6 Life Simulation Games With The Best Character Customization

While life simulation games are often labeled as “casual games,” they are serious business for fans of the genre. Many hold these games to very high standards of coziness, relaxation, music, and art style. Gamers play these games to unwind and enjoy the pleasant, aesthetically pleasing side of life, after all.

One big part of crafting the perfect life sim is character creation. Gamers want their avatars customized to meet their unique vision. That means the character creation needs plenty of options for hair, face, clothes, accessories, and more. Bonus points for diversity, allowing players from all walks of life to see themselves in their favorite cozy worlds.

6 Ooblets

A Treabies For The Eyes

Ooblets is as colorful and quirky as it gets. This indie darling is a loving combination of Pokemon and Harvest Moon, where players collect cute little goobers called Ooblets and put them in dance battles. Everything in this world is extremely adorkable, from the Ooblet designs to the characters to the in-universe slang. No tooty vibes allowed.

As such, the character creation is similarly simple but sweet. Players can pick any arrangement of skin tones, hairstyles, facial hair, and outfits. The one thing they don’t need to pick is an assigned gender. Nothing in-game is either “men’s fashion” or “women’s fashion.” Want to combine a cute cardigan and skirt with a bushy lumberjack beard? Why not? Everyone’s welcome to express themselves however they want in this gleaming world.

5 Fantasy Life

A Magical Life Starts With A Magical Makeover

Fantasy Life is an underrated classic of the Nintendo 3DS. Players can explore a cute fantastical world through a variety of occupations, from paladins and alchemists to tailors or carpenters. They can even switch up their chosen life whenever they want to explore their options.

Similarly, Fantasy Life’s character creation also comes with tons of options that players can change as they see fit. There are tons of cartoony hairstyles, eyes, noses, mouths, and voices that fit the game’s cartoony style. Players can make their characters as sweet, silly, serious, or sleepy as they want. It’s their life, after all.

4 Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town

Pioneering the Franchise’s Graphics To A Whole New Level

• Released: February 25, 2021
• Developer: Marvelous Inc.
• Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, GeForce Now

Character customization wasn’t always the norm in this iconic farming franchise. For so many games, players were given the choice between one male and one female protagonist with a preset appearance. Eventually, players got the option to give their character different outfits they could either purchase or craft using their sheep’s wool or other materials.

It wasn’t until more recent installments, when the series banner changed from Harvest Moon to Story of Seasons in the 2010s, that players were allowed to fully customize their characters as they saw fit. Several 3DS titles experimented with character customization, but the Switch title Pioneers of Olive Town took the cake. Farmers could now have a variety of facial expressions, hairstyles, and outfits using crisp, HD graphics. And with a new title on the way, fans are eager to see where this iconic franchise will go next.

3 Stardew Valley

With Quality Spritework, Anything Is Possible

Speaking of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, that iconic franchise was the main inspiration for the now equally iconic Stardew Valley. This farming sim uses retro pixel art to create a stunning love letter to the genre, resulting in one of the most successful indie games to ever come out on Steam. It even fixes some of the issues that plagued Story of Seasons back in the day, such as the lack of same-sex relationships and character customization.

Stardew Valley blows other farming sims out of the water with its character creation. There are literally dozens of hairstyles and clothing options to choose from, ensuring that each farmer is unique. It also lets players use color sliders when picking out skin tones and eye colors, allowing far more diversity than other games that stick to a handful of preset colors.

2 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Bringing Character Customization To New Horizons

Animal Crossing is another series whose character creation has come a long way. Players usually got a random appearance at the beginning of each game, and that was it. In older games, even a change of hairstyle was a challenge. Later entries tried to incorporate darker skin tones in the form of sun tanning, which was difficult to maintain and not quite the options players were looking for.

Then, New Horizons stepped onto the scene and fixed everything. Players could now freely customize their characters from the ground up, with different faces, hairstyles, skin colors, and accessorized outfits. Later updates to the game even responded to feedback by adding more textured hairstyles like twists, plaits, and space buns. Now, any player can see themselves enjoying a tropical island getaway with their favorite neighbors.

1 Sims 4

The Options Just Keep Expanding

This entry is no surprise to anyone. The Sims is the undisputed king of life simulator games, especially when it comes to character creation. Every single aspect of a Sim’s appearance is fully customizable, right down to the proportions of every part of their body and the placement of their facial features. While this can be used to ridiculous effect, fans of the series adore how the Sims can replicate just about every body type that exists in real life.

The Sims 4 takes this to new heights. New expansion packs feature textured hairstyles to suit various ethnicities and even realistic depictions of vitiligo. The game is dedicated to lovingly and realistically depicting all the ways a real human body can look, and they’re showing no signs of stopping.