Gender locked race?

[Tsumdere]

Fran and the other viera that were showcased at the fanfest basically wear lingerie. It's not surprising that many are treating them like fan service at best, rather than a race in their own right. The lack of male presence from their race so far doesn't help either.

I honestly find that skimpy outfit off-putting. I don't mind having skimpy outfits in the game but SE showed us five viera altogether and they all look like they're from a brothel. At least one in moderately normal adventurer gear would have been nice.

They were treating them like fetish fuel long, long before the teaser trailer. My point was that a bunch of people asking for Viera never looked a Viera apparently as 80% of them thought that Viera were female only, had tails, and were busty when that was never the case.

I really want them to be implemented just as they were in FFXII (beautiful women who were still stoic, intelligent warriors), but for some reason they showcased the race running in flower fields and giggling like maidens. As Theodric said, I hope that they get more mature and calm animations and aren't waifu'd just because the dev team has a thing for tiny anime girls. I also wanted them to go all out and give them the long arms and necks just to make people ree into the sun, but that's just me and my Elezen talking.

I’m still disappointed that they didn’t give them their own unique starting gear and just slapped Fran’s armor on there. I love Fran but it’s kinda lame and feels lazy.

I've said before that Fran is one of my two favorite Final Fantasy characters and I still think it's silly that all Viera wear her clothes. If anything, the racial gear should have been Wood Warden armour.

[Corue]

I wonder if they'll genderlock DNC too.

[Theodric]

I wonder if they'll genderlock DNC too.

A gender locked job would be a much harder sell compared to a gender locked race. It simply wouldn't mesh with the game's base design.

[CoolDad]

I'm a huge fan of FFXII. It's one of my favourite games. It's a shame, then, that a lot of people who requested Viera didn't seem to actually want them because they wanted to play fierce protectors of the forest. They just wanted 'hot bunny women'. So I'm not at all surprised that the portrayal in FFXIV is very different to how they were in FFXII. They were always designed to be attractive, but the sex appeal was mitigated by how haughty and dignified they were. That was the case for both those living the wood and those like Fran who chose to leave and live amidst the other races.

I'm hoping that the Viera introduction video isn't reflective of how they'll be portrayed in FFXIV.

Big agree. The way you described them really puts into perspective why the emotes they showed in the trailer felt so off for a race like the Viera. Also Roro mentions it above but making their racial starting gear Fran's exact outfit (or at least it looks that way in the trailer and art) seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.

[Lacan]

I might be the only one that thinks so, but I really don't see anything wrong with the way the viera were shown in that trailer. Compared to all the other females in the game (barring roe and highlanders), they do have a fiercer edge to them. I think people forget that Fran isn't indicative of the entire viera race. She's incredibly badass and aloof, but not every single viera is the same way. Even in XII the viera in Eruyt Village showed a different temperament than Fran.

I think the goal with the XIV viera was to make them very feminine and beautiful, but with a fierce edge to them. They have a real confident air about them too. I think that frustration emote did a good job of showing that. They weren't aiming for a "they're gonna rip your balls off" vibe. :v That's unique to Fran.

[Shougun]

I might be the only one that thinks so, but I really don't see anything wrong with the way the viera were shown in that trailer. Compared to all the other females in the game (barring roe and highlanders), they do have a fiercer edge to them. I think people forget that Fran isn't indicative of the entire viera race. She's incredibly badass and aloof, but not every single viera is the same way. Even in XII the viera in Eruyt Village showed a different temperament than Fran.

I think the goal with the XIV viera was to make them very feminine and beautiful, but with a fierce edge to them. They have a real confident air about them too. I think that frustration emote did a good job of showing that. They weren't aiming for a "they're gonna rip your balls off" vibe. :v That's unique to Fran.

I didn't see anything wrong with them, the fact they were in their lingerie didn't really surprise me either since I've always seen them as fan service lol. I didn't even know people looked into/liked their lore until this forum XD. Although I never really talked about them either so.. made myself a beautiful echo chamber of one haha. Not that I'm saying people can't feel that way, just not how I've felt about Viera.

I might say I'm a bit sad if the clan difference is just colors but at the same time that's not really shocking either since that's mostly what it means, hopefully at least there is some other "extra" option too to set them apart.

Anyway just wanted to say you're not alone :P. I think they're looking like Viera.

One of the things I think might be why they didn't show off the Viera in other clothes though is because of the helmet system they mentioned and what will they do with the feet?

I suppose you could have camera panned above the feet and hidden the helm but I imagine they "might" have something to reveal to us and so they only showed this one armor that's iconic to keep some more surprises for later.

[Iscah]

I’m still disappointed that they didn’t give them their own unique starting gear and just slapped Fran’s armor on there. I love Fran but it’s kinda lame and feels lazy.

I agree - it's disappointing on a few levels.

Obviously there's the "dressed in lingerie" thing, although some other female starter gear isn't much more covering.

It doesn't match the style of the other races' starter gear, which have a consistent theme of colours and materials - black/white/red clothing; silver clasps and brown leather highlights.

It's a clone of an existing character's outfit, permanently linking them to this specific character from another game (even if she did cameo in this one), instead of letting them stand as their own unique race.

It also makes Fran's costume less special for Fran. Taking a "complete" view of the game when Viera are no longer new and exciting, you're going to get to Ivalice at Lv70 and (if you have no familiarity with the source game) the cool female Viera character is just wearing the generic starter gear you've seen since Level 1. It's like the Scions all wearing generic gear in ARR, except at least they got some unique colours and design elements to it - and they've been moving away from that issue since Heavensward.

[Gwenorai]

I'm expecting we will see more; the trailer for Viera looked really 'unfinished' - didn't really look like a trailer honestly. Same faces reused? A bunch of reused 'stances from the other races. Yeah, was pretty damned obvious the Viera wasn't finished.

I am saddened by the Viera starting gear. How did Yoshida even phrase it, was it all Viera or 'the females will have this starting gear?' orrrrrr? Because if he said 'the viera' starting gear is Fran's then what the heck is the male equivalent going to look like?

[Nestama]

The trailer is about as long as the Au Ra preview was. Both being around 1:10.

[Gwenorai]

Yeah, it still seems unfinished especially compared to that. Viera was using female au'ra stances; the run was different of course - from what I remember? But they were also all using the same facial model. Did we even get to see any of the Viera use a weapon?

- edit; yep went and rewatched; it's just 1 min + of reused stances, running and emotes. No use of weapons, and obviously no male - so I guess they needed 'filler'