Blade & Soul’s titillating characters sell Tumblr posts for a good reason: they’re lustrous and spread across the gamut of possibility. Start by choosing between one of four races: the beefy Gon, lolita Lyn, amazonian Yun, or the human Jin. Races are limited to three classes each, some of which overlap (e.g. only Jin can play Assassin’s but both Jin and Yun can choose Blade Master). Character creation consists of a wide range of presets that are refined through sliders. To my surprise you’re not confined to a predetermined aesthetic, à la Black Desert Online. Instead, as with Perfect World International, crafting a character to turn onlookers to stone is entirely possible. Or, follow the crowd and create a Victoria’s Secret model.

I have to note that every time you change a hairstyle your chest pulsates like Kuato from Total Recall is trying to tell you a secret—as if my character’s breasts were having a seizure from each haircut. Characters aren’t perfect. By default Blade & Soul figurines have peculiar anatomies. I like Hyung-Tae Kim’s artwork, but something was added in the translation to the game’s character models. Some races are noticeably elongated as if characters were stretched on Emperor Nero’s torture rack. It’s personal taste, but I found it disconcerting. The models didn’t stop me from enjoying the game; it added to my immersion when I met player’s who pushed the character creator to its extremes.