Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Theodric]

I'm hoping they'll concoct something better looking than that second concept art pic...

I'm in firm agreement. It's pretty unsettling - and not in a good way! Even putting that aside, it doesn't scream 'fierce protector of the forest' to me in any way. The Viera in your signature, however, does.

[Senn]

It's pretty unsettling

...Unsettling how? And why are you so easily unsettled?

[Theodric]

...Unsettling how? And why are you so easily unsettled?

I'm not easily unsettled. I just find it abhorrent to look at. If the women are designed with sex appeal and conventional beauty standards in mind then it makes sense to me for the men to be conventionally attractive as well. The image in question is by no means conventionally attractive in my eyes.

Still disagree. Your sig clearly looks more buff than the concept art, even if it's crouching.

I disagree with your assessment and find myself in agreement with Lauront.

[Senn]

...

Even though I think a buff bunny man would look ridiculous, you don't see me calling your request abhorrent. Let's not throw insults.

[Theodric]

Even though I think a buff bunny man would look ridiculous, you don't see me calling your request abhorrent. Let's not throw insults.

You're free to use whatever term you wish. It's hardly a personal attack. I'd go out on a limb and wager that if you went out into the street and asked random people which Viera design they preferred, most would lean towards the one with conventional beauty standards. It's not as if they're overly bulky, either. They're possessed of a lean physique well suited to their role in regards to defending their forest.

[Senn]

...

You're more than welcome to request whatever body type you want, but don't put other types down. Calling it abhorrent isn't really civil.

I've been going off interviews and concept art. Even though it should be obvious by now that I prefer slim male viera, I'm not only saying the things I do because of my own preferences or bias. It would be nice to have a reasoned discussion, based off of the facts we have been given, as to why my interpretation would be wrong. Putting aside the fact that "things can change in development", we can make educated guesses with the current information from interviews. However, it seems like none of you really want to talk about it, because the information does not appear to be in your favor.

[Lauront]

You're more than welcome to request whatever body type you want, but don't put other types down. Calling it abhorrent isn't really civil.

I've been going off interviews and concept art. Even though it should be obvious by now that I prefer slim male viera, I'm not only saying the things I do because of my own preferences or bias. It would be nice to have a reasoned discussion, based off of the facts we have been given, as to why my interpretation would be wrong. Putting aside the fact that "things can change in development", we can make educated guesses with the current information from interviews. However, it seems like none of you really want to talk about it, because the information does not appear to be in your favor.

Well it's not that - it's more that the first of those interviews was literally putting forward an idea they had in their minds, as but one possible mode of implementation, and the second (which I agree was a bit firmer) was contrasting them to Hrothgar, who are vastly bulkier than just about any other male in the game besides Roegadyn, so fixing them to male Elezen helps to have people form a picture of what they have in mind, but the point was more to explain why they thought there was a niche that Hrothgar would fill, that Viera men would not. The thing is, it does not mean that it will be an exact replica of Elezen proportions... they could be a bit slimmer, a bit buffer, whatever. Those three figures in the concept art already highlight how you can do that without loss of any specific Elezen-styled aesthetic for the Viera.

If you are referring to the one I'm thinking of they look like Aenar from Star Trek.

Well, I'll be damned... doesn't it just...

[Roda]

Words

Words

WORDS

My golly, I think we're looking at different parts of the images. For musculature, yes the two seem very comparable. Skeletal-wise, the fanart seems to have WAAAAAAAAAAYYYY too much of a difference between his shoulder and his hip size. That is a dorito man.

As for the second concept art. It has kind of... turbo-elezen proportions. Tiny face, tiny head, LLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG neck. Like I get the feeling of lanky elegance that the artist was trying to convey, and I agree with the direction, but the depiction, if taken at face-value as a final sketch is a bit alien. But that's the thing. It's a concept sketch, essentially a doodle to warm the artist up and kind of set the over all feeling of the race when they get to the refinement process. It's a good direction, imo, but it's not quite the final step on this creation journey.