My Top 5: RPG Character Creators

The easiest way to get a player to connect to a video game's main character is to leave the design up to them! Character creators in RPGs have gotten more robust over the years, giving players the ability to adjust the most minute details—from the more obvious things like freckles to more particular things the bridge incline of a nose.

TheDollPalace.com circa the early 2000s

I am absolutely dating myself when I say this, but one of my first experiences with character creation in the digital world was a website called The Doll Palace in the early 2000s. It was a customizable dollmaker website full of naked pixel dolls and thousands of articles of clothing. You'd click and drag the assets on top of one another to create a cutely dressed up doll. I spent hours making edgy goths and scene kids or recreating my favorite pop culture icons, which I then posted on my LiveJournal to show my friends. (Yes, my bones do hurt.)

But we've come a long way over the last 25-ish years, and I am still completely obsessed with creating my own characters in video games. So without further ado, here are my top 5 character creators in video games. They're in no specific order—I just felt they each deserved a little praise.

My first of many characters created in Cyberpunk 2077. The cybernetic options were really unique!

CYBERPUNK 2077

While Cyberpunk 2077 was not well-received at launch, I had an incredible time with it. And that was largely due to the fact that I was able to create a character that matched my aesthetic and then build her stats up throughout the game to be a biohacking queen. I really enjoyed all the scars and cybernetic options. The setting of this game gave us really unique choices to add some extra flair to our characters. The only thing I would've loved to see added to the character creator were sliders for coloring. A lot of the preset color choices didn't feel exactly right for me. Even so, I still had a lot of choices to click through!

This was also the first game I played that allowed you to customize genitalia. Because I streamed the game on Twitch, I turned off any nudity options and didn't see that for myself. But I liked the idea of even having the option. So many people might appreciate seeing more diverse body options, especially if it helps them to feel represented.

My first character I ever completed Baldur's Gate 3 with. She's based off my tiefling bard that I use in my current D&D campaign.

BALDUR'S GATE 3

Twenty-ish years ago, I played the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games with my brother whenever I would stop by my mom's house for a visit from college. Back then, there were only a handful of predetermined characters to choose from, which mostly revolved around your preferred play style. I didn't even realize it was a Dungeons & Dragons game until years later.

But in 2023, Larian Studios changed the world with Baldur's Gate 3. This is the most robust D&D-based game seen to date. With 11 races and 12 classes to choose from, I was overwhelmed by choice and spent hours in the character creator. I started new files just to design more characters. The options expanded even further after the modding community got to work. I had so many additional cosmetic options available once I started modding the game. I still have 6 characters created that I haven't even played the game with yet!

My first of four adventuring party members I created for Solasta II's early access release.

SOLASTA II

This game was just released in Early Access last week, but it's already off to a great start. As of day one, players can choose from 4 races and 4 classes. Certainly not as robust as many of the fully established games out there, but their roadmap for the year includes adding more classes and races to the list of options. It sounds like they're just laying the groundwork for now. But if day one is any indicator of what they have in store for the future, I know I'm going to be very pleased with what comes next.

But even with this smaller set of options, the customization is incredible. And for those who have trouble deciding on one character, you're in luck—you actually get to create your entire four-person adventuring party! I used that as an opportunity to really explore the different face options and play around with settings. I think I may have had a harder time deciding how to build my team dynamic and each characters' stats. But it was nice to have a chance to make use of so many different options across my four characters. If you'd like to see a sped up video of my process in this character creator, I have a video on YouTube!

My first character in Code Vein took an incredible 2.5 hours to create because of the overwhelming choices available to players!

CODE VEIN

I'm extremely new to this game and have only gotten through the character creator, but I can confirm the options are really fun! It took me roughly 2.5 hours to settle on my character and it was largely because I was so overwhelmed by choice! While many modern games with character creators have more realistic graphics, Code Vein has a very disctinct anime style that really sets itself apart from the rest. I started by selecting one of 32 extremely different looking female presets, and then customized the finer details of my character from there.

I thought this would help cut down on the time it would take me to create a character, but the choices!!! They have 168 skin tones, 58 hairstyles, and 744 hair colors to choose from. I tend to prefer sliders when it comes to color selections, but the options are so extensive in this game that I didn't feel any sense of loss by not having them. You could also choose from several outfits, mix and match pieces of those outfits, and then change their individual colors. I understand why people praise this character creator so much and I can't wait to actually get to the game next month!

My first experience with Dragon Age: The Veilguard's character creator was a success. For the first time ever, I haven't gone back to make changes!

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD

This may be a bit of recency bias as I'm playing through Dragon Age: The Veilguard right now for the first time, but the character creator is really astounding and one of the best I've ever seen. It took me over two hours to create my character, but after 65 hours of gameplay, I feel I made the right choices. I haven't gone back to make any changes (which I tend to do if the game allows it mid-playthrough)!

The options were really great, but the face customization process was the part that stood out the most to me. This was the first time I had played a game that allowed you to select multiple preset faces and then blend them together as you wanted.** I spent so much time flipping through the presets and blending them all in different ways before deciding I was content. And then I was able to customize those features even further!

Ultimately, I'm really happy seeing how character creators in RPGs have evolved over the years. These games tend to be fairly long and I find myself spending upwards of hundreds of hours with my characters. It helps me to connect to their stories when I can customize them how I see fit. Sometimes I want them to look like me. Sometimes I want them to look really cool in a way I wish I could look. And sometimes I want them to be bubblegum-colored demons that enjoy playing the lute in front of strangers. Having endless options to really make a game your own is so powerful!

** I'd like to note that Solasta II has this feature as well, which I found very impressive for a game that's only just entered early access.