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A thread on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board claims that creating your own protagonist (character creation, or “kyakuri”) in games is a “waste of time.” The original poster argued that changing your character’s looks is pointless if it doesn’t affect in-game reactions or stats. That set off a head-on clash between posters who said it lets them “get immersed” or “become their own self-insert hero,” and those who countered that a dedicated protagonist carefully designed around the story looks better and that character creation dilutes individuality. The debate expanded into direct comparisons with specific titles like Monster Hunter, Elden Ring, Sekiro, and The Witcher.
What people said
It's easier to get immersed than with a character whose personality and looks are already locked in.
Totally different—character creation is necessary.
Re: #4
No way. No personality at all.
Immersion comes from the story, as always.
Character creation that strips away personality is unnecessary.
I could take it or leave it.
If you don't like it, don't play.
They tack it on for no reason, don't they.
Whether it's a waste is up to the developers.
It depends on how it balances with everything else in the game.
Guess they don't even give you a real name these days.
Whatever I make myself just comes out looking like garbage.
Thing is, it doesn't matter whether you make a heartthrob or an ugly mug—nothing changes.
Don't need it myself, but it's better to have the option.
Whoever comes up with designs like that is amazing.
If you could express that much individuality, like in Soulcalibur, there'd be some point to it—but most of the time whatever you make just doesn't land.
Nice waste of time there.
but you just can't make characters like that.
I recently played God Eater Burst on PSP, and no matter how I tweaked it I only ever got a scrawny pretty-boy—total garbage.
Meanwhile the female characters end up looking like women's pro wrestlers.
But there's still no personality underneath.
Making Naoko Ken doesn't actually mean anything in the game itself though.
Games like Sekiro or The Witcher are the best for that.
It looks worse, graphically and visually, than a protagonist carefully crafted around a concept.
Capcom's Monster Hunter and Dragon's Dogma series, Koei Tecmo's action games—they should all just scrap character creation.
Then don't go complaining about "political correctness."
Making your own ideal character yourself solves the problem faster, and rolling gacha for characters is already idiotic at this point.
Nothing beats a mod that lets you tweak the design all the way down.
For single-player games, character creation is an unnecessary waste of time.
Finding hope in something like that is next-level.
I'm gonna create my ideal thicc girl.
Even if you do that, it has zero effect on the game.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Character creation for game protagonists is now a standard feature in open-world RPGs and action games, with some titles letting players adjust dozens of parameters—skin tone, body type, facial features, and more. What split the thread was whether to view character creation as “a tool that deepens immersion” or “an element that dilutes the finished product.” The pro camp prioritizes ease of roleplay and self-projection, while the anti camp holds that a dedicated character optimized for the story and visuals looks better and carries more weight. Points like the game addressing you with generic terms such as “you,” and the fact that changing your appearance doesn’t affect stats or how other characters react, reflect a design philosophy that prioritizes “giving players freedom” over integrating the character into the narrative. Criticism of political correctness and comparisons to mods also came up, but those are worth treating as separate issues from the merits of character creation itself.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Protagonist Character Creation ← This Is a Waste of Time, Right?.”
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