Definitely like this update. It also raises the point that the original reveal trailer was target footage, and likely we have no idea if any of the scenes we saw in it is actually in the final game.
While it does look more like the original James, it doesn't really age him a decade like we were told was gonna happen in the Transmission.
It also looks like the original trailer we were shown has multiple versions of James, including this new one. So while it may be new, it's actually still an older version, oddly enough.
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They have definitely updated the lighting which looks much more faithful to the original now.
The face also looks better, also I'm not sure if it was updated or if it's just a better lighting and a better facial expression doing their job.
In any case, that's an interesting cool observation, thank you!
Interesting, but I wonder if this is a "classic" game option that you could choose.
I think Max Payne 3 did something like that where you could choose Max to look like the 1 or 2 model.
EDIT: If I remember correctly, the original James' face model used some of Guy Cihi's likeliness..., or so I think Guy mentioned something like that. I hope this doesn't cause problems.
He looks to much like Leon Kennedy now... I actually liked the first look. not so much the emotions, but the look of him. This is like the "we have James at home look"....
I was perfectly okay with the new model. While the new one looks more like classic James, it also has a lot less detail.
You can take my heart
And hold it together as we fall apart
Maybe together we can make a mark in the stars we embark
And keep us together as the lights go dark
Maybe this is just me, but I feel like changing James' age changes his characterization. It's easier to sympathize with a young guy who's just coming into himself snapping after three years of torment. He married too young to fully comprehend the weight of his vows. The happy times with Mary couldn't have lasted that long considering their youth, making it easy for her illness to eclipse them. And all of his sexual neurosis is understandable for a man who is still at the peak of his testosterone.
James in his mid 40's should have enough maturity and coping skills to not throw away his wife of 20 something years because things got hard. Yes, it's obviously still very traumatic and tragic that that's something they're forced to go through. But personally, I'd have less sympathy for him essentially abandoning her and then winning a pillow fight in that scenario.
I'm gonna wait to see if they are actually making this change before really putting too much thought into it. But on initial impressions, they are both fine faces. I'm not really concerned with the Remake James looking just like the Original James, so I was fine with his face being different. But I will say that this "new new" version has a much better expression matching how that scene should play out. I think the issue with the trailer version of the scene wasn't that the face was different, it was that he was over-emoting in a way that felt silly and dishonest to the vibe of the character.
IGN: James looked older to me in the trailer. Is that correct?
Okamoto: “After speaking with Mr. Ito, we decided to raise James's age in the game a bit. This is in part because fans from 20 years ago are older now, and because the average age of people who play videogames has risen too. We want to depict a James who is more mature and has had to suffer through more in his life, and to do that we raised his age, though only by a bit. If he looks older to you, it's not your imagination.”
Ito: “To add to what Mr. Okamoto just said, I personally feel like it's also our way of emphasizing that this is a remake.”
Okamoto: “You couldn't depict skin in a nuanced way during the PS2 era. Everyone ended up looking younger, or at least had smooth skin. Now that we're in the age of the PS4 and PS5, we're able to better show someone's exact age, whether that's someone elderly, someone middle-aged, someone in their thirties, and so on. That's why we decided to go with a more convincing sense of age.”
James is officially 29 in the original game. I would say that's outside of the "young guy" age group already. Any visual impression that James gave off as a young man seems to do with the rendering technology at the time. Also, the producer is reiterating that James' age will be raised only a bit. I'm thinking mid-30s. Probably the "fans from 20 years ago" phrase gave a misleading impression that James would be aged by 20 years.
The reduction of details may likely be because the reveal trailer was not completely representative of the actual product once development started. So, it's a typical downgrade as far as many reveal trailers show. Either way, it still looks good.
I echo Nanaya's thoughts that it looks more faithful to the tone and portrayal of James. Granted, this is an out of context still image that we assume is the opening. Though I believe it is, and it seems more consistent with the model from the combat trailer.
Clean shaven, chubbier, neutral expression James is ideally how best to portray the character to hide the idea that anything is amiss with him when first meeting him.
