You can't really compare Animal Crossing to Skies of Arcadia unless it's about charecters. I loved the game when i first played it on the 6th of Sept. (thank you blockbuster!) and still do to this day. I played everyday since I got it without cheating (setting back/foreward the clock). I pretty much have every goal there is completed (need to catch the rest of the fish and insects, almost!) but i still enjoy the holidays and even, as i like to call it, "My daily Animal Crossing Activities" which consists of checking the mailbox, store, police station for new events, talking to every animal atleast once, and seeing what is new today. Sorta surpsisingly these hardly get old.
As far as charececters go, there's a variety of standard animals living in your village. And what i mean by standard is that they are in every town (Store keeper, police dogs, mailman, etc.). They have some funny personalities. The neighbor animals come in 6 categorys of personalities. These personalities are generally all funny. The personalities are lazy, dumb animals (male), Serious animals (male), snobby animals (female), energetic goofy animals (both but with different dialogue), and kind softspoken animals (Female). They all talk about different things most of the time but animals under the same category repeat each other alot, which is annoying. As far as charecters go, Skies is far superior. Hope this helps.