There are players who enter character creation and press randomize or select a preset and call it a day. And then there are players who spend three hours in character creation, and still aren't fully satisfied with how their character ends up looking. If you belong to the latter crowd, welcome, you're in the right place, and I absolutely sympathize with your feelings. There are some amazing character creators out there, and they deserve to be shared instead of gatekept.
RPGs With The Most Impressive Customization Options
Some RPGs let players go crazy with their customization options. These are by far the most impressive.
So, if you're on the market for your next open-world RPG experience, but character customization is a really big deal for you, look no further. Some have sliders and color wheels for days, while others just have aesthetically pleasing options worth noting, even if their systems are a bit more restrictive. Let's get creating.
10 Monster Hunter Wilds
These Hunters Are Gorgeous
If you haven't yet jumped into the Monster Hunter franchise, the newest installment, Monster Hunter Wilds, is pretty decent despite some of the latest controversies and issues. At least, the character creation is rock-solid. There's a very respectable number of sliders to really customize your Hunter's facial structure from top to bottom.
The hairs all look beautiful, and thanks to color wheels, you have pretty much infinite options at your fingertips. Once you jump into the game, you'll also get your hands on some gorgeous armor sets that are themed around each boss. Fashion really is the endgame here!
9 Baldur's Gate 3
Make Your Tav Exactly How You'd Like Them To Be
If you're like me, you'll probably fall in love with Baldur's Gate 3's character art and style immediately. Everyone just looks so pretty and polished, and the character creator, even though it does limit you to facial presets and has no sliders, is great. You also have some limitations in terms of which race you pick, so some face shapes might be unique to High Elves, Humans, or Half-Elves.
It's kind of cool to have these different looks, though, and you can always enhance a character's portrait further with the crazy face paint and makeup options. Plus, being able to make a Thiefling or even a Dragonborn is just the cherry on top of the cake. Camp clothing is pretty abundant by the time you get to the third Act, so get ready to abuse Photo Mode at every turn.
8 Cyberpunk 2077
Style Is Everything In Night City
Of course, a game like Cyberpunk 2077 would have plenty of options to create your own mercenary, V. Everything is styled around the theme of the game, so a lot of the hairstyles are wild and out there, but that makes it even more fun. You also get incredibly deep makeup options, tattoos, and even cyberware and nail length and color.
8 Best Open-World Games If You Want To Create A Completely Custom Character
For players who want to explore an open world as a character they design themselves, these open-world games offer robust character creators.
My personal favorite, though? The eyes. You can select some freaky-looking ones, including fully white ones, heart eyes, and more. And yes, there are some more adult things you can edit here as well, but we won't get to that more than we have to. Clothing inside the game was reworked previously, so you're not as restricted by what you're wearing now, since cyberware is what gives you armor, not your rags. Go wild.
7 The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Old But Gold Bethesda Creator
Skyrim's character creation holds up quite well today. Add in some mods, and it's practically as good as news. That said, even in vanilla, the degree of freedom you have is impressive. All the races have their distinct looks in the game, which makes the choice actually meaningful, especially if you go for something other than one of the human variants.
You have the feline Khajiit, three different kinds of elves that all look pretty unique, and the lizard Argonians. Skyrim's strength is definitely in its abundance of sliders, and you can easily spend hours making your ideal Dragonborn here. Once inside the game, you'll have access to a ton of different armor sets, and of course, the Daedric one looks the coolest.
6 Starfield
Detailed And Beautiful, In True Bethesda Style
Look, Starfield may not have been the huge bang of a success it was meant to be, but that's okay, because creating a character in this game feels genuinely amazing and fun. It improves a lot from the previous games, putting you into this white studio instead of a game world. Maybe that's just my Simmer side talking, but it always helps to have your character on a blank canvas when making them.
The sliders and facial asymmetry you can introduce make every character unique, which I really appreciate. Even if the game is grounded, you can still add some funky eye colors to spice things up. Oh, and makeup and tattoos, too. In-game, there are some decent clothing options as well. The Ryujin drip and Freestar outfits are some of my personal favorites.
5 Fallout 4
The Iconic Character Chreator For The Sole Survivor Still Holds Up
Okay, one last Bethesda game and I'm done. Fallout 4's character creator really deserves more love than it's getting. First of all, what a huge improvement from Skyrim graphics-wise! And second, the sculpting option was quite nice, akin to what they did with The Sims 4 to make character creation feel a bit more organic and hands-on.
A lot of the time, I have no idea what "inner upper brow corner" or some other term even refers to, unless it's specifically highlighted, so I find myself having to jiggle the slider around. With Fallout 4, I know what I'm editing every single time. As for the clothing... I beg of you, find the Nuka Girl suit and hand it to Paladin Danse. You won't be disappointed. But more seriously, there are some crazy clothing items in this game. I love the red bandanna and the cowboy hat combination personally.
4 Dragon Age: Inquisition
BioWare's Deep Slider System Is Impressive
Dragon: Age Inquisition is another fantasy open-world RPG that really doesn't play around when it comes to character creation. As much as it pains me to say this, it does have deeper customization options than Baldur's Gate 3, appearance-wise, simply because of the depth of the sliders you have at your fingertips. You can really go wild here, even if you don't have as many race options.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 18 Best Clothing Mods
Venture off in Baldur's Gate 3 with some style thanks to these incredible clothing mods, adding new sets of armor, dresses and more to Tav's party.
That said, having dwarves, elves, and the horned Qunari next to humans is already a pretty decent variety, and once you get started with stuff like makeup, tattoos, and colors, there's no telling what kind of Inquisitor is walking out.
3 Dragon's Dogma 2
The Huge Slider Options Make Up For Few Races
So speaking of limited races, Dragon's Dogma 2 is the one game where I'm happy with the overall abundance of options, but feel a bit sad that we only get to choose between Humans and Beastren. That said, the Beastren options are pretty cool and wild, and they remind me of some of the Oblivion-era Khajiit we saw in The Elder Scrolls games (but like, in a good, fun way).
This is a game that gives you so, so, so many sliders and options for each part of your body, and not just your face, that being in character creation will easily take you an hour or more if you're really into making the perfect character. Hair styles, tattoos, body proportions... I could go on, honestly.
2 Elden Ring
FromSoftware Wants You To Work On Your Elden Bling
I was tempted to put Elden Ring higher, given some of the absolute abominations that floated around on social media when the game first came out, but here it stands, in second place. Still, there's no understating just how much you can do with these sliders. We all remember the Shrek lookalikes and other purple beast-like Tarnished that creative players were making, and to be honest, what could be more customizable than that?
It might not offer you ten different races, but you can definitely look like you're far from being a normal human being. And just you wait until you get some of the funnier armor pieces in the game. There are gorgeous sets inspired by the bosses (essentially, you'll dress up like them), and then there is... The Godskin Noble set.
1 Black Desert Online
It Doesn't Get More Detailed Than This
Imagine my surprise when someone told me that Black Desert Online actually has content beyond its character creation. Huh! Anyway, it really doesn't get any better or more customizable than this, and if you're into things looking aesthetically pleasing rather than weird and gritty, this is absolutely the game for you. Now, a small caveat: some of the customization options are reportedly locked behind specific classes, which in turn are gender locked.
However, if you can get past that, you'll be blown away by how many sliders there are in the character creator. It really gets more detailed than any of the previous games here, and since you can also customize your body, it's easy to make just about any character from any other media in Black Desert Online.
Skyrim: The 34 Best Heavy Armor Sets, Ranked
For the Skyrim player who likes a close-combat, heavy-damage Dragonborn, they'll need a sturdy, heavy armor set, like Daedric or Ebony.