Recently I went back into InZoi and I think I have a grasp as to why our Zois feel unnatural or as if their state isn’t reflected well.
I’ve realized this with frustrated Zoi, but the only reason I can even tell she is frustrated is her portrait, color and idle or sitting animation.
Nothing else.
In fact, despite being frustrated or angry or sad, the only thing that reflects this state are aforementioned things:
- Color of the portrait and portrait itself
- Expression on their face
- Idle/sitting animations that are unnatural and too twitchy.
Its a body language issue.
Example of how bad things are:
^ This is an outgoing Zoi. What does this stance remind you of? It reminds you of someone shy, reserved. Not someone outgoing, someone cheerful and open to everyone, someone /dominating/ like she is supposed to be.
There is no body language psychology here.
My other Zoi, when she is in neutral state does some rather nice shy animations. She keeps the hands behind her back or in front, like a shy person would… but the problem is if you look at above screenshot - this is a completely different personality to that other Zoi and I made that one to prove my point.
This is especially visible when two Zois are talking. Shy Zoi suddenly becomes open because she gives off the body language of a wrong personality type - making her feel inhuman.
Look here:
When emotions kick in, game tries to show their state but instead of it coming off as natural, it becomes too animate, often too soap-opera-ish, detached from personality our Zois has. I get it that its a korean game, but those overblown animations are the only way aside from UI where you can tell your Zoi feels something.
The idle animations, especially when uncomfortable, the strange loop of the Zoi looking distressed… it all feels overdone to the point where anyone on the street would stop you and call an ambulance because they would assume you’re hurt.
It’s too animate for the type of personality. My Zoi, contrary to the lady in red dress I’ve made above, who is a recluse and shy, is TOO ANIMATED for the type of personality she is, yet she becomes someone completely different the moment she talks to someone. All personalities feel the same because they not only animate the same way but they don’t actually express character through body language and subtle cues.
It’s like KJun and InZoi Studio doesn’t understand body language of how people work.
I think the emotion system lacks depth in mechanics too. Depth can be added by making actions that Zoi perform (aside from social), to have higher chance of failrue or take much longer time or shorter, depending on the emotion they feel. Different animations for different emotional states.
Right now all actions like reading books, etc. when my Zoi is frustrated, happen as normal. She doesn’t show lack of patience because she is frustrated, she doesn’t refuse to read it or her animations while reading, don’t reflect her current emotional state.
If a Zoi is uncomfortable - instead of them twitching like an idiot while idling, they should have varied animations for doing things in their enviroment.
I know that when I’m sad, I often do things much slower than I normally would or when I’m frustrated, I want to do something as fast as possible to be done with it. I’m the shy type and the animations that the game has don’t reflect those personalities or emotional states.
I think, atleast to me, that’s the thing that’s missing - proper psychology and body language that is personality dependant.
Unless Kjun seriously studies how personalities work and invests in a ton of animations for this game that express how characters are, Zois will never reach feeling ‘natural’.
This game doesn’t need more things added. It desperately needs fundamental rework of personalities with body language in mind.