Feedback: Male Viera + Character Creation

Good day!

Long time FF fan and FFXIV subscriber / fantasia drinker here with massive gratitude for the devs and art team. Beautiful work across the board, thank you!

Sadly, very disappointed to see that with the release of Endwalker & male Viera our options are still SO limited and restricted.

Male Viera have some really great aesthetics, but I was hoping to be able to toggle some of the accessories on or off.. Cool that I can have this or that hairstyle with or without feathers.. but did giving up feathers also have to mean giving up my bangs?

Does choosing the face shape I'm happy with have to cost me the only tattoo option I like? RUIN my facial hair selection?

My excitement was smothered pretty quickly.

I know "it's always been this way" but I believe that many of us would be much happier with character creation if we could choose from ANY nose, ANY eye shape ANY tattoo.. facial hair, jaw shape etc.

It's very discouraging to be pigeon-holed into facial options I'm unhappy with just because I want a face that doesn't make my character look like a child (to my eye.)

On more than one occasion I've (cringe) spent $30 on fantasia JUST to be happy with my eye color or skin tone, and still had to play with a character I was unhappy with because the difference in lighting in character creation and gameplay is dramatically different. Yes, I change scenes and time of day to be as sure as I can... but without a grace-period for corrections or the option to "run around" with a look for a few minutes and test-drive it.. I'm kinda stuck gambling with $10 potions.

I often to wonder why we dont have fantasia built-in to a premium subscription fee or simply have access to more options through the aesthetician?..

So many of us primarily play FFXIV for the aesthetics and styling our characters and immersing ourselves in this glorious realm.. and yet the fantasia system still feels a bit abusive, considering how limited our options are... and for how long "character customization" has gone without an update, despite relentless feedback that the community wants that addressed.

I hope to find my passion and interest in Final Fantasy XIV rekindled soon, I think Endwalker is shaping up to be very exciting and the benchmark experience looked great (until I got into character creation.)

Really, I love the game and am so grateful to the beautiful art and design that we've gotten so used to.. I just really hope that we see a system that does it justice by giving players more freedom to choose aesthetics that bring them joy.

Take care, thanks for reading!

Always make an alt with your changes first. Can check them in game.

I've always done that, and it makes it a lot easier

Totally! Started doing so, I just wish there was a way to try the new look out in my gear. I get why we have to unequip/logout for certain changes but it would be great if the $10 fee paid for any number of alterations within 1 hour of logging in to the new skin or.. even just 5 resets in a 2-3hr window, anything that means I don't have to pay $10 every time I miss the mark on my tan T.T

https://i.imgur.com/wY6Cov7.png

They're lovely and I'm seeing that a lot of players are thrilled with them. After some time I found a combination I enjoy but I feel like it's really unfortunate that the Veena are limited to such light skin tones.

It sadly doesn't matter how many times we ask for new options in CC so long as they don't deal with issues in their code that sets a limit on how many options they can add to certain categories, or how many categories we can have to begin with - something what Yoshida adressed several times in live letters, and something what he personally doesn't seem to be happy about. The CC we currently have quite obviously wasn't created with game being that popular in mind.

That said, they probably will have finally a chance to work on it once they finish their work Horthgars, which likely will be 7.0, so... I wouldn't have high hopes on character creator update any time earlier than 8.0. Some issues might be dealt with before (or should be, I dare to say, but with how they usually work it likely will take more time than some are ready to wait) - the fact that Hrothgars's haircuts are tied to their faces, for instance, and as result they need to buy fantasia every time they want to change between little 2 haircuts they have, for instance (8, if you are wishing to change face model, as well).

While I don't really have any intention of making a male Viera myself, I will absolutely agree that there are some weird limitations on what their creator allows. Going all the way back to Au ra (and maybe even earlier?) players have lamented locking specific options to each other. With the Au ra, it was their horn types, faces and scale variations... and people still complain about the way those are handled. This really is one area where it seems SE, for some unknown reason, just doesn't seem to learn.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by StriderShinryu

This really is one area where it seems SE, for some unknown reason, just doesn't seem to learn.

---

Not so much "doesn't want to learn" as "is still restricted by the character creation template designed at the beginning of the game", whether that is by choice or necessity.

Au Ra don't get horn choice and Hrothgar don't get mane choice because there is no space in the template for it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CelestialHealer

After some time I found a combination I enjoy but I feel like it's really unfortunate that the Veena are limited to such light skin tones.

---

Out of curiosity, why not just make a rava? the only difference I can see between the two subraces when it comes to that face is a slight variation in eyebrow length