Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[LlymlaenGreene]

hello, when I enter the game, at first I have a reaction that they are not listening to anything and my character remains the same as in the benchmark. The same new modified nose, eyes and lips. But with a detailed comparison, I see that they have made the old nose almost pixel by pixel, it pleases! I'll post a photo later :3
this means that they really listen to us and they have a long job to do to make us happy, i hope!

ew and DT noses.




for comparison. Here are the old and benchmark noses.



so they really take into account the reviews, which is good. They literally returned the same cute nose. Now it's up to the eyes and lips, hehe! :3

[GrizzlyTank]

As far as eyes go, and this is more me just noticing a difference instead of taking issue with something, the shading and folds around this area definitely weren't as pronounced either. They wanted to do something with the topography around the eyes(seemingly for every race based on the other posts), but I don't really know what or why.

Basically, they for some reason wanted a more "realistic" look than of what we had. Ignoring that the design for the last 10 years have been more anime styled and flat than realistic. So now everyone got bags around their eyes.

[Cyrtip]

Do you know if it is ok to use a translator or would too many nuances get lost when using one?

Im not sure how well English machine translates to Japanese, but I've been reading the JP forums and the OP of the feedback thread said:

取り急ぎ作成して参りました。初作成ですので粗が目立つ点はご容赦下さい。

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...03#post6501703

そろそろログイン出来た方も増えてきたと思いますのでリマインドしておきます。
グラフィックアップデートに伴うキャラクター印象の新規の要望についてはこちらをご利用ください〜
海外圏の方もご協力をお願いします。

It's time to remind you that more of you have been able to log in.
For new requests for character impressions for graphics updates, please use this link~.
We appreciate your cooperation in the international area.

So at the very least, the OP welcomes your feedback even if it may be hard to comprehend.

[Liamont]

I spent all of today making this instead of playing DT, because I was so demoralized. It's really difficult to be excited about the game when you log in and immediately dont recognize your own character...







And some GIFs:





Really hope something will be done soon about it.

[Tengi]

So many posts in here and the last two threads are like, "My character looks like a disgusting freak of nature now" like damn, hope no one reading these posts have feature like the ones complained about here in real life.

[Angelivia]

The only thing frustrating me right now is the mindset of this forum. For an opinion thread it doesn't seem to be open for BOTH sides - For those who like the changes AND for those who dislike the changes.
All I'm seeing now is that the few people who don't take a ride on the hate train because they're actually satisfied are being called out and barked at. Very rudely at that.

There's a difference between an improvement from a technical point of view - because yes, higher poly count IS undeniably an improvement - or from an aesthetical standpoint.
While I understand that people have gotten used to their characters over the years, I cannot, for the love of me, fathom how and why so many are clinging to old graphic flaws as if their life depends on it, much less wanting them back. It's beyond me.

REAL issues are another matter, of course, like textures not having been upscaled properly. But too many are getting a crisis and an emotional breakdown over slight and subtle changes, stating they don't recognize their characters when they're looking almost exactly the same.
I'm sure if all had the DT graphics first and would have gotten the EW graphics after, they would whine all the same, just the other way around. I don't know what's at work here, but it's neither reasonable nor constructive.

I, for one, am gonna enjoy the game and be happy with the new graphics and stop looking into these threads because it's weighing me down. The only hope I have left is that the developers won't go back on any more choices they've made - because unfortunately, they already have - to appease an unhealthy over-attachment to an outdated character model display. Goodness.

[ElysiumDragon]

Finally figured out what it is thanks to someone else's post.

Lalafell faces seem almost... squished vertically, and I think that's what people are noticing. Like the same features had to fit into less space. Could be easily fixed by a slight readjusting of the face structure if needs be.

[LittleArrow]

Got sleep, still hate my allergic reaction victim swollen face no detail dead eye body snatcher that has replaced my character.

That aside, I think there's something really off with the lighting in the game. It's not right. I've been looking at other people's pictures (often times mistaking the EW pictures for the updated ones, thinking EW looks way better so must be the update) and I've realized, this lighting looks a lot like the first benchmark not the updated one. The lighting on the eyes and face are -really- flat and bad. They all have that dead eye / doll eye look that the original benchmark had. The 1.1 benchmark, although not at all fixing the issues since this isn't a lighting issue it's a model issue, look far better than the original benchmark. However, in game, I'm not seeing those changes reflected in DT - DT is the original poorly lighted benchmark lighting. So.. I dunno what to do with that /shrug

EDIT: Also, due to not having used a fantasia since Viera's were released b/c I was so happy with my character, I totally forgot, the fantasia won't work with congested worlds. If the character isn't showing up, it won't give me the option despite having already used my fantasia. Hopefully I didn't just waste it, but now I'm stuck with this character for the beginning of this journey. Pretty big oversight considering we were given this as an option to change our character, yet we can't. I get this is just wah wah wah me me me problems, but man this has killed any wind in the sail I had for this expansion, which was small to begin with. I mean, things I would've overlooked with the overall update I'm now nitpicking b/c I'm in such a terrible mood. It's really -really- hard to turn off disappointment.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

Do you know if it is ok to use a translator or would too many nuances get lost when using one?

A simple question that's hard to answer lol

I can tell you what I've been doing:

I use DeepL to translate in Japanese. DeepL is not always correct or using the right words, and with Japanese syntax and grammar things can get messed up a bit.
So after that I take the Japanese text and put it in Google Translate see if the meaning has been lost or if it's mostly okay (sometimes it will change or add random pronouns, just click on the translated English sentence to see the other suggestions and if your original sentence is still in there, it's probably fine).
I do this one sentence at a time to make sure nothing is lost (sometimes DeepL will cut the sentence short, and you need to find a way to work around that).
Since I can't read Japanese, in Google Translate I also read the romaji (the latin characters under the japanese ones) see if I recognize words I've heard before (the benefits of watching too much anime and live letters), and that helps me confirm that my meaning is more or less still there.
After that I format and post the text, and then I double check in Chrome with its automatic translation to see if everything still makes sense, and I edit if necessary.
Also worth mentioning that I write my sentences very differently than I would do here. I try to use simpler words, I'm being extremely polite and I try to mimic Japanese sentence structures I've heard before so it feels more "natural".

Yes, it takes forever.

But I've been receiving some very nice compliments about how easy my Japanese is to read (even if there are a few grammatical errors apparently) so... I'd say it's paying off.

You can take the short route and just use DeepL and/or Google Translate and post the translation as it is, but yeah I can't guarantee it will perfectly preserve your nuances.

Pro tip: DeepL loves to translate "player" as 選手 which also means "athlete", so you'll want to correct that to プレーヤー which quite literally means "player" (pureya). Same with game (sometimes it translates it as "match" when you want the literal "game" one (gemu) in this context).
Also, the FFXIV wiki fandom page thingy has the japanese characters for many things in FFXIV, so I've just been copy pasting that directly in the english text to make the translation smoother (eg Dawntrail is not called Dawntrail in Japan, that kind of thing). DeepL will still mess things up sometimes though, it loves to convert アウラ (Au ra) into アウララ (Au rara) so yeah... always good to double check.

Edit to add: DeepL will ask you to switch to the pro version after a while. Just open an incognito window and you're good to go.

(added spoiler tags because it's not really relevant)

[Hyskaris]

Adding to everyone's comments here, I wanted to post my character, a Face 4 Male Viera, which I feel looks nothing like my character back when male viera were first released. I was a bit shocked when logging in this morning, and upset enough by how they don't look like the same character at all that I just logged out after attempting to do some edits with a fantasia.

A few things I noticed and hope can be changed: the jaw shape is entirely different, as if there's a whole section of the lower face missing. The nose bridge and width looks narrower, the nose smudge is gone. The chin is too narrow and the overall face is too tapered, and there are no squarer jaw options for Face 4 now to match the old appearance. The lip shape is completely different, the eyes feel too far apart and their shape has changed, and overall I feel like a lot of the face's "mass" has been lost.

I loved how my character looked before, and now they don't look the same anymore at the least. They feel unrecognizable. It's taken a lot of wind from my sails with expansion launch excitement and actually playing at all. I'm a roleplayer so I don't exactly want to drop and change to a new one, but I really, really, really hope male viera in particular can have their face shapes fixed.

EDIT: I hadn't mentioned it, but the face makes the character look sick and gaunt now. It's just very weird.