Despite being released less than a week ago,Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandshas already proven to be a very worthy spiritual successor toBorderlands 3due to an even more chaotic gameplay flow that combines guns with spell casting and melee attacks. While a whacky combat system was always been a distinctive feature ofBorderlandsgames,Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsalso builds on other main elements of the series, including the degree of freedom players have while choosing their class. In fact,Borderlandsgames usually have a selection of characters to choose from, known asVault Hunters, each with their own skill trees and specializations.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandschanges that by allowing players to pick a starting class out of six before later picking a second class out of the remaining five, effectively having two fully-functioning classes at once, limited only by the number of skill points available at the current level cap. Another fantastic change thatTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsbrings is that players are no longer relegated to customizing existing characters with collectible cosmetics, as they can instead create their own hero. This happens through the game’s very well-built character creator, which makesTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsmuch more of an RPG than anyBorderlandsgame has been thus far.
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Why Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands' Character Creator is So Good
While the character customization process of pastBorderlandsgames was still nice to an extent, with several skins, heads, and colors available to change the appearance of one’s Vault Hunter, the characters still didn’t necessarily feel like the players' own. This is because they were predefined sets of characters with their own personalities and backgrounds, which often came into play in terms of their in-game abilities as well. As such, being able to create a brand-newunique character inTiny Tina’s Wonderlands, giving them a backstory and attributes, makes the experience more immersive.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands' character creatoris one of the most advanced in the industry at the moment, as it features all sorts of customization options. Players can choose their character’s body type, pronouns, voice, overall size, hairstyle, skin color, facial features, decorations, armor, and more. This extensive degree of freedom allows players to make all sorts of characters, with many fans of other franchises adding established characters to Tiny Tina’s board game. Not only that, though, but players can also customize their characters beyond the creation process via collectible items like in theBorderlandsgames.
The fact that the character creator inTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsallows for the customization of most facial parts, as well as allowing players to opt-out of the symmetrical look for most of them, makes the process much deeper than many other games do. Gearbox’s attention to detail also shows in the fact that the masculine and feminine body types are referred to as “That One” and “This One,” respectively, further demonstrating that the character’s gender is not the focus. WithTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsbeing a fantasy RPG, players also have the options for non-human skin colors and facial features, which is great.
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How a Borderlands MMO Could Take Advantage of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands' Character Creation
Because the customization process is so diverse and detailed, this can be used by Gearbox as a springboard for future releases, and especially so for a hypotheticalBorderlandsMMO. While there is no official confirmation of aBorderlandsMMO being in the works or even conceived as a possibility, it would make a lot of sense given the course of events in the mainline series, which is now exploring the past of the universe and the eldritch beings it contains.Borderlands 3put a lot of emphasis on theDestroyer fromBorderlands 1and the figure of the Creator, its antithesis, making the former endless destruction and the latter unbound creation.
Borderlands 3also introduced a new Guardian left by the Eridians to protect the planet Nekrotafeyo, with whom players eventually have a confrontation in the Director’s Cut DLC. This Guardian is the Seer, who refers toBorderlands' Sirens as chaos incarnate because of how they can tear apart causality and the timeline of events. This may tie intoBorderlands: The Pre-Sequel’s impending war, which was predicted by another Guardian: the Watcher. These are likely connected in the series' lore in a way that makes this large-scale conflict one that could be the perfect premise for aBorderlandsMMO.
With this in mind, if aBorderlandsMMOis ever to be made, it would most definitely allow players to make their own characters instead of choosing from preset Vault Hunters. In that case, using a character creation process that very closely resembles that ofTiny Tina’s Wonderlandswould make sense. Not only that, but it’s also possible thatTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsis a stepping stone in this direction, as Gearbox made it the most RPG-like game of the franchise.
Furthermore, althoughTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsdoesn’t directly tie into the events ofBorderlands 3, seeing how it’s set in the past before Tina grew up, it does have its connections. One of the most relevant ones is that ofIzzy, a character that players meet on their journey, who seems to be tied toBorderlands 3’s Mancubus. It’s possible that a further game will be needed to fully expand theBorderlandsuniverse before an MMO becomes a possibility, but a character creator like that ofTiny Tina’s Wonderlandswould be a perfect fit for the series' future.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlandsis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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