[Participating in the NEXON PEAK Post Challenge]

https://peak.nexon.com/post/2308

I used to put little thought into my character’s appearance when starting a game.

I figured armor would hide most of their face, and I would get used to how they looked after a few hours anyway. So I often just picked a hairstyle and color, then went straight into the game.

But Vindictus was different.

I had been working on my character for quite a while and still had not entered the game. A face that looked fine from the front seemed awkward from the side, and a slight change in build made the same outfit look completely different.

In the end, I spent more days revising my character’s appearance than I had spent creating it.

Of all the NEXON games I have played, Vindictus has given me the most enjoyment from customization. Fine-tuning a face is fun, but I especially liked being able to choose combat gear and cosmetic outfits independently.

My First Character Looked Completely Different in Town

The character creation screen had flattering lighting.

I could see the face clearly, and the skin looked smooth. After turning the character to check several angles, I thought I had created a look I was reasonably happy with.

But the moment I entered town, my character looked different.

The eyes that had looked natural on the creation screen seemed a little too large in the game itself, and the face looked longer than I had intended. It was fine during combat, but it bothered me whenever I saw my character up close in dialogue scenes or around town.

Eventually, I went back to adjust their appearance.

At first, I made big changes to the eyes and face shape, but each adjustment only made things look more awkward. Fixing one feature made another stand out, and getting the front view right left me unhappy with the profile.

After a few failed attempts, I stopped making sweeping changes to the whole face. Instead, I made small adjustments to just the features that bothered me, such as the eye size or jawline.

Just as too much photo retouching can make the original face disappear, changing too much at once took my character further from the look I had first imagined.

The Same Clothes Looked Completely Different on a Different Build

In Vindictus, I spent more time considering my character’s build than their face.

Each character has a different basic look and build, and the range of available adjustments varies too. Even in the same gear, the height and body proportions I chose could change the overall impression.

At first, I simply made my character tall.

I thought they would look strong in combat and that long weapons would suit them. Once I put them in armor, I was quite pleased with the result.

The problem came when I tried a lighter outfit.

It emphasized their size too much, rather than giving them the natural look I wanted. I ended up making them a little shorter and less bulky, then readjusting their shoulders and overall proportions.

Only then did both combat outfits and everyday clothes look right.

That was when I realized I could not judge my customization choices by the character creation screen alone. To get a proper sense of the overall look, I needed to see my character in the clothes they would actually wear most often.

I Started Seeking Gear for Its Looks Rather Than Its Stats

At first, naturally, I only looked for gear with high stats.

As long as my defense and attack went up, I was happy. I did not pay much attention to how the gear looked. But after finding an outfit I liked, I began to play a little differently.

Whenever I got new gear, I checked its design before its stats.

“Would this top go with the bottoms I already have?”

“Maybe it would look good if I just changed the gloves?”

With those questions in mind, I stopped thinking of gear only in complete sets. I began mixing and matching tops, bottoms, gloves, and shoes.

Wearing a complete set was a fairly safe choice, but mixing in pieces from elsewhere sometimes gave me a combination I liked even more.

Keeping combat gear and cosmetic appearances separate also meant I was less likely to be stuck with a design I disliked just for its stats.

Somewhere along the way, a game where I collected gear to defeat bosses became a game where I defeated bosses to dress well.

Dyeing Alone Took More Time Than I Expected

Once I had settled on an outfit, I still had to coordinate the colors.

At first, I thought I could not go wrong with black and white. The result did look clean, but it also made my character look much like everyone else’s.

So I tried mixing in deep navy or dark red.

The trouble was that apparently identical colors could look different depending on the material. They reflected brightly on metal details but looked much darker on fabric. Sometimes colors that matched on the dyeing screen clashed under the lighting in town.

After that, I stopped trying to make every piece exactly the same color.

I chose one main color and used a secondary color on smaller areas, such as gloves or shoes. With metal details, letting the original texture show looked more natural than forcing them to match the rest of the outfit.

Once, I spent an entire hour just choosing colors.

I had not fought a single battle, but I still felt I had thoroughly enjoyed the game. Customization had become a form of gameplay in its own right.

Four Guidelines I Developed Through Customizing

After so many adjustments to my character’s appearance and changes of outfit, I developed a few guidelines of my own.

First, I check more than the front view on the character creation screen.
I also look at the profile and the view from slightly above. During actual play, I found I spent more time seeing my character’s face at an angle than straight on.

Second, I consider the outfits my character will wear most often before deciding on their build.
Different proportions worked best depending on whether I mainly dressed them in heavy armor or in lighter outfits and cosmetic clothing.

Third, I keep the palette to no more than three colors.
Using every color I liked made the individual pieces look disconnected. A main color, a secondary color, and a color for metal or decorative details gave a cleaner result.

Fourth, I check the look both in town and in combat.
An outfit that looked lovely in bright lighting could lose almost all its fine patterns in a dark dungeon. If I was planning to take screenshots, it helped to check the outfit in several locations.

Most importantly, I avoid copying someone else’s popular outfit exactly.

Taking inspiration from well-chosen combinations helped, but the same clothes could look completely different on a character with a different face and build. Changing even one piece to suit my own taste made me feel more attached to my character.

A Familiar Face, More Than Powerful Gear, Kept Me Playing

Over years of playing an online game, gear keeps changing.

A weapon that once took considerable effort to obtain ends up in storage when new gear arrives. Combat styles and skill combinations can change with updates, too.

But the face and overall feel of the character I had created stayed with me.

When a new outfit came out, my first thought was whether it would suit my character. Even when I returned after a long break, I checked their appearance before their gear. Seeing an outfit I had put together in the past naturally brought back memories of what I had been doing in the game at the time.

For me, then, customization in Vindictus became more than a way to make a good-looking character.

It gave me one more reason to keep playing.

On days when I was tired of combat, I tried different outfits. When I had nothing particular to do, I adjusted the dye colors again. As I gradually refined my character, it felt less like controlling a protagonist someone else had made and more like playing alongside a character I had created myself.

For me, enjoyable customization is not simply a matter of having as many options as possible.

It means being able to see the look I created throughout combat, town visits, and story scenes, with every new outfit giving me a reason to customize again.

By that measure, Vindictus is still the first NEXON game that comes to mind.

When you create a character, which do you spend the most time on: the face, the build, or the outfit?

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