Which Game has the Best Character Customization?

SSX 3 was pretty awesome (in general, but also) for character customization. SSX 3 had costumes for every occasion for every character: I could light my head on fire, ride a paper bag, wear a bikini in the snow, or just find the right combination of boots, bottoms and top to look like a fairly normal person.

Moreover, the game presented most of this customization as progressed-based unlockables, which got me huge into the game despite the fact that I do not care about snowboarding.

Are there more modern games that come close to this level of customization and present that customization in a similarly addictive way? I have come to Street Fighter IV to try to satiate this want (pros: some nice costumes, cons: not very customizable, costs real money $$$$$) as well as Bayonetta (pros: not for real money, plentiful, cons: also not very good).

I guess it's worth noting before people get confused, I'm not talking about Mass Effect-style character creation, I'm talking about customizing an existing character.

Dark Souls 2 for both creation and customization. Saint's Row 2 isn't bad either.

What was that game with that thing?

Oh yeah... SpeedHatTilt. SAINT'S ROW 1.

I felt Dark Souls 2 wasn't very good. I could not make a white guy in it. My dude looked Asian. I seriously could not make white guy. I could in DS1. It was easy. I want to look like myself, but couldn't.

One game I feel does have good customization is GTA V. There are so many options. There might be too many options, as I constantly want to change outfits.

Wwe 2k14

dragon's dogma

Dark Souls 2

@cubidog1: Default male looks like a white guy. But really you can do just about anything with it; short of hairstyles.

Have you heard of Black Desert? video

black desert character creator looks insane. i wanted to fuck around with it some more but i can't handle all that moon. trial and error was killing me

I liked the Dragon's Dogma one, was able to make a dude that looked fairly like me.

@spectrum_90 said:

This is nuts. Awesome!

Saints Row 2. There's tons of options and then there's tons of customization you can do to each of those options.

They should release the character creator by itself. I'd buy it.

My vote is Tiger Woods 2007

my san andreas dude looked like yaphett kotto from alien

whatever happened to that weight-gain trend? i hate to see any customization features get dropped.

My favorite was always City of Heroes. My hero, Miss Blizzard, had 6 costume slots and each costume was very different from the others. I had my regular costume, an armored suit, a retro looking costume, street clothes, a costume inspired by Power Girl, and there was a sixth that I can't remember. :) I also made a ton of other characters, plus villains.

I miss the heck out of that game. It's too bad it ended, but the character creator was fabulous.

@jadegl: Champions Online and DC Universe Online both have that character creator but they are also kinda shitty games.

I miss CoH a whole lot.

@corevi: I never tried Champions but I did try DCU Online. I feel like DCU Online was more limited, at least when it was first released. Maybe it's improved? Either way, I still think COH was fantastic. I miss it too.

Dragons Dogma

this video is a good overview...song is to my liking as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIgkev0_qjM

Saints Row 3, I made my dude an native american australian, then I made him a russian chick, then a black chick, then a white dude, the possibilities were endless!

Freedom Wars has buttloads of character customization.

Plus you get to customize your weird robot chaperone after awhile so that's cool.

Probably wrestling games

@apothaeos said:

Saints Row 2's character customisation is vastly superior to the latter two. You could even customise your walking animation.

Anywhoo as others have mentioned, Dragon's Dogma is probably some of my favourite non-MMO character creation tools I've come across. It's not often that a game allows you to independently customise your arms and legs.

Anyone who says that Saints Row 3 and 4 has great character customization needs to play 2. You could mix and match so many different articles of clothing on top of being able to create pretty much anybody.

Man, I wish there was a version of Saints Row 2 that actually ran well. The PC version is widely regarded as one of the worst ports ever and the 360 version that I have just runs like crap and doesn't look very good at all. I wouldn't mind the looks if it ran at a solid, good framerate.

I really liked my character in Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain.

Saints Row 2 has the best character creation tool that I've ever come across and also the widest variety of body types I've ever seen. I've never seen a game allow for such a range between very thin to very fat bodies and I can only imagine that this is very hard to do because most games only allow for a very narrow range in body types.

I gotta vote Dragon's Dogma as well, crazy great character creator. Saint's Row 2 is the best "open world" game character creator though, hands down.

Yup. The lack of variable body types was something I particularly disliked about SRTT/SRIV's character creator. Even with your muscle percentage at zero your character still looked pretty damn beefy.

The Old Republic. You can really make characters with character in that thing.

Dragon's Dogma and Saints Row 2 easily as everybody else has been saying.

EVE is pretty good.

Resonance of Fate. I probably spent 1/3 of my game time buying and dressing my party up in cool clothes. You can also give your characters hair dye, color contacts, and custom gun holsters among other options, and they actually appear in combat and cutscenes!

I think there are a lot of good character customization but I like what are suggesting like Dark Souls 2 , Saints Row 2 and Dragon's Dogma but I will check out the other ones too.

Oh man, you meant customization as in just costumes and shit. Hmmm. I actually kinda liked the customization options in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Dressing up my little soldiers was pretty fun.

Speaking of Mass Effect, the armor customization in Mass Effect 2 and 3 was cool. Dragon Age: Inquisition does some neat stuff with crafting materials actually changing the appearance of equipment (colours and patterns), and most armor that you craft can be modified further with various ars/leggings.

@theht: I think the armor customization in Bioware games in general is some of the weakest in recent RPGs. There's some very limited options in different skins and they all kind of look the same. Nothing has really impressed me in their games ever, to be honest (character customization wise).

@kinggiddra: Fair enough. All of the armor pieces definitely read as sci-fi armor, but I don't think they particularly look the same.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls is a good one. Lots of varied armor appearances to unlock and transmog for all visible gear if you want, in addition to the simple dye system.

Nobody has said APB yet? The new EVE creator and Black Desert take inspiration from it plus it has a symbol creator so you can make (or buy from other players) whatever kind of images you want to put on clothing or use as tattoos. I made Kurt Russel's tank top from Big Trouble in Little China, a NYPD patch and the Ghostbusters symbol.

I will second CoH and Champions online. Champions especially. You could create an "alternate costume" that would change your size, posture and body proportions. I had a retro astronaut hero that could transform into a monkey.