inZOI Has Incredible Graphics, So Why Is Character Customization Still So Restrictive?

Hello first foremost thank you for looking at my thread.

Now, I recently purchased inZOI, genuinely excited to experience a life simulator with such impressive graphics and creative potential. But after spending time in Character Studio, I found myself asking a question:

What’s the point of having such realistic characters if we’re still so limited in the kinds of people we can create?

I wanted to create a gender-nonconforming Zoi with a flat chest, wider hips, a feminine face, facial hair, and long box braids. Someone whose appearance doesn’t fit neatly into conventional masculine or feminine body types.
Yet I found myself fighting against restrictive body presets and limited customization options.
And I think this highlights a much bigger issue.
Having a nonbinary gender identity option is wonderful, but gender diversity should extend beyond a label. It should be reflected in the freedom we have to customize our characters physically.
This isn’t exclusively an LGBTQ+ issue, either. Plenty of people have bodies that don’t fit conventional proportions. Some women have broad shoulders and flat chests. Some men have wider hips and softer features. Some people combine characteristics that society categorizes as masculine and feminine.
Why shouldn’t we be able to represent that diversity in a life simulator?
My suggestion to the developers
Rather than relying so heavily on predetermined male and female body models, I would love to see:
● Gender-independent body customization: Allow players to customize physical characteristics without restrictions imposed by their Zoi’s gender.
● Greater freedom with body proportions: More extensive sliders for chest size (including completely flat chests), shoulder width, hips, thighs, waist, and overall physique.
● Freedom to combine physical characteristics: Let players experiment with masculine, feminine, and androgynous features without being confined to a particular body preset.
I recognize that expanding body customization involves technical challenges, especially with clothing and animations. I’m not expecting every possibility overnight. Even gradual improvements would be a meaningful step forward.
I genuinely believe inZOI has the potential to become one of the most impressive life simulators available. But visual realism should be accompanied by freedom of expression.
The beauty of a life simulator is being able to create people, relationships, and stories that reflect our imaginations—and sometimes our own lives.
If inZOI is supposed to reflect real life, shouldn’t its character creator reflect the diversity of real human bodies?
I’d love to hear from other players: Have you ever tried creating a Zoi with a specific body type or combination of features, only to discover the character creator wouldn’t let you?
I would genuinely love for the developers to consider expanding this system. I think it would benefit the entire community. Possibly making it a third set outside of male or female.

Thank you to whoever listening and hearing I deeply appreciate all those who read so far XOXO. Hope this gets addressed thank you.

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Of course, we’ve discussed this many times. There are plenty of similar threads here.

And it’s not about experiments with gender characteristics, but general flexibility of the character editor. The biggest obstacle for me right now is head thickness: I keep narrowing it to the minimum value, and only then do I get something more or less suitable. Although I’d like to be able to make the skull even narrower. Currently, Zois (at least the males) for some reason tend to have quite round faces.

Of course, the editor should be flexible. But at the same time, it’s very important that NPCs still have some limits to how they are generated. I really wouldn’t want to see such characters as in your images appearing en masse in my game. And The Sims’ experience shows that as soon as they introduced skirts for men, makeup, and long dyed hair — half the characters started looking not like the opposite sex, but like absolute freaks: purple hair down to the waist, aggressive makeup, shorts that look more like underwear… It was very ugly. And I wouldn’t want a repeat of something like that here.

So these issues need to be solved in tandem. So that there’s the ability to create anyone, but this doesn’t force the game to generate such characters on its own as NPCs. We’ve already seen plenty of bald women after barber shops were introduced to the game. We’ve seen Zois in nothing but underwear. So the problem isn’t made up, and such an impact on the game could really happen.

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Oh my, first off, thank you so much for replying ,I feel truly blessed to receive this comment on my post.

I actually think you’ve raised an important distinction that deserves consideration: the freedom players have when creating characters versus the rules governing how NPCs are generated.

I completely agree that expanding customization shouldn’t come at the expense of coherent NPC generation. Ideally, these systems would operate independently, allowing players extensive creative freedom while maintaining carefully designed parameters for procedurally generated characters. Your example regarding skull proportions also illustrates why greater flexibility would benefit character creation beyond questions of gender expression.

Where I would offer a slightly different perspective, however, is in distinguishing unconventional appearances from poorly implemented randomization. A character combining traditionally masculine and feminine features isn’t necessarily unrealistic or visually incoherent. Such individuals exist in everyday life, and their inclusion can contribute to the realism that inZOI strives to achieve.

The issue, in my view, isn’t the existence of unconventional characteristics but whether the game combines them intentionally and convincingly rather than through indiscriminate randomization.

I don’t believe greater player freedom and believable NPC generation need to be competing priorities. With thoughtful design, both can coexist.

Ultimately, I think we’re advocating for something quite similar: a more sophisticated character creation system that gives players greater control without compromising the quality of the simulated world.

I appreciate you bringing up the NPC concern, because it’s an important consideration that I hadn’t fully addressed in my original suggestion! Thank you so much for reading:)

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Yes, of course. It’s just that in many cultures they’re extremely rare. In ours, for example, it would be about 1 in 10,000 somewhere — to have such deliberate androgyny in everything, including not just body shape, but also clothing style and behavior. And apparently, in Korean culture — the same. After all, they include precisely the environment they see around them daily, and which they consider realistic. That’s why such an approach is being taken right now :slightly_smiling_face:

Yes, exactly! At minimum, we need additional sliders to adjust the fullness of different body parts — from extremely thin to very heavy. Sometimes you want to create such a “good old aunt” who weighs a bit more than what the game allows. Not because she should look ugly from it, but on the contrary, because it would be very natural for her.

That said, mods already solve many of these issues now. Height sliders, for example, which even Kjun himself has written about. So one way or another, it’ll all appear in the game. Though of course, official support would be nice :+1:

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I love love loveee your perspective, particularly your point about cultural context influencing how developers envision a realistic population. I think that’s an important consideration, and I agree that NPC generation should reflect the setting and atmosphere the developers intend to create in base game.

However, I would distinguish between how frequently certain characteristics appear in a population and whether players should have the ability to create them.

Even if a particular combination of physical characteristics or gender expression is statistically uncommon within a given culture, the rarity doesn’t necessarily make it unrealistic. Realism of humanity encompasses human variation, including characteristics that fall outside conventional expectations of said humanity.

I also think it’s worth differentiating the deliberate androgyny from natural bodily diversity. Someone having broader shoulders, wider hips, a flat chest, or traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics doesn’t necessarily indicate a conscious attempt at gender nonconformity. Human bodies are inherently more varied than binary presets can sometimes accommodate and thats noticed even in the outer world

Regarding mods, I agree that they’re promising! However, I think official customization tools remain important, particularly for players on platforms where modding support is limited or unavailable to them at the moment.

Ultimately, I think we agree on the central point: greater customization freedom would benefit everyone. My hope is simply that the developers eventually allow us to represent a wider spectrum of human appearances without compromising the game’s intended atmosphere or rather help players build a world that fits their own reality.

Thank you again for engaging with this discussion so thoughtfully! I highly feel so respected ,thank you for this truly it makes me cry to be heard.

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Absolutely. My words about androgynity sound the way they do solely because I’m evaluating zoies in a generated image. You can see there that the lips are painted and gloss is applied, the eyebrow shape is also corrected, there’s blush, the hairstyle is obviously feminine—a masculine one with long hair would look somewhat different. The clothing is also deliberately chosen to be unisex, but with a tendency toward a feminine appearance.

This same character could have been created with the same body type, but dressed in purely classical clothing, with makeup removed and hair restyled—and then yes, that would simply be about “natural body diversity.” And yes, I’ll say it again, we need this option if we consciously want to create such zoies. But how we then dress them—that’s a completely different question :slightly_smiling_face: As long as the game doesn’t massively create them like that, as was already noted :laughing:

Everyone here understands you, don’t worry! :folded_hands:

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Like @Carnel, I’m only concerned here about the game massively generating NPCs with non‑traditional appearances. The key word is “massively” — in that case, we still won’t be getting closer to realism.

Let me give an example: when the devs added the option to change sexual orientation and gender identity, I wanted to experiment, so I changed the orientation for one guy in my family. Now, in my save, all NPC Zois have random gender identities and random sexual orientations, and I don’t like that. Sure, the game warned me that I’d permanently change this setting for all NPCs in the city.

Right now, I never see NPCs who are strictly heterosexual. Maybe they exist, I don’t know, but I’m just not encountering them. We’re stuck with two extremes: either everyone has a non‑traditional orientation, or no one does. Neither option feels realistic. I’ve even thought about making a new post in the “Suggestions” section about this.

If I could adjust how many characters with non‑traditional orientations appear in the city, I’d set it to 10–15 % of the total population. That might even be higher than real‑life stats — I’m not sure.

A more flexible character editor is obviously important. Honestly, I didn’t even touch body shapes for my own Zois until recently. I never tried to make them overly “busty” or “buxom,” but I understand it matters to a lot of players, just like the opposite — making flat chests and narrow hips, etc.

I’m saying all this because I hope that if the devs expand the character editor, they’ll also think about how the game generates NPCs with all these varied parameters. Honestly, it’s really jarring to see men with obviously feminine hairstyles and women with bald patches (sorry for my traditionalism). Yes, women can experience hair loss; it’s a real condition, I think. But still, most women in that situation wear wigs (I’ll skip cultures and ethnicities where shaving the head is the norm).

Here, I’d also like some control over how NPCs are generated: maybe an option for “traditional appearance” generation vs. completely free generation. Even better would be a flexible slider where I could set the percentage.

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I’ve seen the concerns about NPCs being generated in ways they do not want, but people are forgetting something here, a glaringly obvious thing; we already have a game that allows the player to create characters who are gender diverse, that also creates NPC’s, but does not produce waves of gender non-conforming NPCS. The SIms 4.
For all its flaws with dodgy genetics and mismatched outfits, the way it handles diverse bodies is proof that absolute customisation for the player can still happen without opening the floodgates and generating masses of gender non-conforming townies, if that is the real concern people have with enabling full customisation. The Sims team designed a few GNC NPCs to exist and then left the full customisation options open only to the player and not the townie generator, other than the bodily function of randomly generated townies, which allowed me to run into a few guys who could get pregnant and one girl who could get others pregnant. That was it. They otherwise looked 100% masculine or feminine. Sims 4 was perfect for me to make transgender or non-binary characters without my game being flooded with GNC NPCs, so it’s proof that the technology exists to allow diverse bodies; it absolutely can be done; it’s just whether the developers want to do it.

“But the Sims 4 is different” is not a viable excuse; it’s a ten-year-old game, but it still was able to achieve this. InZoi is still in active development adn absolutely can do the same thing the Sims 4 did, if not better with their access to modern tech.

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OMG Thank you so much for sharing your perspective on my post! I agree that players should have greater control over NPC generation, especially when it comes to creating a world that feels realistic to them. A customizable population slider could be a wonderful addition to this already beautiful game.

I would gently offer another perspective, though. While certain appearances might feel unfamiliar or unexpected, that doesn’t necessarily make them less realistic. Men with feminine hairstyles , women with shaved heads , or anyone who’s unconventional when it comes to expression are very much part of the world we live in, and I think reflecting that diversity can make the simulation more authentic as well as beautiful.

My original suggestion is ultimately about expanding creative freedom, particularly for players whose bodies and identities aren’t represented by conventional character customization options. I don’t necessarily want every NPC to look gender-nonconforming; everyone to be not heterosexual ,but ratherI simply want those possibilities to exist naturally within the game.

I think we can absolutely have both: greater diversity in character creation and more thoughtful, customizable NPC generation. Ultimately, we’re both advocating for more player freedom, and I think that’s something we can agree to advocate for:) Thank you so much for engaging truly means so much to me.

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Thank you so much for this thoughtful response! You explained this beautifully, and I really appreciate you bringing up The Sims 4 as an example. It’s such a powerful reminder that expanding character customization doesn’t necessarily mean changing how an entire population of NPCs is generated.

I especially appreciate your point about giving players the freedom to create characters who reflect their own experiences and identities. That’s ultimately what I hope to see in inZOI: a world where more of us can feel represented without taking away anyone else’s creative freedom or identity.

I genuinely hope the developers consider this approach, and I’m so happy we’re having these conversations. I feel so blessed for your comment, thank you.

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Unfortunately, that’s exactly where I ran into the issue that’s prompting my concerns here. I don’t know how it was for you, but in my “University” expansion pack, it was absolute chaos, to put it mildly. It felt like every third student was at least a satanist-masochist-nonconformist (not even worth discussing orientation there, they’re all bisexual). And it was so jarring that I even had to occasionally change them using cheat codes.

Exactly — waves of wildly dressed and heavily made-up characters. Maybe it’s an attempt to capture the spirit of student life and rebellion, but it’s completely atypical for my culture, even though I see huge numbers of students dressed in all sorts of ways every day, from different countries too.

So I want to emphasize again: apparently the Koreans are also basing things on what they see around them every day. Overall, if we’re really going to say that the number of homosexual people is 15% (which I think is a huge overestimate anyway), then it would be more fair if those 15% could use a cheat code to change the appearance of all the necessary city dwellers toward non-binary presentations, than for 85% of the rest of the players to do the same thing, just in the direction of making them more binary. No discrimination, just pure math :slightly_smiling_face:

And ideally, as @Introversia_0001 wrote, just have settings for NPCs in each city — what percentage of sims with various orientations, and additionally, appearance too. After all, if I want a city full of very thin or very heavy people walking around in Scottish kilts and straw hats — it would be really nice if I could create that automatically by selecting the right settings, like with school uniforms :+1:

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I had zero like that. I just had students who refused to go to class and left rotting food everywhere lol. My main Sim was the only GNC person who was disruptive on the campus (unless the random vampire coming in counts; he was a menace, too.)
The Sims franchise has always had townies dress up in weird things, especially when CC/mods are thrown into the equation; unlike inZoi, which has an outfit throttle (which results in a select few preset outfits being used on NPCs to limit processing power), the Sims doesn’t, which was why you could get some very questionable outfit combos; the game pulled from its entire stock of outfit parts that were appropriately flagged as ‘enabled’ for tonwies/randoms. If you used sims4studio to mod the game, you could even adjust which outfits could be added to the pool the game could choose to pull from.

InZoi already has the outfit situation resolved via outfit throttling, even if I do get tired of seeing the same 3 outfits when out and about from time to time. Again, it has proven that it can apply throttling rules where it is wanted/needed, and the technology for creating diverse bodies with far more accurate slider sizes for things like bellies/butts/hips/chest is already there, but it has been capped at extremely skinny sizes.

Setting aside the gender diversity side of what InZoi is missing (which I think it could only benefit from having), the body customisation also lacks in other areas as well, such as realistic fat distribution and height (the Sims never touched height sliders, and like I pointed out in another topic, InZoi has potential to apply one, see here: 캐릭터 키 조절할수있게해주세요 - #2 by zuperbuu )
Even with a mod that increased the threshold of all sliders by 15%, it does not resolve the base mesh’s problem; the Zoi stomach dips in far too deep, and it looks like the Zoi is starving even at moderate weight, and only looks a healthy weight when you apply a vast amount of fat, and the ‘fat’ slider is not at all accurate either; when weight increases, fat should plump up the chest/breast, butt, upper arms, and thighs. Not just the belly and face.
This also ties in with the fact that pregnancy bellies on both male and female bodies are almost nonexistent until the day the Zoi gives birth, and that for male-bodied Zois, the belly expansion pulls the ribcage forward as well (pregnant or just fat!), indicating the weight painting on the male belly region has been done wrong. It’s not so noticeable without a mod that lets you raise the slider range more than 15%, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fixed; it will especially need to be if the developers do decide to rework the fat sliders at some point.
Muscle looks good, but it doesn’t allow for true bodybuilder shapes without needing mods to unlock the slider threshold, though unlike with weight, the muscles seem to deform appropriately. (Muscle Beach at Bliss Bay is lacking the true bodybuilder brigade I’d expect to see there.)

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Thank you for your reply!

I agree with what you said about men with feminine hairstyles being a part of our world, even if it’s a small part. The thing is, our world isn’t limited to the views that you and I share. Even if we combine my more conservative outlook with your more unconventional perspective, we’d still only represent a tiny fraction of all the different views held by people around the globe.

I don’t know much about the world and different cultures—I’m just a gamer—but I’d like to give a vivid example. The Sentinelese people on the Sentinel Islands are a very small tribe we know very little about. They’re quite hostile to outsiders and don’t wear much clothing—just loincloths. From the photos that have been taken from a distance, you can clearly see what’s underneath. They’re also part of our world—a very mysterious and interesting part. Should we include their look in inZOI? I don’t know. Can we fit all the diversity that exists on planet Earth into inZOI? Is that even necessary? I don’t know.

I want to emphasize again: you’re presenting the point about men with feminine hairstyles as if I were arguing against it, but I’m not. I know they’re part of the world. But living in Russia, I’ve never seen a middle‑aged man with two pink pigtails that look like something a teenage girl would wear. I’ve also never seen a bald woman in a dress with cute yellow flowers. Actually, I was a bit hasty with the bald women example. My issue with the game generating bald women isn’t about baldness itself—it’s about the overall style not being cohesive. It feels like the game just picks a random hairstyle (in this case, a bald head) and pairs it with random clothing that doesn’t fit the look at all.

If the game created a bald woman with tattoos, bold makeup, and a daring, edgy vibe, I wouldn’t have any issues with it. I actually make teen girls with that kind of style myself sometimes.

One thing we definitely agree on is that we need broader character customization. I’d be happy to see that—it could bring more fans to the game. If people want to generate all sorts of unconventional looks that don’t match what most people consider “normal,” that’s fine. Everyone should be able to play the way they want and build the world they want. I’m just in favor of giving everyone the option to control that level of “unconventionality,” because the perspectives of people from more traditional cultures are worth considering too.

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Sounds like you were luckier. Well, or maybe the opposite, depending on how you look at it :laughing:


In any case, we all agree with you here: we need much more freedom to create different body types. And many things need fixing. For example, if you want to create a man with non-flat buttocks — you need to max them out. But then such a sim will inevitably get fat sides when viewed from the front, which you can’t remove without reducing the buttocks.

Plus yeah — we can’t create bodybuilders and we’re generally in a very limited range. But I’m repeating myself now. Changes are definitely needed! :+1:

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Hello again, First and foremost, I sincerely apologize for interpreting your perspective on unconventional appearances as though you were opposed to them! That was never a fair assumption for me to make, and I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to clarify your position. I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding!

I also genuinely love your point about how our individual experiences and cultural environments shape what we consider familiar or realistic. You’re absolutely right that neither of our perspectives can fully represent the incredible diversity of people around the world.

Regarding your example of the Sentinelese people, I would gently offer another perspective. If someone from a particular cultural background wanted to create a character whose appearance reflected their own community, I personally don’t see the harm in giving them that creative freedom, provided it’s done respectfully.

After all, inZOI strives for realism, and what feels realistic to one player may look entirely different to another based on their cultural background and lived experiences.

I completely understand your point that our world is incredibly vast and diverse, far beyond what either of us has personally experienced. And that’s actually what makes me so excited about inZOI’s potential! I would love for players to have the freedom to recreate not only the world they imagine, but also the world they genuinely recognize and experience.

I certainly don’t mean to suggest that your perspective is incorrect, and I genuinely appreciate you sharing it! I simply believe that if inZOI has the potential to introduce beautiful new locations, expansions, and DLC content, there’s also an incredible opportunity to expand character customization in ways that reflect the diversity of people who play the game.

Your explanation about NPCs having mismatched hairstyles and clothing also helped me understand your concerns much better! I can definitely see how randomly generated appearances that lack a cohesive style could make the game feel less immersive, regardless of whether those appearances are conventional or unconventional.

Ultimately, I think we’re advocating for two things that can beautifully coexist: greater freedom to create characters with diverse bodies and appearances, and greater control over how NPCs are generated within our individual worlds.

I would love for inZOI to become a game where someone who prefers a more traditional environment can enjoy that experience, while someone who wants to explore less conventional forms of gender expression and physical appearance can do so just as freely. Neither experience should have to come at the expense of the other.

Thank you again for such a thoughtful discussion and for helping me better understand your perspective. I genuinely appreciate the kindness and consideration you’ve brought to this conversation!

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Thank you both so much for sharing your perspectives! I’ve genuinely enjoyed reading this discussion, and I really appreciate the thought and detail you’ve both brought to it.

@Carnel, I completely understand your concerns about NPC generation, especially when randomly generated appearances don’t reflect the environment or cultural experiences you’re familiar with. I think giving players greater control over their city’s population, including appearance and clothing preferences, would be a wonderful addition. After all, everyone deserves the freedom to create a world that feels authentic to them!

@zuperbuu, I especially appreciate your explanation of the limitations surrounding body customization and fat distribution. You brought up something I feel is incredibly important: representation isn’t exclusively about gender expression, but also about allowing different body types to exist realistically. People carry weight differently, have different proportions, and possess physical characteristics that don’t always align with conventional beauty standards. I’d love for inZOI to reflect more of that natural diversity.

I think what’s particularly beautiful about both of your perspectives is that they highlight two things that don’t necessarily have to conflict: greater creative freedom in character customization and greater control over how NPCs are generated.

Personally, I would love to see inZOI expand its body customization options, whether that’s through more realistic weight distribution, greater flexibility in combining physical characteristics, or simply allowing players to create Zois who more closely resemble themselves.

At the same time, I don’t believe expanding those options means every player’s city needs to generate those appearances automatically. Giving players control over NPC generation could allow everyone to enjoy the experience they’re hoping for.

Ultimately, I think we all share a desire to see inZOI reach its full potential as a life simulation. Our ideas of realism might differ, but I believe that makes greater customization all the more meaningful.

Thank you all again for adding into this conversation! I really hope the developers consider these suggestions, because I genuinely believe they could make an already beautiful game even more immersive and welcoming to a wider variety of players!

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I actually left a similar review on Steam before. The body customization and gender character traits in inZOI are way too limited and rigid—it actually feels more like gender-swapping tropes than natural customization.

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Body customization seriously needs an upgrade. How is it possible that a small indie game like Paralives is doing it better?! :sob:

I want flat chests, androgynous Zois, and body hair for EVERYONE. These aren’t some wild, unrealistic requests. They’re everyday human features! Everyone has body hair. Women didn’t magically lose theirs.

Why is body hair disabled for female Zois in the first place?

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100% agree; this was something I flagged in my steam review, too. I know a lot of women with hairy arms and legs, and I find it very unusual that the women are hairless on their body. The choice to add it should always be there for the player; ‘disallow for random’ is a simple tag that can be applied to prevent unwanted hairy women from randomly generating, since body hair shouldn’t be locked out for the player to use on their own creations.

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Omg yesssss thank you because this is the aspect of the game that actually got me so worked up, Im incrediably grateful for your engagement, thank you;)

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