Animenews sits down with Naoki Yoshida interview

[Chiramu]

soo yoshi wants something a bit more bestial? *holds up all the brumiciens in the world* i'd happily play as my fave race from ffIX

Burmecians would stand out a lot more than the Viera in XIV . Personally I love being Au Ra though ^^.

[Omskahn]

A game that did a beast race really well in my opinion was gw2 with how they made the charr. They weren't just humans with cat ears, or even furry humans with cat heads. They were a distinctive and unique beast race separate from all others. If only they could have made female Norn* more like femroes though...

Regardless, I don't have problem if u want to add horns and scales to human looking characters and call them another race. Just don't expect me personally, to see them as more than that.

[Chiramu]

A game that did a beast race really well in my opinion was gw2 with how they made the charr. They weren't just humans with cat ears, or even furry humans with cat heads. They were a distinctive and unique beast race separate from all others. If only they could have made female born more like femroes though...

Regardless, I don't have problem if u want to add horns and scales to human looking characters and call them another race. Just don't expect me personally, to see them as more than that.

What if you're into the lore? I really love the Xaela lore and I am proud to be Au Ra ^^. The lore behind the race is way important.

[Samcaesar]

I'm a little pleased with the news with regarding the Viera. It makes me vaguely hopeful that whenever (If ever) they do updates to the character creation, they'll add plenty of things to make our demi beastman races a little more tough looking and "beast like".

Snip

He did say that. As a side note, the process for their design went "dragon", then they changed dragon to demon for nonsensical reasons and then melded the "demon" design with the dragon design. They are "Dragon" motif-ed in their design process, however their final incarnation is very much so "demon/dragon" due to this design process.
I dunno, one of my bigger issues besides lacking face, is the rather standard body shape, which I don't feel the concept art even does a unique take on. The men look rather buff, and I think this carries over a little bit into their in game model, the girl's however, concept art or not, seem rather generic body shape wise (As I don't feel big boobs, thin waist, and wide hips is a very unique look). The dudes look just enough different to issue less complaints imho (Scales are more covering and seem a bit less like scales that were glued on for a "cute dragon/demon girl" cosplay, faces seem much more unique, body shape is a good bit more different than male elezen), the girls however.. Very lacking.
Best thing they could do from my opinion? Add plenty of options to make the demi beastmen races (Au Ra and Miqo'te) look more beastlike and tough (As the two tend to meld together). Possible ways to do this?
1) Make their height range fairly large. Rework height ranges so 1 is the lowest general value of that race, ie the girl's lowest of that race, and 100 is the highest general value of that race, ie the boy's highest of that race, with values 2-99 scaling between those heights (With the Au Ra due to a massive gap between their heights, a 1-50 = girl heights and 51-100 = boy heights). I recommend this with all races, but the demi beast men would benefit very well from this, as we tend to associate "big" with monstrous.
2) The ability to add minor things to make them a little less humanoid. The Au Ra would benifit from a "more scales" option that results in scales covering like 90% of their body, I'd recommend scales covering everywhere but what they already have on the hands and feet, along with leaving the stomach, chest and crotch/butt (Though most of the last part would be covered by underwear anyways) as this definitely fixes the "hardly any scales" issue while still retaining the whole "demi beastman" that most players would still find attractive. Giving the girls more faces that stray from the "High in neotony, scales tend to keep to the face" would assist as well. Miqo'te would benefit from a "Add fur patches options" (I'd recommend something resembling the human forms of Taguel from Fire Emblem), fur patches making it so they don't run into the whole "fur that's just a texture looks odd" problem over the characters entire body, but still giving them a distinct "animal" trait. Mithra esque noses would assist as well imho.
3) (just remembered to add this) More emote sets. Or at least a more feral/relaxed set. Like.. tbh the current emote set for the Auri girls feels less like some weird nomadic tribals and much more like "Suburban teenage girl who likes the mall" >_>
Like.. Due to the audience of the game (Both in the east and west) it's going to be very hard to get a whole "Not very cute, tough and more beast like demi beastman" race, however I don't feel this is a reason SE should throw out the idea entirely, honestly just the ability to make a race more "beast like" would be fantastic and please both crowds. (Alternatively in the future a second idea would be to show off one out of two of the clans for the new race, finalize the "cute" one for release then release the "tough" one later in like patch x.1 or something)

Snip

What do you mean by the "Female born more like the femroes"? I personally really like the Charr, very unique in regards to sexual dimorphism (The girls look more feminine but they don't look Au Ra/Roegadyn levels of big, tough boy, much smaller and cuter girl), it's a really solid design outside of that imho.

[Kassiekane]

A game that did a beast race really well in my opinion was gw2 with how they made the charr. They weren't just humans with cat ears, or even furry humans with cat heads. They were a distinctive and unique beast race separate from all others. If only they could have made female born more like femroes though...

Regardless, I don't have problem if u want to add horns and scales to human looking characters and call them another race. Just don't expect me personally, to see them as more than that.

We should be grateful, it could be much worse:



Look at that male altmer. Its literally a human with high cheekbones and pointy ears. And the dunmer is exactly the same, save for a color swap. At least with Au Ra you get scales that replace facial/body hair, horns that replace ears, an emphasis on size difference, and an integrated color swap instead of it being reintroduced as a completely different race. The race variety in this game is much better than elder scrolls and I am damn happy about that.

[Nestama]

However the race variety is less than FFXI's, which is hilarious to me for obvious reasons.

[Omskahn]

what do you mean by born?

I meant Norn*. Male Norn are obviously not the same as humans, much like male roes aren't. But they relegated females to being to being almost exactly the same as human females but taller. I like how SE made femroes look more burly, how you'd imagine a 'giantess' race

[Samcaesar]

I meant Norn*. Male Norn are obviously not the same as humans, much like male roes aren't. But they relegated females to being to being almost exactly the same as human females but taller. I like how SE made femroes look more burly, how you'd imagine a 'giantess' race

Ooh, that makes sense. I like how girl Roegadyn too, and I can definitely agree with that sentiment with regards to the Norn in Guild Wars 2. As another thing, I really wish the girl Sylvari didn't have boobs, it's silly, they're like literal plant people, why do they have breasts?