Gender locked race?

[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 Additionally, concept art for the Lupin race was released that was originally made for a new, potentially playable race.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.

[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