With the graphics update, now it's clear what's missing. A pleasing color grading.

[Ilakya]

For some reason, not just 1.0 but even the pre-launch 2.0 official screenshot has better color grading than the actual game. Even the Dawntrail benchmark. The skies are bright with some slight bloom to give the sence of the HDR brightness. Which is very 2000s graphics things. But the current version on an actual HDR screen didn't feel the right level of brightness either. There are always some strange tint on high saturate and brightness area. There are things like ACIS standard right now, couldn't we get anything closer to that? Or anything filmic will give a lot of realistic sense to the images.

Also characters and cloths has nice sheen shader when got hit by back light just like in 1.0.

It's been over 10 years. Why we still didn't have these again? I beleve the sheen might be a heavy shaders back then. But we had drop PS3 support for years. And a nice filmic color grading shouldn't be any impact on the performance.

[Jeeqbit]

It's because of how it uses reflective lighting so that the colors change based on the light. If you choose a grey eye color, most of the time it looks blue (I discovered that the Warrior of Light's eyes vary so much because they are actually grey, but you would be forgiven for thinking they are blue if you watch any trailer or use it in benchmarks because it's reflecting the color of the sky, the earth or the environment).

[Gokki]

I too subscribe to Acerola's youtube channel

I do like your pictures with the grading, but does it also work well in all other situations like dungeons, raids and other environs?

[CidHeiral]

It would be nice if they punched up the saturation just a little bit.

[LordMcMutton]

[...] does it also work well in all other situations like dungeons, raids and other environs?

You'd have different color grading for different lighting situations- it's tailored to the specifics of the scene.