Larian Studios deserves our trust, so we tend to believe them whenever they say things like “We want the Divinity character creator to beat the already famous toolkit from Baldur’s Gate 3.” Phew – what a thing to say! And since the announcement of their new game, rumors have naturally gone crazy regarding how the RPG gods will change the formula – if at all.
In a recent community Q&A, Larian’s art director Alena Dubrovina said the team is planning an even better character customization suite, while calling out more colors, more options, and even more control than BG3.
This might sound great for your average casual player, but for anyone who’s 300 hour playtime was half-spent trying to create the perfect character, scrapping it, and starting all over again, this sounds like a nightmare. We’ve lost hours to BG3’s hairdos, tattoos, scars, piercings, and face presets – so this is a big claim indeed.
Larian knows that the character creation menu isn’t something most players rush through anymore, just to get to the good bits – it is, in fact, part of the roleplay experience as a whole. So we say, Larian knows exactly what most people will think; it sets the goal post quite high for the level of customization for the rest of Divinity, the rest of the adventure might just be a custom-made roleplay dream come true. Or will it?
What Could More Colors, More Options & More Control Actually Look Like in the Divinity Character Creator?
Admittedly, this line is doing a lot of the work for us already, but it also gives us a clear direction to go with: Larian wants a character creation tool that feels less like picking from a glorified wardrobe and more like shaping a character with real nuance at play, a true depiction of the hero – or villain – you want to create. Neat.
Let’s start with the colors, as we feel this one’s the easiest to break down, and also the most noticeable at first glance. True, BG3 already featured a solid palette to pick from, but it definitely did nudge you toward a handful of rather popular looks. A bigger, more intricate color system could therefore mean finer shades for hair and makeup, more complex custom dye options, you know, stuff like that – so nore more characters with three good reds to choose from.
More options for us means expanded variety in the building blocks you’ll end up sifting through, so more hairstyles, facial details, etc. But also the stuff players immediately ask for in RPGs for a modern audience (yes, we hate it too), like a broader representation of body, face, age, and additional skin details.
Now, more control is rather interesting, because it hints at something Baldur’s Gate 3 kind of lacked and only really partially embraced. When we say control, we usually mean less reliance on presets the devs think are cool, and definitely more room to go wild or even just fine-tune. That does sound like a broad spectrum, but it might range from extra toggles and adjustable intensity of scars and tattoos, all the way to proper sliders that let you tune facial structures and proportions, all – hopefully – without fighting the engine itself.
Just, please: Don’t take a page out of Oblivion’s playbook, since that was a bit too much control given to the player. We know what we’re like, and it must be stopped. The Divinity character creator will hopefully make for…less grotesque creations.
How A Better Divinity Character Creator Affects the Whole RPG System, Not Just Mere Visuals
For us, a stronger, more robust Divinity character creator isn’t just window-dressing, far from it – especially in a hardcore RPG like Larian’s Divinity is shaping up to be. So, if Larian is invested in more visual control that actually impacts how you perceive your character, and therefore your head-canon, here are some things we think would be…wise:
- More reactive gear visuals: armor, clothing, dyes, and accessories that look good across more shapes and styles
- More cosmetic rewards: loot and progression that isn’t only about stats, but also about identity
- More expressive roleplay: characters that feel distinct in cutscenes, co-op sessions, head-canon, and of course, screenshots. Photo mode, anyone?
To make a long story short, an upgraded Divinity character creator tool could be a great foundation for a game that supports, nay, embraces personalization in all its systems, rather than treating it as a one-time setup that you never think about again, because it doesn’t impact your game, like – at all. Here’s to hope.
