InZOI Gameplay: Why Fans Are Obsessed (And Some Are Disappointed)

It has been more than one month since InZOI’s official release on 28th March 2025. InZOI, a South Korean life simulation game that competes with EA’s The Sims series, has become one of the most popular and trendiest games almost overnight. Streamers hop onto the game for the early gameplay experience sharing, and the comparison between InZOI’s gameplay and The Sims’ is just unavoidable. Now, with the one-month mark, we can finally sit down and discuss the pros and cons of InZOI objectively. Is it worth playing? Is InZOI as great as The Sims series, or maybe even better? This post will explain 3 outstanding InZOI gameplay designs and 3 major drawbacks that would need further improvement! Let’s begin! 🤔

What Is InZOI About?

Let’s start from InZOI’s game genre before going into details about InZOI gameplay system!

InZOI is a life simulation game with role, city, and house customization, developed by InZOI Studio and published by KRAFTON, Inc. The game genre of InZOI is the same as The Sims. This genre allows players to create their own characters, pets, families, and so on; live a simulation life in the game (including daily chores, satisfying necessities, working on careers, etc.); interact with NPCs; and explore the game world.

In InZOI gameplay system, players can customize their own characters to create a family in the game world. The world includes realistic shops and services as well, such as cafes, clothing shops, banks, and more. Players can choose the life for their Zois, let it be going into idol careers, getting married to other Zois, or just sitting in the cafe for a whole afternoon.☕

All in all, InZOI gameplay is rather relaxing and cozy as a life simulation game and boasts high freedom of choice. Imagine having a double life in InZOI, and that is the gameplay experience that life simulation games promise players.

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InZOI Gameplay Editing Mode: More Options, More Individuality!

InZOI gameplay’s editing mode includes editing characters, residences, and the city. The editing modes give players freedom to do some detailed editing on top of the general editing modes. The control and maneuvering are also easily accessible and convenient.

Players can customize their characters to the very last details, and the settings aim to encourage players’ creativity as much as possible. The same thing goes for the house editing mode. In the detailed editing mode, players can adjust almost every major muscle on the character’s face. The adjustments can accommodate the unique facial features and characteristics of different races. Another example is the color change. Every character-building item can be further customized down to the texture and RGB color reel.

The house editing allows customization of furniture from different parts or picture uploads as well. The customization has greatly enriched the options and enhanced players’ bonding with the game.

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While players cannot place buildings into the world yet, the city outlook is highly customizable. Players can adjust the weather, billboards, trees, vegetation, animals, decorations, and special effects of the city and apply these changes instantly. Cities become a changeable background for the Zois, like the artificial background in the photo-shooting shops. Want a romantic snow for the date? Change it instantly in the city editing mode!

Virtual Living: Realistic Style and Settings

While The Sims develops its iconic Maxis Match style for its characters and worlds, InZOI has taken another approach and makes the CC and gameplay highly realistic and non-cartoonish.

In terms of the CC, InZOI renders the characters as real-life as possible. The clothes, accessories, and skin textures are very akin to the real-life texture and have similar visual effects. The detailed motions made by characters from time to time are also natural and everyday life, such as adjusting shoes when walking.

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The game also integrates realistic options, while in The Sims series, players will need to install realistic mods. One outstanding design is the cancellation of the notification board, and it moves the notice to the phone. The phone becomes an indispensable tool for information gathering, action taking, and social interactions, giving the game a realistic touch. Another detail is the banking and loaning option, making finance gameplay more complicated but also more convenient.

In short, it is certainly a meaningful dedication that InZOI gameplay has devoted to an overall real-life-like virtual world. The realistic styles and settings satisfy the players’ craving for a virtual second life in the game.

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Immersive Vibe with Unique Regional Characteristics

InZOI has two maps available now, Dowon and Bliss Bay, and Kucingku, the third map, is coming soon. Each map represents a unique area in real life. Dowon takes inspiration from modern Seoul, Bliss Bay from Santa Monica in California, and Kucingku from a south-east Asian holiday city. Mirroring the city vibe and style in real life, InZOI gives the players three options to experience the charm of three cities from three different cultural and regional backgrounds.

The game has integrated the map, NPCs, career settings, and more to deliver an immersive experience of living in the appointed city. For example, Dowon, mirroring Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is a modern city full of activities and career opportunities for players to explore.

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There are idol training companies, trendy clothing shops, cozy cafes, and food stalls offering bibimbap. To explain further, players can stop by the clothing shops to purchase the trendy Asian clothes and accessories in-store. NPCs feature South Korean names and looks as well. Players can pursue a career in becoming an idol trainee, too.

In sum, InZOI has successfully built up an immersive and realistic world. This makes the gameplay more enjoyable and immersive. Moreover, the different city maps do not fail to deliver their uniqueness and regional special features.

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Lack of Logics & Connections: Option Strings, Not Dots

While InZOI gameplay has more options in many aspects and functions, more options do not always necessarily improve the gameplay experience. Instead of adding options, InZOI gameplay needs to improve the strings of logic and connections behind most of the options to make the options meaningful actions and interactions.

One outstanding example is the dialogue options. InZOI has a wide variety of dialogue options for players to choose. The game sorts the dialogue options into different categories as well. However, what is lacking is the organic connections between each interaction and the relation between the dialogue and the environment.

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While romance interactions can progress from flirting to physical intimacy, other interactions like business and friendship appear to be made up of random dialogue options, without strong correlations to the Zois’ personality type, hobbies, and careers.

There are other options lacking the follow-up actions as well. For example, the clothes purchased from the clothing shops cannot be found in the CAS or anywhere, rendering the purchasing option meaningless.

In conclusion, options and actions should have certain preconditions and entail consequences and follow-up results. To make a stand-alone option meaningful and relatable, it should be positioned in a string of playable actions. InZOI gameplay will still need to improve this.

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Lack of HUD Friendliness: Navigation Is Not That Easy

HUDs, the heads-up displays, are mini-windows and buttons showing up at the users’ interface to give players real-time information and easy access to key functions of the game. A simple and clear HUD design can always make the interface look concise. Players can locate the functions they need faster as well. However, InZOI’s HUDs are rather cramped and hard-to-read.

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Generally speaking, the game compromises the size of the buttons and pop-up windows for a better view of the world. To explain further, one can say that only 10% of the screen space is used for HUDs, and maybe 30% of the screen space is taken up when there is a pop-up window. Most of the screen space is given to displaying what is going on with the Zois and the game world.

This set-up makes screenshots and sharing easier. However, simulation games require much maneuvering based on the real-time information about the character, and this compromise can be daunting for players who are looking for the buttons and windows they want.

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Awkward Dropping and Increasing Rate: Necessity & NPC Relationship

InZOI has eight types of needs and three types of NPC relationships. The dropping rate of the needs and the increasing rate of the NPC relationships can be more balanced and realistic.

The eight needs are Hunger, Hygiene, Sleep, Bathroom, Fun, Social, Recognition, and Energy. The dropping rate of these necessities is not quite balanced. Zois get hungry pretty fast, requiring about three meals a day, yet the bathroom, fun, and social rate drop very slowly. Compared to getting hungry, Zois probably only need to go to the bathroom once a day. The fun and social aspects are dropping very slowly, in which case the players almost do not need to worry and intervene at all. The imbalanced dropping rate of needs chiefly leads to compromising the immersiveness of the InZOI gameplay experience.

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On the other hand, the relationship with NPCs can progress pretty fast, maybe too fast. For example, the romance relationship with an NPC can quickly progress from a stranger to a lover in one day after conversing romantically about twenty times, which is fantasy-like.

A more balanced rate can certainly boost the gameplay experience. Players can perform more diverse mandatory activities to take care of the needs. At the same time, drawbacks in the relationship can set up reasonable challenges to encourage players to pursue the hard-achieving goals.

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Conclusion: InZOI Gameplay

For players who are fans of The Sims series, the efforts and improvements made by InZOI concerning its overall gameplay are plain to the eyes. The developer studio has been building InZOI on top of many complaints about The Sims 4, such as the lack of vehicle purchase, more detailed character customization, more flexible furniture design and arrangements, and so on.

On the other hand, InZOI also has much room for improvement compared to the strengths of The Sims 4. HUDs, logical options, and balanced necessity rates are only a few of them on the list. However, the current gameplay approach and styles are enough to offer a different experience and make it stand out as something different from its key competitors. It can certainly do better with more upgrades!