Dawntrail character graphics update - opinions, requests and discussion megathread

[Argantaelle]

When looking through Chinese lodestone threads, I've found this very interesting post about changes in the faces of Midlander males and how they affect the cutscenes and the plot in general.

Warning: HW and SHB spoilers ahead!

but I do think it would have been nice to have a slide mentioning that it will be covered in the next PLL at the end so we could have the translation right there, rather than hearing "graphical update" in amongst a sentence the vast majority of the English playerbase wouldn't understand and be left wondering what exactly was said until someone translated it for us...

It's even more difficult for non-English people like me, who have to "translate" Japanese phrases to English and then from English to my own language. I'm still not quite sure what exactly Mr. Yoshida said.

[Moonfallen]

When looking through Chinese lodestone threads, I've found this very interesting post about changes in the faces of Midlander males and how they affect the cutscenes and the plot in general.

Warning: HW and SHB spoilers ahead!

Going through the link and the screenshots just solidifies I will NEVER go through the game on a new character again. It looks AWFUL, and I'm sorry to say this but they ruined their own game. They want to last another 10 years? I don't see that happening after fucking up this badly. So many people I know either play less or quit entirely because the entire vibe on the cutscenes is ruined by horrendous lighting, bad animations, and everyone looking like completely different people. Talking about this link and thread currently with a friend and going over all the screenshot comparisons and even they are asking what the devs were thinking.

[Astronis]

When looking through Chinese lodestone threads, I've found this very interesting post about changes in the faces of Midlander males and how they affect the cutscenes and the plot in general.

Warning: HW and SHB spoilers ahead!

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed. The lighting issue a few posts up in the scene after defeating Thordan, now THAT is a radical shift for the worse that needs to be fixed. These though? They're hardly different at all, certainly not enough to affect the plot.

[noumen0nn]

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed. The lighting issue a few posts up in the scene after defeating Thordan, now THAT is a radical shift for the worse that needs to be fixed. These though? They're hardly different at all, certainly not enough to affect the plot.

Hard disagree. The expression differences are subtle, but so are microexpressions in real life, and those are enough to fully change the emotion being displayed by a face. Facial emotes as a whole need another pass, they look wooden in screenshots and alien in motion.

[Astronis]

Hard disagree. The expression differences are subtle, but so are microexpressions in real life, and those are enough to fully change the emotion being displayed by a face. Facial emotes as a whole need another pass, they look wooden in screenshots and alien in motion.

I can damn near guarantee that someone playing FFXIV for the first time is not going to come away from the game thinking the plot is substantially different than you think it is, based on these subtle differences.

(I say substantially, since at the level of microexpressions, one person's interpretation of another's emotion becomes subjective.)

[CuteBucket]

Those all look fine to me, with maybe one out of the whole bunch being over-lit. Mostly they've just had that godawful grey overlay that used to make everything look bad removed. The lighting issue a few posts up in the scene after defeating Thordan, now THAT is a radical shift for the worse that needs to be fixed. These though? They're hardly different at all, certainly not enough to affect the plot.

It's not about the lighting and colors here (I agree in most of these the new lighting looks better), it's about the structural changes to the Hyur face model Ardbert uses making his expressions look different and just in general him looking like a different guy. Yeah, new players won't notice or care, but it kind of sucks for players that love going back through the story or their favorite cutscenes to have a character they liked have expressions that are different and just generally look like a stranger to them.

[Astronis]

It's not about the lighting and colors here (I agree in most of these the new lighting looks better), it's about the structural changes to the Hyur face model Ardbert uses making his expressions look different and just in general him looking like a different guy. Yeah, new players won't notice or care, but it kind of sucks for players that love going back through the story or their favorite cutscenes to have a character they liked have expressions that are different and just generally look like a stranger to them.

I understand that and sympathize with people who dislike it, though of course it's subjective. To me they all look like the same characters with higher fidelity graphics. Ardbert looks like Ardbert to me. I've gone back through some of the cutscenes and enjoyed how much better they look with the update. Urianger looks soooo much better now. To me at least!

[Gaddes]

I understand that and sympathize with people who dislike it, though of course it's subjective. To me they all look like the same characters with higher fidelity graphics. Ardbert looks like Ardbert to me. I've gone back through some of the cutscenes and enjoyed how much better they look with the update. Urianger looks soooo much better now. To me at least!

Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

[Astronis]

Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

It wasn't on purpose, no. There are a lot of NPCs I didn't mention; I just happened to be struck specifically by how good Urianger looks (especially his eyes, but everyone has much nicer eyes now). TBH, I'm more concerned about Thancred's eye color changing for no given reason after Heavensward, but that doesn't have anything to do with the graphics update. I'd really, really like to know why his white (presumably blind?) eye changed back when Y'shtola's didn't! I did go back and look at HW Thancred and he looks pretty rough, but before and after he doesn't look so different to me that it gives me pause. A little younger, maybe, but that could be chalked up to the shave, bath, and losing the tan. I agree he looks a little different though and can see why that might affect some people's perception of him.

[Turethir]

Dunno if it's on purpose or not that you didn't mention Thancred, who does look noticeably different and younger, which actually I think hurts his portrayal. Hard to see him as the worn, emotionally fraught man who's gone through the wringer when he looks fresh-faced and younger than before. His HW face (ninja one) I believe hasn't been changed yet so you can actually see how his face reverses all traumatic change as the expansions go on.

If we're talking about Thancred, I strongly suggest that everyone visits the thread dedicated to him where there's so many examples of how he changed. They gave him default Midlander Face 1 when he'd had a custom sculpt since Heavensward and as a Thancred fan it's honestly devastating. I feel like the character I loved has been lost and there's no way to get him back, and I am hoping desperately that they change him. The lips are such a big issue, like with a lot of the player character models, because they're just taken from the default Midlander face.

Any upvotes or replies on that thread are hugely appreciated to help get the issue more widely noticed by the devs.

This is just sad



Lip comparison


Nose/eyes comparison
Note how much narrower his nose becomes!