Summary
Role-playing gameshave always been about staking a claim in the world with a unique character. Sometimes these characters are faced withdifficult moral decisions, or tasked with defeating huge threats to the world. Other times, it’s enough to have them simply exist in idle harmony with the surrounding land. While in other genres the player character is little more than a vessel, an empty space for the screen to hold that lets the player shoot or drive through glittery set pieces. In an RPG, the player character is everything.
It’s no surprise, then, that someof the best RPGshave set new standards for character customization, adding new depth to how characters can be sculpted and the roles they take on in the world. The titles in this list might have since been surpassed by games with more in-depth character customization, or they might still reign supreme as icons in this area. But no matter what, these games redefined within either their own series or the genre as a whole what character customization meant to players.
Atriumphant and thrillingreturn to the world of Thedas,Dragon Age: The Veilguardexcels where its characters are concerned. The lore of previous titles was all but ignored, and the overall worldbuilding of Thedas suffered despite venturing to some never-before-seen areas. However, this game will keep players coming back for more, purely for how well-realized Rook and their companions are as characters.
Rook has a level of depth to their customization only matched by a handful of games. Six distinct factions all provide unique opportunities to make this Rook feel like they have stakes and presence in the world, and aren’t just a blank canvas. This game also does an excellent job with its representation of diverse characters. Rook can be any sexuality the player wishes, and their experience with gender identity can be brought up several times in game.
This game represents thePokémonfranchise’s first, fumbling steps into the 3D era. The story needed work, the models needed work, but if there’s one area where this game shone, it was in the level of character customization the title brought to the franchise.
This was the first mainline title to let players change the appearance of their character beyond whether they appeared male or female. Skin color, hair color, and clothes could all be changed to add new levels of personality to the protagonist. It was a huge step forward for the mainline games, and hopefully this charactercustomization returns inLegends Z-A.
Compared to modern games, the physical character customization inDragon Age Originscan seem a little slim. The armor styles and designs are nothing short of iconic, but even for their time, the aesthetic choices were a little limited. Designing a character’s appearance at the beginning of the game often took a lot of tweaking to get someone looking halfway decent.
The way this game revolutionized character customization, however, didn’t come from aesthetics. This game’s origin system, which determines where in Thedas the player begins, is nothing short of legendary. It provides a drastically different paradigm to experienceboth side questsand the main quest in.
What makesAvowedso different and so iconic when compared to many character customization systems is just how unique the protagonist specifically is in the world. Anyone familiar withPillars of Eternityand the world of Eora is familiar with the Godborn, a mysterious race of people who bear physical resemblance to the gods, and magical powers that follow suit.
The protagonist is first and foremost an anomaly because of their status as Godborn, and doubly an anomaly because they don’t know what god they get their powers from. Customizing a character inAvowedisn’t just about deciding how the player looks, but how their Godborn features have altered their looks. NPCs will react to the unique way that the players' Godborn abnormality has manifested. This dimension to the protagonist is another layerof excellent storytellinginAvowed.
One of the biggest draws toBaldur’s Gate 3was how elegantly and exceptionally it brought the depth that comes with tabletop RPGs to the video game scene. It is no small feat to give players the same breadth of options in a graphically stunning game that they might have when a game is fueled with pen and paper. But the expansiveness and player freedom begins right at the character creation screen and continues from there.
Players can select from amyriad of racesto suit any number of dedicated builds. Each race still has synergy with almost every class, allowing for an unprecedented breadth of customization that helped make this game so iconic.
When players customize V, they’re not just customizing their looks. This game’sin-depth cyberware system, honed after a myriad of updates and revamps, is central to character customization in a way that few games manage to replicate.
Cyberware changes the way V moves and interacts with Night City, and how they function in combat and outside of it. It can provide huge, build-altering abilities or bonuses depending on how much chrome players pile onto their character.
The jump in character customization fromDark Souls 3toElden Ringis nothing short of astonishing. The sheer level of detail players can put into sculpting the perfect character is incredible. Beyond this, gear and weapons of every style and aesthetic are available to carry into battle.
Elden Ringset the standard for soulsborne and soulslike games in just about every department, and character customization is no exception. More than any game in this genre before it, players have unprecedented freedom in how their character looks and moves within the game.
