Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SturmChurro]

I agree with myself too.

In any case, that second concept art just looks too alien to be attractive to me. Too spindly, and the grey skin tones and eyes give it an X-files alien look.

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

[Senn]

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I'm pretty relaxed. I know it's good to be skeptical of translated text, but there's no reason to believe words like "slim, handsome, and elegant" would mean anything vastly different from what it was translated from.

[Theodric]

Yes, nothing is set in stone at this time. It's even possible that we will not see them added in the first place. I think everybody has been respectful for the most part, beyond those swooping into the thread solely to fan the flames of drama or those attempting to tone police and push out of context developer statements as facts.

[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...

[Senn]

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Just because they are facts you don't like, doesn't mean they are being used out of context.

contrasting them to Hrothgar

I'm not sure I really understand, but I think you're reading too much into it. Yoshida mentioned possibly using an elezen base because they were thinking of possibly using an elezen base - nothing more, nothing less. The elezen base's proportion would probably be modified like it seemingly was for female viera. It's possible they could add more muscle to the elezen base, or maybe not. It's not as if elezen have no muscle to begin with.

[Roda]

I'm with you, although in that particular picture, the head seem to be taking on Elezen proportions. Could just be the angle/hairstyle used.

I think it's the angle/hairstyle, the other males heads don't seem to be as squished, but appear to be the same size as the first one. I think the line created by the hair flowing down the neck, to the back, is creating an illusion that makes it look like his head comes to a point from the shoulder.

[Lauront]

but I think you're reading too much into it.

I don't think I am. Again,

Considering the development and resource cost manpower-wise, as well as the patch update before the new expansion, we only had enough for one race. The players have wanted Viera for a long while now and the community was quite enthusiastic about it. If we didn't add the Viera at this point, the players would have been quite disappointed, so now was the best time to do it.

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.

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.

They are explaining their rationale in that section for adding Hrothgar in terms of their role in filling a specific niche and why they thought it'd add something male Viera would not. Not committing themselves categorically to a modified Elezen build.

[Theodric]

Just because they are facts you don't like, doesn't mean they are being used out of context.

They aren't facts and I do believe that you are using them out of excessive optimism. Nothing is set in stone at this time. The original concept art for Xaela/Raen is very different to how they were implemented. Furthermore, concepts such as a Qiqirn Beast Tribe were scrapped in favour of a Namazu Beast Tribe.

A lot could change between the present day and their implementation. Assuming, of course, that they are even added to begin with.

[Senn]

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I agree they added hrothgar to fill in a niche, but when Yoshida said they were thinking of using an elezen base for male viera, he meant just that and nothing more or less. Other than that, I'm not really sure what you're trying to get at.

...

Of course, nothing is set in stone. However, we can still speculate with the information we have now. Unlike au ra back then, we actually know what the female viera model looks like, so we can make reasonable educated guesses. It doesn't mean anything is 100%, but it does tell you the likelihood of something. -and all I'm saying is that it's more likely male viera will look like what Yoshida described rather than not.

[Lauront]

I think I've explained reasonably well.

They're setting out the rationale in that section for why they believed Hrothgar did not serve an already existing niche (putting aside whether this is rooted in reality, since Roegadyn have a similar build), whereas Viera men would fit into one and thus would not fill this niche they perceived to be "missing". All they're really saying is that they're closer to Elezen and so would not add as much variety. My point is that they could easily deliver on a physique like the second in the below imagery and nothing about it would be inconsistent with the adjectives they used.