Thoughts after experiencing inZOI

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Firstly, I don’t speak English, so I have to rely on translation when faced with a lot of English letters. But as a game enthusiast, I still hope to have some suggestions.

Firstly, I think inZOI is an independent game, not a copied game. Changing character details and upgrading the rendering engine can help it occupy a place in the game market. This is not the case. We can learn from some functional aspects, but we should not copy everything. inZOI should have its unique features.

As I have been considering these days, it should be a third-person controlled individual character. This allows players to experience a different exciting life, rather than controlling all the characters in a family. This is just a rehash of a life simulation game. Only the graphics and processing engine have been improved.

A good game is not like this. It should have unique features. Just as the heart is the soul of a person. And I haven’t seen the soul of inZOI.

I hope the developers can have more creative ideas.

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So true, so sad..

As I said before, I still don’t know if the problem is lack of experience or just fear of upsetting the core audience by trying to reach a bigger one and invest more professional resources in something brand-new.

No matter what The Sims introduced, this franchise remains far less demanding, practically portable, just like a time-killer, or mobile title, or simply an old game. InZOI, on the other hand, is extremely demanding, and only a small fraction of that audience can actually afford to run it (even among those who genuinely want to play). But the big-league players won’t come over, because AA/AAA games have already leapt far ahead in terms of game design/systems, backed by massive investments in R&D, cross-title QA/testing teams and professional talents.

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I don’t understand why the player should only be able to control one character.
For example, I like to play with large families and rotating families.
But if you want, you can play with just one Zoi. I don’t understand the problem.

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The problem is that playing with a single Zoi as a standalone unit is technically possible, but not really fun and meaningful for 2025 experienced gamer. We’re still nowhere near a deeply developed personality. The old and not-so-effective emotion system from TS is being reused, Enneagram /MBTI have no actual impact, karma has dropped off the priority list (Ghost Play was planned for August, what happened?), and Smart Zoi — even when Inner Thoughts say “I don’t have time for small talk” — still constantly goes off to make small talk. And there’s very little demand for personality depth overall: out of 20 player wishes, only 1 or 2 are about Zoi’s actual character… even though this should be the core of everything, with the rest being secondary.

In this example, he locked down the girl in five minutes and fell in love — even though the prompt clearly stated he was supposed to become a criminal authority, despise and dominate everyone. Despite SmartZoi clearly showing what he wants, the game doesn’t reflect it — not in emotions, not in actions, not in desires. Or the desire doesn’t reflect the emotion. All systems are disconnected.

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I do spend more than half or maybe most of my time in CAZ, and your call out is a large part of it.

The visuals overall…first person driving, and “open world” aspect are really fun and I have really enjoyed aquainting myself with those and everything else…but the “deeply developed personality” is required for truly immersive gameplay, no matter how one plays.

I think my heart is holding out for their personalities to be as hyper realistic as their face :crossed_fingers::face_holding_back_tears:

Thank you for calling it out. :heart_hands:

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Thank you for reading. The thing is, inZOI has certain core problems, one of them is the shallow reusing of old mechanics without rethinking their purpose or architecture. So players asked for it, and we delivered — without critically filtering what’s actually relevant in 2025, how it connects to original systems and what should’ve been cancelled. Even unique (and frankly, very intriguing) systems are being abandoned in favor of mechanics simply copied from TS. The modern mainstream gamer sees it. So everything you see from me here – it’s non-The-Sims, but also not a wishlist for something non-existing. It’s a deep rethinking of what already exists.

Maybe its audience tends to be unreceptive to criticism or to outside perspectives — which is actually completely normal in other genres, and even some poorly received games have turned into something solid over time (like No Man’s Sky). But it’s important to remember: ignoring serious flaws has never done games any good. And one more thing — the strongest critics are often the ones who care most about the game’s success.

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I think visually, that is what has been me a bit distracted - bc on the surface it is exactly that to me.

I personally have allowed a lot of leeway in gameplay bc it is under construction. But also, I had not dug into the what is happening behind the beautiful curtain (aka utilizing old mechanics vs unique, intriguing systems).

The visuals got me to try inZOI bc it seemed like its own entity - not just a TS with better graphics, but with better everything. That is why I took a chance. And as a long time simmer, I personally was never looking for a “TS replacement” - I don’t need nor want that. I want to see how inZOI redefines this genre and what is possible today and tomorrow…not yesterday.
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This is true about pretty much anything in life - it is out of love & respect - I do not find any of your suggestions rude or disrespectful (assuming I’ve seen them all :face_with_hand_over_mouth:).

My only takeaway is how much you care and are advocating for more of the ingenuity that they’ve shown us all so far :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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That’s what I’m worried about: InZOI Studio dropped the roadmap and followed player opinion, but a large portion of the active audience are simmers, casual, single-game players. The segment that got disillusioned has already left. So we might end up with a game built just for the fanbase, locked or stuck at a certain level, while everyone else gets pushed out – not by choice.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I like games that set trends – that make you want them and accept them as they are. I liked Kjun’s original plan; it just needed one more year before early access.

It’s genuinely reassuring — they seem both willing and capable. The important thing is that it’s not a repeat of how things used to be.

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Appreciate it :slight_smile: I’m not just trying to showcase something, I want to gather several implementation variants of one feature and open it up for discussion. After that, anyone can summarize and make a concise post. But it’s not all working out yet: the personalities of the Zois, their behavior and scalability relative to city size, are the least discussed aspect, which is a bit odd for a simulator. DLCs, worlds, and objects can scale into dozens or hundreds over a year or five – that’s minor. But the Zois’ personalities feel like core architecture. Right now they’re non-functional, and the longer it goes, the harder they’ll be to adjust.

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I totally agree about improving the Zoi’s personality aspects. I enjoy not only creating a story, but also observing and supporting them. :slight_smile: And when they act independently, they’re a bit mechanical and incoherent, even in basic actions. For example, the Zoi who’s almost starving but goes to water the plants first.
What I criticize is being able to manage only one Zoi. Absolutely not! I love creating different families, having them interact with each other, and managing subsequent generations.

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Literally this :joy:

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We can simply treat the thread starter’s assumption as their own preference — they enjoy solo gameplay and build outward from there. And there’s a subtle catch here: a lot of normie players start like this solo (often using their own prototype) and only gradually build relationships, try out different partners, or skip family-building entirely. inZOI needs to keep pace with that playstyle, because any flaw in that flow and the game gets deleted. I remember Sims 3 really nailed this — both the base game and DLCs worked great from the start even for people who weren’t into this genre. It felt like a capable adventure and a strategy game built around your prototype.

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Of course, I think it’s important to allow players to play with their own style.
I only partially understand what you’re saying (I’m not saying I don’t agree, just that I don’t fully understand it). I think the reason is that I’m old :slight_smile: and my first simulation game was The Sims 2.
I bought both 3 and 4, but I never really played them for long. I never bought the DLC, while I had all the expansions for 2 (that’s what they were called back then). I found them, for some reason, repulsive. The graphics, the interactions, the cities. I continued playing 2 until, for a variety of reasons, I lost my saves, even the backup, and with them the entire world I’d created. Not just generations of many families, but houses, community lots. I don’t know if you ever played 2, but the world was extremely customizable. You could place the lots wherever you wanted, delete the pre-set lots, and even delete all the NPCs :).
So after that, I stopped playing simulators for years.
I read that players now prefer very complex and structured gameplay, which I find a bit limiting. I’m interested in anything that allows me to create my own story.
But I realize that players are also looking for something else these days, and I never thought a simulation game would appeal to fans of other genres.
Sorry for any mistakes; I’m not a native speaker, and I translate.

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I’m from the same generation — my first Sims game was The Sims 1, though my gamer path started even earlier with the Sega MD. Throughout my school and uni years, I was an active moderator on Sims forums, converting objects and building worlds in both Sims 2 and 3.

That was an era. The franchise was taking off, and people who weren’t gamers, or came from other genres, were playing it. I was constantly installing it for them. And even back then, players preferred complex, structured gameplay. Sims 2 stood out for its depth of personality and interactions, while Sims 3 scaled things up (Rod Humble often showcased early Trait prototypes — 2D demos testing interactions between personality archetypes, like “Who’s the witch?” and so on). I remember recognizing my friends through their ideal Sims playthroughs — honest, no cheats, no tweaks. Every expansion pack was a new set of tools for playing a clean, personal run.

And since I haven’t changed my standards, I’m simply asking inZOI for depth of personality. Until that’s there, I won’t play at all. Even if it’s just 3 systems out of 20 originally planned — drop the rest, but make those few candy-like, juicy, catchy, just take my money.

Right now, the core simulation elements in InZOI — Wishes and Emotions — feel outdated, stale, and unoriginal to me, and I’m not even sure if the Enneagram/MBTI/BigFive works.

You see, a hollow personality is a red flag for me in any game labeled “Life Simulator.” Without that, they’re making a strategy sandbox — not a simulation game. Because by definition, a simulator must represent complex systems that model real human being.

It’s like calling a game a driving simulator, but giving it arcade-style driving for the steering wheel (technically, you have a detailed car, a track, and so on, but no, it’s arcade racing, not driving sim). Or simplifying all the levers in Flight Simulator and saying, “Well, you’re in a plane, and we gave you the whole world.” (it’s open-world action, not flying sim).

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If you consider Sims 2 a complex and structured game, then that’s fine by me :), I loved it. It was a gameplay that offered a wealth of opportunities but also enormous freedom, for example in creating your own world, an aspect I loved and which has been greatly reduced with subsequent Sims. Remember how in the beginning you could choose between various pre-built cities but also create new ones from scratch, with different types of vegetation, etc.?
Maybe I’m not explaining myself, but what I don’t like are the requests for “restrictive” features, which turn a Life Simulator almost into a survival game :slight_smile: and therefore greatly reduce the time I can dedicate to the story I want to create. For the difficulties, there’s real life already :).
I agree with you 100% about the complexity of the personalities; the more real the characters seem, the more stimulating the game is.

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Oh yes, The Sims 2 had Aspiration System and Lifetime Aspiration Meter, Wants/Fears, Memory System (event history and emotional impact), Chemistry System (including zodiac compatibility), Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs (Stop Signals romantic filters from EP), Reputation, Gossip (spread information that could trigger jealousy and break relationships), etc. Every system was purposeful and worked in harmony with the others, forming a unique, honest, and mature simulation. It was a revolution and a cutting-edge game for its time, I can’t imagine the game industry without this legend.

Maybe it just needs a gameplay mode and a creative mode, like in some other games, or an option in the settings to toggle emotional free will alongside autonomy (traditional free will), so there are real incompatibilities, refusals, reactions to cheating, and so on.

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