New 7.1 hairstyle looks nothing like the winning hairstyle from the 2023 contest

[SolaraSona]

I literally made a forum account just to reply to this, because this is absolutely insane. Why are they so afraid of anything different and textured? The Curls hairstyle can't be the only one that we can have. They definitely can do it; they just don't want to.

[Mayamisa]

Very disappointed.

[Krelldin]

Yeah this is honestly horrendous. It looks so wet and soggy rather than volumous and bouncy. If Guild Wars 2 could do fairly decent curly hair years ago, CBU3 has basically no excuse to not do better than this with our current engine. They really need to give this another pass.

[Strawberriemilk]

Square needs to fix this. They already dont have great POC hair, but this feels like a huge slap in the face. Square needs to do better, if modders can make something good, square can too.

[Zealothia]

My biggest complaint with this hair is the texture is something else entirely.
The artist drew something around 3A to 3B
The hair we got is 2A, barely 2B
I know this game has it's 3D limitations but it's genuinely believe the FFXIV visual team can do a better, more accurate job.

[HollyJollyPaca]

I know hair options in this game aren't the most detailed but damn, this is really a shame. Seeing it win was so nice cause they artist put a lot of thought into it. Plus, ya know we need more than just braids, buzz cuts and a party city lookin afro.

I would absolutely implore the team to revaluate the textures of this hairstyle. Surely there could be a way to make it less limp and AT LEAST more fluffy.

[umbrenox]

I really think that they dropped the ball on making this hair a respectful recreation of the original artists work. They have proven to be capable of doing so, I'm unsure what exactly happened with this one. It's like, trying really hard. I can see the resemblance, but it's lacking the depth that most other hair styles have in game. While I know the hair styles in this game are a flat plane with texture, the screenshots provided really push that its flat. It also completely lost any of the loose curls that the contestant put into the hair, more like wet gel waves than actual natural curls.

I think its important to bring this up, but there's no reason to belittle the devs for it. I hope that they fix this hair, and if they don't then they learn to do better next time. We don't have many curly hair options that are modern, and its truly a shame that they cannot seem to commit to it.

Its disappointing.

[batticus]

had to make a forum account just to reply to this thread.
squeenix backpedaled and redid some grapes when people noticed how low quality they were. if this hairstyle enters the game as it is in this preview, that is a genuine insult to both the playerbase as a whole, and more importantly, the original artist, who provided them the blueprint *for free* and presumably out of love for the game. i cannot imagine how they and other contest winners must feel rn, with the horrible precedent this sets. i would be brought to tears if my work were butchered like this. its unacceptable.

[hardkourparcore]

replying to add my voice to the support for this complaint. i thought the hairstyle was fine, but i hadn't seen the winner it was "inspired by". knowing this now is actually disgusting. devs need to do better.

[RosalinaWodring]

Its disappointing how unfaithfully its been added, I had genuine hope and it died so quickly.