I don't like the cartoony appearance of Sims 4 (nor Civ 6). That is my personal opinion. I don't think it necessarily gives a game longevity, especially if the interactions and fashions are not updated. The colors are too bright for me, the textures are not pleasing.
I was happy to read "realistic" in the description. I don't want terribly realistic, but I do want something that looks better than what we have now (opinion, I know a lot of people--most probably--like the way it looks).
As others have said Medieval is a good starting point. I still enjoy the way Sims 2 and Sims 3 look. I think they look very nice. But I also prefer the way classic cartoons such as Cinderella look over the newish cartoons that are computerish. So it's likely just me.
