Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Argantaelle]

Also, I would like to add something. To all these people saying, "Just start another character." It's not a secret that FFXIV is extremely unfriendly to alts. If you start another character, you'll lose not only the years invested in your previous main. The amount of FFXIV content is massive; only MSQ when watching all the cutscenes is going to devour at least 3-4 months of a player's time if they are an adult with a job. It's much worse when a player is a completionist (relic weapon, zones like Eureka/Bozja, fate grinding, etc.). Also, there are such things as glamour gear items (I'm afraid we'll never get something resembling GW2 or ESO skins library), housing, mounts and pets, achievements, and FOMO PvP seasonal items (will they ever be obtainable again, I wonder)...

And Square Enix shop items also. The majority of them are character-based. I'm levelling my alt atm, and I've lost access to all the shop/event items I obtained during all these years.

Somehow I doubt that SE creative minds took all of the above into consideration when they were planning the glorified characters update. Or maybe they did and just decided to ignore them entirely.

[Rueby]

Also, I would like to add something. To all these people saying, "Just start another character." It's not a secret that FFXIV is extremely unfriendly to alts. If you start another character, you'll lose not only the years invested in your previous main. The amount of FFXIV content is massive; only MSQ when watching all the cutscenes is going to devour at least 3-4 months of a player's time if they are an adult with a job. It's much worse when a player is a completionist (relic weapon, zones like Eureka/Bozja, fate grinding, etc.). Also, there are such things as glamour gear items (I'm afraid we'll never get something resembling GW2 or ESO skins library), housing, mounts and pets, achievements, and FOMO PvP seasonal items (will they ever be obtainable again, I wonder)...

And Square Enix shop items also. The majority of them are character-based. I'm levelling my alt atm, and I've lost access to all the shop/event items I obtained during all these years.

Somehow I doubt that SE creative minds took all of the above into consideration when they were planning the glorified characters update. Or maybe they did and just decided to ignore them entirely.

Feels scuffed by design to keep you buying and using Fantasia. I like having alts but the game is so allergic to them apparently. God forbid I want to pass something from my main to my alt, I have to get a friend to pass these items down to MYSELF.

Very nice.

[CuteBucket]

Also, I would like to add something. To all these people saying, "Just start another character." It's not a secret that FFXIV is extremely unfriendly to alts. If you start another character, you'll lose not only the years invested in your previous main. The amount of FFXIV content is massive; only MSQ when watching all the cutscenes is going to devour at least 3-4 months of a player's time if they are an adult with a job. It's much worse when a player is a completionist (relic weapon, zones like Eureka/Bozja, fate grinding, etc.). Also, there are such things as glamour gear items (I'm afraid we'll never get something resembling GW2 or ESO skins library), housing, mounts and pets, achievements, and FOMO PvP seasonal items (will they ever be obtainable again, I wonder)...

And Square Enix shop items also. The majority of them are character-based. I'm levelling my alt atm, and I've lost access to all the shop/event items I obtained during all these years.

Somehow I doubt that SE creative minds took all of the above into consideration when they were planning the glorified characters update. Or maybe they did and just decided to ignore them entirely.

THIS. "Start another character" or "Fanta into another character" is not the answer for anyone who has sunk lots of time (and money!) into a very specific character over many years of story and game play. I made a specific character to look a specific way for the personality and story I wanted to tell with them.

Why should I be told to "deal with it" by people who fanta all the time anyway or those who never really bothered to play with things like gpose? If someone spend 95% of the game with the camera zoomed all the way out looking at the back of their character's head, then why should I listen to or care about their feedback on what my character looks like? Yeah, if I played the game like that, just changing my character into something else entirely would probably be fine, but that's not how I play the game.

[Moonfallen]

Also, I would like to add something. To all these people saying, "Just start another character." It's not a secret that FFXIV is extremely unfriendly to alts. If you start another character, you'll lose not only the years invested in your previous main. The amount of FFXIV content is massive; only MSQ when watching all the cutscenes is going to devour at least 3-4 months of a player's time if they are an adult with a job. It's much worse when a player is a completionist (relic weapon, zones like Eureka/Bozja, fate grinding, etc.). Also, there are such things as glamour gear items (I'm afraid we'll never get something resembling GW2 or ESO skins library), housing, mounts and pets, achievements, and FOMO PvP seasonal items (will they ever be obtainable again, I wonder)...

And Square Enix shop items also. The majority of them are character-based. I'm levelling my alt atm, and I've lost access to all the shop/event items I obtained during all these years.

Somehow I doubt that SE creative minds took all of the above into consideration when they were planning the glorified characters update. Or maybe they did and just decided to ignore them entirely.

Exactly this. SE makes a lot of money by making things you buy from the store "one character only" which is why we will likely never get a better glamour option for gear like other games (WoW's transmog comes up a lot in conversation too). I have alts all with their own unique personality and story like many others and a lot of them no longer match my idea of them. Only one of my characters is completely brand new because she looked like my main so I just used the fanta to see if there was anything I would like to change my main to and since I didn't I just made a new face as an alt. My main has not changed since I've had her and even trying to change her hair on her makes her look off for me. To have her completely lost due to the changes just makes me want to stop playing as much as I did, but since I run my own FC I can't just up and disappear. I have things on my main that I just wouldn't be able to get again because of how long I've had her and to get a fraction of the items I can get off the store for an alt would been an insane amount of money that I'm not able or willing to put into an alt.

[Alice9]

I'm not even going to bat an eye towards the mogstation until they fix the way my Au Ra looks- if they ever do. Why would I buy anything for a character that doesn't remotely look like my own anymore?

[Shnrnr]

Also, I would like to add something. To all these people saying, "Just start another character." It's not a secret that FFXIV is extremely unfriendly to alts. If you start another character, you'll lose not only the years invested in your previous main. The amount of FFXIV content is massive; only MSQ when watching all the cutscenes is going to devour at least 3-4 months of a player's time if they are an adult with a job. It's much worse when a player is a completionist (relic weapon, zones like Eureka/Bozja, fate grinding, etc.). Also, there are such things as glamour gear items (I'm afraid we'll never get something resembling GW2 or ESO skins library), housing, mounts and pets, achievements, and FOMO PvP seasonal items (will they ever be obtainable again, I wonder)...

And Square Enix shop items also. The majority of them are character-based. I'm levelling my alt atm, and I've lost access to all the shop/event items I obtained during all these years.

Somehow I doubt that SE creative minds took all of the above into consideration when they were planning the glorified characters update. Or maybe they did and just decided to ignore them entirely.

For what it's worth, I recently created an alt mostly to replay ARR. I created a male Viera, and while I'm not comparing him to a pre-DT version, I've been annoyed to find that his facial expressions in cutscenes are just as blank and emotionless as my newly lobotomized Elezen. I don't feel like trying to fanta a character I won't be playing for very long, but it does make me wonder what magic was lost in the facial animations on top of the structural facial changes.

[Velaneth]

Here's a comparison of a completely stock character - Ardbert, who can be perfectly recreated since he's just standard Hyur options. You can see the shape of the eyes, nose, and mouth are markedly different(The eyes especially are much narrower). Also the lighting is very underwhelming in the new one lol. First pic is from my first playthrough back in 2021, second is from today:



Watching it flip between images is even more dire: http://www.iankunx.net/ardbert comparison.mp4

Really feels like absolutely no attempt was made to retain continuity of features. My WoL is similarly messed up of course. I'll probably post more images of him later but right now it hurts too much to look at him. -_-

While I'm on the subject of old versus new, another thing that's completely broken are Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus' eyes. As before, first is old, second is new. Emet's glow is completely gone and Hythlodaeus' eyes also seem to lack it for the most part and aren't even the right color:









That needs to be fixed. Maybe they're leaving it until they update their models but uh. Going off of my WoL and Ardbert and everyone else I'd really rather they never update them and just fix their eyes. There's also the absolutely insane lighting difference in the scene now. Which isn't the cause of the eye issues, Emet just doesn't glow at all. I'm not sure if Hyth isn't at all or the color is just set completely wrong.

[Tsiron]

don't have anything constructive to add, comparisons and breakdowns and whatnot (I have doubts whether they can really recapture the old models' vibes, even with the promised revisions), but I guess I'd like to express that I've found myself feeling increasingly detached from my characters on account of their modified appearances also. Even taking into account my initial disappointment, I didn't actually think it would affect me to this extent...

[SongOfTheWind]

For what it's worth, I recently created an alt mostly to replay ARR. I created a male Viera, and while I'm not comparing him to a pre-DT version, I've been annoyed to find that his facial expressions in cutscenes are just as blank and emotionless as my newly lobotomized Elezen. I don't feel like trying to fanta a character I won't be playing for very long, but it does make me wonder what magic was lost in the facial animations on top of the structural facial changes.

To be fair, Viera always had subdued emotions. It’s part of their charm for those who prefer it. Not to say that their animations did not change, but I don’t think the intensity did.

[Kaziek]

The lack of shadow just looks so off putting. I get that the old lighting had issues with how it lit up faces, but was the solution to make it look like everyone is permanently lit up?