Devs, Stick to your guns or remove Viera all together.

[New_Game_Plus]

Boggles my mind people are using the "my lore" excuse to justify this.

[Videra]

The situation with Ronso/Viera absolutely reeks of, 'we didn't have enough time to finish this'. So I wouldn't at all be surprised if they did, or didn't get proper counter-parts of the other sex.

[VillainQueen]

The situation with Ronso/Viera absolutely reeks of, 'we didn't have enough time to finish this'. So I wouldn't at all be surprised if they did, or didn't get proper counter-parts of the other sex.

It feels like they wanted to please two different camps at the same time, the one who wanted Viera and the market for furry races? I guess. In turn they didn't really please any of the sides 100%. Both are bummed out by the limitation and to hear they even have gear limitation is like another punch in the face. They could have said okay no Viera we do the Ronso, case closed. People wouldn't be happy but at least they could have made peace with that decision and the dev team could have taken their time making a full new race. Or do the same with Viera and said; that is the new race, end of story. They tried to compromise here and it just didn't worked for most people.

[Seraphor]

The situation with Ronso/Viera absolutely reeks of, 'we didn't have enough time to finish this'. So I wouldn't at all be surprised if they did, or didn't get proper counter-parts of the other sex.

It's not likely they'll make ip the time later though, it's just a huge workload they're not currently prepared to invest in.

Adding a new race with different proportions (which these do have despite people parroting "its just a hyur with ears/roe with lion head") means remodelling all prior equipment, and creates an additional variant for all future equipment.
It's why they said we'd only be getting one more race.

So they had one more race to fit in the game, but there were two races fans have been asking for, Viera and Ronso.

They made a choice to attempt to please everyone, which is obviously impossible when you can't provide everything.

Comments about "male bunnies are weird" or "the lore says..." are red herrings. They were probably factors in the decision process to some extent, lending more weight to them thinking 'Viera&Hrothgar' was a better choice than 'Just Viera' but not the main issue.

[Saefinn]

Okay, I disagree with people attacking, making personal insults etc. I also know this is normal for a forum for an MMORPG and the internet in general, so it's not a Viera/Hrothgar outrage exclusive. However, it's not really a healthy way to get a point across. I will also add that the OP has been pretty inflammatory with their choice in threads. The reactions are expected when you take a trollish approach. The cynical part of me says that was on purpose to get a reaction so he can say "there, see!"

Anyway, to address points. People keep bringing up lore. This is not Final Fantasy XII, even if it is connected to it on some level, we're not even in that time period. Cultures change, they evolve, circumstances change, people find ways of making peace, whilst there are those who believe in sticking to old ways, but there are often times when there are forward thinkers who bring change, sometimes fringe groups form and build societies of their own. Some may remain stuck to the old ways, but it's plausible that there are those who do not. In lore we have the Mhachi and Amdapori as absolute sworn enemies in the War of the Magi and yet for them to introduce Red Mage they added to the lore a fringe group of Mhachi and Amdapori who set aside their differences and formed a new group. We have beast tribes forming fringe groups so that they're not hostile so that they can give us beast quests. It's not ludicrous for Viera fringe groups to be a thing, when it seems the choice method for SE to accommodate new things.

It also did not matter when it was lore than only the warrior of light was the exception to the rule on White Mages and we have a lot of White Mages running around. This was a hot topic in the early days in the RP community.

We also have Feols in Ivalice lore, the easiest possible cop out they could use is to introduce Feol as the subrace choice and genderlock for non-Feol Viera. And boom, nobody can complain about lore. Though I still think "but lore says no" is a bit of a cop-out. But if SE's hands were tied on this, then make Foel a subrace. Every race has two types in the game after all. Like Raen and Xaela, Seekers and Keepers and so on.

The lore argument doesn't make sense once we look at Hrothgar, because they're a new race and a new race based on a race in another Final Fantasy game where there is an abundance of females. So I am not sure what lore they're pulling from to genderlock this.

We're also talking about a game that's written BS lore to accommodate a whole range of out of place things, often to favour marketing, like Lightning Returns and Monster Hunter World. Now we have Final Fantasy XV and Nier on the way. And I'm surprised we've yet to see Final Fantasy XIV: Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series.

[Saefinn]

The situation with Ronso/Viera absolutely reeks of, 'we didn't have enough time to finish this'. So I wouldn't at all be surprised if they did, or didn't get proper counter-parts of the other sex.

I think the community would be more understanding if they admitted this. Development takes time and effort and when you have deadlines to meet, some things won't get done. I'm a developer in another industry, we just communicate what we can and can't get done for a deadline and if we intend to add something in future, we'll be transparent to help manage expectations and avoid complaints like "but you didn't add this on this patch, we need that" and when could be coming in the next patch.

It also gives them room to say either:
"If there is enough demand we'll pool resources to make it happen"
or
"We didn't have time, but we will add them in the future."

Instead they've gone with, "we've not done this because of the lore". Which is pretty final.

[BillyKaplan]

So since we're gonna be disrespecting the lore just so male Viera can be playable (excluding Hrothgar for now because we don't know what lore reason they have to not be playable yet), can this mean other Beastmen like Kobolds, Vanu Vanu, Amalj'aa, etc can be playable?

The lore for Male Viera is basically "they exist and like to keep out of sight". You don't need to break that lore to say "other than that one Echo-bearing guy who left the forest and became the WoL". Other PCs are not canon maybe other than the number of warm bodies you go into certain duties with.
In comparison, playing as an Amalj'aa would be noticeably more difficult because you're not even allowed to get close to a city state without being attacked. The lore the devs hide behind for male Viera and the lore keeping beastmen from being playable are not comparable in the least.

At least with the Beastmen, we know they exist.

We also know male Viera exist, lord knows they spent enough time worldbuilding them in the Ivalice raids. Fran outright said "they're here, watching, and the only reason they haven't torn you apart yet is that I'm here with you".

[Sethy]

The SDS Fenrir also went against lore initially but then lore got over itself and the SDS managed to find itself in the Mogstation.

As for Viera it was said that in the 24 man raids are not in the same version of Ivalice as the one in FFXII.

Sure I would have like to have the option of a male Viera but I am not overly disappointed about it. I just don't like that they are using lore as a shield when it is obvious that it is not the reason.

[Raiu]

Boggles my mind people are using the "my lore" excuse to justify this.

Just because a vase has cracks in it, it doesn't mean you should pick up a hammer and create more cracks.

Just because they have other lore problems, it doesn't mean they need to create more.

[BillyKaplan]

Just because a vase has cracks in it, it doesn't mean you should pick up a hammer and create more cracks.

They should be called out for their hypocrisy regarding it. I can't wait until Dancer and/or Gunblade have lore that restricts them to basically only you like so many other jobs, but you'll still see them all over the place.

Just because they have other lore problems, it doesn't mean they need to create more.

A single male Viera (by canon, other PC should be ignored) leaving the forest to answer Hydaelyn's call really won't break canon. Saying it would is an exaggeration.