Holy smokes - I leave the forums for a few weeks due to school and everything explodes. D:
Anyways - in most aspects I (still) definitely agree with OP. I realize that player customization freedom is important and should be prioritized, and hence I would never ask Larian to remove any of the existing faces... But for the love of Corellon - give some proper options for the people who enjoy the typical (FR) elven features.
Personally, I stand in somewhat of a grey zone - judging by the debate. I adore almost all kinds of elves - Tolkien elves (both the dancing and singing elves from the book, and the more elegant ones in the movies) have a special place in my heart as I grew up with the books and the movies and they were my introduction to fantasy (like the audience Alexandrite hinted at), but I have grown to love pretty much all different elven cultures that I have crossed paths with ever since.
Warhammer elves? Love them, especially the wood elves. Dragon Age elves? YUP - dalish elves have grown to be one of my all-time favorites. <3 WoW elves? Yup, I like them (strong preference to the night elves though). The sylvari of GW2? While they are not elves, I absolutely love them and they are my favorite race of GW2. Divinity elves? Yup. Love them as well - horrendous bodies or not. Pathfinder elves? Yup! Took some get-used-to (just like the Divinity elves) - but now I love them as well. <3 Final Fantasy elves? Uhh, still getting over to the "extremely-tall"-thing they got going for them but yeah! I like them. c: DnD elves? Of course - with a special love for Wild Elves and Sun Elves in particular. c:
However - I do prefer if my games stay true to whichever universe they are representing. This is personally more important to me than the characters matching my personal preferences and liking. *BG3 takes place in FR* and hence I'd imagine that the players should AT THE VERY LEAST have the option to look like the elves described in the handbooks and lore, and OP (and Ragitsu) are correct regarding the faces - most elven faces in BG3 do not strike me at all as "elven." Not by the "general" standard, but also (and much more importantly) not by the FR meta standard neither. ESPECIALLY the male ones. The female faces I can at least sorta accept (at least 3 of them) - but some more traditional elven features, even if it is very subtle hints like just tuning the cheekbones, give them a more triangular jaw and/or some sharper lines.
Originally Posted by Ragitsu
Originally Posted by Seraphael
Subverting expectations, particularly when it comes to elves, seem to be a recurring trend from Dragon Age, to Divinity Original Sin, to Baldur's Gate. I posit elven stereotypes wouldn't only be appropriate and wanted by the community, but actually somewhat of a breath of fresh air considering.
Kind of like how the "everyone is morally grey/secretly reprehensible" subversion in the heroic fantasy genre has been slowly losing ground to classic "good versus evil". It turns out that simple escapism isn't so terrible after all. Crazy, huh?
I do hope the "everything gotta be morally grey"-segment disappears soon. I absolutely hate it in RPGs. Most of the times the writing comes off as anything but clever and intriguing when they try way too hard to make all choices "neutral" or "lesser of X evils."
Also, completely off topic (and I apologize for that, but this is IMPORTANT) - I adore your avatar. It goes so well with your way of arguing. Absolutely made my day.
Last edited by Dez; 20/08/2104:19 AM.
Hoot hoot, stranger! Fairly new to CRPGs, but I tried my best to provide some feedback regardless! <3 Read it here: My Open Letter to Larian