Viera as the next new race~ Show your support

[Senn]

I wish they add Viera for 5.0 but will see

Same. I know 4.0 will have no new races, but maybe in 5.0 they will.

[Ghastly]

Same. I know 4.0 will have no new races, but maybe in 5.0 they will.

Yeah 5.0 needs to be the expansion where they respond to the big requests. We all know which they are: More character customization, new race, a new tank/healer class. Those are the top requests and after skipping viera twice I really see no way they can skip them 3 times. I know it's up to them but ignoring the top requests could be bad for them in the end. FF is doing great now but if they get too comfortable the future might teach them a bad lesson. I'm no trying to scare them or anything but this is my opinion. We're eventually going to Rabanastre/Dalmasca so 5.0 is really make/break for adding viera.


The good thing about Return to Ivalice is that in every instance that Ivalice existed there's always been viera so the chances are very high that the end of Return to ivalice we'll be given a reason why they will populate eorzea in 5.0. My guess is that there will be a door to ivalice during this raid that we open where at the end of it viera will join eorzea. This is all opinion but connecting the dots is fun. Besides they're the ones adding Return to Ivalice, not me so I'm going to speculate

[Nestama]

The good thing about Return to Ivalice is that in every instance that Ivalice existed there's always been viera so the chances are very high that the end of Return to ivalice we'll be given a reason why they will populate eorzea in 5.0. My guess is that there will be a door to ivalice during this raid that we open where at the end of it viera will join eorzea. This is all opinion but connecting the dots is fun. Besides they're the ones adding Return to Ivalice, not me so I'm going to speculate

Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story beg to differ, Ghastly.

To some extent, this could also apply to the Ivalice in FFTA and FFTA2. There's two Ivalice's in those games, where one is the 'real world' (St. Ivalice) and the other is a world that requires you to say magic words to alter your own (and everyone who hears you) reality.

If the latter, then SE (if they have the money and time to do it) could try something new. Entering the Ivalice raid alters your appearance to be that of an Ivalice race depending on your Job (if multiple Ivalice races share the same job, then it's random on what you'll look like. BLM could make you a Moogle, Hume, or Nu Mou, for example). Of course, if it's the former, then we're not going to the Ivalice, but something like St. Ivalice.

[Lambdafish]

The good thing about Return to Ivalice is that in every instance that Ivalice existed there's always been viera so the chances are very high that the end of Return to ivalice we'll be given a reason why they will populate eorzea in 5.0.

Wrong. Yoshi P has heavily hinted that the Ivalice that return to ivalice references is the one from the original FFT (he told us to go play that game before stormblood comes out), and that game did not have Viera.

[Saito_S]

Yeah 5.0 needs to be the expansion where they respond to the big requests. We all know which they are: More character customization, new race, a new tank/healer class. Those are the top requests and after skipping viera twice I really see no way they can skip them 3 times.

I have never seen any evidence that the larger playerbase as a whole gives two snurble tufts about the Viera. The only time I ever see this being discussed is in a couple of threads, such as this one, that are specifically dedicated TO discussing the Viera. I really don't think they are on the devs radar to this degree - if they don't add them, they wouldn't even view it as "skipping it a third time". It's just not a thing they're concerned with, one way or the other.

For that matter, are that many people even concerned about a new race, period? Viera or anything else? I was expecting more backlash than we got to the lack of a new race in 4.0, but it's been pretty mild. If anything, "don't add a new race until you can add something that is more distinct, and makes more sense with Eorzea's existing lore, than the Au Ra" seems to be a prevailing sentiment.

We're eventually going to Rabanastre/Dalmasca so 5.0 is really make/break for adding viera.

We... are? Was this said at some point in a Live Letter or something?

The good thing about Return to Ivalice is that in every instance that Ivalice existed there's always been viera so the chances are very high that the end of Return to ivalice we'll be given a reason why they will populate eorzea in 5.0. My guess is that there will be a door to ivalice during this raid that we open where at the end of it viera will join eorzea. This is all opinion but connecting the dots is fun. Besides they're the ones adding Return to Ivalice, not me so I'm going to speculate

Well, except for the first instance. FF Tactics has no Viera, they were added later, when Tactics Advance and FFXII turned "Ivalice" into a big FFVII style smorgasbord.

That's assuming the Ivalice will be the Ivalice you all know and love and not a Crystal Tower kind of reference (completely new lore and 100% unrelated to the source material. Doesn't help that it's a raid and not an open world zone... I wish Weeping City was an open world zone to explore).

I'd be surprised if it isn't another Crystal Tower-kind of thing, honestly. Maybe slightly more directly referential than that was, since FF Tactics is, AFAIK, more popular and well know than FF3. I would also not be at all surprised if there is a Viera character as a cameo.

Personally, I don't want another race. In fact, I'm not even indifferent to the idea, I'd actively prefer never getting another one. I have no interest in the Viera, and feel that it'd be weird to just toss in a race from another FF world. The original five Eorzea races were obviously derived directly from the FFXI races, which itself I found a bit off-putting, but at least the XIV versions all have their own names and histories. Vana'diel and Eorzea are entirely separate worlds, and they similarity of races is basically sort of a wink-wink nudge-nudge coincidence. Viera, though, would just be an already established thing - name, look, history - coming to Eorzea from a different world. Not a big fan of that idea.

But more than that, I don't want the dev resources that would go into creating another human-with-some-minor-to-moderate-modifications to get soaked up by said creation, when it could be better "spent" on character customization expansion, which is something I'd much prefer to see.

[Vexander]

I have never seen any evidence that the larger playerbase as a whole gives two snurble tufts about the Viera.

It mostly comes from the in-game polls the Developers put out prior to Heavensward, in which the most popular choice across the five regions was a, "Mammalian demi-beastmen (ex. a rabbit-eared race such as the Viera from FFXII, etc.)"

Link: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46936

[Edit]: My mistake, Half-Races were more popular than Mammalian demi-beastmen in Japan, by 1.9%.

[Saito_S]

It mostly comes from the in-game polls the Developers put out prior to Heavensward, in which the most popular choice across the five regions was a, "Mammalian demi-beastmen (ex. a rabbit-eared race such as the Viera from FFXII, etc.)"

Link: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46936

Oh, thanks, I'd never seen that before! Explains some of it, anyway.

To be fair, though, that was almost five years ago, before ARR was even out. Things can change over that amount of time, and with the game now having been out for a few years and established its identity, I maintain that in more recent times (the last year or two), outside of the dedicated threads, I never see people discussing Viera being added to this game. Have the devs themselves addressed it since that poll, for that matter? Whether in a "no we are not adding this" or a "we still might add this someday but aren't sure" way? Or have they been silent on it?

It's a place that exists in Islabard, but it's most likely just like Doma and Crystal Tower. Same name, but not the same place.

"A place that exists"? In what context? I don't see it on the (4.0 expanded) map of Eorzea. Where/how was this called out or confirmed or whatever?

[Vexander]

Oh, thanks, I'd never seen that before! Explains some of it, anyway.

No problem. It doesn't help that there was speculation by SE that the polls may have been skewed by using the Viera as a reference. It is a fan-favorite race, so there's plenty of reasoning behind that assumption. That said, in the end, SE does what SE wants. Although the Au Ra category was not as popular as Mammalian Demi-Beastman or Mixed-Races, it's still what we received.

[Nestama]

"A place that exists"? In what context? I don't see it on the (4.0 expanded) map of Eorzea. Where/how was this called out or confirmed or whatever?

Best source I can find.

[Nestama]

We... are? Was this said at some point in a Live Letter or something?

It's a place that exists in Islabard, but it's most likely just like Doma and Crystal Tower. Same name, but not the same place.

It mostly comes from the in-game polls the Developers put out prior to Heavensward, in which the most popular choice across the five regions was a, "Mammalian demi-beastmen (ex. a rabbit-eared race such as the Viera from FFXII, etc.)"

Link: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/46936

[Edit]: My mistake, Half-Races were more popular than Mammalian demi-beastmen in Japan, by 1.9%.

I think it's safe to say that's what we got in the end. While Au Ra are still (probably) debated on being either demons or dragons, I think it's safe to say they're definitely not reptiles. They may have scales here and there, but they're otherwise mostly mammal in appearance. They may have lizard concept arts about, but they also have demons and Viera as their concept art, as well.