Since Lore Suddenly Matters

[AmemeAmeklin]

It seemed from interviews it was more about development time/resources and it was decided to do two half races or else lose the opportunity to introduce something like the Hrothgar. If Hrothgar are Ronso then they do actually have designs for females in other FF games.

As for the Viera themselves, I refuse to believe they exist until one tries to shoot me for sneezing in his territory. If we get fat Miqo'te in the story then I expect to see at least one very angry male Viera trying to murder me at some point.

[KylePearlsand]

We are going to the greatwood. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Male Viera as enemies.

[PogueX]

We are going to the greatwood. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Male Viera as enemies.

Well they do have concept art for Viera men so its all but sure they will be in the game

[polyphonica]

Well they do have concept art for Viera men so its all but sure they will be in the game

They also made very sure to emphasize in the keynote that only playable Viera would be Female (and vice-versa for Hrothgar), so that emphasis points even more strongly that we will probably see them at some point.

That said, I feel like if they show male Viera/female Hrothgar too much, it'll just increase the pressure even more. The more emphasis they put on them, the more I'd take it as a sign that they plan to work on the opposing genders eventually.

[ObsidianFire]

Translations of interviews with Yoshida are starting to trickle out. I found this question and answer reveals a lot

Q: When did you decide to implement the female-only Viera and male-only Hrothgar?

Yoshida: 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.

It's from this interview: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...79&sh=56ff3396

[MrThinker]

It also has a direct confirmation that Ahm Araeng is on the First shard for anyone who might have thought the aetheryte shape wasn't enough proof.

[Shurrikhan]

P.S. This is what we could have had, something like this?

I'd be fine with losing that if only the Hrothgar actually had the option to look more like the leaner figures of Ronso, rather than limited to a (seemingly even squatter, somehow) Roegadyn model. Instead, we get reskins of a single model, and while that may be logical in terms of cost-effectiveness, it also makes the ceiling for breadth and depth of attraction in the new race (i.e. how many people will want to play the race, and how much will that choice be able to improve their play experience) stiflingly low.

[Lambdafish]

Well they do have concept art for Viera men so its all but sure they will be in the game

That's really old concept art for a form of Viera that never came to be. It's not from the same development cycle, and likely didn't even factor into this version of viera

[XiroGear]

I'd be fine with losing that if only the Hrothgar actually had the option to look more like the leaner figures of Ronso, rather than limited to a (seemingly even squatter, somehow) Roegadyn model. Instead, we get reskins of a single model, and while that may be logical in terms of cost-effectiveness, it also makes the ceiling for breadth and depth of attraction in the new race (i.e. how many people will want to play the race, and how much will that choice be able to improve their play experience) stiflingly low.

I'd still prefer to have both genders for both races, If they Confirm that they at least have plans on making them in the future, I'd be content with what we have so far. But as of now, I won't just sit idly by while development decisions that have long since fallen out of favor are beginning to grow and fester like a malignant cancer, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my duty as a fan and helping to make the game better by helping to push the devs away from harmful decisions such as Genderlocked races.

[Veritas-Ancora]

I'd still prefer to have both genders for both races, If they Confirm that they at least have plans on making them in the future, I'd be content with what we have so far. But as of now, I won't just sit idly by while development decisions that have long since fallen out of favor are beginning to grow and fester like a malignant cancer, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my duty as a fan and helping to make the game better by helping to push the devs away from harmful decisions such as Genderlocked races.

Ultimately that's the whole point of thousands of people commenting on this.
And several publications doing the same.

People just want some acknowledgment from Yoshi P that they hear all these people voicing their concerns.