Over the course of the Animal Crossing franchise's lifetime, there have been nearly 400 Villagers introduced into the games. For the most part, each of these characters works to further complete the vision of the series, and adds an exciting new design, personality, quirk, or home set-up that diversifies the game. However, despite the intent of Nintendo to craft exciting additions to Animal Crossing games with every generation, some of the Villagers are downright unnecessary. The urge to fill the games with more neighbors than any player could possibly need or want has resulted in more than a few of the Villagers falling significantly below the usual standards.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons features thirty-five different animal species, eight personality types, and two current genders to make up its roster of almost 400 Villagers. Despite the apparent variety in available Villagers, the Animal Crossing series has been releasing and updating its games for twenty years, so it's no surprise that the designs and personalities of some of the character have become rather repetitive. ACNH has worked to remedy this by equipping various personality types with DIY recipes that can be gifted to the player, but these rarely increase the usefulness of certain unnecessary Villagers that can be replaced with neighbors of the same personality.

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One of Animal Crossing's unnecessary Anteater Villagers is named Annalisa. She has a Normal personality type and has a catchphrase of "gumdrop" that can be changed by players if they wish. Despite Annalisa's different personality, she is practically a Normal clone of Anabelle. Anabelle is a brightly colored, bubbly Anteater Villager with a Peppy personality type that can add some drama to Animal Crossing player islands everywhere. Each of these Villagers flaunt their own styles and are set in their own way of life, but Anabelle's color scheme is more preferential than Annalisa's, and her Peppy personality makes her more entertaining to engage with. Furthermore, Annalisa's name is not only extremely similar to Anabelle's, but is nearly identical to a Horse Villager named Annalise. These similarities and lack of uniqueness makes Annalisa forgettable and unnecessary in ACNH's bigger picture.

Animal Crossing's Lookalike Villagers Have No Purpose

Animal Crossing Unnecessary Villagers

Groucho the Bear Villager is another addition to the Animal Crossing series that fails to establish himself as a necessary addition to the franchise. He is equipped with a Cranky personality type and has the "grumble" catchphrase, which is also implicit in his gravelly sound effects during dialogue. Groucho's design is unfortunately rather mundane as well, as he is nearly identical to Curt, another Bear Villager with a Cranky personality. Groucho even has a marking in the same spot as Curt's bandages, making his appearance and personality type invaluable and unnecessary to Animal Crossing's group of bear Villagers.

While there are many Cat Villagers within Animal Crossing: New Horizons that possess unique designs and alluring personalities, there are a few in the cast that fail to make their mark in the franchise in any memorable way. Most notably Purrl and Tom, who are identical in personality and design to Olivia and Rover respectively. Purrl and Olivia share the same Snooty personality type, but Purrl's design lacks any of the charm offered by Olivia and other Snooty Cats. Meanwhile, Tom the Cat is practically a Rover clone with a similar color scheme - but without the friendly attitude that earned Rover the reputation as Animal Crossing's sweetheart. Tom also shares the name with the primary loan shark of all Animal Crossing games: Tom Nook, which means he's overshadowed by the more famous Tom.

Nintendo has done reasonably well in designing exciting and unique Animal Crossing Villagers to create a colorful and personable roster. Unfortunately, with almost 400 Villagers, it's impossible to create a memorable character with each addition. While every Animal Crossing fan has their favorite Villager, some of the character designs and compositions have been given less love and attention than others.

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