Normalize games with character creators allowing you to make cosmetic character changes at any time, including gender and body type. If it needs to reload the save, that's fine, but no one should have to start a new game if they change their mind about how their character looks
And who's to say the player just might want to change their look for the sake of it, on a whim? Maybe one day they want to look one way, and then one day another. Why prevent that?
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Yes, some games might have certain things/mechanics/events tied to certain appearance choices, but
A.) Maybe we shouldn't design that way if we don't have to, and
B.) If something MUST be tied to character appearance, maybe design for some kind of graceful handling for changes
