Gender locked race?

[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.