>>717524654
>I don't know how Koei mogged Cloud Strife this hard
Simple: Cloud has ugly deep-set eyes, which is a residue of anime style designs that only somewhat worked in highly stylized 3D anime graphics. But the more realistic you make everything else to be, the more uncanny this 3DCG style looks. Especially on more lithe, feminine, androgynous characters; because deep-set eyes are inherently a masculine, mature trait.

If your character is manly, like Jin Kazama or Kiryu from Yakuza or the recent example of Soul from Phantom Blade Zero, then deep-set eyes can at least look like they fit with the character.

But if your character is more on the young and androgynous side, cute even, then giving him these frowny sunken gaunt eyes takes away from the neotenous look and just makes the design language look more disjointed.

Ziluan sidesteps this problem by having normal Asian eyes. Not just surface but with proper lids and folds. His eyes only appear deeper when he's frowning in musou attacks because they did their homework with facial nodes animations.

Pic related, the gaunt eyes scale. See how this character trait works for the manly guys but falls short on Cloud? Also notice just how different Ziluan's eyes as a whole are.
Zilly is just cuter overall, simple as.