Racial distribution, July 2021 (Luckybancho)

[Shougun]

Honestly I think the Hroth did well, they were always to be a bit of a niche race but also imo an important addition. Say for example SE, if they wanted purely popular choices, should only ever add pretty races but if you had done that then your actual diversity of choice (minor variations of super model) would be fairly bad. You don't want to focus on niche only, but it's important to have occasionally. Of course Roe were big bricks already but they didn't have a 'beast' race. Surely adding Night Elf with red, Night Elf with darker purple, Night elf with. . etc, is going to be popular choices, but I don't think it adds as much value as it does when you're missing whole sections of diversity. Races like Hroth are more to fill voids of space and contrast, rather than fill the majority of space.

With female, I'm curious how it'll do. Very good potential to outstrip Roe, maybe Elezen too even; although, female beast race would be probably one of the least popular so if they don't make them 'pretty' maybe not Elezen. That said them actually maintain a decent amount of beast would be a nice opportunity for those who never felt they had that option before.

If anyone thought Hroth, or races like it, were ever going to be #1 then I think it was an entirely missed concept of what a race like it was for purpose. It was particularly for diversity of visual and option, not supermodel but X. Supermodel but X is always going to win if we're just going what majority would pick. Which also I believe extends in value, when you're limited in resources at least, by the nature that varied races allow each other to contrast. Rather than a party of purely pretty girls and boys, which I think would make things blend and be more bland a rare dab of "other" allows a strong visual contrast (which would also relate to the importance of silhouettes). Honestly I think of it much like composing an art piece in general (as I sometimes describe story and other concepts) as I feel it works very well, it's true certain pieces of the composition are going to be focused on more than others but simply having it be only that thing can tend to be a mistake.

All that said, mostly because I see sometimes, not so much here, people missplace the importance of such options, I think a really, very, valuable thing would be stronger creation options (separating things whenever possible, completing customization options that were removed to save memory, etc). The amount of work to add proper sliders, at this point, would probably be insane and unreasonable but maybe in the next game (if not this one) - ... I think that would add potentially a fantastic diversity to everyone. Thicc Au Ra female, slender Hroth male, etc. Certainly not a simple thing to do though. Yoshida did mention the Au Ra concept art recently, ish, and I would love to see that race as I thought it was /very cool/ (and I loved the art for both genders) - also given the current Au Ra setup, and the thought of the concept art, I would imagine it might even be a 'highly diverse' yet also popular race (given the males would be even more dragon like, dragons are cool, everyone loves dragons lol, and the females being both succubus like which is a little bit of an untapped 'super model' vibe).

Though of course when thinking of "last race" or what have you (which may as well be female hroth) ... the stakes would feel higher. Like I see some wanting tiny furry race, which could be cool. I'm sure nothing is simple or easy, especially given the concerns for memory we are already aware SE has, but I wonder if adding an extra 'clan' might be one thought. Like Lala could have a long lost fluffy clan (basically moogle), Au Ra's might be that draconic / demonic succubus like race, Hroth might get one that's a bit slender and upright (maybe more akin to that one tiger primal boss), etc - sharing a lot of bones (when possible), animations, and other assets to make one final great push.

It is a bit unfortunate that some of the clan options are so similar, unlike say I think Hyur Highlander vs babylander is a great example of a fun opportunity as opposed to more of a color difference that is pretty common. On that vein of more customization though I know some have mentioned like Garlean race options, and if you had greater variety of control in creation you might be able to make a highlander male with the scale of the royal garlean like appearance - the fun one may have if there was a bit stronger ability to manipulate your creation (of course... also probably a higher ability to make some nightmares... lol)