I'm a 34 year old man and I've been with EA since "The Sims" and back then this what we thought the game would eventually turn out to be.....For years and years we have begged EA for a game like this and they never listened. This game is AMAZING!! It's ONLY the EARLY ACCESS!!!! This game has so much potential that it isn't funny!! This game already beats out the sims on the fact that it has most of the DLC content already in the game and its still in beta. EA has been greedy for far too long and now it's about to finally cost them. Good job Krafton Team, you guys have something good going here and please keep listening to your community. Don't be like EA.

Before I start writing my review, I’d like to give some advice to players who are interested in purchasing the game but are not in a hurry. I suggest waiting a bit longer. The current game content still feels rather empty. If you're mainly interested in character creation and building, then it's fine. However, if you're looking for rich gameplay content, I wouldn’t recommend buying the game at this stage. Once Krafton has fully expanded and improved the game, I’ll come back to update my review.

Since I'm not particularly interested in character creation or building mechanics, my review will primarily center around the life simulation aspects of the game.

First of all, I can tell that the game has a solid foundation and great potential. However, due to the current limited content, it sometimes feels a bit empty. That said, considering it's still in early access, I completely understand, and I’m looking forward to future content updates.

This has already been mentioned by many players in various communities. My PC isn't high-end, but I can play smoothly on low settings, so overall, performance isn’t too bad. However, occasional crashes still occur.

The UI is clean and visually appealing, but the UX experience isn't great. Many features are buried under multiple layers, making them hard to access. Even after playing for 20+ hours, I still struggle to remember where certain functions are, which means I have to search for them repeatedly. I suggest placing the most frequently used daily life management features on the main interface for easier access.

I believe many players have already raised concerns about this. My suggestion:

• In top-down "God View" mode, WASD should be used to move the camera.
  
• When switching to third-person view via the Tab key, WASD should then control the Zoi character.

This adjustment is important for two main reasons:

• Players often manage multiple Zoi characters within a household. Using WASD to move the camera would allow for quick navigation and better control, especially when combined with mouse-click commands.
  
• In Build Mode, WASD controls the camera. However, in Live Mode, WASD moves the Zoi instead, which is quite confusing. Since players frequently switch between Build and Live Mode to tweak furniture and decorations, it’s crucial to maintain consistent controls within the same perspective to prevent confusion.

Zoi’s movements feel unnecessarily sluggish, especially at the start of an action. When I press the W key, Zoi does respond immediately, but the initial movement is slow and overly drawn out, making the animation feel heavy. Even after picking up speed, walking and running still feel somewhat sluggish.

Zoi cannot perform multiple actions at once, such as eating while chatting or watching TV. What's even funnier is that when one Zoi initiates a conversation, they just stand there awkwardly, waiting for the other Zoi to finish their task before the chat can begin.

• Zoi must sit to eat, and if no chairs are nearby, they will walk a long distance just to find one.
  
• Some conversations require sitting, while others must be done standing.
  
• These mechanics feel unnatural and reduce gameplay flexibility.

• After making a pizza or other multi-serving meals, Zoi eats one slice and then throws away the entire remaining dish.
  
• Zoi only cleans up their own dishes, but not those of others. I’m unsure if this is a bug or an overlooked feature.

• When hungry, clicking the hunger icon makes Zoi search for food, but they only take food from the fridge—they won’t cook or eat food from their inventory.
  
• When outdoors, they only drink water instead of buying food.
  
• Drinking water alone shouldn’t be enough to fully satisfy hunger.

• Washing hands restores cleanliness too much. With frequent handwashing, a Zoi could theoretically never need to shower.
  
• Exercising should significantly reduce cleanliness, but it currently doesn’t.

(A side note: A YouTuber once tried a challenge to see how long a Zoi could survive with no money, home, or food. Initially, it seemed like an interesting experiment, but we quickly realized that as long as the Zoi slept on public benches, washed hands repeatedly, and drank water, their condition barely changed—this is highly unrealistic.)

I like the inclusion of a karma system, but managing it feels tedious. Currently, players have to manually reward or punish Zoi with extreme karma, but every action triggers an unskippable 2-3 second animation. When multiple Zoi need to be managed, this process becomes incredibly time-consuming. If this feature isn’t planned to tie into deeper mechanics later, I suggest removing manual karma management and allowing rewards/punishments to trigger automatically(and/or randomly) based on Zoi’s behavior.

If you insist on letting players to manage the karma, at least remove that 2-3 second animation.

Even at 8x speed, time moves painfully slow. While my Zoi was sleeping, I went to the bathroom and did some light cleaning in real life, when I returned, my Zoi was still sleeping.

This is a major issue. Many players quit after just 1-2 hours because of how slow-paced the game feels. (Another major reason is the WASD control issue mentioned earlier—these two problems are huge deal-breakers.)

• Even after purchasing a car, Zoi won’t use it for travel. Instead, they still walk to the subway or bus station.
  
• Family members traveling to the same destination at the same time don’t travel together.
  
• Passengers don’t automatically get into the car unless manually controlled.

• Only the elder household can set door permissions, and they can only adjust their own access.
  
• I hope door permissions can be assigned to specific household members individually.

• Hired cleaners (repairman as well) enter the house, they walk around for a bit, then leave without doing any work, wasting money.
  
• There should be an option for scheduled daily cleaning instead of having to manually hire a cleaner every time.

• Zoi rarely act on their aspirations unless manually directed.
  
• Some aspiration descriptions are too vague, making it unclear how to fulfill them.

Zoi's autonomous behavior needs improvement.
• Even when I set a Zoi’s preference to "Like Cooking", they never cook. If I set "Dislike Cleaning," they still clean all the time.
  
• After school, Zoi don’t automatically do their homework.
  
• Zoi don’t autonomously fulfill their aspirations.
  
• Zoi rarely find things to do on their own—most of the time, they just sit around or pick fights with others.

The biggest drawbacks right now are the inconvenient UI/UX and the extremely slow gameplay pace. The slowness isn’t the kind that makes the game relaxing—it’s the kind that makes it frustrating. This is due to a combination of:

• Slow character movement
  
• Clunky controls
  
• Frequent need to search for buttons/functions

If these issues are addressed, the game would be much more enjoyable!

I really, really want to like inZOI, but I have very mixed feelings about it…

On the surface, the game looks fantastic - the graphics are great, and the character designer is impressive. I had lots of fun playing with it and creating characters, but the gameplay itself is incredibly bare-bones, even for Early Access. Skills feel totally meaningless, and the world lacks depth. For example, you can just stand in one spot watering the same tomato plant all day to max out gardening. Cooking only lets you prepare a single portion at a time, followed by washing a single plate, which makes everything feel slow and artificial. There’s no real depth or immersion behind these mechanics. Again—I know it’s Early Access, but the systems don’t seem well thought out at all.

Beyond the gameplay, I’m seriously concerned with how the game is being managed. Despite being just launched into Early Access, DLC has already been mentioned multiple times, which is unsettling when the core game itself is still so underdeveloped. There are also predatory tactics in place, like FOMO-driven events and exclusive rewards only for streamers, leaving regular players out. The "Play Together" event is especially bad—it’s essentially a referral campaign where you have to convince others to buy the game just to get a cat costume, and even that doesn’t work properly. Krafton has been slow to acknowledge or fix these issues, frustrating a lot of players.

This kind of approach might be expected in mobile games, but for a single-player PC game in Early Access, it’s just wrong. If you’re on the fence about buying inZOI, I’d recommend waiting to see if it improves and reveals it's identity. Right now, Krafton is not making a great first impression.