So elemental has been taking flak from every direction now, but one part that has been mentioned in countless reviews, but not really taken life in a discussion here: the artwork.
This entails models, textures, animations, particle effects, ui, and most importantly, the general art direction of the whole game.
I'll be starting about characters, and will add this paintover of Procipinee I did:
Relias:
Why was the direction chosen to have the texture be added on with an alpha on an existing color, wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead.
Faces seem to be lacking some proper interesting shapes, and noses especially seems to be suffering.
Lips/mouth is mostly tightly shut and there's no hint of underlying musculature around it, which makes them look applied rather than a part of the face.
While I like the eye selection, they are lacking some handpainted reflection to really help sell them as living eyes.
Eyebrows are way more important then what the game makes them be, they should be a part of and as varied as the eye selection.
The hair has wig-like qualities and mostly look like coloured blobs on the heads,
The textures could benefit a bit more from hand painted occlusion under nose, head, and other such areas.
ps, I'm starting this much with the same reason everyone else starts gameplay threads: I really want this game to be good.
