Building a better Alphinaud

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Originally Posted by tokinokanatae

It's less the "WoW crowd they're after" and more "the WoW crowd that showed up", in which case they can tolerate G'raha and Haurchefant or leave for greener pastures. Most WoW players I've seen seem to like them just fine, though.

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Because goodness forbid they give highlanders some eyebrows or put a Snow Villiers or Gladiolus like character in the spotlight.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

Because goodness forbid they give highlanders some eyebrows or put a Snow Villiers or Gladiolus like character in the spotlight.

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Why should they bother when those characters can't even beat Alphinaud's popularity, nevermind the three I just mentioned?

I kind of figured appealing to the crowd that's into Manly Men was what they had ShB-and-later Thancred for. He's in his 30s, reasonably tall (5'9'', which is the 50 mark for male Midlanders) and short-haired, tanks, has a kid he wants to protect (Ryne), picks up girls, and so on. The writer preferences for this game just don't seem to lean towards slab-of-muscle Manly Man, and I don't think that's a writing flaw.

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Originally Posted by Sarkany

I kind of figured appealing to the crowd that's into Manly Men was what they had ShB-and-later Thancred for. He's in his 30s, reasonably tall (5'9'', which is the 50 mark for male Midlanders) and short-haired, tanks, has a kid he wants to protect (Ryne), picks up girls, and so on. The writer preferences for this game just don't seem to lean towards slab-of-muscle Manly Man, and I don't think that's a writing flaw.

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Their "manly man" themes tend to play out frequently in the Manderville questlines. I get the impression that they prefer to use these sorts of characters for comedic relief over anything else, though that doesn't stop them from adding characters like this elsewhere. Bozja is a great example of this with Lyon the Beast King.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

Their "manly man" themes tend to play out frequently in the Manderville questlines. I get the impression that they prefer to use these sorts of characters for comedic relief over anything else, though that doesn't stop them from adding characters like this elsewhere. Bozja is a great example of this with Lyon the Beast King.

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And Lyon is a badass. Same for characters like Ranjit. Zenos himself isn't exactly small either. Gostestu also comes to mind. Heck I'd lump Hien in there too

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Originally Posted by IkaraGreydancer

And Lyon is a badass. Same for characters like Ranjit. Zenos himself isn't exactly small either. Gostestu also comes to mind. Heck I'd lump Hien in there too

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Oh yeah, I love Lyon and Gosetsu. Ranjit wasn't around long but he was okay too.

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Originally Posted by CrownySuccubus

A red-headed "Scottish" (WTF?)

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Yeah, this one threw me. Listening to her English dub, her accent sounds more like Northern English/Yorkshire than Scottish. Same with Rauhban.

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

I do wonder what the average western gamer would think of FFXIV if presented with Haurchefant or G'raha Tia as the posterboys without knowing a single thing about them. I have to say I don't think they would take that much of a liking to them, especially if it's the WoW crowd they're after.

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1.0 was a disaster to play but they managed to bring in people well enough with Meteor on the cover of it in NA looking like he just came off a tour with his boy band.

At least Haurchie looked like he could fight.

Yeah, Haurchefant only moves away from "elf knight dude in chainmail with sword" once you see his dialogue and get some backstory. In appearance alone, he could drop into any number of fantasy series. I don't think I'd look too hard at a cover with him on it, but I'd certainly look harder than yet another cover with a brown-haired white human man.

(Personally, I can't stand Haurchefant as a character, but I know a lot of people love him.)

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Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

They are so disconnected from their Western playerbase that they thought Hrothgar would somehow captivate the WoW audience

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Hrothgar weren't created to lure in the WoW crowd. You say some silly things.
They were created as a new Player Character Option that wasnt just another human. Variety/Diversity.