Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Asteri]

Adding my lot to the mix.

I was scared but hopeful after the first benchmark, I was very scared after the second version.

I tried liking her, I tried playing MSQ on her, I took over 7000 screenshots during the MSQ but man... I played MSQ on a stranger.

My FemRa is no longer the character I so dearly loved, I strongly dislike everything about her mouth and I had to fanta to a different eyeshape just to even get something close to what she used to have. This is no longer my character, I don't recognize her face anymore and I'm pretty damn upset by it. I don't want to Fanta to something else, I chose FemRa cause I loved their aesthetic, I chose Face 2 because I loved the girl next door look the face had, I loved her eyes, her wider mouth, I just... I feel so deflated. :/



Just... what happened for these changes to be approved? My character looks nothing like she used to in Endwalker. I hate the changes to her eyes and mouth and the more I look at her daily, the less I like my character.

Anyway... To try and give constructive feedback (yet again)...

• Eye Shape 3 has changed considerably making them less wide-open than before.
• The default/natural eye makeup has changed shape to a more pointed end.
• The Mouth 3 lips have changed shapes completely and are more narrow than they used to be.
• The Mouth 3 dimples are inexistent.
• The lips are in a perma-smile position, and because of the narrow lips, it looks like my character is doing a constant duck face.
• The Jaw 1 option is now rounded inwards when looking at the face from the profile.
• The Nose 3 is smaller than it used to be, or perhaps the cheeks are not pronounced enough(?).
• The neck scales look *very* dirty and are much more ivory than their prior cream color. Suggestion here, please add options for ivory/cream and black/blue scales on both subraces!

I'm trying man, but I don't see my character anymore. :<

[Feathetaria]

Adding my lot to the mix.

I was scared but hopeful after the first benchmark, I was very scared after the second version.

I tried liking her, I tried playing MSQ on her, I took over 7000 screenshots during the MSQ but man... I played MSQ on a stranger.

My FemRa is no longer the character I so dearly loved, I strongly dislike everything about her mouth and I had to fanta to a different eyeshape just to even get something close to what she used to have. This is no longer my character, I don't recognize her face anymore and I'm pretty damn upset by it. I don't want to Fanta to something else, I chose FemRa cause I loved their aesthetic, I chose Face 2 because I loved the girl next door look the face had, I loved her eyes, her wider mouth, I just... I feel so deflated. :/



Just... what happened for these changes to be approved? My character looks nothing like she used to in Endwalker. I hate the changes to her eyes and mouth and the more I look at her daily, the less I like my character.

Anyway... To try and give constructive feedback (yet again)...

• Eye Shape 3 has changed considerably making them less wide-open than before.
• The default/natural eye makeup has changed shape to a more pointed end.
• The Mouth 3 lips have changed shapes completely and are more narrow than they used to be.
• The Mouth 3 dimples are inexistent.
• The lips are in a perma-smile position, and because of the narrow lips, it looks like my character is doing a constant duck face.
• The Jaw 1 option is now rounded inwards when looking at the face from the profile.
• The Nose 3 is smaller than it used to be, or perhaps the cheeks are not pronounced enough(?).
• The neck scales look *very* dirty and are much more ivory than their prior cream color. Suggestion here, please add options for ivory/cream and black/blue scales on both subraces!

I'm trying man, but I don't see my character anymore. :<

my tears fall hard for you, just like for my miqo's lips. </3

[Loggos]

I am very disappointed with the changes. My girl looks very different, way more doll like and less vibrant







And there are still some egregious issue with the scale textures :

We have pretty much the same face settings and I'm so disappointed as well. The fierceness and the intensity of her face/gaze are just gone... And it's lacking so much sheen. : (

[Rueby]

I'm glad they returned our lipgap back but for some reason my character feels abit alien to me. My Femra Face 2 is forever ruined since they changed the best thing about the fish face which is the unique mouth they had...I honestly don't feel like playing the MSQ at all, I'm not all too excited about it. I tried liking it but I dislike the gloss on the lips. Eyes in cutscenes in dark areas look dead and hollow...

I did a trial roul and got Lab, some areas are too well lit while others like stairs are almost too dark. What's with the intense contrast???

The only thing I'm liking is the water...

Alot of dark skinned npcs look waxy.
I really dislike ALL the facial animations. They look too strange + there's some that has this nonstop eyebrow twitching. - worried, sad, confused, furrow, scoff, annoyed, ponder????

[RepairCat]

Man, following this thread and also the ones on the JP forum is just so sad. So many people had their characters effectively taken away for absolutely no reason. I can‘t fathom how they looked at this in development and thought to themself „Yeah, lets just change all the facial features our players have used and became attached to for years and years instead of just improving texture quality. This is fine.“

[Cheapshot]

Man, following this thread and also the ones on the JP forum is just so sad. So many people had their characters effectively taken away for absolutely no reason. I can‘t fathom how they looked at this in development and thought to themself „Yeah, lets just change all the facial features our players have used and became attached to for years and years instead of just improving texture quality. This is fine.“

It is kinda wild to me. I understand if you’re recreating the faces using a new mesh some stuff can lose a little accuracy, but for so many features it looks like they were just roughly eyeballed, or outright just replaced without studying the original. This should have been the part of the update that received the most attention to detail but it seems like that wasn’t the case at all. My characters eyelashes for instance. Just 100% not a single pixel in common. Completely brand new in appearance and shape. But they aren’t any higher resolution so what was the point?! My nose and mouth are also a completely different shape. It feels like they just made an effort to make my character look more feminine and fragile and doll like. I slay gods, when did I ask for a nosejob and more makeup??

I would give anything to know what happened and find out why? Why did they change stuff they didn’t have to, and why did they not pay more care to the stuff they did? I’m truly so disappointed. I went from being a superfan of this game to just so dejected and dispirited. I keep just exiting the game after trying to play. I was going to quit the game on Friday but a friend bought me game time to keep me around. My heart just isn’t in it anymore though. I finally finally won a small plot after trying every opportunity for 5 years and I couldn’t even feel excited.

[Sarantserel]

They really did you dirty, same as my miqote, they complettely changed the face for no reason. Your old one looks way better. They need to remove those changes.

Yeah... I was extremely sad seeing her with no changes from her 2nd benchmark incarnation when I loaded in on Friday.

We have pretty much the same face settings and I'm so disappointed as well. The fierceness and the intensity of her face/gaze are just gone... And it's lacking so much sheen. : (

That's exactly how I feel, she seems softer and and milder now and it just doesn't feel the same. First time I finished a MSQ without having taken pictures of my girl.

Man, following this thread and also the ones on the JP forum is just so sad. So many people had their characters effectively taken away for absolutely no reason. I can‘t fathom how they looked at this in development and thought to themself „Yeah, lets just change all the facial features our players have used and became attached to for years and years instead of just improving texture quality. This is fine.“

That's how I feel. As someone who only fantasia'd occasionally, but has stuck to the same character with no changes since starting 5 years ago, it feels like a fantasia was forced on me with no way of going back and it feels awful. I thought maybe they'd remodeled our faces and added bones to make our characters more expressive, but after having gone through the MSQ and some role quests, it actually feels like my character is LESS expressive than before, on top of all her other changes. She looks dead bored in most cutscenes and in general her expressions seem more muted than in EW.

*snip*

That's how I feel too. Most characters seem to have gotten dollified and made to look "cuter", making most faces look less unique and have less personality than before. I've soldiered through the MSQ, but it took me a solid 10 hours after logging to just convince myself to go through it with my girl not looking like herself. If nothing changes, I don't think I'll get the same attachment and love for my character back. At least so far, the drive to take candid pictures of my girl at random moment cause she just looked pretty as she was is gone.

[Cheapshot]

I'm glad they returned our lipgap back but for some reason my character feels abit alien to me. My Femra Face 2 is forever ruined since they changed the best thing about the fish face which is the unique mouth they had...I honestly don't feel like playing the MSQ at all, I'm not all too excited about it. I tried liking it but I dislike the gloss on the lips. Eyes in cutscenes in dark areas look dead and hollow...

I didn’t do a Femra break down since I only have one character, but when it comes to you feeling like your Miqo looks alien to you you might find my post helpful. I documented just about every change I could find to F miqo face 4 here:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6513666

You might find it explains what’s causing that feeling for you in a measurable way?

[pompompom]

It is kinda wild to me. I understand if you’re recreating the faces using a new mesh some stuff can lose a little accuracy, but for so many features it looks like they were just roughly eyeballed, or outright just replaced without studying the original. This should have been the part of the update that received the most attention to detail but it seems like that wasn’t the case at all. My characters eyelashes for instance. Just 100% not a single pixel in common. Completely brand new in appearance and shape. But they aren’t any higher resolution so what was the point?! My nose and mouth are also a completely different shape. It feels like they just made an effort to make my character look more feminine and fragile and doll like. I slay gods, when did I ask for a nosejob and more makeup??

I would give anything to know what happened and find out why? Why did they change stuff they didn’t have to, and why did they not pay more care to the stuff they did? I’m truly so disappointed. I went from being a superfan of this game to just so dejected and dispirited. I keep just exiting the game after trying to play. I was going to quit the game on Friday but a friend bought me game time to keep me around. My heart just isn’t in it anymore though. I finally finally won a small plot after trying every opportunity for 5 years and I couldn’t even feel excited.

That's exactly how I feel - like my wol had a session with an inexperienced plastic surgeon. Facial harmony is much more important than a smaller nose and younger features.

[Moonfallen]

They never did move on though? I regularly talk to people who play WoW who are still bitter about it, and it’s pretty much universal that everyone I’ve asked hated it when it happened. It turns out if you let people spend years getting attached to a character, suddenly changing that character rubs lots of those people the wrong way! Maybe you don’t get attached to things, and that’s fine for you, but maybe step outside yourself for even a second and consider others.

WoW graphic update was one of the reasons I quit playing that game and I played it since closed beta. The first thing I said when they started showing the changes they were making to faces and the graphics for XIV was that they better not make me hate my WoL like WoW made me hate my character. Changing the way people's characters look after YEARS of attachment to them is one way to lose a player base besides story direction and overall play of the game.