June Benchmark Female Au Ra Face 4 Feedback
After this updated benchmark, I'm very grateful for the significant progress that has been made. However, there are still some noteworthy issues with face 4 that I think warrant some attention on its own.
There are a lot of smaller problems that need more detail, but I'll focus on the largest issues for now:
- Whole face is notably rounder in a very unpleasant way. Cheeks/cheekbones look very unnatural and puffed out as if the character had an allergic reaction. The jaw and chin sticks out oddly and the face looks resultingly uncanny and strange- this is especially noticeable during animations where the mouth is moving. It looks like the bones are trying to pry its way out of the face despite it looking fatter.
- Lips are not translated well and look noticeably different, when moving they look especially strange. A return to the original or at least an option would likely be preferable for many players.
- Eyes have been changed improperly and the gaze looks slightly frightened, confused, and unnatural. I'm not sure why this was changed at all, it looks very out of place, unfortunately.
Altogether, there are so many adjustments that just create a very strange look that loses the signature sharpness and angular shape that face 4 used to have and replaces it with a unappealing design that, frankly, looks like it is missing some direction.
The severe and unnatural roundness added around the face doesn't result in a cuter appearance, it looks like the byproduct of an allergic reaction. The eyes have lost its sharp stare. The lips are way too pursed and fatter. It looks like they took random aspects of other faces and meshed it onto face 4, and thus there is a lack of congruency in the style. I understand these issues may seem insignificant, especially to those who haven't played using face 4, but these characters have looked this way for years- so every little change becomes very noticeable and distracting, which I find will detract from the enjoyment of cutscenes.
Due to this, it definitely feels like a significant chunk of identity is still lost in my opinion. The continued loss of the fierce gaze and angular, sharp look of face 4 is a massive shame in my opinion. It was the whole reason my friends and I picked the face to begin with, and now I feel forced to make changes because it looks so unnatural now. Personally, I'd like them to retain the original lip appearance, the shape and stare of the eyes, and remove all the unnatural fat the jaw and the cheeks have added or make all of this options- that alone would be a significant improvement. There are just way too many unnecessary adjustments that were not requested and resultingly has caused a big style shift that I wish could be returned.
I realize Dawntrail's release is very close, and so hoping for any adjustments for release might be in vain- but I figured I should leave the feedback anyway, see if others feel the same way. Thank you for your time and effort.