New 7.1 hairstyle looks nothing like the winning hairstyle from the 2023 contest

Also a first time forum user, to the point where I had to rack my brain to pick a display name just now

This hairstyle is a travesty. "Inspired by"? Reeks of "We know we messed it up so this way we can deflect blame" since so many entries are so accurate.

This hairstyle not only looks nothing like the submission, it looks bad. The example character just looks like they stepped out of the shower and left the hair to air dry. Which would be fine if the team was going for another messy/unruly hairstyle but it's supposed to be curls. There's no bouncy curls. No volume. I refuse to believe the team lacks to resources to do better. Please, update this hair to look more like the ""inspiration"" or release it as it's own thing and come back to the submission with a fresh start. This is just insulting to look at. If you can't pull it off because of whatever file size or poly restraints, then don't try to claim you're putting it in the game. Then at least it wouldn't feel like a betrayal for so many players who were excited to have this.

When I was looking at the patch notes I saw the hairstyles and was disappointed because I remembered the winner and thought "Oh they didn't put the curly hairstyle :C".
It isn't until now that I found out whatever it was I saw was the supposed "curly hairstyle".
Really disappointing...

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Originally Posted by Rikaku

Even if this says "inspired" by the contest winners, I feel like the fact that majority of responses here on the forums and elsewhere have largely been "I didn't even know it was supposed to be that one" is pretty telling. While the previous hairstyle entries done in the past contest pre-2023 were also 'inspired by', I felt like each one was still close enough that you could point to the artwork by the artists and readily identify the hairstyle in-game that inspired it. That one fact alone to me says that this hairstyle needs to be looked at and addressed.

Many players were very excited over a curly-style hairstyle to be in the game, and especially given the graphical updates we just had with Dawntrail. It should not be impossible to put in a hairstyle that is faithful to the creation and I hope the team revisits this hairstyle.

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I have to make a correction to my earlier post. I was wrong about the pre-2023 hairstyle contest. None of the previous contest entries that were used before were "inspired by". I stand by what I said before in this thread, but to me this is even more egregious now that it appears that *only* this hairstyle is "inspired by" while the other hairstyles were copied pretty closely to the source-material/concept art.

This absolutely needs to be revisited and addressed.

Also it cannot possibly be that difficult to do curls, a lot of games seem to have it just curl around like its wrapped around an invisible-tube. And if that doesn't make sense, then I ask you to look at the Lightning FF13 hairstyle that has been in-game for nearly a decade (I know because I have used this style since it was first released) and it absolutely had a hollow-tube looking effect on the hairstyle. So if it could be done back then, it can be done now.

It's the "inspired by" that really gets me. No other design contest winner had that terminology used. So they know it far too different from the original design to be called "Design Contest Winner." Like look at the wording of the weapon design contest winners in the same patch notes. They read, "Furnishings from the FFXIV Furnishing Design Contest have been added," and "Grand prize winning entries from the FFXIV Weapon Design Contest have been added." The same wording as the previous hairstyle design contest winners. But then we get, "A new hairstyle inspired by a FFXIV Hairstyle Design Contest entry is now available." Really? REALLY?? Not simply, "A new hairstyle from the FFXIV Hairstyle Design Contest entry is now available."

C'mon. COME ON. That is purposeful. There is awareness that this isn't the same design. So once again, I have to ask, as many others have, if you aren't going to try to recreate the chosen design in game as faithfully as possible within the polygon limit, then why even bother making a half-assed version of it it in the first place? Even if they just took this same hair, made it fuller (doesn't need more polygons to do that), and added more curly textured normal map over it, it would look way better.

It's so bad that I had to look back through the contest winners to see which one it could possibly be, and I genuinely had to scroll through 3 times before I realised what it was "inspired" by. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. The hair is limp and lifeless, no volume or fluffiness at all, and I know it could be done better, I've seen what the graphics update was able to do for moogle fur, chocobo feathers, the alpaca fur for goodness sake, so it's not like you don't have the technology. I'm sure others have said it, but why would you even pick the style as a winner if you weren't even going to try to actually make it. This is the most embarrassing hair failure since the earless Hrothgar saga. I would be so ashamed to produce something this low quality.

So hey, what happened to the images on the original post? I know they were there; I saw them when this thread was first posted and there is no edit indicator on the first post so did moderators remove them so we couldn't point blank see how much what we got doesn't look like what it was supposed to be? That's sad.

The images are still there for me on mobile; you may just need to reload the page!

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Originally Posted by SiriuslyEmily

The images are still there for me on mobile; you may just need to reload the page!

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Weird, I'm seeing them neither on desktop or mobile even after reloading the page. Might be my browser, but if others can see them that's what's important.

This poor imitation of an "inspiration" serves no purpose than to show their lack of an excuse, it is lazy effort. I'd rather they implemented this hair in a later patch where more ample care towards it is thoughtfully considered than produce this rubbish they plan on releasing soon.

I was really excited when I saw this hair style, but I can only imagine how the original artist feels. This is so disappointing... If they weren't even going to try to do the hairstyle justice why make it a contest winner? To get players hopes up that a hairstyle they really want won't see the light of day?