My own follow up on the graphics changes. 1/7

[Shadowbinder]

And sure, giving a fantasia was a nice idea, but when the face can changes from day to day they don't really mean much, do they? Some people used their fantasias because it was said that our character updates were done, so what about them? Just bad timing? That doesn't really feel fair and I have heard from many others how upset they have become over this.

I am fully aware that this has, in one way, become fully self-imposed, but in a way I have become effectively soft locked in the game now.

I can't progress in the story because I don't want to miss a cutscene by it being blocked by my mask nor get jump-scared by my ever changing face being forced to be shown like it is in some cutscenes. I can't do side quests for the same reason, I don't know which have cutscenes or not so I don't dare do them. Looking up what they do and which does what defeats the purpose for me, that's simply playing a game not engaging it in my personal case. I don't enjoy that and therefore don't want to do so.

I can level my classes that I already have unlocked, but I can't do any class quests. I can do beast tribes I have already unlocked until I reach a Rank Up quest, where the cutscene comes and blocks me there. I can't raid, I can't unlock new dungeons, I can't try out the harder content that now apparently is needed to enjoy the game as it was before and have a proper challenge as well as experience your class in full.

I'm just trapped at this time.

I still do the seasonals, but instead of making me excited like they did before they make me sad, strained and they feel like a great chore rather than a relaxing add on to this, in my opinion, too fast updating game. Updates are always good, but not when it feels like you're leaving a lot of your player base behind. I know some won't agree with me, but a lot of the people who would have left the game, either a while ago or now with Dawntrail.

I am also fully aware that this sounds harsh, but I have to be clear and honest with my feedback, otherwise what's the point?

I love this game, otherwise I wouldn't be here.

And there is a lot that looks so nice with the graphics update. I love the update to the skies depending on the time of day, the sunset and sunrise in particular are beautiful.

I like that clothes are 3D now and don't look painted on like some did before. I am so happy that we finally have proper eyeballs so you don't see a weird blocky edge when your character looks at something far away to their side. I like the updated hair strands, the dangling of earrings and hair ornaments. I like that Ul'dah got updated and looks better again and not like a very nice PS2 city. I like the fluffy grass in The Black Shroud and La Noscea, the updated natural light. The textures of the stones looking more bumpy than painted on is also wonderful.

[Shadowbinder]

In the environment there is so little to speak about. The ones I can think of is that metal looks extremely strange and fake, like plastic buffered with metallic paint. The light in the Shaded Bower stands in Gridania is still awful like a few expansions before and although the grass moving when you run through it is adding a bit more presence to your character and the effect that you have on the world around you, it breaks when the bigger bushes stand perfectly still breaking the immersion quickly.

Another immersion and frankly unplayable part of the new update for me is the mounts. Some mounts look ill when they run as if they are going to topple over which gives me great discomfort to use them. But the biggest issue is that I get nauseous being on them whether they are on the ground or in the sky and I just have to sprint around at the moment which just makes me miss the old 30 second cool down sprint, which I don't understand, now that TP is long gone, why it didn't revert back to that old cooldown.

This isn't me simply being uncomfortable and choosing this away like how I choose to hide my face, this is an unplayable feature for me and I don't get why it was implemented. It doesn't look realistic, it broke a feature which I personally had no issue with and it just looks terrible and is completely unusable for me.

You have asked for understanding and patience and I see the attempts to fix the characters clearly, so I will give you that.

But that doesn't mean I can't critique what's wrong or get upset when my character looks horrible.

I have played this game for over 10 years now, and it sucks to feel almost kicked out of or at least heavily restricted from a game I have loved for so long.

I want to play it. I want to build a house and decorate it. I love making glamours and trying out new things. I like doing hard content and I do like interacting with the other players. I have actually had days where I've wanted to play FFXIV, then I think of my character and all the wind goes out of my sails and I move on to something else.

I wouldn't write this post if I didn't care or wanted to help, and I'm sorry that it is so emotional but this game means a lot to me but I don't want to go further into it than that. But it is also hard to not get emotional when my face I've had for 10 years is gone.

[Shadowbinder]

Please, take the time necessary to fix our characters and fix the world as well, we don't want rushed products we want it to take the time needed.

From what I have heard all characters have the same model and I can see that a bit from some features and changes to the bodies. If possible, make separate or at least a few different models that are shared per race instead of just one. If that is too taxing and difficult to do, then please, at least add a weight and muscle slider to all races.

I hate seeing my Miqo'te's ribs and I don't want forced muscles on my characters or lack thereof.

For the faces, what might be best is to keep these new faces but to make them their own type. The player base has wanted more options since forever and frankly, if the Hyur can have multiple faces simply for the different variants of the Warrior of Light I don't feel that it is too much to ask for more face types for the rest of the races.

Then the now cute or harsh versions of the old face types can stay and we can at least get back some semblance of our characters back for those of us who dislike or can't play with the new faces without punishing those players who enjoy their characters now.

I think everyone deserves to be comfortable with their characters.

I apologise for the long post and I hope that I can provide some help to the current state of things, and appreciate taking the time to read the post. I hope it helped a little in the end.

Link again to previous post.
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...e-4-Benchmarks