Benchmark Male Miqo'te Face 1 Feedback: Nope, still F#%@ed.

[Lunaru_F]

Disappointing that barely anyone seems to care about this. I see so many people complain about face 4, but they screwed up face 1 just as much if not more

Seems like anytime someone brings up a change that really does destroy a character's vibe, people just dismiss it as if they are the same, regardless of how obvious the changes are. People seem to think just because they don't play the race or use the same shape of face that it's okay to belittle others, especially if their race actually survived the transition without any obvious deformities from the original design.

I have a sinking feeling SE won't fix these, and has me hoping someone will preserve the original face models before Dawntrail comes and replaces them.

[Dragondancer]

Seconding this SO MUCH. PLEASE HELP, my gorgeous thoughtful-looking sparkly-eyed boy turns into a vapid-looking person with a vacant expression in the benchmark and I hate it so much; it's actually making me cry.

I thought the graphical updates were going to update textures not CHANGE THE LOOK OF OUR CHARACTERS' FACES TO SOMETHING HORRIBLE?

Please put face 1 back the way it was!! The incorrect eye shape and lip shape make his face look squashed and vacant.

I have a gorgeous male keeper of the moon in the current game and the benchmark COMPLETELY WRECKS HIM. I spend most of my time in-game staring at him because he's so pretty and if this goes through I will hate to look at him. I love this game and spend time almost every day in here and have a community- please don't destroy my pride and joy. Instead of looking forward to Dawntrail I feel like it's just a ticking clock on losing him forever. Please fix this and make face 1 the way it was.

He has eyes 1, mouth 3, jaw 3 and nose 3. OP is very right that the eyes and mouth and shape of the face changes, which I think is to blame for most of the moronic look, even if the washed-out part was fixed.

Here are some comparison shots.
Pic just taken by hitting scroll lock and print screen in-game right now.



Pics from the benchmark: who is this?? This isn't the same person. From CC




And then the actual benchmark, to show how that vacant stupid look shows up not just in CC.


Other issues I will note more elsewhere as this post is focused on basic facial structure problems: he's super washed out, the heck? His HAIR is supposed to be a nice saturated black, what is happening here. His SCAR is also way too long; it should not extend nearly down to his mouth. See the much smaller scar in the comparison pic where it stops at the end of his nose. If Square wants to add a longer scar, they should add it as an option, not randomly change what we have into something very different.

PLEASE DON'T TURN MY GORGEOUS BOY INTO THIS VACANT DEFORMED STRANGER. I upgraded my entire computer for DT in order to keep my boy looking good, not... like a vacant moron.
We need face 1 and the eyes and mouths drawn back the way they are!! We've loved these characters for years, a graphics update shouldn't change the fundamentals of their facial structures.

[Dragondancer]

Additional since I ran out of character space on my first reply (maybe Square should make less things wrong so I have less to say). This has illustrations for SCAR TOO LONG and EYES NOT SHIMMERY.

I would like to thank them for listening to the feedback on moonkeeper fangs and restoring them. There are also a few more lights in the eyes than the first benchmark, however, they ONLY SHOW UP WHEN ZOOMED IN AND MOVING. My mooncat's shiny eyes are one of my favorite features about him. The irises should have a shimmer to them and they should *always* have lights in them. Please give us an option to toggle the catchlight back on since the "dynamic" lighting isn't working when they are standing still or at a comfortable zoom.

The scar should end at the nose length. If Square wants to add one that goes down to the mouth, they should add it as an additional option, not take away what we have.

The hair is also clearly washed out as noted above. It should be a saturated black. It looks nearly grey in the Benchmark video itself.

Illustration: scar too long in Benchmark, irises not shimmery or eyes vibrant or with depth, and facial features off:


Comparison: current look, with shorter scar and shimmery irises and catchlight creating lovely sparkly eyes, taken from a cutscene, no filters or outside effects:

[TheCat]

I have a sinking feeling SE won't fix these, and has me hoping someone will preserve the original face models before Dawntrail comes and replaces them.

As soon as I saw a picture of the new cat boy NPC in DT (Koana) sporting the messed up face 1 before the 2nd benchmark released, deep down I knew they weren't gonna do jack shit about it. I wish they'd just let him have a unique face and fix it for the rest of us, but seeing how few people are complaining about this - despite face 1 being the most popular one - I think we'll have to accept the new reality that face 1 as we know and love it will not exist anymore 2 weeks from now... I hate to be such a downer, but there's just not enough people making a stink about this

[Aco505]

Disappointing that barely anyone seems to care about this. I see so many people complain about face 4, but they screwed up face 1 just as much if not more

I am hopeful that they will follow on the feedback we've given when it comes to face 1.

While not as numerous as face 4, there's been quite a bit of posts about it and many in the JP thread are asking the devs to clarify the timeline of taking feedback into account when it comes to the graphical update of the characters.

I want to believe that they'll keep including changes for a while.

[TheVegetable]

Disappointing that barely anyone seems to care about this. I see so many people complain about face 4, but they screwed up face 1 just as much if not more

Yup, I'd have expected to see more people complain about it. Hopefully more people will start talking about it when the changes are actually released, but at this rate, I don't at all doubt that we're going to have to live with it for a while /playdead

Additional since I ran out of character space on my first reply (maybe Square should make less things wrong so I have less to say). This has illustrations for SCAR TOO LONG and EYES NOT SHIMMERY.

I would like to thank them for listening to the feedback on moonkeeper fangs and restoring them. There are also a few more lights in the eyes than the first benchmark, however, they ONLY SHOW UP WHEN ZOOMED IN AND MOVING. My mooncat's shiny eyes are one of my favorite features about him. The irises should have a shimmer to them and they should *always* have lights in them. Please give us an option to toggle the catchlight back on since the "dynamic" lighting isn't working when they are standing still or at a comfortable zoom.

The scar should end at the nose length. If Square wants to add one that goes down to the mouth, they should add it as an additional option, not take away what we have.

The hair is also clearly washed out as noted above. It should be a saturated black. It looks nearly grey in the Benchmark video itself.

Illustration: scar too long in Benchmark, irises not shimmery or eyes vibrant or with depth, and facial features off:


Comparison: current look, with shorter scar and shimmery irises and catchlight creating lovely sparkly eyes, taken from a cutscene, no filters or outside effects:

Yup, 100% agreed about the scar, it is way too long.

Regarding what you said about the hair, I think that applies to all characters, not just ours, so hopefully that's likely to get looked at. But man, our characters really aren't looking themselves in DT. I hope all our catboys will be fixed.

[Caesius]

So, I go over this in my own thread but the changes to mouth shape are absolutely not specific to male miqote face 1. It's a consistent issue across many faces in the game and easily the one change that contributes the most to our WoLs appearing different in ways we don't want.

This change to the lower lip shape happens to almost all races when lip color is applied:



I don't believe the physical geometry of the lips actually changed, which you can confirm by turning off lip color. This means we could get an improved appearance for all of our characters if they adjust how lip color is applied to the lower lip. I would prefer this change as an option but it's clear that many people are unhappy with the change to the lower lip.

If you want to see changes, I recommend not hyperfocusing on your own WoL's face but instead try to highlight issues that are common across many different races and genders. It will be harder for the dev team to justify the changes as an intentional "we did say your WoL would look different" if they're shown that all races now have the exact same lower lip makeup. It's such a small thing but it seriously messes with the perception of our characters.

[glitteringcosmos]

I would highly recommend using Google Translate or DeepL to post your concerns over in the JP bug report forums. I just saw today that someone's bug report for Face 4 M Miqo got moved to the "accepted and scheduled for fix" thread--there's a good chance that you'd get somewhere with the same process for Face 1!

[Caesius]

The Face 4 bug report detailed specific graphical glitches such as seams in the ears. Even if they did mention places where it simply looks different aesthetically I really don't think that's the part of the bug report that was "accepted." Nothing described in this thread strikes me as an actual bug, and even if there was you'll notice the English forums have an "Accepted Bugs" section that the community team is actively moving reports into, so there shouldn't be a need to google translate your bug report.

They were very clear in saying that our WoLs would look different and are generously giving us a fantasia, so describing specific changes to one face on one race would probably be met with a collective shrug. Again, I don't think having a "male miqo face 4" thread and a "male miqo face 1" thread will accomplish anything on their own.

What needs to happen if we're going to nudge the dev team into making subjective, aesthetic changes to improve our WoLs' appearance is to identify common, pervasive issues affecting multiple races to ensure everyone is on board with it. Otherwise people will just be like... eh, I don't play catboy so w/e.

[Sairaag]

After posting in the general benchmark thread, I've been trying to figure out what it is that bothers me so much about the changes to face 1. They really are subtle, but I guess it's because the face itself is very smooth, a bit of a baby face, that they stand out so much. To me, most of the detail and charm and sharpness is in the eyes and the lips. Here's my Keeper from Endwalker to first Dawntrail benchmark to updated benchmark, mouth 4, eye shape 3.



And when I removed and added some catchlights...



That extra light is doing a lot of heavy lifting, but I still think the first face looks the most awake. So let's look at the eyes...



Well, not subtle at all, actually. My Keeper suddenly has rather heavier eyelids there, so his eyes look less open and even a bit sleepy. I also think the original shape is sharper. And am I seeing that right, did the eyelids get even bigger in the second benchmark? Let's put some paint on them.



Yeah, I'm pretty sure the eyelids get slightly heavier in both updates, and the third pair looks a bit more rounded. I also think the shape of the eyes I liked so much is a little softer and rounder in general now. What do you guys think? I'll have to draw some lines when I get to my tablet...