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Anyone that is familiar with me understands I approach character creation in RPGs extremely earestly. I'm not talking about maximizing perks, I'm talking about crafting my player-character's looks with obsessive care. I greatly appreciate games that enable me to truly personalize my hero via subtle features like eyeliner, body art, hair highlights, and even manicures. I'll often spend more than three or four hours in the customization screen, painstakingly crafting my perfect digital representation. Unfortunately: After I leave the editor, I typically can't get back in.

The Frustrating Moment

No doubt many players have been there at least once. You spend what seems like an eternity designing your character, and after plenty of tedious tweaking, they look flawless. However, when you make it out of character creation and finally take a gander at what your character looks like in-game, you notice something unfortunate: Something is off. Perhaps their facial structure doesn't fit their face, or you decide you really should have gone with a another hair style, or you notice that although they look acceptable from the front, their profile view looks absolutely bonkers. Regardless of the issue, there's only one answer: Re-enter the editor and correct your character's face. The problem is most RPGs won't allow you return to the customization screen, for reasons that escape me to this day.

Initial effort at creating V yielded a character with an great manicure, but a disappointing face.

Gaming Frustrations

The first time it happened to me, I was a few hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, and finally caught a glimpse of my otherwise-attractive Inquisitor's profile. Her nose looked normal from the front, but from the side, it was hilariously off. I played a few more hours before I gave up and restarted the game so I could redo my Inquisitor. It happened again when I played The Outer Worlds, though I thankfully caught it soon enough that I only lost a few hours of gameplay. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Cyberpunk 2077 — I was so immersed with the game that I didn't notice how awful my V looked until I started experimenting with Photo Mode. I couldn't live with her appearance. I lost roughly 15 hours of gameplay restarting the game to correct poor V's face.

The Simple Solution

An easy fix to this problem (aside from attempting to just grin and bear it): Allow players to re-enter character creation to change their appearance. Many RPGs include this feature, but the majority don't have it initially, which I find completely puzzling. Baldur's Gate 3 initially launched with no way to adjust your character's appearance, but fortunately added the Magic Mirror shortly after the game's launch. Although I liked my Tav's initial appearance, I later decided I wanted to change up her physical look to show her mental corruption as the mind flayer influence in her head grew more powerful.

If you launch an RPG that locks players out of character creation, the least you can do is emulate Larian's lead and make adding a character editor your first post-launch priority.

Recent Examples

When I first picked up Avowed, I was interested in the various branches, flowers, and mushrooms I could choose to have growing out of my character's face. But these unusual Godlike features were a little intense for my tastes, and I didn't really understand why they were an option to begin with. So I went with the discreet Godlike facial feature the game had to offer, and began exploring The Living Lands. But much later, around the time I reached the game's halfway point, I'd learned enough lore to understand why those wild plants and fungi were available in the character creator. Now that these extreme customization options clicked for me, I wanted to modify my character's face. Regrettably, returning to the editor was not an option, something I (and others) found absolutely baffling in a game where the player's appearance is relevant to the main quest. Avowed's plans shows that the developers has plans to add an appearance-tweaking feature to the game sometime this Fall, but the question remains: Why wasn't it there at launch?

That feel when you realize you're stuck with a plain, fungi-free face.

Positive Cases

I must give credit where credit is due: As much as I wasn’t fond of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I deeply appreciated the fact that it launched with the ability to change my Rook's look already baked into the game. My initial Rook looked like a odd Bratz doll, and it took several attempts to get her looking right. If her bedroom in The Lighthouse hadn't come equipped with a mirror I could use to change her looks, I'd have probably just stopped playing the game without finishing it.

Final Reflections

Some might argue that it doesn't matter what your character looks like in a video game, and they're entitled to that opinion. I just find that RPGs are more enjoyable when I can design my character exactly as I picture them in my head, and sometimes that takes a few tries.

I know that game development is a challenging, often-unpredictable process, and that some content will always end up on the cutting-room floor. I just find it perplexing — and frankly, frustrating — that even now, in The Year of Our Lord 2025, I'm so frequently finding myself unable to access the editor, desperately gripping the bars of its cage and internally shouting, "LET ME IN!"