Quote Originally Posted by Sairaag View Post
So many people in the English part of the fandom insist that "it's more realistic now, so it's better!" For example, I was very surprised to see how many people celebrated the loss of the eye catchlights as they were "unrealistic" or whatever, because to me they were a very appealing part of the animesque art style.
I think this is a large part of why there's such a disconnect between people who love the update and people who don't. Some people view the update as the same art style but better while others view it has as a massive deviation from the established art style.

Looking at the eyes specifically, the old catchlights were painted on due to technical limitations at the time. If the devs could have done the catchlights we have now at that time they probably would have. Some may say if that's what people have gotten used to for ten years then that is art style and it shouldn't change. Others may argue that decisions made from technical limitations shouldn't lock the devs into a particular look forever. I don't think either view is necessarily incorrect, but those two viewpoints colliding is where you're seeing a lot of disagreements between players.

Personally, I thought the old eyes were lifeless and vacant. I always disliked how every character standing around a city or wherever always looked like O_O as if they just got back from war. The new eyes still look plenty stylized to me, they just have a depth and life to them now that the old ones didn't, in my opinion. As Loggos has been saying though it's all subjective at the end of the day.