The upcoming Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a marked change for the series, notably making changes to some of its divisive characters. Mr. Resetti, the angry mole who would shout and threaten to delete your game for resetting, is now completely optional. The reason? He makes little girls cry.

In the latest Iwata Asks, the team explains why they had some reservations about putting Resetti in the game. "It seems like younger female players, in particular, are scared," said company president Satoru Iwata. "I've heard that some of them have even cried."

Mr. Resetti was originally intended to keep players from cheating by turning off their game without saving. For this installment, Nintendo seems to have realized that it's not the end of the world. Instead, players will be able to use their mayoral powers to fund a Reset Surveillance Centre, with Mr. Resetti as the head. "In the end, we made it so the Reset Surveillance Centre was a public work, so we left it to the mayor to decide whether or not to have one," said director Isao Moro. "Some people want to meet Mr. Resetti!" Moro's co-director, Aya Kyogoku, added that you won't be able to see certain things in the game unless you build the RSC, so it's a trade-off.

Another character, Tom Nook, was similarly de-fanged. Iwata noted that, "To put it in extreme terms, the game was basically about repaying your loan." The team was looking for a way to build the game around a new central theme that didn't focus on paying back your loan, and decided customizing the whole town was the best route. That put players in charge as mayor, and in charge of public works. They can even set their town's shops to open earlier in the morning or stay open later at night, according to their own schedule.

But being the mayor is a low-stress job, as Moro notes that "no one will complain" if you don't fulfill your duties, and the game doesn't sport an approval rating. It's no wonder the former mayor stuck around so long.