Benchmark: Male Miqo Face 1 (it's not good)

[TheVegetable]

So I've been playing around with the benchmark character creator, and it's not good. There's a lot of things to talk about, but the most egregious issue is that although I always expected there to be certain unavoidable changes, my opinion is that my characters no longer feel like my characters. And having watched the presentations for the new models, I know that one of the things Squeenix has said they want to do is preserve the spirit of our player-characters whilst upping the graphics, so I'm gonna focus on what I think are the main details to address in that regard.





Here's two images of my main character (I have several, for reasons), benchmark on the left and current on the right. There's a big difference in the feel the character gives off, and the changes have made him feel very cold and dead on the inside, as opposed to the cutesy gremlin energy he's supposed to have.

A good chunk of this is caused by the eyes. Aside from the shine being absent because of how they've changed the way reflections work, there's also a subtle but impactful change in the shape of the eyes, particularly in the upper eyelid. The black part of the eyelid has also gotten a lot thinner for some reason. I also think the outer corner of the eye is a bit further down on the new model.
And there's no way to remedy this by changing any options, these are the most wide open eyes that you can get. From what I've seen, the eye issue is present with face 3 too.
On top of all this, the eye colour has gotten duller, and the pupils have gotten less dark, and the transition between the two has been made more blurry. This reduction in contrast ultimately makes the eyes duller, contributing to that cold, dead stare.

The lips are also worthy of mention. They seem to have lost a lot of their fullness and appear a lot more flat, particularly in the lower lip. If you look at it from the side, you can see that it protrudes outward, but in this lighting, you absolutely can't see it from the front. It also appears the lip texture itself also just doesn't extend as far down on the new model.

1/2

[TheVegetable]

Where things get really bad though is my other character. Again, same issue with the eyes, but now the lips are a lot worse too. Lip option 4, the one he uses, ends up accentuating a lot of the features of the mouth, and many of those features absent, it ends up not having the same feel at all.



If we take a closer look, we can see that there's several noticeable changes in the overall shape of the lips. The upper lip is less curved, the indentation in the corner of the lips is almost absent, and the lower lip is supposed to have a bit of a bulging shape. These details are all present in the other mouths too, they're just more accentuated with mouth 4 because it's compressed. They may be subtle differences from a distance, but they're still important for giving the mouth the proper look.



As for other details, the hair colours are looking washed out, and dark ones especially don't look very good. The blackest option looks more grey, to the point that his highlights don't match the black on his ears that come with the hairstyle. From what I gather though, this is an issue with several races, not just catboys.

and if I'm gonna nitpick, I'd like to point out that the jaw seems to be a little different now, having lost some of its roundness, and the chin is a little wider, though this is hardly a huge issue compared to the other things I've talked about.

I was cautiously excited about the graphical update, but now I'm honestly more-so dreading the possibility that my characters won't look like my characters anymore, and I really hope Squeenix can manage to make the new models look more faithful to the old ones.

2/2

[TheVegetable]

Oh, and as some people have also pointed out, the eyebrows are very faintly visible now. If anything, they should probably be darker than the actual hair itself- they already had visibility issues with certain lighter hair colours before.

[ShiroLialeth]

Yeah same with my character. He doesn't really feel like himself anymore.
The lips are my biggest problem here, they got change completely. Other things I can point out are the special markings that got lighter (from black to grey-ish), the hair got lighter, the scar across his right eye got moved and is a little longer and the eyes are darker.

[TheVegetable]

Oh yea, you're right. It seems to go for certain face paint options too? Overall, a lot of the colours on the new models just don't work

[Gteputin]

I feel like Keepers did not receive the love they should've, my WoL is a Seeker and I am fine with his changes his face got. Apart from his black hair and black tattoos not being black.

However after I saw these pictures I went to play around with the Benchmark character creation too.
So far my biggest problem with the Keeper seem to be with the lip shape as on all types the lower lip lacks...shape. As Veggie pointed out with his pics.

Previously posted pictures of Keeper's eyes make them look---dead? : D
I don't seem to have this issue within the Benchmark itself unless I go for really light eyes.

Also the canine teeth seem to have become smaller with the update, which I do not like. Saw someone point it out in the twitter too.

[Aco505]

I am personally fine with the change. The face looks enhanced compared to before but it does take a bit to get used to it.




However, there are some things that are worth mentioning.

Lip option #4 for the male miqo'te face 1 has been changed. I'm not too bothered but it's quite similar now to the "longer" version (#1) whereas before there were more differences. See below for a comparison of mouth 4 before and after.



It doesn't have the same vibe, and it's now just a slightly shorter version of mouth 1. Again, not a huge deal but it does make the lips, mouth and overall face look different than before.

The roundness of the lips that has affected many races and faces is obvious here too, although it looks good on the male miqo'te face 1.


In the same picture, you can see the changes in the eyes. The color is duller now, as stated before by many, and the slit pupils are less prominent.

One issue I have is that the base color of the lower lip of the male miqo'te face 1 is too similar to the skin tone, which can make it look as if there's no lip or at least no clear outline. I have found this to be less problematic with darker skin tones.

This can be fixed using lip color. However, both eye and lip color (as well as many other elements) are quite affected by lighting now, which is why the eyes tend to appear dull and give a "dead inside" look when there's not enough light.

The left picture below exemplifies how the lips look good and defined with the aetherial background while the eyes are dull. On the other hand, the right picture shows the lips a bit weirdly because they have lost their outline and definition and the light has modified the lip color; while the eyes have become brighter although perhaps not as expressive as we were used to before.




Some of these issues can be fixed by tweaking different parameters to make it look a bit better. I think the lips will be nicer in my case with a slight color change and going from dark intensity to light.

However, I won't know for sure until I see it in game. The lighting of the character creator is quite awful and things such as skin tone, eye and lip color, hair color, etc. just don't look the same way they do when you actually play.


Lastly, I agree that eyebrows appear to be less prominent now. I think we need to split eyebrow options into shape and thickness so that we can have full control on how they look. I've seen players suggesting to have the eyebrow color be different than the hair color as well, which would be great to have.


All in all, I personally think it's a step in the right direction for male miqo'te face 1 although there's more work to do, in my opinion. Hopefully future changes can also satisfy those who are not happy with the differences.