Gender locked race?

[Shougun]

Was thinking of an argument against Rev (not because I have any evidence hehe.. I was just thinking "dear god no" XD).

So they made this new feet system for the weird back claw right? Rev have normal feet:

(picture of Rev feet)

However... look who does have clawed feet:
(picture of Ronso feet)

Queue poorly thought out victory speech, clearly I can't be wrong!1! . . .

Of course if they went the lionhead rabbit route (which sounds plausible, imo), where it's just a animistic exaggeration of Female Viera it might look like a lion too. Slap some glamour horns onto a lionhead rabbit or if they add some jackalope* inspiration character choices then bam you got ronso anyways, depending on the scale and masculine facial options at least lol. So imo, if we get a different race (or two, if the leak was 100% accurate) then I would argue more likely a Ronso-like as that would use the feet mechanic they spent time to make for Viera.

Also for queue "aliens" / illumanti theory, but if you shake your screen and spin in your chair these two photos may feel semi-similar:

CoInCiDeNcE? I THINK NOT!! (lol.. march can't come soon enough)

*Jackalope is a mythical creature, a horned rabbit (just for those who didn't know what it was).

[Karl0217]

Of course if they went the lionhead rabbit route (which sounds plausible, imo), where it's just a animistic exaggeration of Female Viera it might look like a lion too.

Well, the only reason I did bring them up is because I have seen people mistake lionheads for cats before. For example, there is this one in the Maryland Zoo


that looks more like a cat than a rabbit. I don't think a lot of people realize how much variation there is with rabbit ears:



And the fact that Yoshida cut them off when they were talking about ear options for the Viera makes me a little suspicious in this regard.

CoInCiDeNcE? I THINK NOT!! (lol.. march can't come soon enough)

I hadn't seen that concept art before today but if you changed the ears to something more catlike you would end up with a lion-like race.

[Corue]

CoInCiDeNcE? I THINK NOT!! (lol.. march can't come soon enough)

This is weirdly plausible. I bet that the leaker saw some concept art of a hulking brute with weird feet and long hair and having never seen a male Viera before he thought "this is clearly a Ronso".

I don't think the devs would make two races, but if they went through all the trouble of modifying helmets and footwear for just one race then they're obviously going to milk it for all they can. We still need to see what that "young Elezen" comment Yoshi tried to hush up was about.

[Awful]

In regards to Viera I wonder if we're getting some texture love for the other races? To me it seems like the Viera are a bit more...HD? Like their models are very high quality I hope the other races get some love too.

[Melichoir]

In regards to Viera I wonder if we're getting some texture love for the other races? To me it seems like the Viera are a bit more...HD? Like their models are very high quality I hope the other races get some love too.

There is strong consideration that there might be upgrades to character textures/customization due to the implementation of Viera. From what I gathered, the issue that Viera posed was how they would interact with pre-existing armor in the game - most notably helms and the like. To actually implement them without things looking terrible, they had to update a lot of the armors. If that is the case, this does open the door for the possibility that they may update character customization/creation for all races. It's not a guarantee, but there is a possibility now if they put that much work in for the viera themselves.

[Haventale]

I rather have the male version that they depicted in the ivalice alliance story snippet: Survivors from the wilderness of the forest, where only the strong come through and go back to the villages.

Some people already make their own ideas how they look, a few even seem pretty much spot on here.

That artwork is exactly what I want out of male viera. I really, really, really hope that's the direction they take them in.

[Aggomarr]

I think the only thing I'd be miffed about with the helmet thing on Viera is that they actually took the effort to do it. RIP Au Ras with their horns clipping through every helmet and hood in the game.

On a more serious note... I really do hope Male Viera are a thing. More options is never bad. Let the people who want them have them, and the people who don't want them don't have to play them. Everyone wins.

[Iscah]

I think the only thing I'd be miffed about with the helmet thing on Viera is that they actually took the effort to do it. RIP Au Ras with their horns clipping through every helmet and hood in the game.

It's certainly not a good look, but I think it's still (slightly) better than the ugly ear-pockets that Elezen get on everything. They're huge, don't scale with ear length, and often stick out sideways rather than pointing somewhat backwards like actual ears. (For characters like my alt with fairly short ears, they stick out so much farther than would be needed, and with nothing to actually support them. It ruins a few otherwise-good hats like the Sky Pirate ones.)

They're a bit more necessary on heavy armour, I suppose, but still raises the question of how difficult it would be to actually get their ears into those narrow slots as they're putting it on.

But of course Au Ra have the equal "how would you even put that on?" issue....

[Zumi]

I think the only thing I'd be miffed about with the helmet thing on Viera is that they actually took the effort to do it. RIP Au Ras with their horns clipping through every helmet and hood in the game.

On a more serious note... I really do hope Male Viera are a thing. More options is never bad. Let the people who want them have them, and the people who don't want them don't have to play them. Everyone wins.

I always wear a tiara or something on my paladin so my horns aren't clipped by some helmet.

[Hunky]

I would absolutely love to have playable male Viera, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I have a sinking feeling we won't get them. According to those blue leaks (which were proven to be accurate), there are 2 new races. The leaker's only hint about what the new races could possibly be was a picture of a bunny and a lion.

Most likely, Viera will be female-only and the male-only race will be Ronso. I really hope this isn't the case. But something tells me we're going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, it could be possible. Perhaps the reason why males weren't revealed is because the models aren't ready yet.

It makes sense that female models would be ready sooner, seeing that Fran was already implemented into the game.

On a side note, I don't think Fran's outfit is going to be the Viera race gear. They probably haven't finished designing and making it yet. So they gave their current models the Fran outfit so they had something on for the reveal, since it already exists in the game.

I really hope we get male Viera, but this insistence of how they're so rare and almost non-existent is leaving me thinking otherwise.

The character designer in the art panel mentioned how there is a "young Elezen-looking variant". Perhaps there will be different-looking Viera clans, similar to Hyur (Midlander and Highlander), as opposed to the typical color swap of the racial clans. I wouldn't be so quick to say that males will be this variant. It was clear to me that this variant will be female also, since the artist was discussing the long hairstyles and bang options.

Also, considering how much work would have to be put in to modify armor to fit Viera bodies, the team probably found it easier to just focus on female.

Lastly, and I may be wrong about this. I read somewhere online that Yoshida supposedly said that he wasn't personally a fan of the idea of having male Viera. But again, I could be wrong.

When Yoshida was asked at the EU Fanfest if there would be male Viera, he dodged the question and just said something along the lines of "There is still the Tokyo Fanfest."

That response doesn't confirm we're getting male Viera. If anything, the way it made me feel was, "I know you want male Viera, and the answer isn't want you want to hear. I don't want to hear the crowd boo, so I'm going to show you what you will get at Tokyo."

What I don't understand is why dance around the question? Yoshida has never shied away from telling us that something isn't ready to be shown. Wouldn't he have told us something like, "Don't worry. We do have male Viera; they're just not ready yet."

But they know better. Announcing that Viera is gender-locked would've elicited negative responses. So instead of using that word, they decided, "Let's just show them Viera and not mention gender-locking at all!" Tippy-toeing like this gives me no confidence whatsoever.

Just don't get your hopes up. It's better to be pleasantly surprised than sorely disappointed.