Quote Originally Posted by Astronis View Post
I do believe they have achieved this as much as is possible without just giving up and re-using the low-poly models. The model has more polygons. [...] It isn't a big difference--yes, it's noticeable to those of us who have been using this face for years, but it's an improvement over a model that didn't have enough polygons to work with.
I totally agree with you, they have achieved to truly upgrade the characters and they did a pretty good job keeping the original ideas/shapes polygon-wise. (The only exception might be some mouths, but I don't think that could be easily fixed or should be fixed in some cases.)
At least on my female highlander it is true and they are one of the more problematic races here I think - yes, she felt extremely off for me at first (it was the reason to join the forums actually), but I've got out the ruler and her features anatomically are extremely close to the original.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...=1#post6472664

We should consider the new lighting as well - I believe it causes a lot of the face to look different - faces shorter/smaller, cheeks shaped differently, etc. - because it looks more dimensional now. But the lighting is a huge, huge improvement, even if it makes the face look off.
There are also some differences caused by the new textures too - I assume the creases, some eye shape or some mouth differences or how we perceive the distance between the eyes are because of this.

All in all, I could recommend sitting down and comparing the faces in minute details, it was what made me accept a lot of differences, including the mouth. - When I compared the original with the benchmark, I asked myself: 'If I was the artist, what would I have done?' There are a lot of really minor differences, which makes the character look off, but if I was sitting next to the artist, I would have agreed to commit to them - upgrade the nose, yes, giving eyebrow definition, yes, define the texture at the corners of the mouth, yes, define the creases to look more dimensional, yes, etc...
Of course, there will be changes, but in the end, you can compare the original and tweak the textures to feel more similar. - And I do think we should only look at the characters to see what defines the face, what improves upon it and what is important to change to get closer to that definition. Not necessarily to achieve the same, but to get closer to it if needed.

I think there might be more characters out there where the differences could be more acceptable for the owner if he/she tries to see the details thus. And in the long run, we will get used to or even get attached to these new differences too...

I know it is extremely based on my case and my opinion, and I don't know if all the characters would work like this... Please don't stone me for it.