Character graphical changes are NOT in an acceptable state, please make it optional

[moriori]

Yeah, I'm not going to be able to reconcile with the character I have had for 10 years now being aged up by 20+ years in what was supposedly just a "touch up". Literally all my male midlanders look like completely different people, their facial features are altered to the point of almost looking like highlanders.

What I have always liked about FFXIV is that their male humans do not look like your standard western game 30+ white guy, so having that change imposed upon my character feels a bit like a gut punch frankly!

[LittleImp]

Both of the characters I regularly play are designed to appear androgynous.

After the graphics update, they have both become substantially more feminine in appearance due to weird unnecessary tweaks made to various facial features that have nothing whatsoever to do with improved graphical fidelity.

Also, the Lalafell Taru nose marking essentially does not work on dark skinned characters now, and appears red/pink.

You can see it clearly in my forum portrait, versus this abomination:

[Wasselin]

I am also not happy with how my character looks in the benchmark. I think the worst difference is the eye brows and facial hair. They are basically non-existent in the benchmark. I hope they are continuing to work on this or there is a way to go back.

The skin tone looks different too, but I think I could probably adjust that if I wanted.

[moriori]

I am also not happy with how my character looks in the benchmark. I think the worst difference is the eye brows and facial hair. They are basically non-existent in the benchmark. I hope they are continuing to work on this or there is a way to go back.

The skin tone looks different too, but I think I could probably adjust that if I wanted.

The thing with eyebrows and facial hair! If anything I had hoped for them to add more options, seeing that other races and genders have them! What little we had was instead taken away... :-(

[Tethan]

I am also not happy with how my character looks in the benchmark. I think the worst difference is the eye brows and facial hair. They are basically non-existent in the benchmark. I hope they are continuing to work on this or there is a way to go back.

The skin tone looks different too, but I think I could probably adjust that if I wanted.

Does he even have a beard in the benchmark? I can't tell at all.

[PompoPompPump]

I've heard people say that it's only the character creator which make your character look ass, because of it's horrendous lighting. And while it does do that, it's not the core issue. They made fundemental changes to multiple options in the character creator. I only got lucky that my character didn't go completely to shit.

They also took the light out of our eyes. We're fucking vacant and hopeless, what's up with that?????????

[xbahax92]

Is it just me or is the neck area just badly done? Did they not update the whole skin texture? It's not seamless anymore. I dont think this is the final product... right? right?

[BunnyReaper]

Vieras look the worst. They lost everything that made them pretty, their lips got ruined, the make up on the bun boys looks like they've been crying for 30 mins straight. Genuinely ruined

[DynnDiablos]

I don't really comment on forums often but I have to in this case -thank you so much for voicing the fact that for some people the excuse of just using a fantasia doesn't really cut it when you've been playing the game for literal years with the same look. I've been playing for 8 years with the same face and loading it up into the benchmark my heart absolutely sank how different my miqo'te looks. Regardless of how much tinkering you can do (albeit still not much due to the FFXIV chara creator being somewhat limited compared to most games) its impossible to bring back the same face or at the very least feel that he had to begin with. Looks so much more dull and lifeless now.
Its just heartbreaking seeing that the character you've grown attached to and sentimental about , tied with memories and screenshots with you and so many other people, is about to irrevocably change and be lost forever and you literally have no control over it. Sucks.

They aren't going to delay Dawntrail because folks are crying on the forums about the updates. Dawntrail is coming 6/28 whether you like it or not.

[EliaStormblade]

There are definitely some issues there that require fixing on a technical level and I hope they get it. But a lot of this is also just the result of having new shaders that aren't from 2010 and don't make your character look like flat, non-reactive crumpled paper. They're also not going to allow you to toggle it off, because these are changes to the very engine, hopping over to PBR materials and the like, which is much more than just a toggle.