll faces have wrinkles, deepset lines, and cranky expressions, cutefase is young, smooth, and appears either deadpan or "under the influence." Virtually all female trolls will use this face. The term cutefase is often also applied to an orc female face with smooth features and the forsaken female face that lacks visible decay (the last of which is also called the "dollfase").
** Female tauren and worgen faces are notoriously difficult to distinguish from one another. This is further exacerbated by the fact that all female worgen have pale green eyes and the same expression, while female tauren only have ''four'' non-death-knight-specific options.
* In the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games, a given NPC is usually generated by picking from a list of roughly half a dozen faces per race and assigning a race-appropriate name from a similar list. Major characters such as Saya Kho sometimes get their own face. Returns in ''Videogame/XRebirth'' where there is only about a dozen character models. However, alternate uniforms, attachments such as hats and eyeglasses, and alternate voices and personalities make it somewhat less obvious.
* ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'''s debug builds have only two faces, as a result of having only two character models (Yandere-chan's for the girls and Senpai's for the boys). The dev wants to avert this in the final game, and has given some students unique features (The Student Council members have their own eye shapes, and several attempts have been made to give Mai Waifu TaremeEyes).
* Akihiko Yoshida is notorious for this. Almost every character he designs (particularly in games like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' and sequels, and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' (DS)) has the same face, albeit with a few characteristics. It's quite an accomplishment when even some of the males and females look the same. The biggest culprit here is that he rarely gives the characters ''noses''. It is really difficult to differentiate characters when one of the biggest facial features is just missing.
* As crowd sizes have increased in WideOpenSandbox games, some PC ports (such as ''VideoGame/GranTheftAutoV'') have actually included a "Crowd Diversity" setting, allowing the user to choose how much this trope is invoked or averted. This actually serves a purpose, as every NPC model increases the memory requirements of a crowd. Allowing copies keeps up the crowd density but improves performance on struggling machines.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Appears after the second episode in ''WesternAnimation/AaaghItsTheMrHellShow'', due to the animation team working within a limited timeframe. An outstanding example is the ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' parody characters reappearing in later sketches with different names and in a different context. Viewers didn't seem to mind, as the series was a British sketch-comedy and having a limited number of faces made it seem like an imitation of sketch comedy's tendency to have a small group of actors playing every role.
* The characters in ''WesternAnimation/AngelsOfJarm'' all use the same basic body design, including the same face with large eyes and a small nose and mouth on a circular head.
* A lot of the characters in ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' follow this pattern, including Sector V, Numbuhs 86 and 362 and The Delightful Children From Down The Lane, excluding the tall, lanky one.
* The Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse's simplified art style post-BTAS has shades of this, especially the generic 'male' body shape used for otherwise very different characters.
** Very apparent in '' WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' in the few rare instances when Batman takes off his mask and looks nearly identical to Superman.
** And {{lampshade|Hanging}}d (we hope) in the Superman episode "Knight Time", where Superman is able to 'be' Batman by putting on his costume and disguising his voice. Several characters do wonder, though, whether Batman seems taller all of a sudden. Which is a joke considering that in their previous crossover episodes, Superman and Batman are the same height.
** Also lampshaded in this dialog:
--->'''Superman''': Do I look like Batman to you?\\
'''Flash''': Yeah, you kinda do, especially when you get all scowly like that.
** Even more evident with the female characters. ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' eventually broke out of this, with broad-shouldered Franchise/WonderWoman and realistically-built ComicBook/AmandaWaller, but earlier efforts had "Bruce Timm Generic Female #2" for almost every distaff character. This is parodied in ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', when Batman studies video footage of a female criminal, before concluding that, since the hair isn't visible, she's impossible to identify.
* A lot of animals from the Creator/DingoPictures cartoons are constantly reused for their films.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' uses this relentlessly, with most child or teenage characters having the exact same face, with the possible variations only extending to two different types of noses and two different types of eyebrows. Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda, Vicky, Chip Skylark, Chester, Trixie, Veronica and many more suffer.
* In '' WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', the same characters repeatedly walk behind the main characters in school.
* Creator/DonHertzfeldt's cartoons, which is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''WesternAnimation/ItsSuchABeautifulDay''.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' most of the females share a similar face. The ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHologramsIDW'' comic reboot averts this by [[CastOfSnowflakes making the designs more diverse]].
* Every character in ''WesternAnimation/{{JOT}}'' shares not only the same face, but the same body design (a white circle with hands and feet). The only difference is that most of the characters have hair to differentiate them from the main character, Jot, who doesn't have hair.
* ''WesternAnimation/MakingFiends''. Vendetta has slightly distinguishable facial features and expressions from the others, especially in the webisodes, but the only difference between everyone else's faces is that they have either a pointed nose or a rounded nose. Also, the adults have the exact same faces as children (unless they have mustaches), so there's no AnimationAnatomyAging to diversify.
* Nearly every incarnation of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'' has featured a cast of identical ponies, [[PaletteSwap distinguished only by their colors]], because all the toys used the exact same mold. In the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends 1980s]] and [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyG3 2000s]] series, they even often had the same hairstyle. ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Friendship is Magic]]'' gave the main characters unique eyes and hairstyles, but their face shapes and bodies are identical to most every other pony. Stallions were given [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics larger, more angular snouts]] and are visibly larger. Some characters were designed with entirely unique heads, bodies, and/or facial features, most of which were recycled into new background extras in Season 2.
** Their WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls counterparts are similar, differing eyes and hairstyles but otherwise similar faces.
** Oddly inverted with Trixie, who originally had a [[https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/File:Trixie_casting_her_magic_S1E06.png unique eye and horn design]][[note]]She had eyelashes used only by her and Mayor Mare, only one reflection in her eye, and a fatter longer horn than typical unicorns[[/note]] but as of ''To Where And Back Again'' has been given a [[https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/File:Starlight_%22magically_stole_everypony%27s_cutie_marks%22_S6E25.png more standard design]] shared by countless characters.
** Lampshaded in one episode when Ember is unable to tell Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer apart, remarking how they look and act exactly the same. It also doubles as RacialFaceBlindness.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' parodies this within a ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' parody.
--> '''Girl:''' Which one's Josh? All the guys here kinda look like the same generic douche. ''(pan to show more partygoers; all the male ones shown share the same face)''
* Often lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** In "Super Best Friends," Stan and Kyle get buzz cuts and identical clothes as part of joining a cult, and don't even wear their trademark winter hats. Stan, Kyle, and Butters (who also joined the cult) look identical now, and it becomes impossible to tell them apart. Then, when Stan decides to leave, he and Kyle get confused as to which one is Stan and which is Kyle:
--->'''Stan:''' Let's go!\\
'''Kyle:''' I'm not going anywhere!\\
'''Stan:''' [[DuckSeasonRabbitSeason Goddamnit, I'm not going with you! I wanna stay here!]]\\
'''Kyle:''' Huh? I thought you wanted to leave!\\
'''Stan:''' Oh wait, who am I again?\\\
'''Stan:''' Kyle, I'm beginning to think this was a bad idea.\\
'''Butters:''' I'm not Kyle, I'm Butters, I thought you were Kyle.\\
'''Stan:''' No, I'm Stan.\\
'''Kyle:''' You're Stan? Where's Kenny?\\
'''Stan:''' Who are you?\\
'''Kyle:''' I'm Kyle!\\
'''[[FatBastard Cartman]]:''' Heheh, guess who I am, you guys!
** In the [[ShowWithinAShow Terrance and Phillip]] episode, "Not Without My Anus", the character "Ugly Bob" wears a paper bag over his head. When he takes it off, he looks exactly like all the other characters, but they react as if he's [[InformedDeformity traumatically hideous]].
** Cleverly lampshaded in the episode "The Coon", in which after spending the entire episode keeping the other characters[[note]]The only characters that Professor Chaos has crossed off his Mysterion identity list are the obvious ones: {{Token|Minority}}, [[FatBastard Cartman]], and [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged Jimmy and Timmy]][[/note]] -- and the audience -- guessing as to his identity, masked vigilante "Mysterion" finally removes his mask, revealing him to be... [[TheUnreveal completely indistinguishable from every other boy in the show.]] Just to rub it in, the rest of the characters recognize him instantly, but don't say his name. Later episodes reveal him to be [[spoiler:Kenny]].
** "Naughty Ninjas" has the boys starting a ninja club to keep homeless people away from Kenny's house. Cartman tries to convince everyone Kyle shouldn't be in the club and tries to discuss it with the others but he keeps confusing everyone because most of them look the same with their hoods on (the exceptions being Cartman due to his size, Token and David because of their skin tones, and Jimmy who has his crutches).
** Another episode has the girls create a league table of the boys' attractiveness... which is, naturally, entirely of the {{Informed|Attractiveness}} variety.
** Oddly enough, many of South Park's one-off characters are a complete aversion of this. The primary characters look similar because of a far more simplified character design from the early seasons, while [[ArtEvolution characters introduced later have unique head shapes, hairstyles, hair colors, mouths, and eyes]] -- they've got a ton of different Redneck characters that all look very distinct from one-another. Now, if there were a trope for Only Six Voices... Wait there [[TalkingToHimself is]].
** In a particularly meta sequence in which the boys create an animated Christmas special featuring themselves (and which is represented by the original Spirit of Christmas special that served as a proto-pilot for the series), the boys react to the animated versions of themselves as though there were fine details that the audience is incapable of seeing:
---> "They ''kind of'' look like us. I mean, Stan's got blue eyes and I've got a sharper nose, but I mean, they ''kind of'' look like us."
** Possibly the best LampshadeHanging however came in a ''Magazine/{{Cracked}}'' magazine parody[[note]]''Cracked'' used to be a parody mag akin to ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' before it became a humor website[[/note]]. At one point in the comic, the characters go to a beach to gather sand to throw into [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext a giant butt threatening their town]], but due to the LimitedWardrobe trope, they overheat in their winter clothing and faint. They all wake up naked in a hospital bed, and the Stan and Kyle expies (who both have the exact same hair, because [[OutdatedByCanon the show had not revealed how they actually looked without their hats at the time]]) can no longer tell which of them is which. The Cartman expy suggests they look under the covers, since "Kyle" is Jewish. You can work out the joke from there.
* '' WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries'' had six background characters that were continuously reused in different contexts. Sometimes they even played different "roles" in the same episode.
* The religious-themed video series produced by Richard Rich's studio post-'' WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'' feature characters that are almost visual clones of that movie's characters.
* Also happens with ''WesternAnimation/TitanMaximum'', a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''-styled series. Just watch the fight in the second to last episode. The same guy gets an ass-kicking no less than three times, two of those being at the same time in different spots.
* Comes up in many of the incarnations of ''{{Transformers}}'', since so many characters are re-colors of other characters. This finally was addressed in ''Transformers: Animated'', when it was explained that there were a few particular "body types" that were common, explaining why there were dozens of extras that looked like different colored Bumblebees and Arcees.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'', every girl has the exact same body, head, and face shapes. If it weren't for the vastly different hairstyles, clothes, and colors you wouldn't be able to tell any of them apart. The background characters also fall victim to this, to the point where one character could be both a witch and a fairy. Sometimes it was just the same character with a different hairstyle while other scenes had repeated, recolored characters to fill out the masses; Shilly (a witch from Cloud Tower who featured a few times in the comics) makes an appearance (in a blue dress instead of a red one) in Season 4 as "Sally", one of Mitzi's friends. Not even the Winx escaped; there was a brown-haired Bloom in a crowd at Redfountain in Season 2.
** Some characters are copied exactly. Priscilla ([[RedheadInGreen a red-headed girl in an all-green outfit]]) appears in both Alfea and Cloud Tower, leading many early fans of the show to believe that there was a pair of twins attending both schools. And Darma (Mitzi's fuschia-haired lackey in Season 4) showed up regularly in background shots from Cloud Tower, leading to a debate over whether or not she's actually a witch; the Cloud Tower version was never named or even spoken to (like most of the characters at Cloud Tower), so it's entirely possible that it really was her.
* Becomes extremely evident in most crowd shots seen in ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' where there are actually duplicates of the same people!
* This is a very common complaint about the female character designs in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', especially where facial structure is concerned. If not for the differing skin/hair/eye colours, about 90% of the female characters would be identical in appearance. You know it's bad when Batgirl and M'gann or Dinah and Cassie look like they could be siblings as civilians.
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* ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'' [[http://www.shortpacked.com/blog/comic/book-5/01-a-talking-car-joins-the-cast/reflection/ points out]] that this happens in Franchise/{{Batman}} comics (and other media) all the time (the comic itself is a clear aversion, thankfully).

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Not only is ZUN susceptible to this with his famously crappy character art (which arguably got worse in this regard from the shift between PC-98 into Windows), but so are some of the official manga artists, such as Aki Eda ([[Manga/TouhouBougetsushou Silent Sinner in Blue]]) and Makoto Hirasaka (Manga/TouhouSangetsusei).

* Almost averted in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', since most of the inhabitants of Hyrule City fit this trope perfectly.
* [[https://nintendoeverything.com/new-discovery-reveals-that-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-npcs-are-based-on-an-advanced-version-of-the-mii-format/ It was recently discovered by reverse engineers and modders]] that ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' uses a more advanced version of Miis for generic humanoid NPC characters (referred to as "[=UMii=]" in the game's files), likely done to streamline the process of creating multiple different NPC models to populate the game's towns. The modders that made this discovery have found ways to actually convert regular Miis into this format, though it does have limitations (not all hairstyles and facial features like moles are supported).

* A common source of mirth when talking about ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' is how every guard or scientist in the Black Mesa complex has the same face (well, for scientists there are three alternating faces). [[AscendedExtra This became more awkward when the models were given names and turned into unique NPCs in the sequel]]. Maybe they were short on employees and decided to [[ExpendableClone clone]] themselves [[Machinima/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware repeatedly?]]

* Only ''One'' Face in the case of the main cast of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', as the main characters are all wearing Spartan armor. The only exceptions are the occasional alien (who all look alike except for color and size), Andy, Sheila, and Vic. Season 9 averted this strongly when CGI was used heavily to show the faces of several different characters, all of whom looked quite distinct.