Gender locked race?

[Iscah]

And if Square Enix does end up with a cutesy waifu race for female characters and male characters get stuck with yet another hyper-masculine race then yes, I'm in the camp that they're doing so with some seriously backwards and old fashioned thinking by assuming that all players want the same kind of male characters instead of having some variety. As they say, variety is the spice of life. If all the male characters followed the same tropes that would be really dull and really boring.

I actually think male characters have more variety in designs. Most of the races are fairly 'equivalent' between the genders: Midlander = generic human; Highlander = muscular; Elezen = tall and thin; Miqo'te = slightly smaller than Midlander and Lalafell = potato.

The outliers are Roegadyn and Au Ra. While they have their unique traits, female Roegadyn are built similarly to Highlanders, and Au Ra similar to Midlander/Miqo'te - but the males are different shapes that aren't comparable to any of the other races. Both tending towards the 'hyper-masculine', as you say, but it's still a wider variety of actual designs available. They also have more opportunities for a range of character ages - though it's arguable whether that's a good thing or not, as few people use the older faces available, and it narrows the options for other designs.

Overall there are still plenty of designs possible to have a "non-hyper-masculine" male character. Midlander, Miqo'te and Elezen all tend towards 'softer', less imposing characters - though of course it's still very dependent on exact face settings and clothing. That goes for the other 'tougher' races as well.

I made a male Au Ra alt with the specific intent of making him as "un-fierce" as possible, and I think it worked - granted, he's still seven fulms tall and muscular, but I wouldn't consider him hyper-masculine, even if the default Au Ra design is.

I think if we're getting male viera, they may look shorter and slimmer, similar to "young elezen". Only because of this clip https://clips.twitch.tv/KindMoldyVelociraptorOSsloth
However, this video could just be referring to hairstyles/ear options or something.

I definitely thought she was just talking about the ears. Hopefully a design with the ears a bit further apart so they look more like extra-large elf ears - they seem quite awkwardly placed so high on the head like that.

In regards to this rumored lion race may I just point something out? There are rabbit breeds with catlike ears:
[pics]
This particular breed is called the Lionhead[/URL] and I think you can guess why.

Just going from the pictures - while their ears do seem to be on the short end, it looks like they're not actually cat-like, but just partly hidden in their 'mane' so the part that sticks out looks cat-like.

I think my biggest gripe about it all is the fact the male way of life is extremely harsh. They leave their homes, with the 'master warden' spend years being trained, to the point that many die during the training - which speaks of extreme training and endurance. And then those that do become Masters and are able to seek solitude well, their whole being is protecting the wood and killing trespassers and dangerous wildlife. They don't talk to others, they compete with there fellow brothers, they're secretive, they compete to out-compete. That paints a very Tarzan type image to me. Strong, muscular and somewhat tall - but that doesn't mean they have to be extremely masculine in regards to their faces. A touch of feminity could certainly be there, and I hope it is as I also imagine them being very elegant, yet fierce. Men can be masculine and elegant - I would like this race to show that; that there can be mixes of feminine traits and masculine. A strong body but a face that isn't so 'grrrr' but can be made so with customisation - scarring, tattoos, different face morphs etc.

That's my line of thinking on the male designs too - I think they' have potential as an interesting mix of a 'feminine-ish' base design with the 'strong warrior' build implied by what lore we have. Some of the old concept art is along these lines, and I think it looks like an unusual and interesting character design.

Yet again, this is me putting some logic into things that probably shouldn't have it. I get irritated when I see a skinny kitty running around with a huge war axe with arms that look like they'd shatter from the weight from it.

Hahaha, I think it gets more interesting when things have logic in them, over "whatever looks cool"!

I do try to stick to less-improbably-sized weapons for that reason, too.

Who knows, they can be small, silent, lithe hunters who focus more on their agility and speed rather than muscle and strength. If you want to add a touch of reality to it, male rabbits are actually smaller than their female counterparts.

That's definitely an option too, but I feel like we'd end up with something closer to male Miqo'te in that case - not the "cute bunny boy" design from the concept art that people keep bringing up hopefully.

In any case, that concept art was designed as a counterpoint to the equally cute bunny girl standing next to him - and we didn't get female Viera in that style, so I greatly doubt we'd get that male concept either. At a "free to go anywhere with ideas" point, there was nothing wrong with it, but now that we've seen the designs for 'our' female Viera and heard the lore regarding the males, he would look very out of place.

(And yes, we "could" still get a second tribe with cute designs for both genders, but it doesn't seem to add up with what the Dramaturge described. He only said the tribes were dark- and light-skinned, and with only the single description of their culture, there seems little reason to expect such a different design.)