Viera males should be smaller like Au Ra females

[Halivel]

I can think of no better race than male viera to be short and slim personally

I suppose I should ask what is actually short for you in their case. Elezens are quite tall so you likely mean something about ~170-180cm? Well, it can look good (most likely will look good). But "female aura" concept will be gross, imo. Their dimorphism look disgusting and gross for me though I like both genders. ;_; As for thin - I cant say that Elezens do look really thin. In this term Viera male should probably have muscular slider which will be better since people have different opinion in this part.

I would do unspeakable things to play as a qiqirn. Ugly-cute is absolutely what's missing right now.

You know what? I would like to see race as Qiqirn in game. Hard to imagine armors on them for now, but yes, they can work.

[Halivel]

"I would say the males could be just a bit shorter than the female viera. I'm not saying there should be a huge height difference like the au ra.

Well yes then, it can be interesting in this case as long as difference is not too big. And females are quite thin by themselves so same concept for males, but just a little bit more masculine can work very well.
Because with Au ra it's... I'm sorry, but it looks like pedophilia. ;_;

[xbahax92]

It doesnt matter whatever each of you want male Viera to be.
We are not talking about a race FFXIV created first, but Matsuno came up with in his Ivalice games. I ask you to leave creative space for them actually to do Viera how they envisioned them.
No matter whatever each of you wish, youll be hurt as much as everyone seems effected by the genderlock. So, imo hold back those expactations.

[Umeikoai]

My biggest problem with Elezen wasn't the fact that they were tall but they had weird cartoonish body proportions. Like they came straight out of Bloodborne. Long Necks and Wide Shoulders. Because of this, their heads looked very small. What sort of body proportions are you people looking for in a male Viera along with their height for either of the clans? I personally think having at least one clan that is around the height of a female Au Ra or slightly taller wouldn't be so bad. As long as they don't make them look unnatural proportionately.

[wereotter]

You've lumped two groups together, though, to make your point seem like things are more imbalanced than they actually are, and some of these are up to personal perception. With many I've talked to Au Ra males have been defined as more than one body type due to their broad shoulders and ridiculously tiny waists.

So you tall/buff should be more

tall slender
Elezen
Au Ra (to some)

tall muscular
Highlander
Roegadyn
Hrothgar
Au Ra (to others)

Lalfells seems to occupy a unique space with Miquote and Midlanders being on the thinner-average builds and shorter-average height.

It would seem to me that a male Viera (if we're looking at making things more even) should occupy a build more in line with the Elezen than being something short and cute. Additionally, the smaller build would make sense if we were getting the smaller females to go with them, but as we're not, the more fierce looking warriors from the old concept art (it's been posted on the forums thousands of times, I'm sure you've seen it) is more in line with the female model we've received.

[Jaywalker]

I lean toward tall male viera (not a hard lean where I'd dissolve into screeching at an alternative haha, but a lean) for a few reasons. First is that I think having such tall ears is an opportunity to make a very imposing impression in terms of height, and I think it would be a shame to pass that up. Second is that I'm really in favor of thin male viera, reason being the closest we get to a legitimately thin male option is lanky elezen--and they have remarkably broad shoulders.

What does this have to do with tall male viera? Honestly, I get the sense that between Yoshi P and some fan comments that frankly people are worried male viera wouldn't be masculine enough. Bunnies normally don't get viewed as terrifically manly (although Watership Down begs to differ), and if male viera are also thin that's going to make them less traditionally masculine compared to a beefy bun. I think having facial and/or body hair toggle options would help (and if it's an option there's room for pretty boys as well as tall, skinny, scruffy rabbit men) but that edge might get lost if the height's not there.

I personally am all for playing a pretty boy bunny, but my impression is that some degree of traditional gender presentation would allow versatility and wider audience appeal. Male miqo'te handled this by making them muscular while being short and pretty, with some facial hair as an option. I really think a thin male body option is needed to stand out at this point. With that being present + bunny + likely prettiness (given female viera)... height and some facial hair/scruffiness would probably be the way to balance things out imo.

I also think really impressive legs would be good because I mean they're rabbits haha. Known for speed and jumping.

Wouldn't object to a shorter male race in theory, but I think there's some challenge in terms of what tone would be established. Height is generally more imposing, greater volume/size is more imposing. Shorter with less volume/size lends somewhat more readily to cute, though not always. Male miqot'e addressed this by being muscular like I said, and I mean lalafells go full throttle with cute. Even when you look at western dwarven men they generally are wider-set and covered in hair as a way of bringing an impression of sturdy masculinity despite being short.

If a short male body type was done that wasn't supposed to read as immature (teenager, as per Alphinaud), that wasn't supposed to have the wiry/lithe impression of male miqo'te or the full-cute impression of lalafells, then there's a question of what they're going to bring to the table. I think that's something of a bigger challenge, but maybe some of you guys have answers?

[username1234]

You've lumped two groups together, though, to make your point seem like things are more imbalanced than they actually are, and some of these are up to personal perception. With many I've talked to Au Ra males have been defined as more than one body type due to their broad shoulders and ridiculously tiny waists.

So you tall/buff should be more

tall slender
Elezen
Au Ra (to some)

tall muscular
Highlander
Roegadyn
Hrothgar
Au Ra (to others)

Lalfells seems to occupy a unique space with Miquote and Midlanders being on the thinner-average builds and shorter-average height.

It would seem to me that a male Viera (if we're looking at making things more even) should occupy a build more in line with the Elezen than being something short and cute. Additionally, the smaller build would make sense if we were getting the smaller females to go with them, but as we're not, the more fierce looking warriors from the old concept art (it's been posted on the forums thousands of times, I'm sure you've seen it) is more in line with the female model we've received.

If we already have 2 "tall slender" races why do we need a third?
Why does this fantasy race NEED the men to be as tall as the women?
It's a matriarchal society it makes sense for the males to be smaller than the women.

[swiss_Momo]

muh shota bunnies

no
Chris Hansen dot jaypeg

[Sokutaban]

We don’t really need any more cute or sweet looking characters because we have so many as it is.

(Taken from the Mrhappy interview)

Stats from the unofficial census show that players play the cuter races the most, with Roegadyn last on the list of races played, with second last going to Elezen.

Just because you have a lot of what players want, doesn't mean you shouldn't add more. It means you should, because that is proven to be what they want...

I'm curious what other data may have been used to define "need" in this case.

As for those implying that everyone wants cute characters because of perverse reasons, those are your own prejudices and don't represent everyone's views. While I won't deny that there are people like that, some people don't spend their days ERPing and just want a cute character. By the same logic, nothing cute should ever be added to any game simply because these individuals exist. Of course this is the case for many games, including many SE titles... but to exclude cuteness from FF and FFXIV would change the brand quite a bit... and not for the better in my opinion.

[Insertcoins]

I ... just don't see SE making them smaller then Au ra cause that's never been a thing they do. So expecting them to do it is setting yourself up for extreme failure.