I'm pretty iffy on his new design as well. On one hand, I can completely get what they were going for here, and I agree that taller, lanky-er silhouette, especially with the design of the clothing, gives him a more focused concept and looks better, wheras his old clothes was a mishmash and didn't really look all that appealing; but I feel there's a significant mismatch between the design of his new face and the rest of the changes.
His facial features/shape just doesn't give the right air of posh, "look how above you I am" I think the silhouette, pose, and clothes were intended to give. I think simply reverting his facial features/expression to be more in line with what it was before. The old design, while sort of a conceptual mishmash, DID have a very solid sense of personality, I really think that bringing back the sort of sly scowling look, either cowboy esque to match what it was before or haughty, hubristic french musketeer with the mustache given the new theme would help a lot. He looks like a friendly grandpa now.
I'm also a bit baffled by the skin tone/ethnicity change, it seems sort of pointless and I don't think it works from a visual design standpoint, as well as the fact that Vasco had a clear european, colonial/imperalist theme, being both cowboy and conquistador based. The game's cast is very culturally inspired so he occupied a niche in that regards that is now unfilled, and on that note of niches being occupied: i'm a bit concerned he's a too similar to Antoine now, who is already a European themed, noble-poshy dark skinned character, and based on what we've heard in his bio and the video, it seems like his character arc is going to be built around the racial tension there. Would the new Vasco also be facing discrimination from his peers?
Both to tie the design itself together, and to make him more distinct from Antoine, I really think reverting his face and skin tone to be closer to what they were before would help. I also think reverting to the old gold, tan, and silver color scheme might help bring back the old west feel/mood the design had while still keeping the upper class air that the actual silhouette the new design has.
Between Vasco, Qadira, and Baozhai's changes, there's a lot i'm not too hot on, even if I totally get the reasoning you guys gave for almost all of them. Hopefully changes for the other incarnations i'll be more keen on.