For many, the main attraction of Elden Ring is the combat, as tough battles against bosses and regular foes can be found all throughout the Lands Between. For others, the biggest draw of FromSoftware’s latest game is the lore, as a collaboration with George R.R. Martin has led to an even deeper backstory than what is normally seen in the developer’s games. However, there is another corner of the community that dedicates itself to making and sharing custom characters.
While there are plenty of Elden Ring fans who create themselves when designing their Tarnished, or try to make their player character as ugly as possible for a laugh, others have focused on crafting some genuinely cool creations. These include playable versions of NPCs from the Roundtable Hold, celebrities like Michael Jackson, memes like the Gigachad, and figures from pop culture like Doctor Strange and Obi-Wan Kenobi. While players could not have made these characters without a decent character creator, most would agree that the current system could still be improved upon.
Elden Ring Needs More Hairstyles, Body Types, and Facial Customization
Recently, several gamers came together to discuss how much a dreadlocks hairstyle would benefit Elden Ring. Not only would players have more options when designing Viking-like characters, but it would allow people that have dreadlocks in real life to create more accurate versions of themselves in-game. Beyond that, dreadlocks would make custom characters like Snoop Dogg more accurate.
This discussion extends beyond just dreadlocks, though, as Elden Ring’s character creator is lacking when it comes to hairstyles in general. With hair being one of the ways that so many people express themselves, there should be far more options available to choose from. Longer hair, braided hair, and the aforementioned dreadlocks are just the tip of the iceberg, as there are countless styles that could be implemented. Further, though more regular hair options should be a priority since that is where the character creator is lacking the most, it would be nice if players had more options for facial hair as well.
Beyond this, Elden Ring should let players customize certain parts of their protagonist’s body, with size in general being easier to control. If players want to, they should be able to make incredibly short or laughably tall characters. Some players may only want a larger chest or stomach, while others could want muscular arms but thin legs - all of which should be achievable within a character creator. If an Elden Ring update is ever releases that expands upon the character creator, it would be great if players were able to adjust specific parts of their bodies.
This extends to facial features as well, as many Elden Ring fans have reported having a difficult time making feminine character models. Players need to widen the entire face instead of just adjusting the forehead, for example, while altering the cheeks can result in ridiculously wide jaws. Being able to edit more parts of the face individually could help fans carefully adjust their model's bone structure, resulting in a tool set that is easier to work with. Most players are not willing to spend hours finding the perfect slider positions, so having more control over each part of the face to help speed up the creation process would be ideal.
While Elden Ring’s character creator is ultimately a step forward when compared to other FromSoftware games, it is only average when held up to the character creation seen in other AAA titles. Given the popularity of Elden Ring, it would be great to see the game’s character creator get an update, with said improvements possibly dropping alongside a DLC. This is unlikely, though, so hopefully FromSoftware will at least keep the community feedback in mind when it is building the character creation tools for its next game.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.