Hello everyone. Another happy Friday is here.
As we prepare for this update, we’ve been going back through many of the game’s fundamental features one by one and making improvements. And the further we get into this work, the more we find ourselves reflecting on where we could have done better as a development team.
Because we had been so focused on continuously adding new content, some features that previously worked well gradually became broken or began conflicting with one another through subsequent updates. For example, Zois who once followed their routines naturally might no longer go to sleep at the appropriate time, or might repeatedly perform unrelated actions instead of the ones they actually need to do. We’ve also seen unusual behavior in how family members interact with one another and in their everyday routines. Each issue may seem small on its own, but when they accumulate, they ultimately affect the overall gameplay experience.
Autonomous behavior, one of the most important systems in inZOI, has not been immune to these issues either. So this time, rather than simply patching individual parts of the existing system, we are reviewing autonomy from the ground up and working on structural improvements across the entire system.
As a result, we haven’t been able to add many new features in this update. We determined that trying to develop a large amount of new functionality while simultaneously carrying out a major overhaul of the existing systems would be too much under the current circumstances.
Instead, we are implementing high-priority improvements based on the FF list you have shared with us, while also redesigning and renewing the existing autonomy system from the ground up. It may look like there is less new content on the surface, but behind the scenes, we are doing important work to make inZOI more stable and reliable for the future.
More than anything, we want to get a build with as many bugs fixed as possible into your hands as soon as we can. If you can wait just a little longer, we will do our best to reduce as many of the currently identified issues as possible and bring you Zois who behave more naturally and reliably than before.
And today, I also have some exciting news that I wanted to share with you first.
inZOI has been invited to 2026 TapTap, and we’ll be attending the event in Shanghai next month. 2026 TapTap is an offline gaming event taking place from September 12 to 13 at Hall A of the West Bund Art Center in Shanghai, featuring game demos and exhibitions, as well as opportunities to meet game developers and creators.
For us, it will also be a meaningful opportunity to meet our players in China in person and introduce inZOI to them.
Next week, I’ll share a little more about our plans for the event.
As always, thank you for continuing to build inZOI together with us.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.
-Kjun
※ For the video, please check it on Discord or the forum.
🔗 Discord: Link
🔗 Forum: Link
Kjun’s Reply to Your Comments
Hi everyone, life has been incredibly busy lately! To be honest, I almost forgot to post today—my apologies. Today, I’d like to share a dev update on how we’re reworking the Emotion System for Zoi.
Have you ever looked at a Zoi and wondered, “Wait, why are they feeling that right now?” As we added more content over time, emotions were often patched in piece-by-piece. While each piece made sense on its own, the overall logic became inconsistent. So this time, instead of adding new emotions, we went back to square one and reviewed everything from the ground up.
1. Aligning the Emotion Gears
We gathered and fixed cases where the situation and the emotion didn’t match up.
Parents gaining ‘Confidence’ when a toddler threw a tantrum, or feeling ‘Serene’ after receiving a terrible gift, were updated to ‘Annoyed’ and ‘Baffled’, respectively.
We fixed visual errors, like a Zoi looking gloomy while holding a cheerful buff description.
Purely RNG-based emotion triggers without conditions were removed. Unprovoked mood swings were more frustrating than fun.
2. Setting Clear Rules for Negative Emotions
Our longest discussion was deciding where to draw the line on negative emotions.
If a newly settled Zoi buys budget furniture within their means, getting hit with constant negative emotions just for being cheap felt exhausting rather than fun.
Distinguishing ‘Cheap’ from ‘Bad’: Simply buying inexpensive items no longer triggers negative emotions. However, low-performance items like old beds or sofas that ruin sleep will still cause bad moods.
School Uniform Rework: We removed heat/cold reactions tied to wearing school uniforms. Since uniforms aren’t something Zois choose to wear, they shouldn’t be penalized for wearing them.
3. Making Emotion Triggers Transparent
Even if the numbers make sense, players still feel caught off guard if they can’t see the reason behind a mood shift.
Reordered Tooltips: The most recently acquired emotion now appears at the top, showing you the exact cause of your Zoi’s current mood at a glance.
Displaying Names in Social Buffs: Emotions gained through conversations now show the other person’s name. When a mood is caused by a person, who it was is the most vital context.
QoL Upgrades: Added timestamps for gained emotions, along with refreshed representative colors and icons.
4. True Emotions Must Be Seen
We expanded expressions and animations so emotions aren’t just hidden behind numbers and tooltips.
New Animations & Actions: Dedicated reaction animations now play for Inspiration, Excitement, Triumph, Laughter, Joy, and Emotion. Resting animations are more varied, and a new ‘Boredom’ action was added.
Autonomous Behavior & Thought Bubbles: Autonomous choices now reflect a Zoi’s emotions and traits, with an icon explaining their reasoning. Overhead thought bubbles were fully revamped with intuitive icons matching the context and relationship.
5. Memories, Gifts, and Travel
Emotions don’t just vanish—they turn into memories.
Memories & Gifts: We rebalanced how memories impact dialogue choices and fixed a bug where angry memories blocked essential conversations. Gift reactions are now split into 5 tiers based on a Zoi’s tastes and traits, ensuring thoughtful gifts feel rewarding.
Trips That Last: Pre-trip excitement, check-in, and post-trip nostalgia now flow continuously, leaving distinct memories for each Zoi who traveled. We wanted trips to feel like lasting experiences rather than one-off events.
Other Fixes
We also resolved missing or duplicated emotion triggers, link issues between emotions, stats, and preferences, as well as expression display bugs. Please check the full Patch Notes for details.
Refining emotion logic isn’t always immediately obvious, so it might take a bit of play duration to notice the difference. But if you find yourself having more “Ah, so that’s why my Zoi feels this way!” moments, this update will have done its job.
If you run into any awkward emotion states while playing, please let us know the context. Your reports were a huge help during this update.
Thank you for helping us grow and improve.
kjun