I do not understand the point of a Create-a-Character system like Tekken’s.

The Soul Calibur version of the same thing, which is extremely similar, is great.  You can build any character you can imagine!  (Within the fairly tight limitations of the game’s proffered options.)  You can certainly make fighting-game versions of yourself and all your friends, which is of course what I do, and what I imagine pretty much everyone else does as well.  Or your favorite media characters, if you prefer.  Making all those people slug it out in a video-game brawl is loads of fun.

But if you’re limited to fiddling with the costumes of the game’s preexisting characters…well, is there anyone who’s actually even slightly excited by the prospect of “I’m going to play as Kazuya, but in a wacky T-shirt?”  Do you get any payoff whatsoever for all the time and effort it must take to make all those costume pieces?

Am I missing something here?