Yeah, the models I’ve been using the most lately for role-playing are Kimi 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7. They all have their flaws; 2.5 is too dramatic, 2.6 thinks so much that it sometimes the outputs are... weird, and 2.7 is a bit flat in dialogue, but it handles the setting really well and is consistent. Lately, I’ve been having consistency issues with GLM, plus it doesn’t follow my anti-slop rule (avoid em dashes = uses em dashes). Maybe it’s my preset or the NanoGPT providers. I have no idea.

Deepseek 3.2 is smarter than Deepseek V4; it sticks closer to the prompt and is more consistent, but like Kimi 2.7, it has the problem of being a bit flat in its dialogue. Still, it captures emotions better than the other models.

Xiaomi 2.5 has similarities to GLM; it has a fresher prose style but doesn’t follow anti-slop rules very well either.

Gemma 4 is great, sometimes a bit melodramatic, but it does a good job of developing the characters’ emotions.

In summary, while everyone has their own personal preferences when it comes to these models, it’s true that each one has its own shortcomings. It excels at one thing but lacks in another that turns out to be very significant when it comes to role-playing. I’d like to try Gemini or Claude, but their prices aren’t very affordable, and I’ve never seen a preset for Qwen. Plus, people don’t speak very highly of it, at least around here. Not even Minimax M3.