Character Features

Character development is another cornerstone of life- simulation and Metamorph sets itself apart from other competitors such as The Sims 4 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons by placing a strong emphasis on such progression. In addition to its extensive character development system, the game also offers a sophisticated and user-friendly build mode with an engaging careers mode, surpassing those of its predecessors and providing players with a great amount of freedom.

When beginning a new game, players will be given the option to customise their character with a highly diverse selection of aesthetic choices. Afterwards, they will be given the option to select the character’s date of birth, full name and gender, after which they will be able to customise their eyes, hair, mouth and face shape, apply facial hair as well as change the skin colour. Besides applying changes to the body, players can also apply a vast amount of clothing pieces such as hats, eye-wear, tops, bottoms, belts and shoes. All colours can be customised which is very rare for the life-sim genre due to development complexities. Players may also choose between many different personality traits with a multitude of different categories which serve to make the character feel more unique. These categories such as the character’s talents, quirks and personality, along with the character’s favourite colour, type of diet and vibe work together to convey the true sense of individuality. The character creation menu has been redesigned through many iterations to follow a more linear and systematic approach so that players do not get confused when confronted with such a complex system.

Another core feature is the wellbeing system. The wellbeing system represents real-life needs, which in the game is implemented into eight needs: hunger, thirst, hygiene, comort, happiness, energy, health and bladder. These gauges (represented as green bars) will decrease over time prompting the player to maintain them, which is representative of the real world. Failing to maintain these needs will yield negative side effects for the player which have consequences. There are a lot of debuffs* which the player can receive and some of these include the player feeling sluggish, anxious and even smelly. Neglecting the character’s basic needs, such as hunger and thirst, will significantly impact their health gauge which will cause him to fall unconscious, allowing time to pass in a fast-forward state while his stats partially regenerate and allow the character to wake up half a day later.

Character interests are an important part of the game as they offer a strong sense of progression. As the name suggests, there is a whole list of interests and activities the player can participate in to gain interest levels. The interest feature is currently split into five different skills which are fitness, cooking, knowledge, writing and physique and currently, all of these skills can be levelled up to level 12. This is subject to change in the upcoming versions of the game which will include many more interest skills and a higher level cap*. Levelling up the character’s interests is highly important as it allows more actions to be unlocked. For example, by levelling up the cooking interest, the player is able to make more dishes and cook more efficiently which is a requirement for career progression.