Anyone else feel like dbd's identity is all over the place right now?

I actually agree with the first statement. Most people who play the game think that not "much" is wrong and are willing to put up with most of the game's problems.

And for the second statement, this is the main reason why the devs of now are so un-spirited and lazy compared to when they first started making the game, excluding the extra people now helping them. Unless a massive chunk of the player base leaves and they are at financial risk, they are not going to fix the game's massive underlying problems. They have no reason to because they no longer care about the quality of the game unless it impacts their ability to keep making money off it.

"I don't know how they could have made her any differently to put more character in just from visuals alone..."

Because she has so little character to begin with. The fact that she's a popular TV host makes her unrelatable, and her backstory, that tries to show her as an actual human with has to hide her emotions to do her job, fails spectacularly because of the modern writing style and makes Jane come off as an angsty drama queen. As you said, her idle animations show off a tiny bit of character. But seeing a small part of character through an animation that you don't even see while playing as her is nothing compared to just looking at someone and understanding exactly what their is personality.

"The Smash Bros example I can't take seriously at all..."

Do you play Smash Bros at all? Did you know that when Bayonetta first released she was one of the most powerful characters in that game and had to be nerfed later on? Be ignoring that, her appearance in Smash Bros is faaaaar more accurate to her original medium that any of the dbd licensed killers, excluding Michael. Bayonetta can still use witch time, her heel guns, fly, perform astounding acrobatics, and beat the hell out of people by transforming her outfit into a giant monster. Her overall powerlevel has been pushed down so the game is still fair for everyone, but that's the point of Smash Bros; to have a whole bunch of characters from different franchises beat the snot out of each other in interesting ways.

Now let's look at every single dbd licensed killer.

• Michael Myers - Is a very strong guy that stabs people with a knife and is known to stalk his victims before attacking. He stalks people in the game until he is able to insta-down them and has several add-ons that allow him to kill people on the spot, like how he does in his films. He's depicted fairly accurately.
• Pig - In the films she is shown to be a cunning and devoted disciple of Jigsaw who eventually bastardised his teachings in favour of murdering people she thought were beyond redemption, instead of always giving people a chance to escape the unique traps they were ensnared in. In the game, she uses 1 trap out of the entire arsenal used in the films, which survivors can still escape from by searching the boxes with keys in them. Ignoring how highly out-of-character this is for Amanda, she's still an agile and determined women who wants to murder the survivors, and yet she vaults windows at the same speed as the bigger and less agile killers and instead of just vaulting over a pallet like survivors do she breaks them with her foot. The way she acts in game and how her traps function are not very accurate to her appearance in the films.
• Freddy - A psychopath that manifests in the dreams of his victims and enjoys scaring and torturing in various creative ways before finally killing them. But he is powerless when in the real world. The Freddy we have now can attack people regardless if they are asleep or not. The only powers he can use when people are asleep is a bloody puddle that slows them down a bit and prevents fast vaults on windows, and fake pallets that explode into blood when used. He can also teleport to gens. Compared to all the stuff he can do in the movies, his appearance in dbd is severally lack-lustre.
• Demogorgon - A trans-dimensional horror that is extremely resistant to guns and fire. It hunts by sensing blood and pulling victims into the "upside down" where it either devours them or traps them in a web-like substance until they die. In the game, the portals that Demo uses do not allow it to travel into the upside down but instead to another point on the map. Survivors cannot be dragged into upside down either. Demo is also easily stunned by a pallet, a survivor jumping out of a locker, or a small piece of glass. They are a very far cry from their appearance in the show.
• Leather face - A big, strong guy with a chainsaw and a mental deficiency. The game is accurate for the most part. Except with LF hits an object or holds his chainsaw for too long, causing him to thrash about for a little while rather than continue after the survivors he's psychologically conditioned to chase. He is depicted fairly accurately.
• Pyramid Head - A manifestation of guilt. PH exists to punish people and does so with a massive iron machete. He is very slow and clumsy, and vulnerable to bullets, but also, unrelenting and will not stop hunting someone until they accept themselves and what they have done. PH in the game moves fairly quickly, doesn't use the full length of his machete for attacks except to finish someone off, and has a bizarrely out of place ranged wave-attack that goes through walls. Survivors who get "tormented" by walking through the trail he leaves suffer no debuffs except the terrible png image stuck on their screen, or the PH uses certain add-ons. His depiction in the game is very far from how he is in the Silent Hill series.

You've completely missed the point I made about Pyramid Head. Not only would giving him immunity to blindness make perfect sense, and be not nearly as overpowered as you're making it out to be, but it also be a step into making him much more true to his character. How he is now, how most of the other DLC characters are now, is completely laughable compared to the level of detail that characters get in Smash Bros.

The devs have done this intentionally as they know that making these characters as they should be would take effort, time and money. Which is why they deserve criticism and for their soulless plans for the game need to be changed so it might actually improve.

But it won't.

I agree with almost everything you said except PH getting blinded. You mentioned how it would be a waste for the survivor if they brought a flashlight and couldn't use it because the killer would be immune. Well...https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Lightborn

I would very much to be able to choose how my hooks look.

Even something as simple as choosing the design from the selection already in the game, it's way better than the charms.

I see no reason to dispute this.

Let me start by saying I appreciate you actually taking the time to write a good counter-argument. These forums are filled with childish people who don't seem to understand the difference between objectivity and subjectivity. So having someone at least try to explain their viewpoint rather than presumptuously telling me how wrong I am is refreshing. Now onto addressing your statements.

"Cosmetics are minutiae that should seldom be used when designing characters--particularly in a game with customisation"

You disproved your first point in the same sentence that you stated it. The characters of dbd have almost no dialogue. The most we've gotten is Plague's occasional quotes and Ash saying something in the waiting lobby. For all intents and purposes, the personality of the survivors is how they look. They can express themselves in no other way besides screaming in terror. The only other interaction that we, as players, have over these characters besides helping them survive is choosing their outfit. So how those outfits are designed is a very important part about expressing that particular character's personality. Silhouette and mannerisms are important as well. But not nearly as important as how a character looks to begin with. (When I have the time I'm going to contrast every character silhouette in the game to see how they look. I'll get back to you when I'm done)

"At the end of the day, design is subjective, and even good design is hated by some"

Not entirely true. In every single design in every single field, objectivity can be measured. A stick as an objectively worse weapon compared to a gun. A pile of leaves is an objectively worse shelter than a house. When it comes to creative fields such video games it certainly becomes harder to measure objectivity, but is by no means impossible. It simply requires a more thorough examination than the previous examples.

You are entirely correct in saying that good design is hated, however. I hope that my analysis of dbd has come across as sincere and not disgruntled as I try to analyse things as objectively as possible.

The last thing I'll address is your analysis of Yui's pose. All of which is completely correct and I agree with. (Except I'm surprised you didn't mention the ridiculous wrappings around her feet that made her look like a Sonic Boom character.) But what I will criticise is her characterisation and story and how it poorly ties to the game's narrative. (What's left of it)

• Dwight is an anti-social nerd who's spent most of his time alone or avoiding others that would ridicule him. It makes sense that the entity would take him because less people would look for him.
• Claudette is an anti-social nerd who's main interactions with people are online. It would make sense for the entity to take her as well.
• Yui a renowned racer who now holds record for youngest ever woman to win the "All-Japan Moto Championship" and has thousands, if not millions, of sponsorship money backing her. Why the hell would the entity ever consider taking her?!?

I'm fully aware that other survivors have this problem also, and that the entity has been reduced to an imitation of a bad eldritch joke at this point, but that doesn't excuse how contrived her inclusion in the game is.

You're ignoring a massive problem with the entity taking people who are renowned or famous.

Let's say that I am the entity. I need humans, hope, to survive. When I take someone to my torture dimension I want to make sure that as few people as possible come looking for them. Because not only are lonely people most likely easier to kidnap, but if people start to notice others mysteriously disappear in a deep fog my food source is now at risk. The devs have stated in the past that escape from the trials is possible if the right ritual is performed. So having people look into what might be taking their peers is very bad for me.

Like, say, talking an individual that's worth millions in sponsorships and will have no doubt have investigators trying to find out what happened to her. It's an extremely stupid decision to take someone like that given that I want to remain unseen. And even apart from that, if anyone actually managed to break out of the trials, they would be a massive security risk. Because if all the people I took were nobody's or loners or just people that weren't well known, the person who escaped who be hard pressed to find anyone who believes what happened to them.

Unless of course they have valuable information pertaning to all of the celebrities I've apparently been kidnapping.

@unsafepallet

@KayTwoAyy

I actually had a look at the older cosmetics and I see exactly what you mean.

They're clearly dated but more stylised. Now, with the reworked maps and modern characters, everything is now a shade of bland realism. Even if the textures well made, they're designed very blandly.