Gender locked race?

[Gwenorai]

Not so much as supposedly the glam is an easy guess? It'd add some weight but not so much I believe. March is what we need to be looking out for.

[Fenefab]

IMHO people are just extremely impatient and making kneejerk reactions and assumptions. I've seen people talking about how they're going to boycott the entire damn expansion until they see male viera but come on, we have 1 more fanfest coming and 5 months before ShB release in general and who knows, maybe they're going to show the males at JP fanfest just to keep it as a surprise or something. Also, "Lore reasons" are probably the weakest excuse for making viera female only genderlocked since we already have male miqos and femroes etc too. I'd say have some patience and wait until the JP fanfest/until we get other hints or previews/until we get the benchmark and get to play around with the character creator. It's probably not helping much that people are going around forums acting like they're entitled to ALL OF THE INFORMATION RIGHT THIS SECOND.

Also this whole attitude that having male viera would suddenly completely ruin *the immersion* and destroy all the lore is simply ridiculous when you take into consideration all the other non-lore friendly stuff from yokai watch to monster hunter that we have in the game. But maybe that's just my opinion.

[reivaxe]

Not so much as supposedly the glam is an easy guess? It'd add some weight but not so much I believe. March is what we need to be looking out for.

Supposedly?

All throughout blufever leaks nay sayers said every reveal was an "easy guess" even down to the bosses.

Hindsight is 20/ 20. Even more so when people are debating things that rely on disproving the difficulty of foreseeing something.

This new leak only strengthens an already rock solid belief I have in the blufever leaks if it's correct. Doesn't change anything about the blufever leaks if not.

[redcurrant18]

Tbh too much faith in the leaks is not a good thing either. While they might have gotten some things right, what they actually put in the game is still subject to change up until the day of release. Anyone can claim anything in the leaks and they can also predict the same things that everyone else with a creative imagination predicts.

For example, anyone who played FFXI and Eureka can easily predict that a popular figure like Absolute Virtue or the Shadowlord would be in the last stage of Eureka to wrap up the story. Whatever glamours are found in Eureka still don't mean much because anything that was popular in FFXI could be made into a glamour, and if I'm not mistaken there's a harness from XI that was already in Anemos. It would make sense for them to continue the trend and add more for nostalgia reasons.

I only know of blufever but not whatever is going on in discord. If someone actually went on there and claimed that Blue Mage was going to be a lvl 60 melee dps then the rest of their information is probably garbage. That is about as accurate as when someone claimed that the final boss of KH3 was going to be an evil moon goddess that turns half the cast into stone. Right now we're in a state of limbo with Viera and I wish they'd just give us a definite yes or no already.

[SomeRandomHuman]

[Shippuu]

Supposedly?

All throughout blufever leaks nay sayers said every reveal was an "easy guess" even down to the bosses.

This is a bit different. If the FFXI items are in Hydatos then it adds credibility to the leak, but it doesn't change the fact the items actually are easy guesses. One of the items is already represented by a minion we have (Vermillion Cloak on the Wind-Up Tarutaru), and the other item (or two if you count both Discord leaks) are also pretty easy guesses as there aren't a whole lot of singular iconic pieces of equipment that stand out from FFXI that would make good call backs. Scorpion Harness, O. Hat, Emperor Hairpin etc.. So Vermillion Cloak, Kirin's Osode, and the Haubergeon are pretty easy guesses. It'd be different if those leaks came out before Eureka was added and any of those FFXI pieces were in the game.

Blufever's leaks have been solid, but even their leaks were vague at best when it came to the notion of a new player race. I only think a second race is coming when that vague info is paired with other evidence such as comments from the director and the overall peculiar way they went about announcing/showing viera as female only currently.

[Hunky]

Blufever's leaks have been solid, but even their leaks were vague at best when it came to the notion of a new player race. I only think a second race is coming when that vague info is paired with other evidence such as comments from the director and the overall peculiar way they went about announcing/showing viera as female only currently.

I agree. All the evidence is compounded by the leaks. The leaks have been accurate so far, and considering that only females were presented for the Viera reveal, I'm inclined to believe Viera will be a female-only race and another race will be announced as male-only.

The only hope we have is that perhaps the leaker misinterpreted the information. The leaker has been accurate, but not exactly 100% accurate. For example, the leaker stated that the first boss of Swallow's Compass was going to be a geomancer. While there is a geomancer enemy in Swallow's Compass, it wasn't the first boss. The leaker also stated that blue mage was going to be a support melee dps, and while blue mage was released mid-patch and turned out to be a dps, it wasn't a melee class.

It's clear that the leaker had access to the information, but not all of it, or perhaps only limitedly. Maybe some things got lost in translation or were misinterpreted. There are gaps in the information; whether they're there because the leaker intended to or because the leaker simply didn't have that part of the information, we don't know. It's even possible that the leaker tried to fill in those gaps with his own guesses.

It is possible that the second new race the leaker mentioned isn't a playable race, but an NPC-exclusive race, such as Lupin.

Correct me if I'm wrong. As far as I know, Lupin are not considered a beast tribe, right? They are beastmen, but are actually more integrated with mankind society. That would explain why they live among Hyur and others, and why they don't have a primal or stronghold. The enemy Lupin we encounter serve under the Garlean Empire. In that case, Lupin might be considered a "race" rather than a beast tribe. Additionally, concept art for the Lupin race was released that was originally made for a new, potentially playable race.



There's a chance that the new lion-like race will play a similar role as the Lupin. Maybe it is Rev after all, but as an intelligent race that lives peacefully with mankind.

I did some more digging on the internet. Somebody said they asked the leaker for extra information (not specified) and that the leaker said to look at his profile picture (the lion and the bunny). The person then asked if the lion was supposed to be Ronso, and the leaker said it was close. This is according to what somebody posted on Reddit. I can't find the actual conversation anywhere.

Anyway, it could be possible that the lion represents something else. We've only seen one primal so far, Titania. Perhaps the lion represents Griever. This comes to my mind only because of the new gunbreaker job and how it's modeled after Squall in FF8. Squall's gunblade had a lion motif, and one of the final bosses of the game was a lion-like guardian force (summon) called Griever. And Griever does look like a Ronso (or the other way around I guess). Perhaps the leaker, when asked by that person for extra information, said Ronso was "close" but was referring to something else in the game, rather than a new race (unless the person asking specifically asked about the new race).




During the art panel, Namae mentioned a "young-looking Elezen variant" of Viera. When the concept art for Viera was revealed, it seemed that Viera were split into two distinct groups: a tall and athletic group, and a short, more youthful-looking group. Perhaps Namae's comment could mean that we are getting both groups. Yoshida was keen on emphasizing that Viera "could possibly be the last race". Remember the classic Shakespeare line, "The lady doth protest too much."

Perhaps Yoshida is really hinting that there's more to what we saw with Viera. Maybe Viera will split into two visually distinct clans, much like Hyur's Midlanders and Highlanders. We might end up getting the tall and short variants of Viera.



However, if that's the case, it would mean that the team was working on virtually 2 whole new races, which is insane. Perhaps there is some sort of catch. Maybe they all share the same emotes or something. Even then, it sounds too good to be true. But if it is true, then it would definitely warrant having its own announcement at a Fanfest. Revealing the Fran-type Viera would've prepped us for such an announcement. And of course, if there are going to be distinct variants of Viera, along with males, it would make sense for them to reveal the Viera that we are all accustomed to seeing, the type of Viera that we're all used to first.

Yoshida unveiling a visually distinct clan and playable males would be a huge reveal, completely unprecedented. But again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It's probably all just wishful thinking.

But who knows what will happen? We might get Viera that is split between two visually distinct clans, and with both genders playable. That would be amazing.

Or perhaps one variant will be genderlocked, and the other not.

Or perhaps both Viera variants will be genderlocked, and a male-only counterpart will be revealed instead.

I do think there will be a playable race for males; whether it's Viera or something else remains to be seen.

I'm still going to expect the worst though, which is no playable male Viera and a new beast-like, male-only race.

[Gwenorai]

I honestly think that second Viera, the smaller type? Is Feol Viera and they are certainly adorable as all heck. This makes a lot of sense to me actually. The other distinct clans of Viera Rava and Veena don't have that many differences in appearances and share the same customs. In fact, if I recall the difference in appearance is hair colour and maybe a small change in ear speckles? There may be more, but certainly not enough to have two clans. Or the Feol looking Viera are actually just kits? What we do know about the Feol Viera is that they are not held under the same Lore - and males exist with the females.

I do find it unlikely though, but hey, I find another playable lion-like race unlikely. Lupin seems more plausible to me than another feline.

Regarding the whole lion however;-

• None of the leakers would reveal a name only a very scarce description which hardly could count as a description.
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of Lions; is basically the story for which the 24man was based on. With Ramza and Ultima.
• Squalls Gunblade; Lion Insignia
• The Elite Bluemage sect; is called 'Immortal Lions'. They are tied into the original source of Blue Magic.
• Trailer revealing the gunbreaker with Thancred is vs a Lion.

If they were guessing it could be that all of these 'hints' could have been what alerted them to it. Or maybe these are the hints we should have been looking at. Either way, guess we shall see won't we.

[xbahax92]

I'm still going to expect the worst though, which is no playable male Viera and a new beast-like, male-only race.

When I compare the artwork for Lupin and the Lupin in game, im not sure if bara cats will look like anything similar like that old artwork. Im not even sure if I want a beast like race like Lupin. They look so cheap compared to the artwork xD

[Mansion]

Regarding the whole lion however;-

Well the Lion is an overused symbol in any RPG / book / myth involving any kind of fight. Bravery, strength, king and all. I would not put too much meaning on it, it's just lazy imagery.