Animal Crossing is a social simulation franchise where the player character moves to a village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. The gameplay is open-ended, with no defined objectives, encouraging players to spend their time performing various activities such as fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, and socializing with villagers. The game is played in real-time, utilizing the system's internal clock and calendar to simulate the passage of time.

Various idyllic villages and islands populated by anthropomorphic animals, operating on real-world time.