Benchmark/Graphics Update - Show your WoL's before and after

[Anzaman]

Here's current and benchmark images of my female Xaela.

Some things that I noticed are;

• Reduction in neck scales
• Jagged edges on scales
• Cheek scales have moved back
• Larger pupils
• Less pronounced bottom eyeliner (?)
• Eye shape feels different
• Mouth/lips feel different

There are some things that I like, like I'm glad they didn't destroy her white limbal rings, but hopefully they can fix rest of the problems.

[potatsdevourer]

i feel like i am attached too much to my current character lol
the new one definitely tries to depend more on environment lighting. but i do miss the shading on the eye area and the static light on the pupil

left to right: pre-DT; post-DT; post-DT with painted light; post-DT with painted light and removed eyelashes
it is just he looks more sleazy post-DT. welp

edit: also i think this is already good time for highlander to have eyebrows. this update makes facepaint a bit duller, not to mention the "eagle eye" art direction on them is kinda removed and only dependant on the lighting when the lighting so far is not right???

[moriori]

This goes far beyond a simple upgrade and is more like a complete overhaul. I love male midlanders specifically because they don't look like male humans in games typically do... but now it feels like their facial features have been changed to almost resemble male highlander ones? It's all so plastic and dead looking, it's uncanny and I don't recognize any of my characters...

The appeal of FFXIV's graphics to me were that they were stylized more than leaning into aspects of realism such as with pores. I don't think this is an aesthetic change that I can get used to seeing even further down the line.

[Wasselin]

Not a fan. The more I look at it the less I like it. I don't really notice any improvements really. It just looks different, not better.

The eyebrows look basically non-existent and it might be my imagination but does the neck look thicker? I can't tell if it's just the lighting but something definitely looks weird there.

[Skivvy]

For fun, I had my husband judge the side-by-side pictures of my characters. He doesn't play the game at all and so he had no reference for how the game currently looks.

Out of the 4 characters I showed him, he picked the current graphics every single time. :X

[Kihna]

First of all, I think it's important to note that the character creator has never been a perfect indicator of what your character will look like in-game. That said, I don't hate it (honestly the new version looks closer to how I like to draw him). My main critiques are: (1) I don't like how flat his lips look when he's not in direct light, (2) I don't like how dark the shadows under his eye and on his nose looks when he's not in direct light, and (3)I don't like how bright the highlight on his nose looks in direct light (the highlight creates this waxy/plastic effect I don't like). Otherwise, I like the shape of his hair, lips, and jaw- they are a definite upgrade. His hair color is more desaturated, but this doesn't bother me that much.

[Ryu_Makkuro]

I've been with my female Au Ra since just after HW release. I fantasia'd straight into her the moment I got the free fantasia from reaching HW. That was 8 years ago and I never looked back, loved her to bits, didn't change a thing minus hairstyle through aesthetician.

Unfortunately, she lost that... special thing. No longer as confident, no more of that soul piercing gaze, just a soulless doll like generic thing now. Seems that with 7.0, I will be forced to switch.

Current:

Benchmark:


RIP Female Raen Au Ra face 1.

[Boblawblah]

I've been with my female Au Ra since just after HW release. I fantasia'd straight into her the moment I got the free fantasia from reaching HW. That was 8 years ago and I never looked back, loved her to bits, didn't change a thing minus hairstyle through aesthetician.

Unfortunately, she lost that... special thing. No longer as confident, no more of that soul piercing gaze, just a soulless doll like generic thing now. Seems that with 7.0, I will be forced to switch.

Current:

Benchmark:


RIP Female Raen Au Ra face 1.

I'm sorry you're not happy with her, I think the new one looks beautiful, but you're right, it seems she lost a bit of the intensity in her gaze, and it was replaced with a more elegant, stoic look, which depending on what you like can work, but yea, it is subtly different.

[Ryu_Makkuro]

I'm sorry you're not happy with her, I think the new one looks beautiful, but you're right, it seems she lost a bit of the intensity in her gaze, and it was replaced with a more elegant, stoic look, which depending on what you like can work, but yea, it is subtly different.

If they wanted to provide a more elegant and stoic look, they should've done so through adding a new face option, not replacing existing one. The whole point here is to preserve what players liked about their original choices, not replacing them with things they never were interested in.

At this point my course of action is to change to the only option that even made me remotely fathom the thought of changing from this Au Ra... Viera with Lightning hair. Very different from trying to adjust your existing character around the update changes.

[SeraMekta]

I like how clean the hair looks now, the color of the eye too especially for veenas
but I can't get over the lips/nose.
don't really know how to feel about this