It really is such a strange situation.
On 1 hand, we are right around the corner from release ... they should be done with any hair styles by now if Viera and Hrothgar will have them.
But on the other hand ... they DID have to release the Benchmark later than they would have liked.
Seemed that way at least with what they said.
With how simple Hrothgar hair is (They don't get highlights, their style of beastly hair is mostly just large pieces of hair texture with not much in the way of "fine details") I see no reason they couldn't or wouldn't make up Hrothgar versions of the hairs we already have. And it's prob not a problem giving Viera the reg hair seeing how some of their RACE LOCKED hair completely disregards their ears and clips right through. As it stands neither has shown a single image of their race with non-racial hair though.
Looking back, they were very open and clear about NO head gear for Hrothgar and Viera on release ... never once said anything about hairstyles though. Then we get them revealing that the devs worked on their own time to give us fans 400+ head gears for our new races even though time was scheduled and planned for that inclusion post release. They wanted to do right by fans from the start. It doesn't take a half of a thought to know that people REALLY won't be happy if they find out they can't use their Reward/ Mog/ Unlocked or 2mill gil hair styles on their bunny girl on release. Even more so with Hrothgar if the hair style guy doesn't allow you to change heads.
And given how customer friendly SE is with money it makes absolutely no sense for them to force Hrothgar players to buy a potion for $10 to just change their hair style. Like, in what world would that make sense?
Hell, the Cloud hair style is in the game as a reward to players for winning an art contest ... would they tell these people "You picked WHAT race? Too bad :P"?
So perhaps they're saving the common hair for release and want to just show the racial hair right now?
Cause really, IDK what to think. The more I think about this the less sense it makes for things to stay the way they are. I really feel like Viera will get all the normal styles and Hrothgar will have Fur Patterns be the tab you select Hrothgar versions of the shared hairs. Prob restricted to x number to a face with the important ones (Mog and rewards/ unlocks) going to all the heads.
We'll see but yeah ... I accept it for what it is NOW yet feel like there's gotta be more to come.
I really don't get this thought process. To me it's the opposite ... just looking at what they DID with Hrothgar and how well it turned out post reveal shows me they got the most TLC.
Looking at how big, high quality and expressive their animations are ... how their mad emote tells a story and their DANCE basically tells one to. How you can feel the joy in their laughter and cheer. How cool their VOICES turned out. Looking at the care placed on their textures and fitting everything to a hunched over body shape that's new to the game. Adding such interesting face features and somehow getting convincing expressions out of animal heads.
Compared to the reserved, short and small animations of the Viera emotes. The lack of Ear animation, making their ears seem like head knives. To their hairstyles, some which clip right their their ear even though they were MADE for Viera and some of the longer ones that clip right through their shoulder when they move their head (which is strange, the 3 version hair with the Fran helm does a great job and not clipping but the other long hair goes right through even though it's not much different). To the voices not being consistent through their emotes (Even making sure to make many of the angry ones sound like moans ..)
Shows me they put a ton more effort into bringing the Hrothgar to life. Don't get me wrong, the Viera are still a job well done but to me it's clear they knocked Hrothgar outta the park with the amount of time and effort that went into them. Plus they have an insane amount of customization. Where as the Viera have face features that give them ... bigger eye lashes/ thicker brows/ a tiny mole or a head jem the Hrothgar get friggin whiskers/ scars/ face hair/ head hair/ horns/ chin spikes and such from that tab. Not even counting the fur patterns and tails and fangs.
The hair is a problem but it's a problem for both as is and I feel there's more to come for both.