I remember years ago it was said that “The Sims was a game about filling bars”. Well, the least that’s done in Inzoi is filling bars because needs are always high, my zoi never pees himself, never gets dirty, the house is always clean, objects never break, clothes are always clean, babies never cry. Everything is easy in this game except for the economy. In The Sims 2, the balance of everything was crazy difficult, why don’t you guys copy the balance from that installment and adapt it to the default 96 minutes day? But you need to balance everything according to a set pattern, so it doesn’t feel like you’re doing one specific action too much, like the last time when floors got dirty very frequently or the Zoi was always hungry. The problem wasn’t that they ate or cleaned the floor a lot, but that the balance of those actions was disproportionate compared to the others.
I’m convinced that if you balance the game to make it harder, you’ll get all the players back. Because they need that, to be focused on a task constantly, if you leave them to their own devices, at some point they don’t know what to do and they get bored**.** I see a lot of people on stream who don’t know what to do and send the zois to eat or bathe even when they’re not hungry and have full hygiene. That means things need to be adjusted!!
And if there are players who don’t agree with me, it’s because they’re used to playing this way, not because they find it fun. No one will ever find it fun to play an easy game.
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I come from a world where there was no internet and where we couldn’t just google tips for a game or ask on social media for help. We were only a handful of kids in our small town who owned a computer so we had to find out everything by ourselves 
So I do know very well how hard playing games can be.
On top of that I also have an exhausting live with a heap of problems, so having no stress and hardships in inZOI is actually fun and relaxing for me, even therapeutic 
There are all kinds of players and many ways to enjoy a game.
If you want it to be harder, you could achieve that by adjusting the bars in the city settings, there are options for objects durability and cleanliness too and much more.
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I agree with LennyOgg.
I played “vanilla” The Sims 2, without cheats, and after almost 20 years, I still remember a family with three kids where I desperately had to earn points to buy that mad scientist machine that raised their needs. A nightmare 
Now I want a relaxing game that lets me create stories without stressing myself out. I know exactly what to do, and I enjoy it.
So, I’m all for all the EXTRA options, but not for making Inzoi a stressful game For those who don’t want it that way.
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I’m familiar with that feature and I actually use it, but most people who play this game for the first time don’t know about it. I respect your opinion about preferring a therapeutic game, but if you look at the top-rated and most popular games, they’ve always been the most challenging: Elden Ring, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, and I could name hundreds. Even Stardew Valley, which is considered a ‘cozy’ game, has a difficult economic balance.
If we want this game to be successful, we primarily need it to be FUN. It needs to keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering what’s going to happen next.
Watch any Inzoi stream and you’ll see what I mean: people eating without being hungry, showering without being dirty, not knowing what to do, yawning, and more. And I’m not asking for Inzoi to have the difficulty level of Elden Ring, but rather the level of The Sims 2, literally the best installment in the franchise, everyone adores it and says it’s the most fun
Obviously it depends on how you play. I play in 96 minutes, but sometimes even 4 hours.
It’s funny, though, that people want difficult games and then make them easy with all sorts of cheats and mods.
They could add an option to adjust the need reduction.
And Sims 2 was difficult at first; if you played it without cheats, you could then stock up on reward machines and even stop eating and sleeping if you wanted.
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Translation:
“I’m swearing, I was super excited to buy Inzoi, it’s kinda fun but it’s slow and super un-dynamic, you know?”
What do you think is behind the criticism of ‘slow’ and ‘lack of dynamism’?
There’s a game called ‘Gas Station Simulator’, maybe you’ve heard of it. It has an amazing progression system and it’s the most dynamic game i’ve played, it keeps you busy with different tasks ALL THE TIME, sometimes tasks overlap or pile up and you have to figure out how to meet all the customers’ demands. But it’s so dynamic that it manages to entertain you and you end up playing for a long time without even realizing it. Inzoi is missing that.
I know what you mean OP, but I actually enjoy the more chilled out and longer days in this game, rather than the constant busy-work of the Sims titles, where I didn’t have time to do anything but the necessities day after day. I never allowed myself to use the earned “cheats” in TS2, either.
I assume you did not play the first Sims game? TS2 is super easy by comparison. If you want a life sim that challenges you every step of the way, try that one. This genre started out challenging!
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You’ve basically answered your own question – Gas Station Simulator has what inZOI lacks) My take is already out there: life sims have found a formula that works (the dollhouse + “entertain yourself” loop) and they’ve been exploiting it for over a decade. But that formula mostly resonates with a relatively small group of pro/cozy gamers who enjoy slow-paced, self-directed play.
It’s not built for scale, and it’s not designed to engage the broader audience – especially not the new generation, who’ve been trained by games to think fast, multitask, and expect dynamic feedback.
inZOI made its gameplay even more meditative, and that narrowed the audience even further. There’s no right or wrong here: if the goal is to satisfy a few thousand concurrent players and keep them in, then fine. If inZOI isn’t afraid to experiment, even at the cost of upsetting part of the cozy audience, by introducing a living city, tons of event-driven and challenge-based systems, then that’s a different move entirely.
When I suggest DLC concepts that channel the spirit of simulators like The Movies or URBZ, or the scale of Farming Simulator, it’s not that far off (I still haven’t finished writing about Ambulance Life and Firefighter Simulator), it mostly misses those who want event-driven or even partially punishing gameplay.
UPD: Even if they centered a complex hotel management system in a DLC, and/or introduced a lifeguard gameplay loop (part humorous, part intense), etc. they could’ve played the retention game more effectively.
The core issue is this: will inZOI pay off in the long run if it sticks to its current style? There’s a moderate concern that it won’t.
