I find the characters in this game really ugly/weird

[BaconBits]

I can't help it. Every time I see one, I think back to

Then you leave me no choice.

[Caurcas]

Honestly the only ugly race are Roes, and that for their whack body shape. Lalafells are a meme race so they exist outside the paradigm.

[MintnHoney]

Then you leave me no choice.

Don't be upset that you will now always see Lalafel as

[lezard21]

Anyone else feel this way? It's got that uncanny valley doll look. The newer races like Hrothgar and Viera are definitely better than the old but I still don't have a race I really like in this game.

Even in 1.0, while the models looked better, character creation was very limited (the same option 1, option 2, option 3 selection as currently instead of sliders) which I always found weird coming from a company with a reputation of putting graphics and aesthetics as top priority over everything else.

E: why is this topic classified as bait again?

[Dreamsoap]

They're decent, a texture update would honestly fix a lot of problems. Moreso I'm always wondering if they have a randomizer choosing NPC appreances for side story characters when they have like blue hair with orange higlights and pink eyes with scars and weird makeup.

[Momo_Kozuki]

Personally, it took me a very long time to come to FF14, because I disliked the character creation that offers very limited appearance options compared to other games like Blade and Soul, Phantasy Star 2, so and so.

Still, once I get used to how the game looks, I find them not as bad as I used to think. Now I absolutely adore my little popoto girl.

[BaconBits]

Don't be upset that you will now always see Lalafel as

Then perish.

[MintnHoney]

Then perish.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Was talking about my signature lol but I'll comment on this anyway.
WoW kind of pioneered that whole cartoony look that a lot of games use, especially on mobile. So it should be credited for that. WoW's artstyle actually changed over time though. When it launched the artstyle was different but it was actually very impressive looking. Hard to imagine now but this was before even games like ES:Oblivion.

WoW didn't really pioneer anything. The original game was literally stuff they took from other MMO's that came before it covered in a paint of Warcraft.

[MoofiaBossVal]

WoW didn't really pioneer anything. The original game was literally stuff they took from other MMO's that came before it covered in a paint of Warcraft.

Texture wise, perhaps. But the exaggerated proportions of the armor and characters was very not standard at the time. It was a design necessity for WC3 so to make each unit identifiable from the isometric perspective, and that design philosophy got carried over into WoW. Open world PvP was also really big early on in WoW so it was important to be able to identify who was who from a distance (race and therefore whether or not they were a friend or foe, which class they were and thus what abilities they could use and their weaknesses, etc).