Inzoi is really trying to eat The Sims 4's lunch by including seasons in its base game instead of locked behind a DLC
As has become Friday tradition leading up to the launch of the new life sim Inzoi, its creative director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim has revealed some more features coming to the game at launch to fans on Discord. This time: Seasons. Oh, and the possibility of your Zois dying of exposure if underdressed.
"As we've mentioned before, inZOI allows you to experience a variety of weather conditions," Kjun explains. "Recently, we've taken this further by implementing 'seasons' and 'temperature' effects in the game."
Kjun explains that Inzoi's urban Korean-inspired world "Dowon" will have four different seasons to emulate conditions there while its SoCal-inspired world "Bliss Bay" will be warmer all year round. It's hard not to hear that and side-eye The Sims, where seasonal weather has always been part of an expansion pack, never the base game.
I've still got reservations about how much depth and breadth Inzoi is actually going to manage packing into its early access launch in March but every week of "Kjun's Concerns" seems to answer another lingering question I'd had.
In that same vein, I'd yet to see evidence of Zois getting to wear situational outfits—like daily wear versus formal, bathing suits, and pajamas—and Kjun brings that up as well, at least as it relates to weather. He says that Inzoi will let you select seasonally-appropriate clothing presets for your Zois so they're always prepared. Zois will also dress appropriately for the weather and suffer the consequences if you under-prepare them.
"We’ve also made sure that the clothing Zois wear reflects the current temperature. If your Zoi is underdressed in freezing winter, they can quickly fall ill—and if left in that state too long, they might not be able to survive. The same applies to wearing overly thick clothing in high temperatures."
As its early access launch draws closer, I've been comparing which Inzoi features we know are coming compared with what exists in The Sims 4. As the first major Sims competitor set to finally hit the market—after Life By You's cancellation last year and Paralives coming later this year—it's going to be really interesting to see how player experiences with Inzoi stack up to all the baked-in expectations we have as Sims players.
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