I don’t think it was due to performance. Optimization is usually done at the end of development, but even so… colors, contrast and brightness do not affect performance. If anything you would dial down on nonessential objects, especially lighting sources to reduce the amount of shadows, but instead they added even more.
The game graphically certainly improved in some aspects, but the extensive changes caused this ugly side-effect. The more I am playing Patch 8, the more obvious it becomes that so many things are not working as they should so the lighting & colors are highly likely just a result of this. In other words, either unfinished or bugged.
Although they did do some questionable artistic decisions, such as changing the goblin camp lighting. Or reducing the amount of songs in Character Creation. Now there are only two for each, the custom character and the dreamer. We will most likely find out in Patch 9 where all of this goes. But Patch 8 definitely could have used more time in the oven.
Also just got to Alfira today. Sheesh…. she was so colorful and bright, practically a whole spectrum of colors. May as well have been a talking rainbow
