Viera male design poll

[Lauront]

I'm not a fan of the Au Ra predicament, at all, but I did put an option in there for that. The art included in the post you were quoting, though, is child-like. I'm not keen on reverse gender dimorphism for Viera, personally - I appreciate that some people like it, hence it's there on the poll, but it's not the route I'd like to see them take for them.

The Au Ra females are different in size to how they were initially portrayed, but the guys are still pretty close to it. I just think some of the facial customisation options aren't there. That said, I think there were much better ways to handle Au Ra, and although I love the male half of the race, I wouldn't have implemented the race quite like SE did.

I don't put much weight on the comment about Viera up to adolescence. It's also true of human males and females that they don't begin to sexually differentiate much until puberty, when hormones kick in. Point being, after that point, they do become distinct.

[Gwenorai]

Personally, I believe the Au'ra dimorphism wasn't done correctly, and the concept art of the original au'ra was a lot more acceptable where they didn't look like 'cutie wifu' material. I'm not sure why folks would wish to repeat such a heavy extreme regarding heigh differences that were that drastic.

It also does bring up the question of why the more smaller and perhaps even going off of that, weaker; looking gender is the protector of the forest while the taller and 'stronger' looking female isn't assigned such a duty, especially when they are more abundant.

Going off of this, the males are painted as being extremely fierce and going through a horrific training regime that kills the weakest of them. While au'ra Xaela females are painted in somewhat the same light, that is only one part of the 'clans' with Raen being painted as gentle and a peaceful kind - I believe this is why the Xaela also ended up looking like they do. For Viera there is no difference, the males have always been noted as being the creme of the crop who are isolated from the community and do nothing but kill trespassers, breed and assassinate those they believe are threats. Sadly, the 'weaker' males end up dead. There has been no lore added like the Hrothgar where males have run away from this such life. This doesn't mean that RP elements can't tie into this, but this is what we've been given.

Now we can argue that height doesn't = strength, and that's certainly true in regards to fantasy. But what some people are wanting from Viera is an adorable looking small male that looks nothing like the imagery the lore paints. Yes, the argument of Xaela can be brought up again - but the fact Xaela females look like they do is a sad tale of limitations of resources and them not wanting to create a different model for the Xaela females to look a lot fiercer. I don't think we should go ahead and repeat that, so those who do wish to play as a male viera that is similar to their lore isn't shoehorned into something that goes against that imagery entirely, with the only thing close to it being those cute bunny ears.

I just wish they add in a decent height scale.

[Lauront]

As an aside, on that topic, the second lorebook makes a point of emphasising that the Raen enjoy renown for their martial prowess, too. It's more that they did not want to deal with the constant warring on the Steppes, as it's obviously difficult to establish much of a civilisation under such circumstances. Evolutionarily speaking, the Raen developed under the same circumstances as the Xaela and so the females wouldn't look inordinately dainty compared to Xaela ones for that reason alone; the Xaela tribes have an awful lot of variety, though, some with strange mating practices, so that's where you're likelier to find some oddballs.

I think if they were to introduce a basis for differentiating the two subraces on a visual level, it'd need to be a more distinctive origin story, e.g. if SE had handled the lore differently and had linked them to the Dravanians in some fashion (e.g. worked from the plot arc of them using their own blood to corrupt the Ishgardians but worked on a group of apostates on a more partial basis, turning them into dragon-like humanoids, similar to the current Au Ra), with one clan tied to Nidhogg and the other to Hraesvelgr, or some such. I would still not make the Raen females as dainty as they are, but then you'd have room for some odd mutations for the Xaela in comparison to the Raen. The path they chose for the Au Ra dimorphism was more to do with stylistic preference and was, IMO, a wasted opportunity. Even just giving the females a big height slider, allowing them to reach up to highlander females, say, would've been better as a solution.

I certainly agree, though, that they should not repeat it with Viera. The fact that the males are that much scarcer with the females also makes it rather odd that the females would actively sexually select smaller, more frail males to go out in the woods to ward them on a solitary basis - surely they would mate with those who they deemed to be the most competent warriors and survivalists, if only because it also has an effect on what genes the females will inherit. I think if people want a cute, small variant, it'd be better to just ask for a different race or affiliated subrace, like something based off the Feol. Childlike males mating with the current Viera females just doesn't wash.

With all that said, I think a fairly wide height scale for the males would present a workable alternative, at least for those who simply want the ability to design particularly short, adult looking male Viera.

[kidalutz]

I think I'll be satisfied with whatever the game creators decide to go with, I just dont see the need for the poll whatsoever except as a placebo to appease people who cant go a day without flooding the forum with yet another thread on Male Viera

[Lauront]

I think I'll be satisfied with whatever the game creators decide to do with our feedback - and that is what a poll is, a form of feedback.

If it's not for you, so be it.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

So I guess you must hate Grandblue Fantasy too due to the Draph/Dorph race and their sexual dimorphism.

Average Draph male: 220 cm.
Average Draph female: 130-140 cm.

[kidalutz]

I think I'll be satisfied with whatever the game creators decide to do with our feedback - and that is what a poll is, a form of feedback.

If it's not for you, so be it.

It's not that it's not for me. In order for there to be proper feedback there needs to be more than the same 2500 or so peoples voices over and over again theres 14 million people that play the game 2500 isn't even 1% of the playerbase that's why we need to trust in the designers to make something that while cool looking does not at the same time look like the little kid thing an even smaller percentage of the 2500 are asking for.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for Male Viera and Female Hrothgar and in no small part because of backlash they caved on some things but that's where things should be left at let the artists create at this point and stop trying to tell them what to create or people are just gonna be stuck waiting longer since everyone and their mother has their own idea how these things "Should" look instead of just letting the creative team work on them.

[Beki_Bayaqad]

It's not that it's not for me. In order for there to be proper feedback there needs to be more than the same 2500 or so peoples voices over and over again theres 14 million people that play the game 2500 isn't even 1% of the playerbase that's why we need to trust in the designers to make something that while cool looking does not at the same time look like the little kid thing an even smaller percentage of the 2500 are asking for.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for Male Viera and Female Hrothgar and in no small part because of backlash they caved on some things but that's where things should be left at let the artists create at this point and stop trying to tell them what to create or people are just gonna be stuck waiting longer since everyone and their mother has their own idea how these things "Should" look instead of just letting the creative team work on them.

On top of that, this poll is for personal preferences about what the Male Veira should look like. So even if SE takes this poll seriously, SOMEONE will still be upset because their personal idea for a veira (or the shota faction in general) won't get their ideal mancake bunnyboi.

[lulunami]

I prefer to play a bunny that looks like this:

[Lauront]

It's not that it's not for me. In order for there to be proper feedback there needs to be more than the same 2500 or so peoples voices over and over again theres 14 million people that play the game 2500 isn't even 1% of the playerbase that's why we need to trust in the designers to make something that while cool looking does not at the same time look like the little kid thing an even smaller percentage of the 2500 are asking for.

Don't get me wrong I'm all for Male Viera and Female Hrothgar and in no small part because of backlash they caved on some things but that's where things should be left at let the artists create at this point and stop trying to tell them what to create or people are just gonna be stuck waiting longer since everyone and their mother has their own idea how these things "Should" look instead of just letting the creative team work on them.

I do trust the designers to do that. At the same time, I am curious as to what people are expecting. I have said multiple times on here that they should conduct further polling/surveys of their own should they feel the need to, but one of the issues they mentioned in the earlier interviews at the time of the fanfest was that they didn't really know where to start in terms of how the male rabbits would even look. They've come out since then with some ideas.

However, in any of the number of threads on here, the topic of how they will look repeatedly surfaces - so I am putting up this little poll to put some numbers to it. People should be mature enough to realise it in no way obligates SE to do anything about it and is purely for the purposes of seeing where sentiment on here - and on Reddit - is on the matter.

On top of that, this poll is for personal preferences about what the Male Veira should look like. So even if SE takes this poll seriously, SOMEONE will still be upset because their personal idea for a veira (or the shota faction in general) won't get their ideal mancake bunnyboi.

Such is life.