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Anyone who knows me understands I approach avatar design in role-playing games extremely seriously. It’s not talking about optimizing builds, instead designing my avatar's physical appearance with meticulous precision. I love games that let me to truly breathe life into my avatar via fine touches like eyeliner, body art, streaks, and even finger detailing. I'll often spend over three or four hours in the customization screen, carefully crafting my ideal virtual persona. The catch is: Once I leave the editor, I usually can't get back in.

The Common Issue

I'm sure everyone's faced this at least once. It takes what feels like forever creating your character, and after countless tedious adjusting, they look flawless. But once you make it out of the editor and finally take a gander at what your character looks like in-game, you notice something unfortunate: They don't look right. Maybe their facial structure doesn't fit their face, or you decide you wish you had gone with a different hair style, or you notice that although they look fine from the front, their profile view looks comical. No matter the issue, there's only one fix: Re-enter the editor and adjust your character's face. The problem is most RPGs don’t permit you return to the customization screen, for reasons that elude me to this day.

My first attempt at creating V resulted in a character with an great manicure, but a disappointing face.

Gaming Experiences

The first time it occurred to me, I was a few hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, and finally caught a glimpse of my otherwise-attractive Inquisitor's side profile. Her nose looked normal from the front, but from the side, it was absurd. I played a few more hours before I had enough and restarted the game so I could remake my Inquisitor. The same issue arose 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 was not true with Cyberpunk 2077 — I was so enthralled with the game that I didn't notice how bad my V looked until I started using Photo Mode. I couldn’t accept her appearance. I lost roughly 15 hours of gameplay beginning again the game to correct poor V's face.

A Simple Solution

There's a pretty simple answer to this problem (aside from attempting to just live with it): Allow players to re-enter the editor to change their appearance. Several RPGs offer this feature, but most of them don't include it at release, which I find utterly baffling. Baldur's Gate 3 at first launched with no way to adjust your character's appearance, but thankfully 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 represent her psychological change as the Illithid parasite in her head grew more powerful.

If you launch an RPG that locks players out of character creation, the bare minimum is emulate Larian's lead and make adding a Magic Mirror your first post-launch priority.

Current Examples

When I first started playing Avowed, I was interested in the various plants, flowers, and mushrooms I could choose to have growing out of my character's face. But these distinctive Godlike features were a little overwhelming for my tastes, and I didn't really understand why they were an choice 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 absorbed enough lore to understand why those wild plants and fungi were available in the character creator. Now that these wild customization options clicked for me, I wanted to alter my character's face. Regrettably, re-entering the editor 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 later this Fall, but the question remains: Why wasn't it there at launch?

That feel when you realize you're stuck having a boring, plant-less face.

Positive Examples

I must acknowledge the good: As much as I disliked Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I was very grateful for the fact that it launched with the ability to change my Rook's look already included in the game. My first Rook looked like a half-melted 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 Thoughts

It could be said 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 create my character exactly as I picture them in my head, and sometimes that takes a few tries.

I understand that game development is a rocky, uncertain process, and that some content will always end up on the chopping block. I just find it perplexing — and frankly, annoying — 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!"