Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Mr_Gucky]

There are some here who have been playing with their WoL for several years with the same look. For them, Fantasia is an unfamiliar word.
Because they are more than satisfied with their WoL. 100 out of 100 points. Some have even had pictures of their character drawn.

And now you has to realize that overnight your WoL is no longer the same. That's how it was for me. The fact that the character you have grown to love is no longer the same is the hardest blow I have had to endure in my MMO career. I am really sad and I don't know how to continue in FFXIV.

First, I have to overcome the shock, and then I will have to see how to proceed.

I can understand anyone who feels the same way."

[Kartoshka]

I'll post it here just in case but I have little hope that it will be addressed. After graphical update almost everything in the world looks better: aetherytes look amazing, alpacas are cute and grass is moving. But whenever there is a close-up on my character face I just get sad. It's like he's done a plastic surgery. His facial expressions are a lot more severe now.
My biggest complain is changes done to the nose. I've written about it before but the only thing that was addressed is limbal rings/pupils and that's because a lot of other players were upset.
I've posted in japanese forums and english too but these languages aren't my native so sorry for mistakes. I don't post on forums usually but I want to know that I've done all I can because I really love the game.

My character nose ridge looks a lot more narrow now. It wasn't so noticable in previous bencmark. There are gaps between scales and face itself and i think it's causing these weird shadows to appear.


There are also a couple of minor complaints. Eyebrows are more upturned and eyelashes are not so bright as before. Limbal rings overpower eye color.
Face shape overall has become oval. Before it was more angular. Mouth corners are different and becаuse of that mouth looks more narrow.



I highlighted all changes that I think are noticeable



Face - 1, Jaw - 2, Eye shape - 2, Eyebrows - 5, Nose - 4, Mouth - 2

[Gredunza]

I tried and I played the first quest in the MSQ but I just felt hollow the entire time, I never felt this way when I played MSQ content prior. Despite everything during the Benchmark, I really wanted to enjoy Dawntrail as like everyone I love the story in this game but I just don't feel the joy and excitement for the new content the way I had back in 6.x at all. I even found myself disliking the way that Alphinaud and Alisaie looked, they looked really lifeless to me indoors. I'm envious of those who are able to enjoy it and are making their way through the story, I wish that the graphics update had more time than this. I don't know if it's even worth playing through the MSQ feeling like this, it's just going to feel empty, painful and bitter.

This is my first post, I just signed up to say I feel the same way. I've been playing continuously since 2021; but my character, which was a Female Midlander until a couple days ago, has existed, nearly unchanged since 2014. I tried changing to Miqo and I've explored other options, but I'm honestly not feeling it. I feel like I lost my sense of identity in the game, the lens through which I've experienced this incredible story and world for the last three years and that one single month in ARR.

Before and after:


Makes me want to cry.

[noumen0nn]

This is my first post, I just signed up to say I feel the same way. I've been playing continuously since 2021; but my character, which was a Female Midlander until a couple days ago, has existed, nearly unchanged since 2014. I tried changing to Miqo and I've explored other options, but I'm honestly not feeling it. I feel like I lost my sense of identity in the game, the lens through which I've experienced this incredible story and world for the last three years and that one single month in ARR.

Before and after:


Makes me want to cry.

I'm biased of course, but I think F midlanders got it the worst. Whoever was in charge of our new sculpt just fundamentally missed the impression of our old faces. I'm right there with you, I'm feeling depressed and barely have the motivation to keep playing.

[aili_]

There are some here who have been playing with their WoL for several years with the same look. For them, Fantasia is an unfamiliar word.
Because they are more than satisfied with their WoL. 100 out of 100 points. Some have even had pictures of their character drawn.

And now you has to realize that overnight your WoL is no longer the same. That's how it was for me. The fact that the character you have grown to love is no longer the same is the hardest blow I have had to endure in my MMO career. I am really sad and I don't know how to continue in FFXIV.

First, I have to overcome the shock, and then I will have to see how to proceed.

I can understand anyone who feels the same way."

I got similar feelings as you.
The new look is like someone who's done plastic surgery to make herself looks like my original WoL. Yeah, they look familiar, but still they're totally two different characters to me.
It doesn't matter which one is "better", I just want the character I created and have loved and played for years to get back to me, instead of a stranger "looks like" her.
If I force myself to get used to this new character, maybe I'll get used to the new one in the future. But I don't want to betray myself. Those times I spent with my WoL, how I love her, being inspired by her...still picking me up now.
That's why, I can't continue playing FFXIV now. Though I've already subscribed for 6 months in early June, every time I tried to log in, the stranger in my character page just makes me want to click exit.

[Elissar]

I am so happy with my character rn







However, i noticed that some characters looks like dolls. Also, this upgrade ruined some atmosphere that dark environments created (like the end of ARR, tower of babil and zot..). In short: works flawless in open areas, questionable in dark areas and suddenly everyone looks like Ken from Barbie.

[Verschlafen]

What i found out is, if i reduce the character lighting to 0 under Displaysettings, it helps do reduce the wrong shadows from the nose and a little bit the shiny look for me, not perfect as before, but a little bit.

[Windfire]

I don't play Lala so maybe I'm wrong but I don't think their smiles were ever this creepy, the only edit I did was cropping to avoid spoiler text.

[Astronis]

There are some here who have been playing with their WoL for several years with the same look. For them, Fantasia is an unfamiliar word.
Because they are more than satisfied with their WoL. 100 out of 100 points. Some have even had pictures of their character drawn.

And now you has to realize that overnight your WoL is no longer the same. That's how it was for me. The fact that the character you have grown to love is no longer the same is the hardest blow I have had to endure in my MMO career. I am really sad and I don't know how to continue in FFXIV.

First, I have to overcome the shock, and then I will have to see how to proceed.

I can understand anyone who feels the same way."

I understand how you feel, and I am posting this to see if I can help you (and lots of other people) look at the situation a little differently, in a way that might make it easier to deal with.

I'm in a similar boat, in that I have been playing the same WoL for several years and only used a fantasia once to adjust his skin color really early on. I was and am very satisfied with my WoL. I have not had pictures drawn, mostly because I am very capable of doing that myself and have done that myself as a hobbyist portrait artist.

THAT is what I want to use as a jumping off point. Because I am a portrait artist, I don't see these characters as they were or are now as the perfect representation of themselves. There is a version of my WoL out there in the space of my and SE's artists imaginations that can never be rendered with enough polygons and textures and whatnot to be a perfect representation of him. Maybe if we could all get together and summon him like a primal and then take a photograph it would be close. Obviously, we can't do that. The Endwalker version of him was an artist's interpretation. The Dawntrail version of him is also a higher-fidelity artist's interpretation. My own portrait I'm showing here is a second-hand artist's interpretation, since it's two steps removed. I have other drawings I've done that hew closer to what m WoL looks like in my mind's eye but that the game cannot replicate.



All three of these versions of my WoL are different. Obviously, objectively, different. It would be madness to suggest otherwise. But they're all of the same character, one that exists beyond FFXIV's game engine capability to render (and mine, too). I could point out the differences all day long between all three of these versions of the same character. It'd make me personally miserable, since I'd be picking at my own artistic skill, but I could. They are different. Critically, they are all different visions of the same character, if we look at the character as something extant in our imaginations that the devs (and I) have done artistic work to render visible.

Anyhow, that's what I'm seeing in almost all these pictures of everyone's various WoLs. Different interpretation, same character. Which it's understandable to be a little shocked by when seeing it for the first time. And it's understandable to prefer the previous interpretation. I hope though, that you, and most of the people unhappy with the current interpretation, can see that it is just an interpretation and that your WoLs really are still there, in your minds and in the dev's minds, and if you look at the new versions with that in mind, hopefully you'll start to see it, too.

[Saitress]

I just want this game to be PLAYABLE AGAIN!!!i wasn't been able to log into game because of CRITICAL DIRECTX ERROR and nobody can fix it. Until this update everything was working PERFECTLY. I want this back!!!!