[deleted]

[Mu~]

I like the looks of villagers of every personality, so that's not a problem. But I really dislike the jock personality, so I refuse to have them, no matter how cute they can be.

 

[Bilaz]

Looks change personality though! For example take the Jock personality. If you have a villager like Coach, he comes across as someone genuinely into fitness, and with his name he even reminds me of a personal trainer or something. Instead take Scoot, now he’s just a tiny little duckie so whenever I talk to him I see the childishness in the Jock dialogue more and I think of a little kid who’s pretending to be all fit. Now if I look at Dom’s colourful design and play hobby, he makes me think of someone genuinely hype to run around and play!
All same dialogue
So I said personality first because I prefer always having all personality types, and I prefer having a design that ‘clicks’ for me with their personality type in a way that I like the character

 

[LittleMissPanda]

I like having a variety of villagers based on colors, personalities and species. For example, Rod is purple, Boots is green. Rod is a mouse, Boots is an alligator~ and they are both jocks, which means they both say the exact same things at the end of the day. But when I look at them, in my head canon, they are two separate little guys with completely different personalities, and it's all based on looks: Rod is adventurous and brave, while Boots is silly and likes to play pranks. Those are the impressions they give me, just as many other villagers give off vibes that are unique to them solely based on their looks.

I always want one of every personality, and 2 villagers tend to be in the same category (usually I always have 2 jocks, 2 lazies and 2 normals) here in NH, it turned out to be 2 jocks and 2 normals (Annalisa and Carrie) Not only that but I tend to really like having at least one boy and one girl of the same species (ex: Tad and Lily, Claude and Ruby)

But really, first impressions are everything when you have 300+ villagers and only 8 personality types to go by. Sometimes a little imagination can really add to the fun and charm of villagers (they remind you of someone IRL or a pet, they add color and style to your island and theme, their fanart is really cute, their design is unique, etc.)

 

[Moritz]

I dont think this is a fair question so I'm not voting.

On my island I need one of every personality type. From there, yes I do go off looks to see who to invite.

However the next step is the most important one. Do I bond with them? I mean I've let skye, Raymond, and now audie move out because I didnt click with them as much as I wanted to.

The experiences I have with my villagers matter most. Thats why I love Tybalt the crime lord, Harry the fishing enthusiast, sherb who loves flowers so much he wants to protect the overgrown ones by standing on top of them. Carmen the activist who doesn't actually care about the environment but it doing it to get famous (she likes to come hang out every time I terraform).

Lots of factors matter to me when it comes down to villagers.

But as someone else said, your post does come off as aggressive and accusatory. It's animal crossing. No need to be annoyed at how others play

 

[moon_child]

Looks change the perspective tho. Like the smug dialogue especially in older games are a bit flirty and it really makes a WORLD OF A DIFFERENCE hearing those same dialogues from someone like Marshal (omg cute) to say...someone like Beardo (yikes creepy call the police). Same with peppy dialogues. Hearing them from someone like Merry or Rosie is more tolerable than someone like Truffles which really just grates on my nerves because the dialogue doesn’t suit her appearance at all. This is why as important as personality is, looks play a huge factor too in choosing villagers.

 

[MartyFromCherryfall]

I like to have at least one of each personality, but within each personality type I like either novelty or cute looks. There is also theme to take into account and house aswell, so more than just looks or personality.

 

[Jam86]

i choose based on design ☆
i'm getting all 6 sanrio villagers even though there's multiple of the same personality because i have all reactions and diys, plus i talk to my villagers so much that i've basically gone through all the dialogue so i'm not bothered about missing personalities

also to be fair, there's like 8 different personalities and over 400 villagers so u kind of have to go by design lol

 

[Cirice]

I choose most of my villagers by look except if they're Uchi. I already have one on my island and I don't like that personality at all, I feel like they get annoyed when I'm talking to them so I don't want their bad vibes around lol

 

[Sara?]

I do not fix on any villager at the moment, i get to know them,get their photo and when they are gone i go in the hunt of a villager with the same personality than the one who left through mystery islands in order to always cycle and have all personalities in my island. I have said in many post, i feel villagers do not have a strong distinctive personality tbh, sometimes they share bits of their live just like Apollo told me he likes sailing or Aurora who likes knitting , wish they had stronger personalities and shared more of their life with us and between themselves. So i personally even take villagers which i think are a bit less appealing and like that i found a favorite hihih which probably is not very popular ( Clyde, in case you are wondering, he appears to me to be this softy cute little guy and has such a cuute home exterior/interior). So yeah, thats how i do it

 

[Sheep Villager]

But does it matter if people do pick based on looks? If all the personalities are more of less the same (except for hobbies) then all there is left to pick based on are looks.

Also I think it's important to note picking based on looks doesn't mean everyone likes the same thing. Pietro is my favourite and I know a lot of people can't stand him. I've also seen people on here who adore Barold and Jambette. I genuinely believe every villager is someones favourite.​

 

[JKDOS]

Since I keep 1 villager of each personality. I do both

 

[airpeaches]

I personally love having the different dialogues of each personality type on my island, but when I choose villagers from within those types, looks are usually a factor. At the same time, I don't think my taste for how villagers look is always the most conventional. It usually is, but sometimes someone has a really funky look that I just vibe with.

A larger factor for me, however, is my personal history with the villager! Most of my favorites are just that because I've had them in past Animal Crossing games as villagers and I had a bond with them. I can't say that looks didn't always factor in when I bonded with villagers, but sometimes they really didn't! I usually prioritize personality type first!

 

[JemAC]

As others have said there are nearly 400 villagers in NH and only 8 personality types so whether you're aiming for an island with every personality represented (which generally seems to be what people go for) or even if you're going for a theme based on species/colour of a villager there are still so many villagers to choose from that it's inevitable that looks will often play a part to help narrow it down. I don't think this is a bad thing because as others have mentioned everyone will have different opinions on what villagers look the best so even if people do base it solely on aesthetics it isn't like they're all just picking the 'popular' villagers as not everyone will view them as the best looking.

Personally I don't really like the jock and uchi personalities, I've tried them both on my island (obviously the original starters fell into these personalities) but I just can't warm to them, on the other hand I love the snooty personality but not everyone else will. For this reason I feel that both personality and looks play a part in my villager decisions - I'm more likely to avoid a villager if they're a jock or an uchi and stick to the other personalities but within this I'd still mostly pick the ones that were most appealing to me because there isn't loads else to base the choice off. Though I have Judy on my island and she wasn't picked based on looks or personality, I found her quite early in the game and at the time I didn't think I'd like snooty villagers (I don't think I actually knew what personality she was when I got her anyway) and I wasn't sure about her looks as I often dislike villagers that have strange eyes but I was running out of NMTs so really my choice to pick her came more from desperation more than anything else but over time I've grown to love her, even if I'm still not completely sure about her eyes.

I think that if people are picking the villagers that make them happiest or the ones that feel like the best fit for their island then there's no harm basing it solely of looks but from reading the replies in this thread it seems that a lot of people use both personality and looks (and sometimes other factors too) when choosing villagers.

 

[Silkfawn]

The villagers are quite uninteresting communication-wise.
All of them.

So their looks is the only thing going for them.

I do have all the personalities on my island except for sisterly.
Call me vain, but nintendo needs to do better sisterly designs!

 

[lemoncrossing]

I mean... there are, like, 400+ villagers and only 8 personalities, so it makes sense that people would mostly choose looks over actual personality. I wanted to have one of each personality on my main island, but I chose each villager based on how much their look corresponded with my aesthetic.

 

[Bilaz]

Looks change the perspective tho. Like the smug dialogue especially in older games are a bit flirty and it really makes a WORLD OF A DIFFERENCE hearing those same dialogues from someone like Marshal (omg cute) to say...someone like Beardo (yikes creepy call the police). Same with peppy dialogues. Hearing them from someone like Merry or Rosie is more tolerable than someone like Truffles which really just grates on my nerves because the dialogue doesn’t suit her appearance at all. This is why as important as personality is, looks play a huge factor too in choosing villagers.

So true!!! Personally the smug dialogue didn't really click with me with Marshal, because he looks like a bit of a grumpy marshmallow and the 'cool' vibe didn't quite work for me. But Quillson really amused me lol because his design made him seem ridiculously pretentious, whereas Kyle is my ultimate smug because his design makes him feel like a genuine cool guy
So yeah definitely agree, personality really is looks + personality

 

[Licorice]

I’m kind of confused by this thread. After you have all personality types on your island what else is there to even go by except looks? All peppies are the exact same except their hobby so I picked Bubbles because she looks the best imo. I know some people go by their house or a certain island theme but I don’t care about their houses at all. Rocco for example has a hideous construction theme but he’s so adorable I don’t care.

 

[Chris]

If you're consciously picking your villagers then, yes, most people are going to be deciding based on looks - and even if you take personality into account then looks are most likely to be the secondary deciding factor, so it will still play a large role.

I'm not particularly fussy about who lives on my island for the most part, but what I do like is variety, so often I just take whoever is the first to come along who won't completely knock the species and personality balances on my island out of whack. When I go island hopping it's rare I do so for too long before I find someone who I don't dislike. For me what might put me off inviting a villager would be that I associate bad memories with them (e.g. Vesta, Rocket); I've had them before; or they have a name or gimmick to them that I find irrationally annoying.

 

[Bugs]

I guess I pick them based on both, buy a lot of the ones I have are just ones I bonded with in past games, so I guess it's a boy of both?

 

[NeighborNoon]

I want to say that looks are important because of facial expressions. Because eyes and mouths are shaped differently, tails move differently, etc, every animal seems unique.

I think this is a very underappreciated aspect of villager design! Each species looks different walkin' around your island, it really does make a world of difference seeing them in your game--just browsing pictures of each villager doesn't really do justice to the way they look 'in life'.

I recently invited Marina to my town from an island tour, and Marina wasn't even on my short list before...I just thought she was a little plain, a little too generically 'cute'. But darn it if I wasn't won over by her expressions/reactions and the way her little sucker mouth squishes when she talks! I don't think I can part with her now... I can think of other examples of villagers that are more than their initial appearance: Rodeo's eyes glow red sometimes, Greta has secret evil eyes, Norma has adorable pigtails, etc. But yes, I voted looks. In the absence of unique backstories or quirks, what else would you base your preferences on? But I do agree with airpeaches that having a 'bond' with a villager trumps looks every time. Phil isn't the most visually interesting villager (though I personally think he has his own kind of flair), but I absolutely must have him on my island because he meant a lot to me in my New Leaf town.

I don't think it's a problem either way. I think most people will have a mix of popular villagers and less popular ones that are appealing to them personally. It's just a game, and villagers' feelings can't be hurt by being overlooked.