Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[BillyKaplan]

You don't accept it, despite seeing concept art of a slim, yet toned, viera.

And of course they always remain loyal to concept art, don't they [looks at Au Ra]

Besides they don't look that slim to me, I'd say they have broadish shoulders, at least more so than an Elezen.

[Senn]

And of course they always remain loyal to concept art, don't they [looks at Au Ra]

The difference between au ra and viera is that we now know what female viera look like. They appear to be using an elezen base with a face that somewhat resembles miqo'te. Not far off from what Yoshi P was talking about, actually.

Regardless, even though it's still possible to change things in development, what I was pointing out is that Lauront referred to a joke tweet and suggested Matsuno would prefer a highlander physique for male viera. A joke tweet. But when it comes to information and ideas Yoshida straight up gives, the answer I get is "well, things can change in development".

[BillyKaplan]

"well, things can change in development".

Or pre-development, as they go over feedback, which this thread is for, and see voices asking for something closer to Highlander or Au Ra. Which, in the case of the latter, isn't even too far off from what Yoshida said, and will still be very much in-line with what the females look like.

Mind you, I do think that if they get implemented, we'll see something very much along the lines of the concept art. But what exactly that will translate into, no one knows. It's important to keep that in mind.

[Veis_Alveare]

The difference between au ra and viera is that we now know what female viera look like. They appear to be using an elezen base with a face that somewhat resembles miqo'te. Not far off from what Yoshi P was talking about, actually.

The female Viera have bodies that are very different from Elezen. Their necks and shoulders aren't horribly proportioned, their chests are shaped differently and their torsos are proportionally longer than an Elezen with similar limbs.

I'd like something along these lines, albeit with a pair of bunny ears stuck on

I always thought Basch had a kind of Viera-ish face honestly.

Very much on board with this idea either way.

[Nonuel]

The female Viera have bodies that are very different from Elezen. Their necks and shoulders aren't horribly proportioned, their chests are shaped differently and their torsos are proportionally longer than an Elezen with similar limbs.

What do you meaaaaaan:

They just look strange, if they where proportioned like the elves in LOTR, Im sure they would be a beautiful race to play, but...sigh, this is just how they come off as.


X'D

Definitely upgrading to Viera!!! Obvious choice.

[Lauront]

Anyway, on the topic of the dev interviews:

We wanted to give players options and freedom to choose more races. We envisioned adding a new race, but people really wanted the Viera to play in-game. So if we add another new race that isn’t Viera, people might wonder why we didn’t do Viera, so we had to add them for sure.

We had a big discussion back when we added Au ra in Heavensward about whether to add Au ra or Viera. We knew we only had Female Viera for reference, so we had no idea what to do for the Male variant. We would have to use our own imagination for that. There was fear about how we would approach that. Perhaps an elezen body with a miqo’te face and bunny ears. Would this be the right way to add this race to the game?

It's basically spitballing ideas... in fact, going over past thought processes.

This one is a bit firmer:

With FF12, there are only female Viera appearing in the game. Due to that, we have no design references for the male versions. If we did create a male design for the Viera, he would be quite elegant, handsome, and slim. He would look more like the Elezen race, but with bunny ears.

Note, however, what follows this, which gives further context to the "more like" bit of the above:

What we were missing from the lineup of playable races was someone who looked more powerful and laser-focused on battle, while looking quite fierce. Implementing that kind of race, the dev team could bring more kinds of enrichment to this type of fantasy game. To fulfill player feedback as well as the dev team, we put the two races together.

So whilst I don't disagree that they are probably going to aim for something quite near to the concept art, with an elegant aesthetic, to me the "more like Elezen" comment is just stating a frame of reference rather than fixing on an exact replica albeit with improved proportions.

[niteypants]

Anyway, on the topic of the dev interviews:



It's basically spitballing ideas... in fact, going over past thought processes.

This one is a bit firmer:



Note, however, what follows this, which gives further context to the "more like" bit of the above:



So whilst I don't disagree that they are probably going to aim for something quite near to the concept art, with an elegant aesthetic, to me the "more like Elezen" comment is just stating a frame of reference rather than fixing on an exact replica albeit with improved proportions.

Everyone gives Elezen hell for having giraffe neck, but it's not just their neck, it's their shoulders being as wide as a mack truck and their arms being way too large. They have turned what should be slender elegance to a weird, gangling creature.

The worst part of it is, it seems very obvious to me that Elezen used to look normal as originally developed, then some supervisor ran along and demanded it have a "manlier" upper physique.

Here are Elezen's correct proportions, which took me about 3 minutes to figure out. A veteran graphics artist could probably figure it out in 10 seconds. Working backwards from the After, someone made a normal looking Elezen then got told right at the end of crunch to inflate the upper torso.