Viera Feet - Aren't they supposed to be digitigrade?

For better but mostly worse, I think the player character models we have right now are what we're going to have however long the game will keep going. 7.0 will bring with better textures and touched-up models (seemingly), but they're not going to fundamentally alter the designs at this point as that'd risk alienating the people who prefer the way their characters look right now. Best we can hope is they'll add more features to character creation down the line, but I wouldn't hold my breath for stuff like accurate Viera feet, or persistent Hrothgar claws or etc.?

I would be extremely unpleased if I was forced to have my main suddenly walk like an animal. She's perfect as is.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I would be extremely unpleased if I was forced to have my main suddenly walk like an animal. She's perfect as is.

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I would prefer she look as is as well. I'd just like more heels, or more viera styled heels would be great.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I would be extremely unpleased if I was forced to have my main suddenly walk like an animal.
She's perfect as is.

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As are all six of my Viera fem alts (out of 12 total). All different, all perfect. :)
https://img2.finalfantasyxiv.com/acc...079c3032b5.png

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

I would prefer she look as is as well. I'd just like more heels, or more viera styled heels would be great.

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I'll be honest, after playing Lost Ark a bit, I'm so glad to get away from ridiculous heels. That said, I love having options, and having more traditionally Viera styled heels would be great.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I'll be honest, after playing Lost Ark a bit, I'm so glad to get away from ridiculous heels. That said, I love having options, and having more traditionally Viera styled heels would be great.

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My sorceress in Lost Ark only has heels, that's for sure, but this game has a severe lack of them. I think some viera styled heels that aren't thigh highs would be pretty great to have. For that viera look, and still able to wear pants.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

That said, I love having options, and having more traditionally Viera styled heels would be great.

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I agree, in a perfect FF world I would love more Viera heels... As I previously stated, our current default shoes crop our trousers so it limits our wardrobe for those who wish to retain the illusion of digitigrade feet. Silverbane summed it up perfectly why we'd not be able to receive different types of heels.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Viera fems don't actually have legs like other races: they have legs designed to look correct in high heels. Let me explain.

Unlike in RL, changing the heel height of a shoe does not change the character's total height.
Instead, high heels in FFXIV shorten the shin/calf of the leg relative to flat soled shoes.
Just cycle your character through various glamours with different heel heights to see this.

Viera fems are designed with this in mind: they have a proportionally longer shin/calf relative to other races.
So when a Viera fems wear high heels, the shin/calf is shortened to have normal proportions, relative to the rest of the leg. OTOH, Viera fems in flat soles have a disproportionately longer calf, that looks a little off to me.

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But unfortunately I still can't stop thinking about what we could have... If only our legs were made for it :(

https://i.ibb.co/fn3Xfwy/heels2.png https://i.ibb.co/zS6mM4V/heels3.png

https://i.ibb.co/HV90zZb/heels5.png https://i.ibb.co/n3BSp2r/heels4.png

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

I think some viera styled heels that aren't thigh highs would be pretty great to have. For that viera look, and still able to wear pants.

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Agreed. If MogStation had a collection of footwear with Viera-style heels, with various heights, I'd almost certainly buy it, even if non-Viera couldn't wear them.

On a more general note, I'm constantly longing for glamours that could be made from existing gear by just cutting off a piece of it.

This sometimes happens when mixing gear: the Damascan Draped Bottoms, for example, loses their asymmetric skirt bit when paired with some tops, becoming a really nice pair of loose mid-calf pants. That's what Ebon, my dark Viera in the picture I posted, is wearing.

i agree with you OP you are right but SE is lazy and prefers to use a humanoid form to avoid making too much work for himself for example here you have what a viera feet should look like

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com...1342498093.png

https://64.media.tumblr.com/4781b961...3b6f9be436.png

here with the shoe

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...40/904/f94.jpg

But sadly we have humanoid feet for viera as this image proves

https://i.gyazo.com/26ab98da3f52923b...3f86c95320.png

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Originally Posted by SherlottaEryut

I agree, in a perfect FF world I would love more Viera heels... As I previously stated, our current default shoes crop our trousers so it limits our wardrobe for those who wish to retain the illusion of digitigrade feet. Silverbane summed it up perfectly why we'd not be able to receive different types of heels.



But unfortunately I still can't stop thinking about what we could have... If only our legs were made for it :(

https://i.ibb.co/fn3Xfwy/heels2.png https://i.ibb.co/zS6mM4V/heels3.png

https://i.ibb.co/HV90zZb/heels5.png https://i.ibb.co/n3BSp2r/heels4.png

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Yeah, she would look great with something like that! It would allow for a lot more freedom when making glamours!

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Agreed. If MogStation had a collection of footwear with Viera-style heels, with various heights, I'd almost certainly buy it, even if non-Viera couldn't wear them.

On a more general note, I'm constantly longing for glamours that could be made from existing gear by just cutting off a piece of it.

This sometimes happens when mixing gear: the Damascan Draped Bottoms, for example, loses their asymmetric skirt bit when paired with some tops, becoming a really nice pair of loose mid-calf pants. That's what the Ebon, my dark Viera in the picture I posted, is wearing.

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I would too, but I don't want to give them too many ideas!

Yes, it's certainly an interesting way to make glamours look a bit more unique.

Your dark skinned viera certainly looks gorgeous!

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Originally Posted by HanWenqing

These images...

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*sigh* this is what I loved about FF12's Viera. Something always felt mystical about them, like this beauty that was staring at you in the face but was subtle and foreign. Strange, but not in the sense that it was odd and off-putting, but interesting, different, and probably what was the best part, it was alluring.

They were humanoids, you obviously saw yourself in their body, it wasn't animalistic. But there was something "natural" about them, like their animal traits were a clear representation of what they were meant to be. We often portray druids as these people who wear in all-natural clothes and adorn themselves rustically with stuff found in nature. And that's what I felt from Viera. That they were magical not just because they had a special relationship with the world they were in, but also because of their appearance. Like they were "Magic" incarnate. A force of nature in the shape of humans, but clearly not human.

What we have in FF14 just feels like Humans but with rabbit ears. There's nothing magical about that, it's no different than the Miqo'te we've seen before. Except Miqo'te have a lot more racial traits than even Viera do. Viera faces are different, yes, but skull structure alone isn't the factor that made them different, it feels minor. There's nothing magical about the Viera we have, and it's such a shame because Viera players genuinely love their characters. To most people, those feet may look weird at first. But when you take Viera as a whole with feet such as those, it really just adds to the Viera look. Otherwise, if I wanted a human with rabbit ears, I'd have gone Midlander with Gold Saucer tiaras.

Of course, this is from an "outsider looking in" perspective. Viera themselves should be the ones actually saying how they feel about those designs, not me. But from what I can see from Viera's reactions in general, racial traits being respected and enhanced seem to be a common sentiment.

I understand it's hard for a lot because it would require footwork to be adjusted to this over one race. So I can't pin the blame on the devs so blindly. But the alternative we're given brought down the glow Vieras otherwise had.

I've complained (and caught a lot of flak) about how basic the race designs in FFXIV basically since the beginning. I wish they all had a bit more going on to make them more than just humans with extra bits (even if fundamentally they'd all still be humanoid) but... yeah, like I said last page, they're not going to change their designs at this point. Maybe next MMO we'll see these concepts realized with a modicum more creativity...

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

I've complained (and caught a lot of flak) about how basic the race designs in FFXIV basically since the beginning. I wish they all had a bit more going on to make them more than just humans with extra bits (even if fundamentally they'd all still be humanoid) but... yeah, like I said last page, they're not going to change their designs at this point. Maybe next MMO we'll see these concepts realized with a modicum more creativity...

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The problem with XIV from the beginning in 1.0 is that they decided to port over the races from FFXI in what was rumored to be an attempt to literally connect the games for players who played both and later explained as being spiritually linked. They then removed some of what made them unique too, like Miqo'te becoming humans with cat ears in XIV when they looked more animal-like in XI. And Roegadyn having their lizard tail cut off and an extra finger added. I wish we had different from XI and more uniquely separate appearances, but I can at least understand why they are similar for gear modeling reasons.

I don't have a problem with the Viera though. Digitigrade feet would look weird in XIV for a player race and they would require completely different shoe models than everyone else. This was mentioned before, but Viera came from FFTA originally, not FFXII, and in that game they had a mix of digitigrade feet and regular human feet so it's not like this is a giant break from lore and FF history. The pictures I was going to link are already on the front page of this thread with Viera from their first ever FF appearance having both human feet and rabbit feet depending on their class.

I wouldn't mind the OPTION or the option for a tail, but I never thought they would be digigrade.

I mean c'mon. Viera and Hrothgar are having issues getting hats, you really wanna extend that to shoes/boots?

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Originally Posted by ASkellington

I wouldn't mind the OPTION or the option for a tail, but I never thought they would be digigrade.

I mean c'mon. Viera and Hrothgar are having issues getting hats, you really wanna extend that to shoes/boots?

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I don't think this is ever going to happen. And you are right, there are better things to worry about right now.

For me, it just shows how much is lost when one makes a race in such an impulse. Not only this, but making a Hrothgar that looks like Kimahri is just as awkward. We have a very good approximation, but the hair and the horn don't fit. And they might have, had those options been considered. Same as these feet.

But we have what we have, and the best we can change are the things that we can bring up to standard. Which are hairstyles and headgear. Not to look any more different than we already do, because Square designed these races with this as their threshold. But to be up to par with everyone else.

In real life - although they run on their toes - Rabbits are Plantigrade.

...and rather tasty. Baked in a slow oven with garlic and paprika and white wine, or in a rabbit and mushroom stew, or even put in a pie with a light gravy. Yumm!

I really fail to see how Vieras are supposed to be digitigrade if their default footwear are high heel shoes, which by design support entire foot. Yes more detail to their feet would be nice although probably unnoticed most of the time. If your leg is designed as Digitigrade wearing heels/stillettos would only cause you harm.

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Originally Posted by Jaquan

I really fail to see how Vieras are supposed to be digitigrade if their default footwear are high heel shoes.

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Take a close look at the Viera tribal footgear.
Those "heels" aren't for standing on, they're for killing with.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

Take a close look at the Viera tribal footgear.
Those "heels" aren't for standing on, they're for killing with.

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Yet they're clearly standing on them. Supporting their entire foot.

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Originally Posted by Jaquan

I really fail to see how Vieras are supposed to be digitigrade if their default footwear are high heel shoes, which by design support entire foot. Yes more detail to their feet would be nice although probably unnoticed most of the time. If your leg is designed as Digitigrade wearing heels/stillettos would only cause you harm.

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Square designed them with digitigrade (or at least clawlike) feet in the previous games. They even had clawlike hands, or at least long nails. I don't expect their feet to look like that in this game of course, but Viera looked more "beastly" than they do in FFXIV.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

Square designed them with digitigrade (or at least clawlike) feet in the previous games. They even had clawlike hands, or at least long nails. I don't expect their feet to look like that in this game of course, but Viera looked more "beastly" than they do in FFXIV.

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They were never Digitigrade. First Vieras that showed up in FFTA wore either heels or flat sole shoes. No signs of digitigrade feet. Hands looked fairly normal. FF XII... Judging from concept art and artwork for Fran... No sign of digitigrade. High heels supporting entire feet. Shape of the feet is definitely not human (and as I said it's a shame it wasn't kept although I doubt it would be visible a lot considering lack of open toe shoes as far as I can tell). As for hands can't say I'd call them claw like from various concept art I saw. Fingers are more slender and longer though that aspect varies from art to art (in Revenant Wings Fran spots fairly regular human hand). So no at no point they were designed as digitigrade beings in the final products. Whether they're beast like or not... Hard to say. Personally never seen them as such though it may have to do with existence of beings like Nu Mou, Bangaas or Seeqs. Much closer to human than to a beast. At worst same distance as human and elves in most generic fantasy works?

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Originally Posted by Jaquan

They were never Digitigrade. First Vieras that showed up in FFTA wore either heels or flat sole shoes. No signs of digitigrade feet. Hands looked fairly normal. FF XII... Judging from concept art and artwork for Fran... No sign of digitigrade. High heels supporting entire feet. Shape of the feet is definitely not human (and as I said it's a shame it wasn't kept although I doubt it would be visible a lot considering lack of open toe shoes as far as I can tell). As for hands can't say I'd call them claw like from various concept art I saw. Fingers are more slender and longer though that aspect varies from art to art (in Revenant Wings Fran spots fairly regular human hand). So no at no point they were designed as digitigrade beings in the final products. Whether they're beast like or not... Hard to say. Personally never seen them as such though it may have to do with existence of beings like Nu Mou, Bangaas or Seeqs. Much closer to human than to a beast. At worst same distance as human and elves in most generic fantasy works?

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That's why I said "or at least clawlike". Viera are popularly seen wearing heels, so at times it was difficult to see if they had digitigrade feet or not. To me, their Tactics hands look clawlike, but I'm open to different interpretations. The ones in FFXII do have long nails, though, as shown on Fran. Whether they are claws or an aesthetic choice is really up to SE.

The modded three-toed Viera posted earlier look creepy as all heck and I am glad we didn't get that. Was that ever how Viera feet worked or is the modder extrapolating from the decorative claws on the shoes?

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Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130625234920

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The giant hands and rabbit feet look badass though.

In terms of the 'digitigrade feet' topic, I wouldn't attempt to bring realism in the world of Final Fantasy - a lot doesn't make sense. My personal opinion on the matter is this; in XII all of the Viera have that stilleto at the back of their heel, my guess is because their feet need support for balancing purposes. Within the world of Ivalice in XII, you never saw a Viera without those types of heel.

Okay, so it actually was a thing. Very different proportions on the toes though. The original model doesn't look instantly creepy to me in the same way.

For what it's worth, I'm happy with my Viera alt having human-like feet and wearing the clawed shoes as a cultural rather than biological thing, though I wish there was more variety to choose from besides knee-length boots. I want sandals for my male Viera. Would love a flat-soled version of the ankle-length sandals picture posted earlier.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Okay, so it actually was a thing. Very different proportions on the toes though. The original model doesn't look instantly creepy to me in the same way.

For what it's worth, I'm happy with my Viera alt having human-like feet and wearing the clawed shoes as a cultural rather than biological thing, though I wish there was more variety to choose from besides knee-length boots. I want sandals for my male Viera. Would love a flat-soled version of the ankle-length sandals picture posted earlier.

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Same. There are a bunch of glamour ideas that I have that would benefit from ankle length heels. It would've been cool if Shadowbringers introduced more Viera themed heels/sandals for all races to wear.

I think the best we can hope for is a hempen's set revamp/continuation for more viera styled footwear

Mods tend to go overboard, going full furry adding "cute uwu" paw pads more often than not. The one shown above had other problems ofc, I think I've seen only one iteration that seemed to be natural-ish, but SE would never implement similar even for emperor's new boots, gotta enjoy the 2 polygon feet I'm afraid.

I do hope we at least get a toe update, like with the graphic overhaul or something. It'd be nice to actually have visible toes, and it would make several sandals able to be worn. :p

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

I do hope we at least get a toe update, like with the graphic overhaul or something.

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I'm so excited for what's coming in the graphics update... Something tells me they will update the toes, otherwise it's just going to look out of place imo.

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Originally Posted by HollowedDoll

Mods tend to go overboard, going full furry adding "cute uwu" paw pads more often than not.

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I've seen Hrothgars with those paw pads and they look amazing tho.

And oi!! Don't shame the furries >: o we do a good enough job doing that to ourselves!

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

I do hope we at least get a toe update, like with the graphic overhaul or something. It'd be nice to actually have visible toes, and it would make several sandals able to be worn. :p

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Yeah, the cheese block feet need to leave.
But the biggest issue I'm seeing is that we'll eventually see the older races be updated. Odds are they'll have better toes. Meanwhile we and Au Ra will be walking around with cheese feet among the other races. '-' that's gonna look so jarring

I think they're planning to update everyone? Especially considering they already use the same body model(s) just squished and pulled into slightly different shapes

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

I think they're planning to update everyone? Especially considering they already use the same body model(s) just squished and pulled into slightly different shapes

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I mean they might. And likely will. They'd be daft if they wouldn't. But they already said the original ARR races are getting updated first, meaning your race, my race and the race of the target of this thread will be walking around in PS3 graphics.

Different universe/continuity so it doesn't need to explicitly stick to everything previous canons had. Giving Viera digitgrade feet would probably make them a nightmare to model foot gear on. It would be an even bigger issue than headgear apparently is for them.

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Originally Posted by Stepjam

Giving Viera digitgrade feet would probably make them a nightmare to model foot gear on. It would be an even bigger issue than headgear apparently is for them.

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I don't think anyone is requesting SE forcibly change all of the Viera playerbase's feet, that would definitely cause an uproar for those who are against it. But rather if they ever get around to updating the character customization menu then at least give us the option... Also, with a warning that it would result in limiting footwear, a simple 'warning: choosing this race/option will limit your glamour options' so it at least gives new players a heads up.

I'll be honest I'd be kind of iffy on that sort of implementation, it would make a race feel very inconsistent from a design standpoint though realistically stuff like how different Au Ra horns are from one face to another is already pushing it. Either design them with that trait (in this case, digitigrade feet) in mind from the start or don't..

Warning people that a race will be limited in glamour options due to its design has hardly worked out well for the dev team so far.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Warning people that a race will be limited in glamour options due to its design has hardly worked out well for the dev team so far.

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I get that, but that’s mainly because there’s no warning that Viera and Hrothgar are limited on the character selection screen… Not only that, the potentially mistranslated transcript hinted we would get more race-exclusive hair to compensate for lack of headgear. To flake out on both of those options it’s no wonder people are rightfully infuriated.

Yoshi only gave a brief “Viera and Hroth won’t be able to wear headgear” dating back in 2019, so unless new players are keeping up to date with XIV’s interviews then they have no way of knowing until they’ve already selected the limited races or have been told by other players.

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

I'll be honest I'd be kind of iffy on that sort of implementation, it would make a race feel very inconsistent from a design standpoint though realistically stuff like how different Au Ra horns are from one face to another is already pushing it. Either design them with that trait (in this case, digitigrade feet) in mind from the start or don't..

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Usually the inconsistency would have annoyed me too, but then as many people on this thread have pointed out Viera have never been consistent when it comes to their feet... Bar FFXII which is the best, but I digress.

https://i.ibb.co/ZWBGjW7/fftactics.png

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Originally Posted by SherlottaEryut

Usually the inconsistency would have annoyed me too, but then as many people on this thread have pointed out Viera have never been consistent when it comes to their feet... Bar FFXII which is the best, but I digress.
https://i.ibb.co/ZWBGjW7/fftactics.png

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Feet aside, and not as a criticism, it's interesting to me that the Viera fems in the illustration you provided, perhaps as a reflection of the source of the illustration, all appear child-like (I'm guessing because of the size of their heads relative to the rest of the body, the poses, and the expressions?)
In contrast, Viera fems in the game appear more adult.

I've seen Miqo'te fem PCs that look 14 years old or so (human equivalent) but I haven't come across a Viera fem PC that looks that young.

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Originally Posted by Silverbane

...

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That's just the art style in this particular case, canonically they've always looked the way they do in FFXII and (debatably) FFXIV. Though, funnily enough, there's concept art from back in HW of tiny Viera!

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

That's just the art style in this particular case, canonically they've always looked the way they do in FFXII and (debatably) FFXIV. Though, funnily enough, there's concept art from back in HW of tiny Viera!

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A bit off topic, but I was somewhat hoping for more unique racial hairstyles like the ones in this concept art. Here's to hoping the devs revisit these old concepts to create more unique hairs for Viera.