FFXIV 2nd expansion: Viera-like race still a possibility?

[Laerune]

^ Honestly, i'd rather not see Vieras added if that's how they will look like. Enough with the cute tiny females races. And im not even talking about the male here...

Indeed, I hope they add the Viera like Fran from FFXII and not some midlander hyur/lalafell hybrid.

[Ashkendor]

Indeed, I hope they add the Viera like Fran from FFXII and not some midlander hyur/lalafell hybrid.

This isn't going to happen simply because the dev team is trying to keep things simple to minimize their workload. Look at all of the current races. None of them have digitigrade feet because that would make armor and clothing for them a lot more work than any other race. That equates to extra time spent on rigging and design just to give this one special snowflake race their special snowflake feet. The alternative would be something like leaving them with a default look to their feet and simply making foot gear not change it at all, which isn't really an option because the "glamour is endgame" set would throw an absolute shit fit about it.

The game is designed for a Japanese market and that market likes their girls to be tiny, cute, and ultra-feminine. Males can run the gamut from effeminate to super manly, but they definitely don't really go for the bigger females. Even in the EU/NA markets, femroes are almost nonexistent. Don't get me wrong, variety is good and I'd love to see more fierce looking females, but it's not something the majority of people would really look twice at so the devs probably aren't going to dedicate time to it.

So... tiny, mostly-human girls with (insert animal here) ears and tails it is.

[LadyVal]

So... tiny, mostly-human girls with (insert animal here) ears and tails it is.

I don't think Fran looks particularly fierce or aggressive, she looks very cold, elegant, and aloof. Which I hope they make because of the whole "tsundere" thing.

I would even be happy with Viera who have regular legs and feet and maybe have thicker thighs/butt or have proportionally very long legs. Maybe even have their face taken a bit more extreme than Aura in terms of looking more non-human. Like with this concept art, the Viera has a very leporine face... at least significantly moreso than the other designs.



And then you have Fran who obviously started human (in her model) but through face and nose shape, it makes her face look inhuman in a good way. And her hairline helps with that too, since you don't see those shapes on a human face.





I think as long as they make the face more alien/leporine than human (especially paying attention to things we notice first as humans- eyes, nose, and lips), keep the ears and tail, and exaggerate body proportions slightly, or perhaps even add patches of fur, then they can pull off having regular feet. Even Fran's in game model:



Looks very human in shape but has exaggerated arm, finger, leg, and foot lengths. Which, I think with some attention to small details, the dev team could pull off and make Viera an epic race.

ETA- Now that I look at it, Fran's in-game model has very similar proportions to female elezen. lol