In the original Animal Crossing, the player meets the cat Rover on the train to town.
Rover appears during the opening journey in the GameCube game, where he begins the conversation that helps establish the player’s new life. His questions determine details such as the character’s name, gender, appearance, and destination. After learning that the traveler needs a place to live, Rover contacts Tom Nook, who provides the player’s first house and part-time job.
Rover’s role makes him one of the series’ earliest guides, although his transportation and duties change between games. The original uses a train, while Wild World begins with Kapp’n driving a taxi and City Folk uses a bus. In New Leaf, the train returns and Rover again meets the player at the start.
The other choices are associated with different roles or scenes. Porter is the station’s monkey attendant, Kapp’n is a recurring driver, and Blanca is a cat who can appear on train journeys but is not the character who introduces the player at the beginning.