Thancred's new face

[Remine]

I literally made a forum account just to show support to this thread & the petition to fix Miqo'te Face 2 eyebrows thread.

I am slowly making my way through the story, also having fun with side things, thoroughly enjoying everything Final Fantasy XIV has to offer - including meeting my real-life husband. I started in Ul'dah. I am extremely disappointed with Thancred's "new" face. Every other scion has had their uniqueness faithfully, thoughtfully, preserved. Thancred, the first scion my WoL built a personal relationship with, the scion who introduced me to this world, took my character under his wing, essentially led to her being where she currently is in the story as the Warrior of Light, *that* scion... now doesn't look like himself.

He looks like a Thancred from -insert cheap shopping website here-. The "we have a Thancred at home" meme. A vacantly-smiling random NPC himbo. I wouldn't want to discount the work put into him for the graphical update, but wait... what work? Default Huyr Face 1. His armour was updated with more care than his face. He looks like a cheap imitation, a soulless doll. What his character has been through, the weariness of the world, his individuality, essentially his personality has been wiped out. ARR was heart wrenching. HS too. I'm going into StormBlood now and I'm wary of going too far in because my scion mentor looks like this and I'm holding out some ridiculous hope it might get fixed before I continue with the story properly.

I basically lost my character due to the Miqo'te eyebrows issue, and I lost my scion mentor with the complete lack of care put into Thancred's update, too. With all due respect, put someone who actually cares about him in charge of his face. Or at least someone who cares about the quality of their work. The lack of care and attention towards beloved characters is shameful and appalling.

Yes, it's just a game. But gamers care about the pixels we put hours of our lives into. And I thought Square at least cared somewhat about the product they're putting out. Even looking at it from a business perspective, this ain't up to par. And it's already proven it can be better, because it's already done better with every other scion.

Please fix Thancred's face.

[Turethir]

Bumping and reposting the comparison image (since it got a little lost on the bottom of the last page!)



Aymeric's update is fantastic - please can we get the same for Thancred?

[BunnyBrat]

Yeah Aymeric still looks good. But his skin texture looks weird af.

[glitteringcosmos]

all skin textures look weird, because the subscattering is weird and because they're using the same mesh across all faces now, it's going to affect every face in the game.

[PokiHihinori]

thank god its not just me XD I really dislike it. square whyyyy!!!!!

[Xrhyse]

to begin, i'm aware the graphical update is ongoing. while i understand that it's hard to replicate character model shapes 1:1, after 7.2 (+ the fidelity of emet-selch and aymeric's updates) it is my belief that the changes to thancred's faces in particular are not caused by technical limits, but rather a conscious decision on the team's part to shift his character design entirely.

i believe this is a mistake for 3 reasons:

1) such a dramatic shift in thancred's look is antithetical to the team's messaging about the graphics update. in january 2024 at tokyo fanfest, director yoshida, according to english interpretation, said the team "want[s] to keep the image of the characters the same, so [...] if you think 'oh, it doesn't look that different', that's kind of a good thing". the changes made to player characters in 7.1/7.2 as well as free fantasias are strong indications that the dev team wish to keep their promise of updated graphics "while preserving the overall look that [we] know + love" (las vegas fan fest 2023). i know pcs take priority--but i hope that extends to the npcs we know + love, too.

2) being the only npc with such a different updated look is jarring. he is the only one that is nearly unrecognizable. after a decade of having a distinct appearance, i now have trouble telling him apart from other midlanders.

3) thancred's face is a large part of his character design. he has a dramatic character arc + an intentional display of his growth was in his appearance. in 2.x, his face was youthful, fuller--a handsome stranger. it represented who he was before his journey as a character. next, he had a different look in 3.x through 4.x. the dress-up thancred minion says it best: "several moons in the wild, removed from civilization and forced to adopt a more bestial means of survival transformed not only thancred's body, but his mind." he looked haggard and tired, but his facial features remained recognizable. then in 5.0+, we have thancred's third face, which is clearly older than in 2.x but more well-rested than 3.x/4.x. he looks more mature + actualized, which is fitting considering his story.

i don't think thancred's updated faces tell this same story.

giving this thread a lil bump on this thancred thursday. thank you so much to everyone that agreed with this analysis! this was actually originally a 2k word essay that i had to edit down to fit in one forum post LOL so i'm glad it still makes sense and resonantes!

i hope square give this thread a look and see how passionate we are, and that it's not just senseless whining. there are inarguable, objective differences in thancred's appearance and the long and short of it is: those differences are antithetical to the spirit of the graphics update.

personally, i'm holding out hope that they make a pass over npcs for tweaks/fixes after they've updated them all. let's keep our fingers crossed!

[Anarnee]

giving this thread a lil bump on this thancred thursday. thank you so much to everyone that agreed with this analysis! this was actually originally a 2k word essay that i had to edit down to fit in one forum post LOL so i'm glad it still makes sense and resonantes!

i hope square give this thread a look and see how passionate we are, and that it's not just senseless whining. there are inarguable, objective differences in thancred's appearance and the long and short of it is: those differences are antithetical to the spirit of the graphics update.

personally, i'm holding out hope that they make a pass over npcs for tweaks/fixes after they've updated them all. let's keep our fingers crossed!

FYI, you can skip the forum character limit by just editing the post after you post it. It will let you post much more, I say that cause I would love to see your full unedited analysis if you still have it intact.

[Xrhyse]

FYI, you can skip the forum character limit by just editing the post after you post it. It will let you post much more, I say that cause I would love to see your full unedited analysis if you still have it intact.

omg! that's so good to know, thank you! i'll look through my notes and put it up in a few days here! my point about fatebreaker came to me last minute so i'd like to find a way to throw it in there

[Turethir]

omg! that's so good to know, thank you! i'll look through my notes and put it up in a few days here! my point about fatebreaker came to me last minute so i'd like to find a way to throw it in there

I'm so excited to read it! Thank you to everyone for keeping this thread alive. Your bumps and comments really help.

If there's no change to Thancred in 7.3 I think I will compose a bug report; but I am always happy to hear any suggestions for how else we can raise awareness!

[Kandraxx]

I'm so excited to read it! Thank you to everyone for keeping this thread alive. Your bumps and comments really help.

If there's no change to Thancred in 7.3 I think I will compose a bug report; but I am always happy to hear any suggestions for how else we can raise awareness!

There's no bug. He's a major character and he wasn't white enough for japanese taste so he got the treatment. Look at Tidus from FFX who has gone from asian to white.