Crusader Kings 3 has been one of the biggest titles featured on Xbox Game Pass for PC this year, with the strategy game allowing players to step into the shoes of a ruler with an astonishing amount of mechanical depth. While Crusader Kings 3 reviews were positive overall, the game did launch without the ability to create one's own ruler from scratch, though that's been changed in a recent update.
Highlighted by a new video released by Paradox Interactive, Crusader Kings 3's developer, the character customization feature offers a ton of options. While the video itself clocks in at just under a minute, viewers get to see a decent amount of the character creation process, which seems to allow players to customize even the minutia of their character's look. There's a slider for just about everything, so there will undoubtedly be options to make fine-looking characters, along with any whacky ones players might want to create.
Following Crusader Kings 3's launch, interest in a custom ruler mode was high, with players wanting to craft their own legacies outside of the default options found in the game. A large part of the game's appeal is the tendency for wild scenarios to emerge, and being able to create custom characters goes a long way in giving players more agency for those situations.
The video shows off how the update functions mechanically, though players should check it out for themselves to see just how much of a difference it can make during the experience. Crusader Kings 3 characters die, have children, and encounter problems. Having a direct effect on how the character looks makes actions feel all the more realistic and engaging, and that can make the game feel a lot deeper. Paradox Interactive has done great work with the game, and that's clear here.
Previously, Crusader Kings 3 customization was a bit rudimentary. Players could change their ruler's hairstyle, hair color, and clothing, but they have nowhere near as much control as this new system is promising. Character customization has been a much-talked-about aspect of games this year, with Demon's Souls giving players a lot of options, and Cyberpunk 2077 letting players go wild with their own characters, all the way down to their fingernails. Not to mention, titles like Baldur's Gate 3, which also invests heavily into customization.
These features will likely become increasingly deep as time presses on and technology advances. Character customization has come a long way over the years, and it shows no indication of slowing down any time soon.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now on PC.