I posted my feedback for the previous benchmark here.

Compared to the first benchmark, the impression of the "round and cute" face I complained about last time appears much improved by the new rendering adjustments. The shadows and angles from before have returned. With that aspect, I'm happy.

However the eyes and mouth are still unacceptable to me. I'd like to draw your attention to the eyes in this gif I made that fades between 6.58 and Benchmark 1.1. I tried to align the whites of the eyes in both images to show the differences. If other areas seem to be shifting it's because of the subtle idle animation in the character creator.



When I open the character creator in the benchmark, my overwhelming impression can be summed up with this meme:




The eyes are too big and opened compared to how they were before. Perhaps it's too subtle to notice for someone else but, I have been familiar with this face since 2010 and have looked at it for 1000s of hours. The big eyes are the main thing I notice and I just can't stand it. The mouth is still awful too. In both cases, the changes are due to the model geometry and not some kind of lighting or rendering effect. If these aspects will not be corrected, I would like to be able to "give up hope as soon as possible" as another user put it. I remember during the 2.0 closed beta, the response to many complaints and criticisms being "Working as Intended." So, no need to hold back this time in letting us know.

I also humbly request for YoshiP to stop gaslighting the players by suggesting that we can "fine tune" changes we're not satisfied with in the character creator. Everyone who plays this game knows that is not possible. Unless there are some brand new features you're planning to unveil with the release of 7.0 that haven't been shared yet, to say otherwise is just a plain lie. As it stands, the choices players have if they're not satisfied with their new character graphics are as follows:

1) Deal with it.
2) Pick a different option. Your character will still look different but perhaps in a way that isn't as upsetting to you.
3) Make a new character entirely.

When I see YoshiP allude to some currently non-existent 4th option that will actually satisfy the players' complaints, it pisses me off. Players can't "fine tune" anything. The only ones who can are the developers (or modders). We're not stupid. If you expect the players to accept that you won't fix certain things then please convey that without saying absurd things like that the character creator is capable of "fine tuning."


I'd like to express my frustration in general so, if you don't care you can stop reading here.
I see a lot of people thanking the devs for their "hard work" and taking time out of their "busy schedule" to address this issue as if it's something trivial. I can't help but quesiton the sincerity of that sentiment. I certainly don't feel that way. From information that was shared to the players, it seems that the unifying of the facial model geometry was done to make the developers jobs easier when designing gear, making animations, etc. This is a technical detail that no player asked for. In the past the development team used to conduct player surveys. If there was one that asked "Would you accept your WoL looking weird and different if it made the developers' work easier?" I wonder how many would have replied Yes. I'm annoyed at how during each live letter update regarding the character graphics, YoshiP kept reiterating that the goal was to preserve the overall impression of the characters "as much as possible" and seemed aware of how important this aspect is to the game and to many players who are very attached to their characters. It seems this directive was not passed down to the people actually doing the work. Looking through everyone's feedback posts, some of the differences players have shared are so blatant and obvious that anyone with eyes, let alone a professional artist and character designer can see that certain important details and the overall impressions are completely different. I don't accept that these changes are inevitable and unfixable just because the models went from low to high poly. We live in a world with 3D fighting games flawlessly emulating the style of 2D animation in high definition. This graphic update is simple in comparison. It's a matter of the amount of care and attention to detail the developers put in. It leads me to believe that most of the work may have been done by AI or some other automated process to save money. And then you just released it like that hoping not many people would complain. It's what I would expect of a soulless corporation like Square Enix. But hey, since I'm paying to be able to post on this forum I might as well vent my feelings anyway. Rather than thank the developers, I'd like to commend all the players who I feel put more personal effort into their feedback than I suspect was put into the character updates in the first place.