Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[Theodric]

I can't say I care much for 'diversity' when it's applied in such a hypocritical manner. If diversity was truly such a grave concern then surely it would have been a priority not to add yet another 'pretty' female race? The game has plenty of options for that already but not nearly as many options for 'handsome' male characters. It doesn't help that an older interview has Yoshi-P stating that he thinks male viera would be 'weird' and that he'd probably add something different over them if given the opportunity. I don't have it to hand, though perhaps someone else has the link that they can share?

[myahele]

I can't say I care much for 'diversity' when it's applied in such a hypocritical manner. If diversity was truly such a grave concern then surely it would have been a priority not to add yet another 'pretty' female race? The game has plenty of options for that already but not nearly as many options for 'handsome' male characters. It doesn't help that an older interview has Yoshi-P stating that he thinks male viera would be 'weird' and that he'd probably add something different over them if given the opportunity. I don't have it to hand, though perhaps someone else has the link that they can share?

https://www.siliconera.com/square-ta...baby-behemoth/

Interesting how things played out how he originally planned. That said, I'm happy with Hrothgar, but I wished they looked more like Ronso if that's what they were inspired by.

[SturmChurro]

https://www.siliconera.com/square-ta...baby-behemoth/

Interesting how things played out how he originally planned. That said, I'm happy with Hrothgar, but I wished they looked more like Ronso if that's what they were inspired by.

"A rabbit male might be kind of weird" took the words right out of my mouth.

[Lauront]

https://www.siliconera.com/square-ta...baby-behemoth/

Interesting how things played out how he originally planned. That said, I'm happy with Hrothgar, but I wished they looked more like Ronso if that's what they were inspired by.

I think the problem with that, at least from a PR perspective, is that they then went and released concept art of what male Viera might have looked like pre-HW, which had much greater traction than any obscure comments like the above. They were eschewed in favour of Au Ra at the time. I personally don't think it really was the driving causal factor here, so much as SE thinking it was killing two birds with one stone, on the one hand by sating popular demand and on the other, drawing in players who they thought felt they were not satisfied with SE's existing racial lineup, i.e. missing a pure beast race (Au Ra men straddle the line a bit.)

[WhiteArchmage]

I think the problem with that, at least from a PR perspective, is that they then went and released concept art of what male Viera might have looked like pre-HW, which had much greater traction than any obscure comments like the above. They were eschewed in favour of Au Ra at the time. I personally don't think it really was the driving causal factor here, so much as SE thinking it was killing two birds with one stone, on the one hand by sating popular demand and on the other, drawing in players who they thought felt they were not satisfied with SE's existing racial lineup, i.e. missing a pure beast race (Au Ra men straddle the line a bit.)

Indeed. The timeline was "Yoshi-P mentions bunny men would be weird" -> "Concept art is released of Viera, male and female" -> "Viera is teased with Fran" -> "Viera is revealed in FanFest but no mention of the men besides a 'if you look at the Lore...' remark from Yoshi-P" -> "Yoshi backpedals, says limitations and they were trying to appease both sides by releasing the much-demanded Viera and beast race"

Seeing as how the concept art came LATER than the "bunny men would be weird" comment, one could be forgiven to think that Yoshi-P changed his mind and we would be getting Viera males anyway. Seeing how one was a throwaway line in an interview and the other was official, and revealed, concept art, it's darkly funny how the former turned out to be correct.

[Kobalos]

https://www.siliconera.com/square-ta...baby-behemoth/

Interesting how things played out how he originally planned. That said, I'm happy with Hrothgar, but I wished they looked more like Ronso if that's what they were inspired by.

My heart sank when he said that. Bunny girls in heels and lingerie is fine but bunny boys are too 'weird' - It's very one sided but it is what it is

[reivaxe]

I can't say I care much for 'diversity' when it's applied in such a hypocritical manner. If diversity was truly such a grave concern then surely it would have been a priority not to add yet another 'pretty' female race?

Cause they were the most wanted race since the days before HW and they figured this was gonna be their last chance at a new race so they wanted to give the fans what they wanted. Reading their interviews I must say they never sounded excited about adding them. In so many words they basically say they were browbeaten in to adding them by the communities strong desire.

I believe him when he says "whats the point of adding another handsome male if the only difference is the ears" cause from a character design PoV the Viera we have don't really add much of anything to the game that wasn't there before. I believe they can come to terms with their choice via the fact that FemElezen were the only option for a tall, thin female character before so which ever way they went they would be adding another option to either the Tall thin or Tall strong builds.

[Bluemagedood]

I think there was a couple of options to add MViera that could have really set them apart.
My favorite would have been a race that doesn't differ a lot based on gender, as the only other race with limited Sexual Dimorphisim is Lalafell. It would also fit existing Viera lore quite well as they're supposed to be indistinguishable to the causal eye until their adolescence(?).

Alternatively, having a MViera could also occupy the niche of MElezen, but wilder and MCatboy, but more finesse, which also would have been cool.