People love to make characters. For some,character creation in gamesis one of the most fun activities they can engage with. It’s like playing dress-up except players can change their skin, hair, eyes, ears, and nose like a shapeshifter. The most common genre to havecharacter customization is role-playing games. This is because customizing a character is all part of the fun of role-playing. Players get to decide their gender, race, height, and so much more before being thrown into an adventure.
The fact that most people can spend hours on the character customizer is a testament tohow addictive this section of the game is.The funny part is that players wear helmets in some of these games, which means that they can’t even see their creations for a major chunk of the game. Thankfully, modern game developers are well aware of this problem and add options that remove this helmet during cutscenes and the like.
Updated July 23, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: When it comes to games with character customization, some of the best games for character creation offer such a staggeringly high number of options that it’s hard to know where to start. Some RPGs with character creation haven’t held up well to the test of time visually, but for their era they remain incredibly influential and well-regarded games – and are worth experiencing for historical value, if nothing else. This list of the best games with character customization has been updated to include World of Warcraft, a staggeringly vast MMO, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a game that was once considered to be the pinnacle of western RPGs that has aged somewhat with time.
Put yourself in the shoes of a gamer in the mid-2000s. UntilThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, character creators were very simple thanks to the reduced rendering capabilities of prior generations. Though there were some games that had robust character creators beforeOblivion, for many this was the first game that let you create your very own 3D character in an RPG.
It took the best parts ofMorrowind’s in-depth character class and customization system, andlaid the groundworkfor futureElder Scrollscharacter customization screens. You might have to get past the now-dated graphics, but for the time,Oblivionwas way ahead of its competition in terms of how much control you had over your character’s look and build.
World of Warcrafthas gone through a lot of changes since it first launched 20 years ago in November 2004. Over the course of two decades and ten expansions,WoWhas been expanded to include dozens of new races and four new classes, for more than 20 races to choose from (on either Horde or Alliance) and 13 classes.
Aside from the enormous variety players get when it comes to choosing a race and class, retailWoW’s character creation screen is significantly more in-depth than it was in the past, too.
Some races,like Dracthyr or Earthen, have pages and pages of customizations available just in the character creation screen alone – and that’s not to mention the mind-boggling amount of transmog and cosmetics you can get to customize your character further once you’re in-game.
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines was an RPG way ahead of its time both in storytelling and gameplay complexity. There are multiple aspects that contribute to it being an inspiring experience for the upcoming RPG titles, but the character creation itself was quite rich.
While Bloodlines doesn’t offer many options to customize the appearance of the character, it does allow players to modify the basic skills, choose a starter clan, and come up with a unique background. It was more like today’s Cyberpunk 2077 back then.
It’s a shame thatDragon’s Dogma 2was released with a ton of controversies bogging it down, since players really wanted to see this game succeed only for a poor PC port and Capcom’s greed becoming major headlines instead. However, players who look past these missteps will find themselves enjoying one of the best action RPGs of the modern era from a pure gameplay standpoint.
Crafting characters is tons of fun, and the game’s engine is able togenerate realistic charactersthat ae impressively responsive to customization. Players have shared everything from accurate recreations of actors and pop culture figures to horrific monstrosities that will haunt a player’s nightmares. Players can also customize their Pawns, companion characters that will follow them through the campaign, and the custom Pawns of other players will occasionally appear in the game world. Players can journey through the campaign and suddenly encounter another player’s customized Kratos or Arnold Schwarzenegger Pawn, giving the world a feel that’s entirely its own.
Dark Soulsis one of the greatest video games of all time, ushering in a whole new genre to the industry and inspiring countless other titles to try and imitate what made this title so beloved. The game features a surprisingly in-depth character creator with a surprising number of options that can take most players by surprise.
What makes this level of depth even stranger is that players will be clad from head to toe in armor for a vast majority of their playthrough, and their character is generally a hollow husk of their former self too, looking like a zombified version of their custom character for 80% of the game. This means that the actual look of the custom character won’t be visible unless players are essentially half-naked and using a valuable Humanity to retain their regular visage. Players will actually have to build around the idea of seeing their custom character as they designed it.
WhenDiablo 3came out, a lot of players were genuinely surprised to see the amazing character creator that came bundled with the experience. Players excited by the ability create a custom character with a vast array of options to experiment around with, andDiablo 4carried forth this amazing character creator with a fresh coat of paint.
Players can let their imaginations run wild and create some of the most unique-looking protagonists in this video game, even though, once again, they won’t actually see their character’s face all that much. It’s still more prominent thanDark Soulsthough, asDiablo 4will feature their custom character in many story cutscenes. Despite the controversies thatDiablo 4is dealing with to this day, there’s no denying that the character creator itself is pretty amazing for an ARPG.
Spiders was known for creating RPGs with a lot of heart and jank in equal measure, with the latter sucking out some enjoyment from the games they made. So, it was wholly unexpected forGreedFallto become such a huge hit, making the most of the disappointment that many people felt withMass Effect: Andromedaby filling this void and letting players enjoy a great Western RPG.
There are many things thatGreedFallgets right, and the excellent character customization in the game is one of its many achievements. Players can spend a long while customizing De Sardet in more ways than one, letting them get invested in this title before the game even starts.
If there’s one thing whereSouth Park: The Stick of Truthexcelled, it was ensuring that players could place themselves in the world ofSouth Parkwith little to no restrictions. The art style helped out quite a bit in this regard, withSouth Park’s aesthetic being replicated brilliantly by this title.
The character customization was pretty fun to engage with, and the New Kid felt like a natural inclusion in the game. This, coupled with a wild story very much in line withSouth Park’s narrative, madeThe Stick of Truthone of the best RPGs for fans of the series who wanted to check out a humorous turn-based RPG.
ThefirstNiohgamepaved the way for Soulslikes to pervade the mainstream. The game itself was decent in its own right, although the poor and unremarkable level system coupled with the copious amounts of loot made things a bit of a headache to deal with.
Most of these problems were addressed inNioh 2, which allowed players to create their very own character instead of controlling a preset one. The combat was more fun than ever, and difficulty curves were adjusted accordingly… although the level design could still be a bit too uninspired for some.
Baldur’s Gate 3has become one of the biggest phenomenons in the gaming industry, proving major AAA developers wrong by showing how important it is to develop a game that has a ton of heart. Larian Studios has become one of the biggest developers around and deserves all the success that they’re enjoying right now.
Just likeeach and every facet of this game,Baldur’s Gate 3’s character creation system is incredibly in-depth and engaging. It’s also important to choose a proper build since making an error here can have dire consequences for the player.
