Black Desert/Character Creation
|
Character Creation
the tool released before the game
| |
The Warrior, one of thirty-two fixed appearances Official class portrait, Pearl Abyss
| |
| Released | Free and standalone, ahead of the game itself |
|---|---|
| Scope | Within a class, which fixes the body |
| Method | Sculpting, rather than picking preset faces |
| Sharing | The Customization Album |
| Reach | Presets browsable across every region |
Character creation in Black Desert is the part of the game that reached players first. Pearl Abyss released the creator as a free standalone program before the game itself was out, and a good many people used it without ever buying anything.
That was a reasonable bet on its strength. Rather than offering a handful of preset faces, the creator lets a player push and pull the underlying shape at a very large number of points. Two characters of the same class need not resemble each other at all.
Anything built in the standalone tool carries into the game. A face made months before release could be imported and played, which is unusual for a marketing giveaway.
1 What can be changed✎
The scope is set by the class rather than by the tool. Most classes are locked to one body and one broad appearance, so an adventurer is shaping a particular character rather than building one from nothing.
Within that, the control is unusually fine. Features are sculpted directly instead of chosen from a list, and a player willing to spend the time can work at a level of detail closer to a modeling program than to a menu. Presets exist for anyone who would rather not.
2 The Customization Album✎
Finished faces do not have to stay private. The Customization Album, reached from the creator itself, lets a player upload what they have made and browse what everyone else has.
It is not limited to one server. The album spans the game's regions, so a preset made in Korea can be downloaded and worn in Europe, which makes it one of the few places the separate versions of the game meet.
The practical effect is that skill at the creator is transferable. A player with no talent for sculpting can wear the work of someone who has it, and the best-regarded presets circulate widely.
3 Reception✎
The creator has been called the deepest customization tool in any game on the market, and the claim is not obviously wrong. It drew attention on its own terms before launch, including a contest run for the least beautiful things players could produce with it.
Not everyone was convinced. Some reviewers found the freedom narrower than promised once the class restrictions became clear, since no amount of sculpting turns one class into another.