Category: Portrait

…can you tell? Probably not.


I keep trying to use Avatara to make the older version of Noct. look a bit closer to his younger self. Remove the beard and the grey is the first step. Can’t do anything about the older skin texture. But they change his face so drastically in some other areas and the character editor is too limited to have a large impact on it. Some of the other changes they seem to have done include:

—nose is different shaped, especially the nostrils and tip shape (larger)
—eyes are more tapered on outer and inner corners and eyelashes are less thick which gives the older eyes a more faded and less of an “eyeliner” look.
—the eyebrows of older Noct. are bushier and don’t taper to thin lines at the outer edges. Guess there were no tweezers inside the Crystal.
—the jawline and maybe cheek area is a bit different and chin isn’t as tapered/is slightly more square
—I think older Noct’s lips are a bit wider (longer) although it’s not too obvious.

This all results in an “older” face that looks more angular and a bit longer/larger I think. So I tweak the editor slider numbers constantly. With all that effort, certain expressions and conditions can look a bit more like the younger version, but mostly it’s the no beard, tweaking nose shape and changing the eyelashes and eyebrows that make it feel different at all. I often feel like the editor sliders hardly do anything, really. Too bad Avatara/Comrades didn’t have the younger hair, it’d be easier to compare.

I don’t really care 98% of the time. But it still occasionally irks my sense of “world consistency” when they expect you to believe that a 20ish year old man would have an entirely different facial structure 10 years later. It’s not like “older Noctis” lost 50+ pounds and/or is 70 years old with an enlarged nose from alcoholism. Then again, maybe the only available drink in the Crystal was celebratory wine. Who knows. 😛