These screenshots are just gorgeous! Ryo looks wonderful.
Would it even really be so bad if facial animation doesn't improve a huge amount? I mean, we know they are working with a relatively small budget, and they have prioritise right, so surely it's the environments that matter the most. For me it is anyway, that's where the atmosphere comes from, not the facial expressiveness. They faces in the old games were always beautiful but fairly stiff too, of course.