This study investigates the relationship between the perceived believability of NPC animations and their portrayal of three core emotional expressions: anger, sadness and happiness in well-known, recently released, character-focused games. This study is explorative aiming to identify subjects for further research. We studied tree games: Genshin Impact, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH). A content analysis was conducted to compare the animations with human emotional expressions to identify patterns. Based on this, a questionnaire with nine videos from the games was designed, to assess players’ ability to recognize emotions, and rate their believability, garnering 159 responses. Our findings show that ACNH, which exaggerate its animations, achieved the highest believability score with 4.91 out of 5 and a 100% identification rate of anger. The study’s findings supports previous research regarding exaggerated acting as one of the most effective ways to convey emotions. This study underscores the importance of emotional expression via animation in creating expressive, yet recognizable, animations.