Viera Race "Confirmed" for 5.0! Are you gonna change races?

[Alacran]

RIP playable male Viera. Looks like they're getting the Mithra treatment.

This is the story as it is. The story can change, and i expect it to as well. We are dealing with a empire at war with us, devastation and destruction maybe just the catalyst that brings Viera male and female to the foreground.

[Blueyes]

Whaaaaaa????? I've never heard of that one before. Were it to be an option, why add another feline-derived race? o.O

It's true. Or rather, there is a basis behind the rumor.

It comes from the same source that told us Blue Mage was on its way and predicted that it would show up prior to the launch of Shadowbringers. Not everything has been 100% on point, but several other pieces of information were accurately predicted well in advance. And according to this person, there are two new races in the pipeline. Pictures of a rabbit and a lion were used to tease what those races would be. And to be specific, a picture of a male lion was used. It wasn't outright stated that both would be playable, but that seemed to be implied. And for SE to give us two new playable races, for both male and female, with both planned for Shadowbringers... I'm hesitant to believe it.

I'll be honest. I'm worried that Viera may only be playable as a female. Although the lore we're read can be disputed, it certainly isn't the most reassuring. I'm reminded of my first reaction to hearing that Blue Mage was going to be a Limited Job. Initially, my thought was, "oh, they must mean that it will be temporarily restricted from max level so that it doesn't mess with endgame raiding the same way that Ninja had done. They don't mean that Blue Mage will be limited to select content, right? SE isn't that crazy." Even before we were given the details, people were voicing their concerns. And initially, I thought it sounded like paranoia. Boy was I wrong.

So when I see people saying, "nah, SE wouldn't introduced gender-locked races again. They aren't that crazy," I have to stop and wonder... are we sure? Are we certain that they wouldn't do that? I for one will choose not to get my hopes up.

[noxen]

Something about Fran's model puts me off of Viera... I can't put my finger on what it is, but it doesn't feel like the same Fran.

Now granted, I'm aware they're two entirely different models and textures, bla bla bla, technical stuff. The recreation is -very good-, I'm not disputing that. But to me... Something seems off. I more than likely won't be rolling one, which is a shame because I thought their lore in FFXII was pretty interesting.

[Pixiehawk]

When they decided to blow up 1.0 they added femroes, catbois, and lady Highlanders. The new team (you know, those in charge now) thought genderlocking races was dumb.

Until SE says they are locking a race to a single gender I am not going to worry about it.

[Shougun]

I find it hard to believe they'd gender lock, but I don't find it that hard to believe that the male and female could be VERY dimorpic and perhaps leads to the feeling they're not as straight forward "of the same race" as other races like hyur male and female.

Preferably, imo, minor to moderate dimorphic visuals is fine but huge departures would probably be safer represented via the clans.

[Skivvy]

When they decided to blow up 1.0 they added femroes, catbois, and lady Highlanders. The new team (you know, those in charge now) thought genderlocking races was dumb.

Until SE says they are locking a race to a single gender I am not going to worry about it.

Yeah, I can't imagine they'd do something like gender locking a new race. I don't think they're that out of touch with the community.

[Ariane]

When they decided to blow up 1.0 they added femroes, catbois, and lady Highlanders. The new team (you know, those in charge now) thought genderlocking races was dumb.

Until SE says they are locking a race to a single gender I am not going to worry about it.

If you go back in this thread, someone found an older interview right before ARR came out in here where Yoshi-P says he thinks male rabbits would be weird, and that if they did viera as new playable race, they would consider to make a different race for the males. The timing of the interview would put it after they had decided to do female roes and male miqote. Maybe the rest of the team thinks genderlocking is dumb, but Yoshi-P doesn't seem to think so.

Then years later when Yoshi-P still expressed his dislike of the male viera when was talking about the races considered for Heavensward (he said they are too cute.)

What Yoshi-P thinks has shown to be very important. He was the one saying all those years ago blue mage would be impossible as a normal job, and that he would do it as a solo job. He's the one who started to talk in interviews after Heavensward about how he was thinking SAM as tank didn't make sense and that it should DPS. Previously they had said it almost was the tank job for Heavensward, meaning the team wanted or at least didn't mind SAM as tank.

[Shougun]

If you go back in this thread, someone found an older interview right before ARR came out in here where Yoshi-P says he thinks male rabbits would be weird, and that if they did viera as new playable race, they would consider to make a different race for the males. The timing of the interview would put it after they had decided to do female roes and male miqote. Maybe the rest of the team thinks genderlocking is dumb, but Yoshi-P doesn't seem to think so.

Then years later when Yoshi-P still expressed his dislike of the male viera when was talking about the races considered for Heavensward (he said they are too cute.)

What Yoshi-P thinks has shown to be very important. He was the one saying all those years ago blue mage would be impossible as a normal job, and that he would do it as a solo job. He's the one who started to talk in interviews after Heavensward about how he was thinking SAM as tank didn't make sense and that it should DPS. Previously they had said it almost was the tank job for Heavensward, meaning the team wanted or at least didn't mind SAM as tank.

Would be um.. ... Exciting.. If he used the same reason against the backlash blue mage had for male viera which was something like "I told you guys if you wanted it, it had to be this way".

I'd give him props for sticking to his thoughts but also, eeeek plz no don't say that lol.

[Ariane]

I find it hard to believe they'd gender lock, but I don't find it that hard to believe that the male and female could be VERY dimorpic and perhaps leads to the feeling they're not as straight forward "of the same race" as other races like hyur male and female.

Preferably, imo, minor to moderate dimorphic visuals is fine but huge departures would probably be safer represented via the clans.

Yeah maybe the male viera look like lions? This would please Yoshi-P just as much as genderlocking viera because what he hates is bunny boys, and it would line up with what was said at the Fanfest about viera probably being the last race. But I think a lot people wouldn't be happy with that. Its just as bad as genderlocking them or maybe its even worst. If they were two different races but genderlocked, there would always be the possibility they could be added later. If they are the same race, you will never get bunny boys.

[Shougun]

Yeah maybe the male viera look like lions? This would please Yoshi-P just as much as genderlocking viera because what he hates is bunny boys, and it would line up with what was said at the Fanfest about viera probably being the last race. But I think a lot people wouldn't be happy with that. Its just as bad as genderlocking them or maybe its even worst. If they were two different races but genderlocked, there would always be the possibility they could be added later. If they are the same race, you will never get bunny boys.

Yeah I think it would get around the "we didn't gender lock them" (in their mind) and perhaps get some of the people who were looking for a bestial race - but also would put some people into a hopeless situation where it'd seem like they'll never get a male viera that's normal. Although I think optimally, if this is the race last at least, it would be better to have one clan cute (both gender, normal vierra) and one bestial (both gender, Ronso like).

If I had to choose between normal male and beastial male though and this was "it, the last race/race change" I'd personally still swing towards bestial, but optimally I'd like everyone to "win" lol.

I also still believe that they have a lot of fiddle room with more clans (Roe with galka tail, Au Ra with more concept art style, new viera clan that was a lala viera mix ).