Reset
Resetting in the Animal Crossing series happens when the player either turns off or soft-resets the game console without first saving the game, or if the battery dies before they are able to do so, in both cases causing any unsaved progress to be lost. All games before Animal Crossing: New Leaf discourage resetting by having Mr. Resetti appear each time the game is reset to scold the player with a long lecture about why they should not reset. After each successive reset, Resetti gets angrier and the lectures more long-winded. At the end of each lecture, Resetti typically gives the player a piece of life advice before telling them to "SCRAM!".
Resetti and his brother Don work and detect resets at the Reset Surveillance Center, which can be visited by the player in Doubutsu no Mori e+, City Folk, and New Leaf. On a technical level, the game detects resets by saving in the background when a save is loaded, setting a flag that indicates that the player has reset. When the player saves and quits, the flag is cleared, so if the flag is set when a save is loaded, the game knows a reset occurred.
In New Leaf, Mr. Resetti is made optional, and will not appear until after the public works project Reset Surveillance Center is completed. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, an auto-save feature is added rendering resetting impossible.
Appearances
In the first-generation games
In every first-generation Animal Crossing game, Mr. Resetti appears outside the player's house to scold them each time they reset.
In Doubutsu no Mori, there are seven reset scenarios with Mr. Resetti. In Doubutsu no Mori, Animal Crossing, and Doubutsu no Mori e+, an eighth scenario featuring Don Resetti is added between the fourth and fifth Mr. Resetti scenarios.
- Mr. Resetti introduces himself, thanks the player for purchasing the game, and scolds the player about the importance of saving, warning them that in future visits he will not be as nice.
- Mr. Resetti accuses the player of deliberately ignoring his previous lecture.
- Mr. Resetti tells the player that there is no reset button for the real world and calls them a cheater.
- Mr. Resetti only appears once the player moves, telling them to come talk to him. The player can then move around the house acre, but they cannot leave, open their inventory, talk to their Gyroid Assistant, or check the bulletin board before speaking to Resetti. Once spoken to, Resetti implores the player to "enjoy life here" by not resetting. At the end of his lecture, he asks the player if they understand, and he does not leave until they say "Got it!".
- Only in Doubutsu no Mori onward, Resetti's older brother Don appears in his place on the fifth reset, as Resetti is out doing an "urgent errand." Don thanks the player for putting up with Resetti, explaining that he is a good person aside from his outbursts of rage, before calmly reminding the player to not reset.
- Mr. Resetti only appears once the player tries to leave the house acre. Enraged at the player's continued resetting, he makes them repeat a phrase.<ref group="nb">Possible phrases include:
</ref> The lecture does not end until the player types out the exact phrase Resetti asks for. There are several hidden negative phrases that make Resetti more angry if inputted.<ref group="nb">Possible phrases include:
- "Bite me!"
- "butthead"
- "Creep"
- "Die!"
- "Dirtbag"
- "Freak"
- "Go away!"
- "go away"
- "groundhog"
- "I hate you"
- "I ♥ reset"
- "jerk"
- "Leave!"
- "Loser"
- "Moles suck"
- "No way!"
- "no way"
- "NO!"
- "no"
- "Pinhead"
- "RESET"
- "Scumbag"
- "Shut up!"
- "shut up"
- "U R ugly"
- "Who cares?"
- "You stink"
- "You suck!"
</ref>
- Mr. Resetti tells the player he is going to reset all their progress, before making the screen turn black briefly as though the console is being reset. After the screen returns to normal, he exclaims that he tricked the player, before asking them, "Are we clear?". He does not leave until they say "Got it!".
- Mr. Resetti yells at the player, and the camera shifts to a first-person view from the player's perspective. He then gives a lecture on the importance of not ignoring life's problems, before realizing the player is not paying attention. Enraged, he threatens to tunnel through their house, but he has a leg cramp and ends the lecture for the sake of his health.
After the eighth reset, the sixth, seventh, and eighth scenarios repeat at random for future resets.
If the player resets while visiting another town on the same console via Memory Card–Memory Card travel, upon loading their save, all items and bells in their inventory vanish and their face is changed to one resembling a gyroid. This is likely meant to remind the player to save at their Gyroid. Their face returns to normal upon saving and reloading the game. If the player resets while visiting another town on another console via Memory Card travel data, then loads the same travel data in another town, Resetti will appear in that town at the train station to scold the player.
In Doubutsu no Mori e+, the player can access the Reset Surveillance Center once per week by hitting a random rock in town, if they have reset at least two times total and once in the past seven days.
In Wild World
In Animal Crossing: Wild World, Mr. Resetti appears outside the player's house to scold them each time they reset.
In City Folk
In Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mr. Resetti appears outside the player's house to scold them each time they reset. Additionally, Mr. Resetti appears outside the player's house the first time they load their save file after moving to town regardless of if they reset, thanking them for purchasing the game and warning them against resetting.
In New Leaf
In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the first time the mayor resets, Isabelle reminds them when starting the game that they did not save and brings Mr. Resetti out. He explains that the Reset Surveillance Center has been closed due to a lack of funding and asks the mayor to reopen it as a public works project. If the Reset Center is not built, Isabelle reminds the player briefly each time they reset. If the Reset Surveillance Center is built, Isabelle does not remind the player when resetting and instead, Mr. Resetti appears outside the player's house. The first time the mayor loads their save after the Reset Center is built, Resetti appears outside their house to introduce himself and thank them.
Resetti now asks the player to choose why they reset: either "I wanted to reset", "My batteries died", or "I don't remember". If the player chooses "My batteries died" or "I don't remember", Resetti leaves and does not scold the player. If "I wanted to reset" is chosen, Resetti scolds the player like in previous games. Instead of life advice, Resetti ends each lecture with a correction to a common malapropism.
Trivia
- In the European version of Animal Crossing, when playing in Spanish, several of the hidden phrases that make Mr. Resetti angry are much more vulgar than in English and include expletives. In French, German, and Italian, the phrases are relatively direct translations of the English phrases.
- In Doubutsu no Mori e+, if the player repeatedly presses Template:Input or Template:Input, Mr. Resetti will eventually scold the player and tell them how many times the button was pressed.<ref>Ninten News Neko (April 5, 2022). "If You BUTTON MASH While Resetti is Scolding You, This Happens". YouTube. </ref> This feature returned in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, after being absent in Animal Crossing: Wild World and Animal Crossing: City Folk.
- Despite being commonly thought of as a glitch, the gyroid face that occurs when the player resets while visiting someone else's town in Animal Crossing is intentionally programmed to occur.<ref name="obscurities">Hunter R. (February 14, 2024). "The Obscurities of Animal Crossing". YouTube. Retrieved June 6, 2025. </ref> It is also acknowledged in the official Nintendo Power player's guide for the game, stating that the player will "turn into a weird zombie-looking character."<ref name="obscurities"></ref>
Notes
References
- Add reset lecture summaries for Wild World, City Folk, and New Leaf
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
