This goes far beyond a simple upgrade and is more like a complete overhaul. I love male midlanders specifically because they don't look like male humans in games typically do... but now it feels like their facial features have been changed to almost resemble male highlander ones? It's all so plastic and dead looking, it's uncanny and I don't recognize any of my characters...

The appeal of FFXIV's graphics to me were that they were stylized more than leaning into aspects of realism such as with pores. I don't think this is an aesthetic change that I can get used to seeing even further down the line.