Information on why the devs didn't include Viera Male/Hrothgar Female

[Reinha]

So male Hrothgar never replaced male Viera, but instead female Viera replaced female Hrothgar? For some reason there are not many anti-genderlock activists saying they would have preferred to give up female Viera to get a full Hrothgar race.

[Ayer2015]

So male Hrothgar never replaced male Viera, but instead female Viera replaced female Hrothgar? For some reason there are not many anti-genderlock activists saying they would have preferred to give up female Viera to get a full Hrothgar race.

Did you see any, 'We want Hrothgar' forum threads over the past two years?

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Did you see any, 'We want Hrothgar' forum threads over the past two years?

There have been quite a few "We want a beastly race threads" so, yes, yes I have.

[Reinha]

Did you see any, 'We want Hrothgar' forum threads over the past two years?

Exactly, genderlocks were never an issue for most people. It's just a convenient cause to advocate for when angling to get male Vieras. If people were seriously against the principle of genderlocking then they would prefer a full Hrothgar race over what we got.

"We want a beastly race" has actually been a topic of conversation over the past two years. I have participated in those threads. I am pleasantly surprised our voices were heard considering the amount of opposition in the past and now.

[username1234]

Exactly, genderlocks were never an issue for most people. It's just a convenient cause to advocate for when angling to get male Vieras. If people were seriously against the principle of genderlocking then they would prefer a full Hrothgar race over what we got.

my thoughts exactly
just delete hrothgar and give us male viera

[MPNZ]

this means something even WORST in itself: the fact that they lack time and people to work on the game development and they scrap out thingsfor this reason.

I don't know about you, but for me this information it's evern worst, it means this games has a doom clock on it.

This...This was like totally the case since it was annnounced thata lot of the proffits from FF14 were being siphoned to new se IPs and remakes, and most likely the Xenogears stuff too.and more so since FF14 1.0 destroyed SE financially.

Also I'm scared two big mmo's just had major layoffs. I'm worried for the devs at ffxiv

All like 25 of them...

There's always a deadline they have to meet, expectations square sets for the devs. It's standard for any project. Compromises are always being made.

For example: Diablo three was originally going to have ladderrs

How does this change anything? All this explains is why the hrothgar models look so rushed and lazy. They still chose to develop a race only 1% of the playerbase will play over male viera.

Um, basically. theyre going to like include FF10's story elements, or like at least a few features

[Remedi]

"We want a beastly race" has actually been a topic of conversation over the past two years. I have participated in those threads. I am pleasantly surprised our voices were heard considering the amount of opposition in the past and now.

Shouldn't be surprised of it.
They were experimenting with beastial race for a while as far HW goes If I remember well. Lupins were a rejected proposal of them, so they were toying with the idea

[Emmanellain]

Exactly, genderlocks were never an issue for most people. It's just a convenient cause to advocate for when angling to get male Vieras. If people were seriously against the principle of genderlocking then they would prefer a full Hrothgar race over what we got..

But they are against locks, honestly, back in 1.0 they had the same issue and a lot of players today played the popular Mithra that was fem only back then and cried for males.
and for every locked gear set you always have threads with people getting frustrated about them being locked.
Also you can't fault people for being salty for not getting their elegant bishounen buns, I'm shocked that Yoshi went through with this despite his own dislike towards the locks.
When people advocate for no gender locks, they are literally saying they want two full races, it's a literal win/win for everyone.
Also Viera males have been a subject of mystery since 2006, people grew up with these games that featured Viera, so I think the coy marketing of the races honestly give people cause to be a little dissapointed.
The Hrothgar is strong and masculine, the Viera slender and elegant, they've both been designed with polar opposite design principles, so most players will - regardless of preference be without a female/male counterpart, which wont satisfy either group.
It's like they wanted to please everyone with the last race and wound up pleasing the half that wanted to main that sex of that specific race lol.
They can still turn it around though if they announce they will implement the other half of the sexes down the line.

[UsagiAndCrepes]

I hope all the excessive color and emphasis added might help someone that didn't find the answer clear enough about their production process. If not, that's fine too I suppose.

It was during Return to Ivalice, around 3 months after 4.0. Viera was confirmed then, and Hrothgar came about at the same time when we were discussing plans with Matsuno-san. We were deciding whether to make a Hrothgar female or a Viera female, and after selecting Viera, work began right away, because otherwise we wouldn't make it in time. As mentioned before, the face parts are special and Hrothgar has big differences between its faces, like a lion face, wolf face, leopard face. It became a fixed model relatively recently. Viera was done right before Paris Fan Fest, and Hrothgar was done recently.

[NessaWyvern]

I hope all the excessive color and emphasis added might help someone that didn't find the answer clear enough about their production process. If not, that's fine too I suppose.

If that someone was me, I was criticizing their production process, and suggesting one that may have worked better.
If it's true that they had a hard NO from the higher-ups until now, then my criticism would be directed towards the higher ups, their short-sightedness cost them much of their good reputation with fans.

Besides, they have a special patch update site right? And there's still several months before release, IF they had male Viera and Female Hrothgar planned, they could have added future Viera/Hrothgar details in there, and postponed showing them, with a note during fanfest that they might come in the future, instead of cutting it out entirely.
They would have a bit more time to work on them then.
They didn't have to squeeze unfinished races into the fanfest, is what I am getting at (the current Viera and Hrothgar have issues relating to gear). They could have showed us their concept work so far in the fanfest, fans would have still been hyped, and more accepting of the situation, rather than the current "NO MALE VIERA, NO FEMALE HROTHGAR, GENDERLOCKS, HELMETS NOT SHOWING AHHH!" Reaction that we are getting at the moment.

It's a fecal storm that could have been handled a loooot better.