New 7.1 hairstyle looks nothing like the winning hairstyle from the 2023 contest

[rinzukodas]

Also in agreement with all those unhappy with this. I understand how busy the dev team must be, but I know they are capable of doing better than insulting an artist who took the time out of their schedule to try to draw something heartfelt for people who are already sorely underrepresented in this game's visuals. That they did not even try to implement the curly look is extremely disappointing.

[Astronis]

Yeeah this hair is terrible. I don't know if they could have made it properly curly (no one would want what Byregot has on his head as a player model), but what they did just looks goofy.

Though I'd like to note for the people hollering white white white white whiiiiiite for this...the devs are Japanese, and white people are far more likely to have hair as curly as the fan entry than Japanese people are.

[shimmy-shammy]

I'm another who registered to the forums just to reply to this thread.

Even when I was scrolling through the patch notes this morning, my first thought when I saw that hairstyle was "that looks unfinished" ... and then I learned what hairstyle it was supposed to be. This doesn't even deserve a "you tried" sticker. You didn't even try.

It was refreshing to see a curly hairstyle amongst the winners. It was nice to see just how many people were excited and happy that a style that they were excited for - represented by, even - was among the chosen.

I would almost excuse it if it was meant to be a separate hairstyle entirely. If it was released alongside the actual hair that was submitted to begin with, but it's painfully clear that was not meant to be the case.

To echo what a lot of people have said, for all of the work and hype the team put out for diversity in DT (and even the continued act of removing genderlocks from some outfits), this really is a slap in the face for POC. They were excited to finally have a curly textured hair, and then they got a barely textured spare mop head.

Please, please go back and redo this. Don't be "inspired by," just make the hair it was meant to be. You've done curls before. Go back and put some actual care and effort into a hairstyle that would genuinely mean a lot to a large portion of your playerbase. It's disheartening to see the reactions of the artist and the players that were excited for this. Please do better.

[armoroad]

Not to bring up the taboo of third-party tools, but it is exceptionally disheartening when I see work posted on social media by players - mods - that use existing mesh parts and existing textures already in the game and still manage to create more impressive curls than this. People who receive no compensation for their work are creating better curly hair than this, and yet Square Enix's paid artists are falling this short?

The more this happens, the more I understand why some players feel cosmetics-related third-party tools are a necessity to see themselves inside the game. What is preventing Square from simply hiring these artists, or reaching out to collaborate if they are unsure of how to achieve these styles? Players create these styles for themselves, for no reason except love of the game, with no monetary compensation, on social media often; why can Square not achieve the same? If Square wanted to discourage third-party tool usage, these forms of representation should be available within the game itself.

[Alloragamer]

Also voicing my support and frustration. When I originally saw this in the patch notes I didn't even recognise which winner it was. I had to look through all the entries to even figure out which one it was.
The hair looks like waves, not curls, and it doesn't have the overall volume/fluffiness that the concept has.
Even if proper 5c curls aren't doable with the current setup, it would be nice to have actual curls of some sort and not waves.
This frustrates me as a player who just wanted to see more diversity in the hairstyles we have, even as someone who didn't plan on using the hair myself.
We have many hairs that are chin length or shorter and straight/lightly wavy, so the excitement for this hair was that it was fluffy and a texture completely unlike anything else we have.
I honestly just feel bad for the contest winner as this does not fit the spirit of thier design at all. And I'm not sure how you could even call this "natural curls" like the entry's name when there are no curls to speak of.

[tnwnx]

This is super disappointing to see, especially when Raubahn, a character that's been there since 1.0, has tighter curls than they did in this one. Their version of Fran is another example of a more complex hair texture that comes to mind. And with the graphic changes, hair texture has only gotten easier to show. So this just feels like it was rushed or unfinished.
Please actually take the proper time to do things right!

[Annoyance]

I also agree with those who are frustrated and disappointed. I didn't even recognize the coming hairstyle was the entry in question at all despite loving that entry so much, and not liking the hairstyle previewed in the patch notes. I would prefer they take more time and care with these things because this is so important to do right.

[brightdowned]

it's honestly genuinely and overwhelmingly disappointing for this to be the apparent best the team is able to do. i almost couldn't believe that it was "inspired" by the contest design in was modeled after... they *have* to do better than this, and i hope they care enough to listen to the playerbase + the artist who submitted the design and make an actual effort to make it at least somewhat like the original design

[GrizzlyTank]

This is super disappointing to see, especially when Raubahn, a character that's been there since 1.0, has tighter curls than they did in this one. Their version of Fran is another example of a more complex hair texture that comes to mind. And with the graphic changes, hair texture has only gotten easier to show. So this just feels like it was rushed or unfinished.
Please actually take the proper time to do things right!

Rhauban doesn't have curly hair like this. He has braids that goes to be wavy. Much easier to model than the curly.

Issue is most likely technical in that the curly design sadly exceeds the amount of polygons they can allow. While the game also lacks the support for more advanced methods of portraying hair found in newer games.

So if it were to be curly it would be like the afro, mostly one flat blob with curly texture, somehow.

[amis-amai]

Utterly astounded, seeing the patch notes this morning I did not even think that was even the same hairstyle. I highly doubt that it's not possible to model something like this in game, especially now with the amount of small details that can be done now with the new graphics, and I've seen multiple other games with far lesser graphical fidelity manage textured hair much better. Here it just looks like wet noodles... Honestly disappointed to see this.