Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
They said that Hrothgar (with both genders) was first but then were uncertain because Viera was wanted too and because Fran would be part of the raid they decided to give us female Vieras instead of female Hrothgar.

But of course I might remember this wrong but in my mind this was one point which was discussed abit when the talk happened of "who will we do first".

Edit:

Well I have looked at different sides and searched a bit and the only information about that was an interview where he stated that Viera came first and then he told the raid designer that they can put Fran in. Its really a bit confusing because in that interview they said that they 100% wanted to do Viera while other interviews make it sound like they wanted to do a beast race but knew that people would want to have Viera too thus decided to at least give them female ones..

In the end even just with this interview it was kinda hinted that Fran was only used because they decided to do the Viera race.

https://gamerescape.com/2019/03/29/f...-of-the-press/

Q: When did you decide to make Viera and Hrothgar?

Yoshida: The decision was made 3 months after the release of 4.0, I think. That’s the timing when it was decided that Viera is the next race 100%. Because of that I was able to tell Matsuno-san that if he wanted to put Fran into the Return to Ivalice raid, he could. [...]
So.. Cart before the horse there. We got fran because they were making Viera. Not Viera because they had fran.

It's a little nit picky, but I think that's an important point. Fran was a result, not a cause. Especially as she was a fully realized and unique model using NPC rather than a slapped together one-and-done.