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Everybody that is familiar with me understands I take character creation in role-playing games extremely earestly. It’s not referring to perfecting stats, I'm talking about creating my hero's visual design with meticulous detail. I greatly appreciate games that let me to truly bring my character to life via small details like makeup, body art, coloring, and even nail art. I'll often spend more than three or four hours in the customization screen, painstakingly forming my perfect in-game avatar. Unfortunately: Once I leave character creation, I typically can't get back in.

That Common Moment

I'm sure many players have been there at least once. It takes what seems like forever designing your character, and after lots of tedious adjusting, they look flawless. But once you make it out of character creation and finally get a look at what your character looks like during gameplay, you realize something terrible: It’s not quite perfect. Maybe their nose doesn't fit their face, or you decide you wish you had gone with a different hairstyle, or you notice that although they look fine from the front, their side profile looks comical. Regardless of the issue, there's only one fix: Re-enter character creation and correct your character's face. Unfortunately most RPGs won't allow you return to the customization screen, for motivations that escape me to this day.

My first attempt at creating V yielded a character with an awesome manicure, but a subpar face.

Gaming Frustrations

Initially it happened to me, I was a few hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, and finally saw my otherwise-attractive Inquisitor's profile. Her nose looked fine from the front, but from the side, it was comically bad. 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 fortunately caught it soon enough that I only lost a few hours of gameplay. Sadly, 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 accept her appearance. I lost roughly 15 hours of gameplay restarting the game to fix poor V's face.

The Simple Answer

A straightforward fix to this problem (other than attempting to just live with it): Allow players to re-enter the editor to change their appearance. Several RPGs include this feature, but the majority don't include it at release, which I find utterly puzzling. Baldur's Gate 3 at first launched with no way to modify your character's appearance, but fortunately added the Magic Mirror following the game's launch. Although I liked my Tav's starting appearance, I later decided I wanted to alter her physical look to show her mental corruption as the mind flayer influence in her head grew more powerful.

When releasing an RPG that locks players out of the editor, the bare minimum 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 intrigued by the various branches, flowers, and mushrooms I could choose to have emerging from my character's face. But these distinctive Godlike features were a little strong for my tastes, and I didn't really understand why they were an option to begin with. So I went with the least-noticeable 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 unique plants and fungi were available in the editor. Now that these extreme customization options clicked for me, I wanted to alter my character's face. Unfortunately, returning to character creation was not an option, something I (and others) found totally confusing in a game where the player's appearance is directly tied to the main quest. Avowed's plans shows that Obsidian 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 sensation when you realize you're stuck having a plain, fungi-free face.

Positive Examples

I must give credit where credit is due: As much as I disliked Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I deeply appreciated the fact that it launched with the ability to change my Rook's look already included in 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 put down 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 free to have that opinion. I just find that RPGs are more enjoyable when I can create my character exactly as I imagine them in my head, and sometimes that takes a few tries.

I know that game development is a rocky, often-unpredictable process, and that some content will always end up on the chopping block. I just find it baffling — 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 wishing for access and internally shouting, "LET ME IN!"