Line #40 Headscratchers/AnimalCrossing


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	!!Humans and animals:
4
5	[[folder:Animal Villagers]]
6	* How do the animal villagers make a living if they seemingly have no money? When asking to buy an item from your inventory, their offering prices are ridiculously low. They make envious remarks about you paying off your debt and expanding your house. Do they just not know about the opportunity to sell fruit and bugs and fish? If they do, why don't they just do it? And if they don't, how are they able to live in a fully furnished house and pay for clothes, items and tools?
7	** ''Wild World'' villagers are prone to saying they simply live by selling to Nook, the greedy so-and-so. They also get annoyed at having to sell to him with his low-ball prices. At least Re-Tail sorts it out by 2013.
8	* Why do all the animals live segregated lives away from all the humans? Given the letters from your mother, it's implied that humans and animals live in different cities, and for a human to move to an animal town is highly unusual. What happened? Was there a human/animal war? And why would a human choose to move to an animal town? The animals don't seem to think you're all that strange, but your mother thinks in her letters that they "must smell."
9	** Speaking of your mother (so to speak), what's up with that letter where she says "Have you met anyone special? We want grandkids!"? She clearly knows you're in a town of animals. There can be up to three other human [=NPCs=] in town, but in RealLife, these are most likely your siblings -- or even your actual mother. Massive amounts of Squick.
10	*** Um... why should the game care about the real-life situation of the players? That's like saying anyone who ships, say, [[VideoGame/{{Halo}} Master Chief and the Arbiter]] is promoting BrotherSisterIncest because they'd often be played by siblings in real life. The Squick is all in your head.
11	** InterspeciesRomance? GenderEqualsBreed, maybe? Or maybe TwoBeingsOneBody hybrid babies? The other animals don't seem to be against dating outside their species (if the gossip you encounter is anything to go by)...
12	*** The humans in other towns? Hopefully...
13	** It's really quite obvious. The world was ruled by a absolute Dictator, who had a Hitler-like segregation plan for the animals and was going to put them into concentration camps. But before he could put his plan into action, he died and was replaced by his more moderate second-in-command, who didn't want to imprison the animals, but couldn't go against segregation because of the political landscape. So he put all the animals into fairly pleasant towns away from humans to keep with the separation policy without being overly cruel.
14	** Mom's a little racist and humans are just another animal.
15	* How come the animals never let you borrow anything?
16	** Don't they give a lot to begin with?
17	*** Yeah, I recall ''getting a couch'' for delivering mail to someone that was 9 feet away.
18	*** It'd still make more sense if you could borrow the stuff they loan out to all the other villagers (like [=DVDs=] and stuff they mention like that), but of course that would be a confusing gameplay mechanic...
19	* Is [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100608045125/animalcrossing/images/8/8c/Blazel.jpg Blazel]], the unused squirrel character, a boy or a girl? She looks female but I've heard people use "he".
20	** Based on the fact that its nameplate in the screenshot is blue, and all boys in the game have blue nameplates while the girls have pink, I think you're looking at a feminine guy here.
21	** After reading this I immediately looked Blazel up on the Animal Crossing Wiki. They confirm it's a guy.
22	* On Halloween, how do the villagers get the ability to transform your clothes or item(s) in your inventory?
23	** Going to add more to this Halloween question, since there are many that I need to get off my chest and see what anyone has for an answer. First off, why do all the villagers wear the same costume? It makes you feel, how should I put it, out of place, since you have a unique costume and your villagers don't. Second, regarding to how a villager fits into that Jack costume. Look at a squirrel villager, Same size and all, but how does their tail fit inside that costume? Also, how can some animals heads fit into that pumpkin mask, example horses, and Julian, whose horn doesn't stick out? Even the body design for some are wrong (I have a gorilla villager, and when I saw him wearing the Jack costume, it looked weird because he didn't look muscular like he does without it). Was Nintendo too lazy to give villagers their own unique costume, I mean, they could wear masks? (For irony's sake, they could wear the mask they are afraid of.) Don't get me wrong, Halloween was fun, but it would have been a little better if the villagers were given unique costumes, or just the masks.
24	** Then it would be too easy to tell who's the real Jack.
25	* How is Marina's hair bow attached to her head when she doesn't have any hair??
26	** Look closely; they're [[AlienHair two tentacles]]. As for the hair bow. Uh. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Animal Weirdness]]
30	* Marina, Octavian, Zucker, and Inkwell are octopi. You can catch octopi in the ocean. Discuss.
31	** Camofrog, Cousteau, Croque, Diva, Drift, Emerald, Frobert, Gigi, Henry, Huck, Jambette, Jeremiah, Lily, Prince, Puddles, Raddle, Ribbot, Sunny, Tad and Wart Jr. are frogs, and yet, you are able to catch frogs in the river/ponds.
32	** There is a birdcage furniture piece with a non-sapient bird in it, and there is a non-sapient bird that perches on the scribble board in some versions. Perhaps only specific species have been [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted]].
33	*** In one conversation with Marina she can lampshade this.
34	*** I figured it was a limited number of species that were actually sentient. Bufonidae and Octopoda are fairly diverse orders, and Aves is a class (even broader than an order). It's not much stranger than humans hunting and eating monkeys or keeping them as pets. (At least until you consider that you can have a pet dog and a wolf neighbor...)
35	*** In addition, keep in mind that while individuals don't evolve, neither do entire species. POPULATIONS evolve, so perhaps the octopus/frog villagers are from a population that evolved to be bipedal and live on land, while the catchable ones didn't.
36	* Why the heck do the animals want to EAT another sentient animal their own size at the Harvest Festival? For a family-friendly game, this is extremely scary to my three-year-old niece who has only watched me play the game. She came to the [[ImAHumanitarian conclusion]] herself!
37	** It's been ages since I've played, but is it possible that Franklin's just paranoid?
38	*** No, I'm pretty sure the animals at the party pretty much say "we want to eat him".
39	*** I was convinced the animals wanted to eat Franklin too up until I played Mystery Dungeon Time & Darkness. In it, there was a Swellow (a large bird) and a Wurmple (a tiny worm) that lived and breathed this example with Swellow making remarks very similar and forward to Wurmple as the villagers did and with Wurmple sharing the same suspicions Swellow would one day eat him as Franklin shared with the villagers (only unlike Franklin who only fears this on Thanksgiving Day, Wurmple shares these fears every waking hour he's with Swellow). Their team was named Team ''Tasty'', for all manner, and Wurmple drew enough conclusions to convince the player that Swellow could very well be saving Wurmple as an emergency ration of some sort (or making it clear otherwise - "Read my beak. Tonight, ''you''! Yum yum!"). In the end, though, as forward as Swellow seemed on the idea, when Wurmple outright voiced his fears it turned out Swellow actually had no intention to eat Wurmple and was horrified at the idea. I pictured Franklin also took these remarks out of context (and possibly combined with the villagers making such remarks either just on the feast itself or about ''a completely different turkey'' [[ContrivedCoincidence neither Franklin nor the player ever sees]], which, [[FurryConfusion as we have frogs, birds and octopi alongside villager frogs, birds and octopi, is not that big of a stretch]]), and it would make for a very awkward Thanksgiving if Franklin took a deep breath and voiced his suspicions to the public.
40	*** Well, given that in Pocket Camp, Chip sees nothing wrong with eating [[Franchise/{{Splatoon}} the squid/octopus forms of Inklings and Octolings]], it seems that his paranoia isn't entirely unfounded.
41	* Pete sometimes mentions how the villagers have bad handwriting, which makes sense for certain villager species (birds, hoofed animals, etc.); however, monkeys and gorillas have very humanlike hands, an octopus's high dexterity would probably help them write more neatly, and given that K.K. Slider is capable of playing the guitar (and possibly several other instruments that require high dexterity if the albums are to be believed), it doesn't seem like having paws is that much of an impediment to writing.
42	* Why are there no female lions? I understand that creating a whole new model might be a bit tough, but given that they've managed to not only make separate models for male and female deer, but also have variants in model shapes within the same species (male deer have differently-shaped horns, Julian has a horn when other horses don't, female kangaroos have joeys, cows and bulls have differently-shaped horns, Drago has frills when other alligators don't, etc.), it's kind of confusing why they haven't done so here.
43	** Maybe they'd just look too similar to the tigers?
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Human Weirdness]]
47	* You can have three human neighbors. ''You never see them.'' Humans from other towns can visit yours, ''but only when you're nowhere to be found.'' Possibly weirder is in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World'', where you never see your fellow human ''housemates.'' By contrast, you ''can'' see other humans... ''if they're from another town.'' Something about that strikes me as weird.
48	** Actually, you can see your housemates...they're just always asleep...
49	*** Which, in itself, is rather creepy if one thinks about it...
50	** The animals mention going into your house and just lying on your floor when you aren't there. Besides the fact that going into someone's house when they aren't there or when they are asleep and just hangin' is incredibly creepy, it allows them to do whatever they want to you with their furry little arms to the comatose neighbors upstairs. Seriously, why can't I get a damn padlock? Nook probably doesn't sell any because he likes to go into your house and be a creepster at night. Wait, it all makes sense now.
51	*** I mean, yeah, it's creepy, but it's quite obvious that the world is ''so'' safe and peaceful (and a little bit of a SugarBowl) that privacy isn't much of a concern in probably most places.
52	*** The HRA is pretty much built AROUND sneaking into your house when you're not there.
53	* Why do the animals treat you like a ''[[FantasticRacism slave]]''? Sure, a lot of humans treat animals like 4th class citizens but..? Does this have to do with the fact that humans live separate from animals?
54	** ButThouMust... sometimes.
55	*** Well, consider that you start off worse than the animal residents... but through this hard work, you have an opportunity to rise above them. ...And continue slaving away for them anyway, if you so choose.
56	* Is the protagonist a child, or an adult? TheMovie seems to imply childhood, around 10 - 13, but I've always seen them as being in their late teens or early twenties. You drink coffee, are allowed to move out, and your parents bug you about having kids.
57	** Considering you're allowed to get a job as well, I like to think of them as being around 16 or 17. I doubt they're actual adults; the line about your parents wanting you to have kids probably means "in the future". I also picture most of the neighbour animals as being around your age, with the exception of the 'grumpy' ones, who are a year or two older.
58	** I figured you were just recently turned an adult, probably 18 to 20.
59	** It's possible this is just another case of Nintendo using the whole Pokemon age logic I mean in games like Pokemon and Wind Waker you're pretty much considered an adult (or at least are considered old enough for the type of adult privileges the games like Pokemon and Wind Waker have) around ten or eleven years old and in the former of the two games it's perfectly fine for you to go out into the world on your own around the ten or eleven age mark despite that still being considered the age of a child in our own world in reality. It's possible that the the protagonist could be around the age of a child (at least what we consider to be a child in our own world) yet still is able to live on their own, wouldn't be the first Nintendo game to pull something like that.
60	** Walker can get a house by himself (well, his parents definitely helpef him out but shhh...). This seems to imply that you can at the very least buy a house all by yourself in the animal crossing universe. Therefore, the age of the character is however old you picture them to be- or they're just the players age.
61	** This troper headcanons the player at around 19, and most of the villagers in their early 20s (the youngest current resident of this troper's island, Sango Isle, being just a bit younger than the player) and the shop people (sans Timmy and Tommy, who are probably teenagers) in their mid-20s through early 30s.
62	* On television, all the characters are humanoid, and there are no animal folk. How much of the world contains the anthropomorphic animals? Are there two universes?
63	** Perhaps that's the result of discrimination? It's already implied that human and animal communities are segregated, it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for that to extend to TV casting.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Special Characters]]
67	* If Blathers is so afraid of bugs then who takes care of them in the museum? He says that he promises that "we will take good care of this critter" and the bugs do indeed look well treated. But if he is so afraid of them to the point that he says they are "beasts who must be kept caged" who takes care of them? His sister or some unseen museum staff?
68	** He may be more of a guide than a curator, he may not have control over what comes in.
69	*** And even if he did, he probably knows it’s going to look real awkward having collections of everything EXCEPT bugs and having to wave away questions. He may not like bugs, but it’s in the interest of the town so he puts aside his disdain of them.
70	** He's not evil. He's not going to let creatures in his care die just because he doesn't like them. He just steels his nerves and does it.
71	** In one of the bug areas in New Horizons, you can see a sign with a picture of Nat (the old Bug-Off host) on it; maybe it's possible that Nat works in the bug exhibit in Blathers' stead?
72	*** Yeah. More than likely he has someone else take care of the insects.
73	*** Fridge Horror sets in when you realize Nat EATS bugs...
74	* Where the devil does Tom Nook get his money? Most of the characters (except the various [=NPCs=] in charge of the shops and things) don't seem to actually have jobs, and most of them seem to earn money primarily by selling things to Tom Nook. But just about the only thing there is in town to spend money on is... Tom Nook's store! The money just loops back to him! Sure, there are trees in town that drop Bells, but it's nothing compared to what you can pull selling things to Nook. This is especially bad if you consider what it means for your mortgage: You owe ''him'' the money, but you pay him back largely with money you earned by ''selling him things!'' Where do all these Bells ultimately originate from? What's fueling these tiny, small-town economies? It makes my head hurt.
75	** Why do you think Bells even grow on trees? They're just ''leaves''! The Bell bags are bags with leaves on them, so Bells must be leaves! Clearly Nook just pulls some of the leaves off and exchanges them for items, which he sells for ''real'' money to other towns.
76	*** Bell bags actually have stars on them. However, I wouldn't put the "Bells are leaves" shtick past Tom Nook, the sly old dog...
77	*** {{Jossed}} as of ''Wild World''; 100-bell coins are clearly shown.
78	** Simple, Tom Nook is a wholesaler. He gets all the random crap harvested from all the animals in the village and sells it to other businesses outside the village. Given his business monopoly and indentured servitude racket, I'd have to say he qualifies as a ManipulativeBastard.
79	** Animal Crossing is very similar to a communist economic system, when you think about it. Which, of course, makes Tom Nook Stalin.
80	** No, actually it's because you still have to pay him for furniture, which are actually just magic transforming leaves that also grow on every tree in town, but nobody but him has figured it out. Even your character doesn't realise it when (s)he shakes down a single "leaf", so apparently Tom Nook is the smartest guy in the game.
81	** Of course, Tom Nook is a tanuki, and they have the ability to turn leaves into other objects. When you think about it, it means that ''nothing'' in the town is real, and Tom Nook has ''singlehandedly'' turned a mere forest's worth of leaves into a thriving civilization with its own economy. This could be a good or bad thing.
82	** I don't really buy the idea of the whole "Bells = Leaves" theory. For one; Bells are considered currency in other places beyond Nook's control. Two; YourMom references Bells once or twice in her letters, and even sends you a small stipend of a few thousand near the start of ''City Folk'' (It might also have been the case with ''Wild World'', it's been so damn long since I started my game). Three; I believe you start with 1,000 Bells in your pocket when you start ''Animal Crossing GCN''. Four; if Nook ''could'' turn leaves into cash, why does he even ''bother'' to run a store when money literally grows on trees? With that power he could become the richest [[strike:raccoon tanuki person]] bastard on earth in a few months. Nope, I think the reason he gets his money is plain and simple: [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts Tom Nook Hates Your Guts]]. He sells furniture for a large amount of cash, and buys it back at about a quarter of the price. Since he's the only store in town (Save the Able Sisters, and they only sell certain items and only buy clothes and accessories in ''WW'' and don't even buyback in ''CF'') he's got a virtual monopoly going on in town. Other animals reference buying stuff in Nook's (When not complaining about being dirt poor after buying stuff in Nook's), so it's clear that you're not his only customer. All he needs is a small business capital to buy stock (Hence the fact that he starts out in Tortimer's old garden shed. Wouldn't surprise me if the tools he sells were left behind by that senile old coot), and things just snowballs from there. Nothing magical here, just that he's a savvy businessman.
83	*** Until you remember all the "free" bells you get for fish/insects. Since you get pretty much all bells from Nook, and eventually can get an extreme surplus, he's clearly giving you more than you give. Unless he has other (significant) income, he should be going broke.
84	*** Humans are the only customer that's actually simulated. A Sold Out sign never appears when humans aren't looking.
85	** Jossed by the inventory icon for 100-900 Bells (see WMG/AnimalCrossing in WMG).
86	*** As for the bells being leaves, there's even more proof that bells, in fact, are ''coins''. In addition to the aforementioned note just above this one (bells do indeed appear as a single coin if you take out a multiple of 100 bells from WW onwards), the player can drop bags of bells at any point since AC onward through WW and CF where they will always make a cling sound, indicating they are filled with coins (leaves, especially dormant-mode furniture leaves, however, make a rustle or plop noise when dropped like many other objects, the rustling coming from when they drop from trees). The aforementioned note above also is proof as tanukis indeed are notable for turning leaves into other objects, especially gold (among other... aherm... [[GagPenis notabilities...]]), and wouldn't be too much of a stretch to indicate Nook could make most of his money by transforming leaves into bells, but the bells ''themselves'' are ''not'' leaves. It also doesn't prove that Nook has invented all bells so much as was just a key influence in circulating them among your town (and although other businesses existed, such as the Able Sisters and their tailor shop or WW's hair salon with Harriet, it can be argued that their business relies on bells from the villagers who likewise got ''their'' bells from Nook). Examples of things that are ''not'' in Nook's control that could indicate that bells are not solely seen in that town were instances you have special characters visit the town who do ''not'' in turn lose their money back into the town and back into Nook's network. If someone buys something from Redd, for instance, Redd takes the money and leaves town without spending it further within that town. The same applies to Katrina, Sahara, Joan and so forth (although it may be argued Joan is not the straightest example since she ''may'' do business with Nook and it's not known just how far the Stock Market really stretches to). Then WW also introduced the added businesses of Brewster (whose payments are probably limited to either rent to Blathers or food, which Nook doesn't outright sell), while CF has the city (which aren't entirely in Nook's hands). Finally, in addition to the player coming into town with some kind of amount of bells at the start, your mother supplies you 1,000 bells every new years. If bells are currency solely used within the town, there is no reason for other businesses to accept them if they don't live long enough in the area to spend it anyways. Now, as far as whether or not Nook used his tanuki powers to give our furniture (and other things) the ability to become portable...
87	** Even then... HOW DOES HE MAINTAIN HIS STORE? He gives you things, you get bells, then he gives you more things, and then essentially, he puts himself in an endless loop.
88	** As of New Leaf, this no longer applies as Tom has gone completely into the real estate/house business. His nephews now run the general store, and that's not even the place you usually sell stuff to - you'll want to sell it to Re-Tail, the recycling store that gives you more money and is run by alpacas. But then the question becomes ''What does Tom Nook do with the exorbitant amounts of money you pay him?''
89	*** ''Happy Home Designer'' offers a possible answer: he uses his money to hire other people to do all his work for him so he can spend all day playing golf, like the bougie nouveau riche capitalist that he is.
90	* Nook. His name. Is it "Noo-kay" like most pronounce it ingame (would make sense since he's a Tanuki) or "Nook" (like "book")?
91	** I pronounce it like "book"
92	** Considering "Nook's Cranny" (as in "clean every nook and cranny in the house"), it almost certainly rhymes with "book".
93	** They pronounce it "Nookay" in game because the talking ingame is actually just a computerized voice saying the letters of the word very fast.
94	*** I dunno, I distinctly remember the Platform/GameCube version pronouncing "save" as though it rhymes with "have" instead of with, you know, ''practically any other word that ends with -ave''. If it said "ess ay vee ee", it'd at least have the right vowel sound there.
95	* Why does K.K. Slider's name box just read "K.K."? It's not like there's any space limitations, as many villagers have more than 4 characters in their names.
96	** Well, you don't always say [[AliceAndBob Bob Jones]], do you? You just say Bob. Any time he's referred to by his full name, it's because he's a celebrity.
97	* How come Redd has not been arrested yet? I mean, come on, he is selling fake copies of famous sculptures and paintings. This sure is illegal, and he is aware of it. So when you have a police station in your town and he begins selling his bootlegs IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLAZA, why isn´t he arrested? Even some of the townsfolk are aware that Redd is not the most honest salesman around. It could be Gameplay and story Segregation, Redd is just really good at ditching the law, or the police are damn incompetent.
98	** GameplayAndStorySegregation is likely the case, considering how it would render the paintings {{Permanently Missable\|Content}} if you were to arrest him before getting all the real ones.
99	** I find it most amusing because I built my Police Station within about 10 Metres of the place he sets up his tent. And I chose Copper, by far the more proffesional dog, to work at my Police Station. He even talks about checking it out, but for some reason he never bothers.
100	** My guess is that A) he hides the counterfeit stuff if the law comes a'knockin (and if you got one from him, he could play it off as "That was a fake? Sorry, Officer, I didn't know! Someone must have passed me one!") Or B) he knows some loophole that keeps him out of legal trouble (perhaps saying he's only selling public-domain art, so he isn't as bound by legality)
101	* Why is K.K. Slider the only one not wearing clothes? I can understand that it doesn't matter when he sits down holding a guitar, but even in New Leaf, all they gave him was a hat.
102	** What about [[{{WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes}} Bugs Bunny]]?
103	** He's seen in various outfits on the song covers in ''New Leaf'', making this more ironic.
104	** maybe he's the ac equivalent of the naked cowboy.
105	** Maybe he just prefers to be naked?
106	*** If you think about it, why would anyone with fur want or need to wear more than, say, a loincloth, unless it was a very cold winter? A full suit of clothes over fur would probably be too warm, extra-itchy, and give one all-over hat-hair. The weather is still a thing, as well.
107	*** Obviously because Nintendo just wants to avoid their games being not-suitable for kids, most of the animals wear clothes (and few have visible breasts so obviously for them, that's a no-go). Perhaps they thought K.K. Slider was an exception to that rule, plus, he's not the only animal that doesn't wear clothes, such as Blathers (yeah he wears a tie but still) and Celeste. As far as I'm aware, the animals haven't complained about clothes making them itch (why would they wear itchy clothes anyways)? Therefore it is safe to assume that InUniverse, clothes are simply a non-issue.
108	** Or maybe he's just wearing a white jumpsuit.
109	* Starting in ''New Leaf'', you can buy K.K. Slider songs from the Nooklings. Whatever happened to "not wanting those corporate fat cats to put a price on his music and wanting it to be free, man"?
110	** K.K. has had albums at since Wild World at least (according to peppy villagers). K.K. never mentions that he DIDN'T sell out, just that he hates it. Dogs have to eat, after all. I believe K.K. even says they're illegal boots in Wild World or GCN, which implies he's pirating his own music to give it to strangers.
111	** In other words, he is in a record label contract that he resents. He can't break the contract but he can at least try and sabotage it behind the "fat-cats" back by sneaking out bootlegs. The worst they can do is fire him and break their record deal. Which is probably exactly what he wants.
112	*** Actually, as of New Leaf, it is said that if any of his songs are bought, he makes sure his own profits goes to charity
113	*** Then how does he manage to pay for things like maintenance on his guitar, food, transportation, etc.? If he doesn't have any money, then he can't keep performing. For that matter, given the albums are the only versions of most "K.K. (Genre Name Here)" songs that actually sound like the genre in question, then why did he write them in the first place if he resents the albums so much?
114	*** Jossed by ''New Horizons'', in that the redesigned album covers show that K.K. is with about a million different record labels. If he didn't like his contract, he's got plenty of others lined up.
115	* Blanca. Why doesn't she have a face? There has to be a reason to it, especially since she can talk without a mouth!
116	** She used to work for the Tanuki Mafia. She betrayed Nook, the head Mobster and escaped, but he managed to erase her face (don't ask). She doesn't want you to mention it to people because she's afraid Tom will find her and get her. Rover always asks you about her because he works for the Tanuki Mafia and wants to finish her off. He does use the only phone in the game, after all, and he himself has said he is friends with Tom Nook.
117	** Maybe someone was displeased Blanca was a feminine boy. (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/ruuj/character/village_visitor.html#cat-navi01)
118	*** To be exact, the page translates to "When I suddenly met her she asked me to please paint her face, it really surprised me! Did her makeup fall off maybe? Huh? She's a boy?!"
119	*** In ''New Leaf'', her role is retconned to be a sort of GreatGazoo prankster, with the ability to imitate any villager perfectly (excluding the player, of course). So the blank face could add to her shapeshifting power. Although this might end up with a less evil WMG, where her role doubles as a BatmanGambit to test how close a friend you are to the villagers. Of course, you might end up using an online guide to look up the answers, but the game can't tell.
120	* Where the heck does Isabelle sleep? Is she just always on duty 24/7 all day and night besides on holidays?
121	** There is exactly one point in the entire game where you can find her sleeping, standing up at the front desk. It happens if you enter the town hall at around midnight, I believe, and if you wake her up she'll actually apologize for it. From then on, it can only be assumed she sleeps for a couple hours at a time, like with said encounter, or she [[AndIMustScream becomes so consumed with workaholism that she never sleeps again]].
122	** It's GamePlayAndStorySegregation (if you consider Animal Crossing to have a story anyway). Also, when you first move in, she says something about her room or house being a mess and doesn't let Digby in because of all the cardboard boxes cluttering up the place.
123	* How come some animals never show up at the Roost (the Able Sisters, Reese, Cyrus, Copper/Booker, Tommy and Timmy, Katrina, Porter, Lyle, Blathers, Celeste, Leilani, and Grams)?
124	** Maybe they don't drink coffee.
125	*** Copper, Booker, Porter, Blathers and Celeste can't. Because their businesses are open 24/7. With Leilani and Grams, each character spends a certain designated time at the cafe, if you ran into Grams at the cafe, that means she isn't at the island, but she's programmed to be at the island 24/7 so that would cause an interface screw as she would be in two places at the same time, if someone saw her at the cafe, then sees her at the island, only to find her at the cafe again before her designated time is up. I would say Timmy and Tommy are too young to drink coffee, except they seem to be teenagers at this point and Tom Nook even admits they drink coffee. So... no idea. And Reese and Cyrus and the able sisters there is no excuse. Except for maybe, talking to Sable at the cafe could throw off the whole "Opening up to you" plotline.
126	** I was actually referring to the "To Go" option if you choose to work in the Roost for that day. The police dogs, Porter, and owl siblings unable to go due to working 24/7 makes sense except Town Hall is also open 24/7 but that doesn't stop Isabelle from coming in and buying a cup when you're working. Leilani and Grams also make sense except Kapp'n can occasionally show up in the Roost when he's supposed to be waiting for you at the dock if you want to take an island trip.
127	* Why does Copper refuse to take Lost Items for the lost and found? He says he can't leave his post and people don't come in there, but he also makes references to "Patrolling", so why doesn't he just ask around on his patrol?
128	** He sounds more diligent than he actually is. For example, he also never stakes out the visitors he finds suspicious, merely telling you about them and giving them ample opportunity to do business with you. He doesn't patrol, he just hangs out. (The gameplay answer is that ''you're'' supposed to deliver them.)
129	*** It's actually a matter of protocol. In retail stores, if you find someone's smartphone, you're actually discouraged from taking steps to rectify that personally, and its store policy to not call the individual's phonenumber should their be one on the back of the device. Law Enforcement in New Leaf may also have a similar situation; Copper may ''want'' to bring the lost items to the Lost and Found, but due to policies outside of his control, his paws are tied.
130	* Blather's fear of bugs doesn't make a lot of sense. He'll gladly accept arthropods like crabs, crayfish, lobsters and mollusks like sea slugs and turban snails without a problem, but he freaks out if you give him a hermit crab or a regular snail. The isopod and pillbug are especially confusing as the isopod is essentially a gigantic version of the pillbug yet he freaks out at the later.
131	** Aside from GameplayAndStorySegregation ? His phobia is probably an instinct-based one at this point. If he can differentiate between an insect-arthropod and an aquatic-arthropod and not freak out at the latter.
132	*** Actually, in New Horizons, he DOES act scared (at least in the descriptions of the creatures given) when given some buglike deep-sea creatures (he freaks out so badly, in fact, that when you give him a horseshoe crab, he forgets that crabs are arthropods (he's trying to say that horseshoe crabs aren't actually crabs, but arachnids)!)
133	** Blathers tells a story explaining his fear. One day, some insect eggs hatched violently causing the newborn to fly out towards him starting his phobia of bugs.
134	* So Jingle [[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal doesn't wear any pants]] when he's visiting the town giving presents to all the good animals in town. I would perfectly accept this...Except that he somehow has the need to wear pants in his casual outfit (A.K.A. The outfit he wears when he's not working). What up with that?
135	** Perhaps his work outfit is specifically designed after a folkloric image, and thus he doesn't wear pants because the original figure didn't?
136	* Why doesn't Franklin just stay at home from the Harvest Festival?
137	** Quite plausible that either he doesn't have a home, or the villagers would break in and eat him anyway. Which leads me to...
138	* So, Saharah sometimes mentions having a hump, but she doesn't appear to be modeled with one (unless the "backpack" she's wearing is actually a hump covered with a piece of cloth that has pockets on it; one could also make the argument that she walks (and maybe even swims) from town to town, which would cause her to almost completely use up the fat she's stored in her hump, but I think she'd have died long before then). What's up with that?
139	* Just how old are the Able sisters? Mabel is the youngest and she seems to be quite young, though old enough to run a clothing shop, so she's at least 18. Sable was old enough to raise Mabel after their parents died when the latter was an infant, so she's at least 18 years older than her sister, making her around [[OlderThanTheyLook thirty-six years old now.]] And then there's Label, the middle sister, yet old enough to strike out on her own.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	!!Other:
143
144	[[folder:Items]]
145	* Gyroids are funerary statues of sorts, and they are alive (and singing, no less). What the heck? And how come no one ever created a good WMG theory about them yet?! And consider we have a "Tom Nook is a Time Lord" apparently just for the sake of having it...
146	*** And also [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=183 this]]. But I was expecting someone to come with something even better or different...
147	*** If you want something made, you gotta make it yourself... And thus I did.
148	** They're mechanical clay dolls. Some people or animals made them for a nondescript reason- they're not any more alive than wind-up toys.
149	*** Explain the one that lets you save your game, or the one that runs the auctions. AI?
150	* Seriously, how do all those boots keep getting in the river? I mean, you're the only human here, and none of the townsfolk wear shoes...
151	** That's why none of the townsfolk wear shoes, they kept losing them in the river.
152	** I would guess that the town you live in is downriver from a human town.
153	*** As I can recall, the river in our towns starts from a spring up on the cliff.
154	** And the river and ocean never run out because they're the same boots over and over. When Nook takes them or the garbage collector picks them up from the dump, they just throw the boots back into the river for you to catch again.
155	* Why is it that the ''real'' paintings you buy from Crazy Redd's are able to be reordered from the catalogue, and not the counterfeit ones? Why are there multiples of real ones at all?
156	** Bring a second real painting to Blathers after having donated the same one to the museum earlier. He's concerned, too.
157	** Multiple real paintings are reprints authorized by the painter's estate. Counterfeits are infringing.
158	*** You're also buying the "reprints" from the ''Raccoon Mafia'' rather than some insane truck-chasing fox. Are you going to argue with the Raccoon Mafia? Do you hate your thumbs that much?
159	* Sooo... Does Animal Crossing exist in the same world as Mario? If this were the case it wouldn't really surprise me, but I'd like some confirmation (or at least ideas). I mean, they have ''working Warp Pipes'', plus actual starbits!
160	* Where's all the other music? I mean, some of the villagers talk about aspiring to be musicians (but we never actually see them go through with it), but apart from that, the only musician we see is K.K. Slider, who apparently resents the record deal that lets/let him make music in genres outside of [[WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows "literally white guy with acoustic guitar"]], so... why is there no mention of any other artists in this universe?
161	* Why are a lot of shells, such as giant clams, manila clams, sand dollars, pearl oysters, and sea snails not donatable to the museum? They're all living creatures. The game doesn't even acknowledge they're alive or that they're actual animals.
162	** You have a point with the manila clams, but as for everything else... I think it's because the ones you find on the beach aren't actually alive and are just the shells. You can find living giant clams, pearl oysters, and sea snails by diving.
163	[[/folder]]
164
165	[[folder:Gameplay]]
166	* If the creators didn't want the players resetting the game every time something doesn't go their way, why didn't they just put in an auto save feature?
167	** Because they wanted us to experience the terror of coming against Resetti.
168	** Or because auto-saving doesn't work quite well for real-time games anyway. What would happen if you turned the game off just one minute after the game auto-saved? That's right, one minute of your game life lost forever! So that's the reason behind Resetti: he works better than auto-saving (oh, yeah, I know...).
169	*** Then have it autosave whenever the player does something irreversible, such as after a conversation with an NPC. Keeping it in the form of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_log transaction journal]] might help efficiency.
170	*** I'm no programmer, but what I think the game does, is this. When it saves, it adds a little bit on the end of the save data, saying it's been saved, that it removes whenever it loads the game. Kind of like a seal on an envelope. If the seal, or the "This game was saved the last time I checked" flag, is broken when you load the game, Resetti knows.
171	** Now, I don't own a [[Platform/NintendoGameCube GameCube]], so I don't know how exactly saving works, but I read [[http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/reviews/animalcrossing.htm here]] that you apparently need a memory card to save the game, so I guess that's the problem. You could just remove the memory card and the program can't save.
172	*** The DS game saves to an 88 KB file on a 256 KB flash chip on the Game Card, and the Wii game saves to a 4.5 MB file on 512 MB xD-Picture Card soldered into the console. Perhaps an autosaving game would just pause when the memory card is removed, just like ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' pauses when the Game Disc is removed.
173	*** The same thing that would happen if you or something else accidentally shuts off the game during a normal save.
174	*** As for the 3DS, games either save on the cartridge itself, or on an SD Card. In New Leaf's case, the cartridge version saves on the cartidge, while the downloadable version saves on the SD card. Auto-saving could've be possible for that reason, although seeing how the 3DS handles games that save on their own (such as ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' or ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon''), auto-saving would create an AnnoyingVideoGameHelper sort of thing in a game like this. Although, two things about New Leaf's saving: the "Save and Continue" feature from City Folk was retained (so I guess you can call that auto-saving), and the game doesn't punish you as bad as the previous games (Resetti only appears the first time you quit without saving, and the other times Isabelle just says you didn't save).
175	** Very simple: It is against the developer guidelines to be wasteful with saves. Save data medium has limits on how many times it can be used.
176	** They must have heard you, as ''New Horizons'' has occasional autosaves.
177	* GameplayAndStorySegregation, if there's any story at all. Really, I find it even weirder that the bee I caught got ten times bigger than when it was stinging me. And then there are ''talking animals'' all around...
178	** About the bees: I think those are supposed to be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet sparrow bees]] ((雀蜂, ''suzumebachi''), two inch long hornets that are quite deadly under the right circumstances....
179	*** You'd think being stung six times in one day would qualify, but nope... after the first one, you don't get any worse off. At least in the first two games.
180	** When you are chased by bees, you are chased by a huge swarm of them. If you catch them, however, you catch a single huge bee. Where did the other bees go? Did you kill them with your net when you caught the one?
181	*** When all the little bees get caught in the net, they morph into one huge bee.
182	*** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has the Atomic Boo; these games have the Atomic Bee.
183	* I do not get the censors on the DS and Wii versions of the game. In the DS, you can't type out certain swear words or they will be blanked out. On the Wii, you can type it out in the keyboard function, but aren't allowed to swear for names or catchphrases.
184	** You also can't say anything ending in -astic. From funfantastic to spastic, nothing gets through.
185	*** Because "spastic" is an offensive term in Europe.
186	*** Possibly done [[TakeThat out of spite for the American localisation team]] that [[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch made Kamek say]] "[[PainfulRhyme spastic]]" in VideoGame/MarioParty 8 only the previous year (2007).
187	* Why did Nintendo feel the need to make the Harvest Festival last from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.? I mean I get that there are some people who stay home on holidays, but most people around this time are visiting family for Thanksgiving - for example I have never been able to play on the Wii at my grandparents' due to the family wanting to watch football, and the only handheld Animal Crossing (for now) got rid of the Harvest Festival so I can't celebrate it on my DS. Nintendo should really realize most people won't be home during the hours they set for this holiday. So why can't they set the event to start earlier in the day like during the morning when people are still home, or at the very least make it last until midnight so there can be a little extra time, I know you can time travel but your town suffers when you do that and its just not as fun as doing it on the actual day.
188	** A lot of us don't have family to spend time with.
189	** There's always time travel.
190	** In New Leaf, the Harvest Festival lasts from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., so you can play at any time even with family around.
191	** That's kind of a thing that makes the interesting concept not necessarily work out all that well. (Or maybe it does, considering the size of the series since the Gamecube era.) If you set the in-game clock to present day, present time, you're probably not going to have time to go around in the mornings and talk to your villagers if you have school or work the day shift, but if you wait until you get home, you're scolded as being lazy. And to get OneHundredPercentCompletion on bugs and fish, you have to be available to catch them around the clock. And, as in this case, events that come from the real world go on when you're least likely to be present. Guess why I own only two entries in the series and never play them.
192	* Am I the only one who wants a romance option?
193	** I don't think Nintendo endorses that kind of stuff...
194	*** Nintendo has published ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' games, so I doubt that the relationship aspect would be the reason they don't do it for Animal Crossing.
195	** You're not the only one. A romance option, or at least a chance to "date" a town member would be nice. Would prevent them from moving out.
196	*** Isn't the human character a little young to be dating, much less an animal?
197	*** [[WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Yes, yes they are.]]
198	** Isn't it implied they're college aged? It's just they're [[SuperDeformed]].
199	** That's an idea that would take this game from a SliceOfLife game into a DatingSim. Frankly, Japan has enough of those. Besides, where would the romance go? Would you be stuck at NoHuggingNoKissing? Would your partner move into your house, and force you to redecorate everything the way they want? Would you be forced to eventually wait 9 real-time months for a child to be born? If your kid grows up, shouldn't that mean you age with them? And everyone else? ...This idea is starting to make me think a little too much of Harvest Moon.
200	*** It doesn't need to end up a dating sim if you do it carefully. Life involves romance a lot of the time. ''Harvest Moon'' used to be a good example of this, though recent titles have taken too much focus to dating.
201	*** If the Japanese can make a dating simulator where a teenage human girl can date [[VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend Pigeons]] nothing will surprise me.
202	*** It's actually America made. It was made to mess with the Japanese's tendencies to make dating sims wierd.
203	** Probably because they don't want to get into controversial "but furries are animals" arguments.
204	* In every game, Sable is always the same way. Withdrawn, meets character, with regularly talking goes to a near romantic friendship with player, sudden dropoff down to kind-of friend. Dang it, she's the closest any given player gets to a romance option, and they know it, but when things start getting serious, she just seems to forget anything that happened in the past few weeks, it seems. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?
205	** Nintendo looks down on InterspeciesRomance? But then why even suggest it in the first place... Well, guess you'll just have to wait for someone to make an Animal Crossing dating sim.
206	** Sable isn't the only "close-to" love interest in the game. If you play as a girl, both Kapp'n and occasionally the grumpy-type villagers will hit on you.
207	* Why don't post-GCN games have a calender in them? Or at least Wild World, though I've heard the others lack it too. What's the point?
208	** The bulletin board keeps up to date with all current events, leaving the Calender obsolete.
209	* What is the point in reporting "problematic citizens" to Isabelle?
210	** Rude language reports a villager's greeting and/or catchphrase and changes it. Clothing is for removing any custom clothing they're wearing and replace it with something else. (Supposedly a red or blue gym tee, but I haven't tried it.) The naughty letter if the villager is showing off a letter that's, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin naughty]].
211	* After you get Cyrus to make a mini-dinosaur model for you, how come you can't give him ore to make them different colours? I would love to decorate my house with a Golden or Emerald T-Rex model.
212	[[/folder]]
213
214	[[folder:Town Development]]
215	* How come the player character isn't disturbed by the noises that should be made when Nook remodels his/her house?
216	** He has [[http://xkcd.com/666/ silent tools.]]
217	** In ''New Leaf'' it's played slightly more realistically. This time when a building is being built or remodeled in Main Street you actually do hear construction noises.
218	* Why in the world would a man build you a gold statue because you paid off your debt? That makes NO SENSE.
219	** It's obvious, the animals believe you're God (how else did you manage to get the Raccoon Mafia to build you a mansion?). Just roll with it and hope they don't begin sacrificing goats in your honor.
220	*** [[FurryConfusion Chevre, nooooooo!]]
221	* If Nook can upgrade your house within seconds (Confirmed or at least lampshaded in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Smash Bros 4]]) why does it take an entire day to build up downtown buildings? Or does The Raccoon Mafia have "Special men" to make extra fast work for projects only Nook cares about? Even then, that makes no sense because then the Nookling stores would upgrade instantly as well.
222	** He's not just a racoon, but a tanuki. He's probably just magic. As for the "taking days to build up downtown buildings", only when people aren't looking does he appear to magically build stuff. When others aren't around to see him, he would have to build piece by piece. [[FridgeBrilliance You can imagine how time-consuming that would be]].
223	[[/folder]]
224
225	!!Individual games:
226
227	[[folder:''City Folk'']]
228	* What really bugs me is the bus. First of all, there's no pavement for cars to drive on. Second, depending on the layout of your town, your bus should have crashed into trees, plunged into the river, or crash head on with a cliff wall because the bus ALWAYS drives in a straight line. The bus is yellow and could be considered [[Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus a magic bus]], but come on, Nintendo!
229	** Or if you're like mine where the bus plows right into a house right as it leaves the screen.
230	** GHOST BUS.
231	*** [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ...TERS!]]
232	** Maybe its like the cat bus from ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.....
233	** This may explain why all my ''New Leaf'' neighbors want me to build stop signs and traffic signals when there are no visible roads or automobiles.
234	* Why is the "city" smaller than your sleepy animal village? Why does no one actually live there? It has more in common with an outdoor mall than a major urban area. Would a more accurate translation have been Animal Crossing: Mall Rats?
235	** There's a road that runs past the fountain in the city. One could always assume that Kapp'n just drops you off in the shopping district of the city.
236	** Well, Kicks is there. Judging by the fact that he shines shoes for a living and sets up shop in front of an abandoned building, one could guess that he DOES live there.
237	** Just because you can't see the rest of the city doesn't mean it isn't there. I'm not trying to pull a Schrodinger's Cat. I'm just saying, there's probably tons more of the city, your character just has no reason to go there aside from Downtown shopping.
238	* What's up with the Summertime not being all that eventful in America until the fireworks show in August? I mean yeah we got a DLC Hot Dog Hat for the 4th of July but that doesn't really have the same feeling as a true Fireworks show during the actual 4th of July like in the GCN one, also why is July such a dull month in City Folk? I mean that month is my birthday month but all that happens in America during that time is a Bug-Off and a Flea Market. Why is it that they made the time around June, and mostly July so uneventful in America, because I don't really see things picking up until the end of the year holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's) and the early in the year holidays (Valentine's Day, Easter/Bunny Day), so why is it that Summer seems to be the least eventful season in City Folk in America, especially during the month of July?
239	** Don't they have summertime events in other places, like Japan and Europe? If so, visit a friend's town that's in another region.
240	** The localization is North American, not just American. It wouldn't make sense to celebrate the fourth of July in this context.
241	*** But along with the 4th of July, they could add July 1st (Canada Day) and June 24 (St Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec), and whatever Mexico might have in the summer.
242	* There is something that keeps me up at night sometimes. What do they eat?
243	** Fruit and Fish; a very healthy diet.
244	*** And turnips. Can't forget the turnips.
245	*** Candy!
246	*** Are you kidding? Turnips? What idiot eats profit these days? (Outright stated in game that turnips haven't been used as food for years.)
247	*** I assume The Nooks sell regular groceries like bread and milk, as well as stuff like books and DVD's and such, but you can't buy them because they're not important to the game. Just background fluff. (Yes I know you can't actually see any of that stuff, but just imagine that there's a hidden backroom or something.)
248	[[/folder]]
249
250	[[folder:''New Leaf'']]
251	* Tortimer retires and you're given the honor of mayor. Let's assume it starts like all the others, with you just moving in. Why would the villagers choose the person who just moved in, a HUMAN of all things, to lead their village? Worse yet, Nook's also retired from the store bushiness. Considering he's a highly respected figure, WHY WASN'T HE ELECTED? He has a new occupation as real estate agent, so it's not like he can't do any work. I really hope this mayor thing is something that you have to work for, like a perfect town, but it's implied that it won't be the case.
252	** Until Jump Out comes out, the only theory I've got is that you yourself sent in some applications, and they accepted.
253	*** Based on in-game dialogue from when you first arrive in town, it seems like another person was planned to be mayor but you moved in and got put into the mayor position by accident. That, or your character is a total asshole.
254	*** Confirmed to be an accident. The only dialogue choices you can make is trying to get out of it, [[ButThouMust to no avail]].
255	*** I've heard that you'll get a letter from the REAL mayor, who says they were late, but when they see what a good job you're doing (the 100% approval rating), they decide to leave the job to you.
256	* So with your character becoming the mayor, does this mean you can't have more than one character per town/game?
257	** No, actually. You can have up to 4 characters in the game as usual, but only the first one to move in can be mayor. The rest are just ordinary citizens.
258	* Was it implying that Rover was supposed to be the mayor in AC:NL? He was the only other one on that train.
259	** That's the conclusion I came to as well.
260	** If he was, he probably would've left with you.
261	*** [[{{MissedTheCall}} I've heard you'll get a letter from the real mayor in the mail, who says that they were late coming to town, but by the time they do come around (offscreen) they notice how good a job you're doing and decide you're better off that way.]]
262	[[/folder]]
263
264	[[folder:''New Horizons'']]
265	* If you have a shared island and aren't playing multiplayer, where do the rest of the characters go when the other players aren't playing?
266	* After completing the Happy Home Paradise DLC, you have the option to remodel villagers’ houses. However, you can’t change the room size or give them a second floor. Further more, you have to pay Tom if you want to do any remodeling. If you're willing and able to pay him for the remodeling, why can’t you give the villagers a bigger living space? Why must they be restricted to the same space they had before?
267	[[/folder]]
268

Context Headscratchers / AnimalCrossing