The cat's (or femhroth in this case) outta the bag

[Ayuhra]

I think that by now people should know better to not go after concept arts.
Just wait until we see some ingame models.

I agree kiiinda but on the other hand by the time models are revealed it’s too late to offer criticism. I’d say art is the right time to voice concerns about design direction.

[reivaxe]

It makes a lot of sense if they go with this look, well if it gets translated to the game like is assumed. They'd be much more popular than the furry roes that a couple people wanted, plus, yeah, less beastlike, or protruding features, presumably less limitations..

So I just finished the Bozja storyline and... based on seeing that concept art I suspect they might use the skinny Femroe body type that Queen Gunnhildr uses as their starting point.

Not sure why people are surprised when we've already seen stylized art of fem hroths in-game during the Bozja questline and they looked similar.

Bing Bong Ding Dong, this has been what I've been saying since the Queen and the Mural got datamined. It's always been clear that the FemRoe in that story were just stand-ins for Hrothgals, and the Queen having a unique body that matched the mural (looks like an upscaled, modded Au Ra female bod from what I've seen) is because of that. Seems like, because of covid struggles probably, they decided not to model/ rig/ animate a Hrothgal head at the time.

And this isn't really "concept art" the same way as scary Demon Au Ra art is, this isn't them "throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks" to build a race, I assume this is finalized art of the queen the same way all the NPC art in these books are finalized art of those characters. This, plus the mural, very much says to me that they already know what they want Hrothgals to look like, so all that heavy lifting may have been done long ago.

It also makes sense ... the single most popular art from the past decade of the race this race was inspired by looks a lot like this face. Plus, you can't rip the devs apart about Hrothgar's nonsense and then expect them to repeat that offense again without thought.
I like it, seems to want to walk the line. Like I've said before, I'd be fine with them being Glow Up Mithra or full on FF Khajiit so long as they look pretty.

I'm interested in seeing what the Japanese have to say about this when it gets talked about more. Their wants for Hrothgals were interesting to see, in the few cases I could understand the translations of their comments.

[Nestama]

I agree kiiinda but on the other hand by the time models are revealed it’s too late to offer criticism. I’d say art is the right time to voice concerns about design direction.

Exactly. Now that we've seen what they were going for, we can criticise and hopefully they won't go for a Miqo'te 2.0/third sub-race design (beast face and furry. They did it with males, they can do it for females).

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Bing Bong Ding Dong, this has been what I've been saying since the Queen and the Mural got datamined. It's always been clear that the FemRoe in that story were just stand-ins for Hrothgals, and the Queen having a unique body that matched the mural (looks like an upscaled, modded Au Ra female bod from what I've seen) is because of that. Seems like, because of covid struggles probably, they decided not to model/ rig/ animate a Hrothgal head at the time.

And this isn't really "concept art" the same way as scary Demon Au Ra art is, this isn't them "throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks" to build a race, I assume this is finalized art of the queen the same way all the NPC art in these books are finalized art of those characters. This, plus the mural, very much says to me that they already know what they want Hrothgals to look like, so all that heavy lifting may have been done long ago.

It also makes sense ... the single most popular art from the past decade of the race this race was inspired by looks a lot like this face. Plus, you can't rip the devs apart about Hrothgar's nonsense and then expect them to repeat that offense again without thought.
I like it, seems to want to walk the line. Like I've said before, I'd be fine with them being Glow Up Mithra or full on FF Khajiit so long as they look pretty.

I'm interested in seeing what the Japanese have to say about this when it gets talked about more. Their wants for Hrothgals were interesting to see, in the few cases I could understand the translations of their comments.

THERE YOU ARE...I was wondering when you'd come back to this subject XD
So to start here, I dont think we can say yet if that is happening, All we have is pure speculation. What if that character seen in the picture is literally just a Purple Miqote? And wouldn't it just make 100% more sense to just delay the Hrothgar instead of just going for a humanish face because of Covid? Just that line of thinking doesn't add up for me personally.

But...its hard for me to say I concede or I refuse that artwork. Completely ignoring the Mural; thats an old argument and conversation; looking at this new image, I still believe its too early to say anything. On the other-hand it looks like a more polished image that was in an artbook(?)
So the Doomsayer in me says that artwork could be a good glimpse at what to expect, time to get ready to cry like a baby. But the Optimist in me says that picture that was shown to us could still just be an early concept art, or even that could just be an unrelated character; possibly not even the/a hrothgar queen.

Like I argued many times...until we see a Finalized 3D in game Model...we dont know what they look like.
But Im bracing for what I dont want to happen....to happen.

[Juun]

Lore book dropped. Concept art for Gunnhildr was included.

Please don't tell me this is your cheeky way of teasing how female hrothgars will look. Nearly all the races ingame are the same design wise, why start here? It's just a miqote with blue skin and a cleft lip. Please don't fall for the whole "beauty and the beast" design. I get that maybe you're trying to get around the current malehroth hat/hair situation but sacrificing the design consistency of a race is only going to come back to bite you in your rear.
If a bunch of raiders using banned addons to ruin Astrologian then maybe there'll be enough support here to ensure femhroths are consistent with the overall hrothgar design.

Wait how did raiders ruin Astro? I dont use addons and I really love the class its my favorite healer job.

[Kolsykol]

And this isn't really "concept art" the same way as scary Demon Au Ra art is, this isn't them "throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks" to build a race, I assume this is finalized art of the queen the same way all the NPC art in these books are finalized art .

Yes, of a character that isn't actually in the game...
If she was actually going to be in the game you have no idea what they would've done or not done.

The screenshot is zoomed in on her but I think if anything the overall point of the art is the machine because that's what we fight ingame.

I mean I don't want to start a whole other drama conversation but there is art in which Gaius is white that is official and was used for marketing.
So again.
People shouldn't look at any of this as an accurate representation or as if it means anything.

[reivaxe]

THERE YOU ARE...I was wondering when you'd come back to this subject XD
So to start here, I dont think we can say yet if that is happening, All we have is pure speculation. What if that character seen in the picture is literally just a Purple Miqote? And wouldn't it just make 100% more sense to just delay the Hrothgar instead of just going for a humanish face because of Covid? Just that line of thinking doesn't add up for me personally.

But...its hard for me to say I concede or I refuse that artwork. Completely ignoring the Mural; thats an old argument and conversation; looking at this new image, I still believe its too early to say anything. On the other-hand it looks like a more polished image that was in an artbook(?)
So the Doomsayer in me says that artwork could be a good glimpse at what to expect, time to get ready to cry like a baby. But the Optimist in me says that picture that was shown to us could still just be an early concept art, or even that could just be an unrelated character; possibly not even the/a hrothgar queen.

Like I argued many times...until we see a Finalized 3D in game Model...we dont know what they look like.
But Im bracing for what I dont want to happen....to happen.

I've been gone cause people here aren't interested in prognostication, only in arguing personal wants and moral platitudes. I've found other places better suited for that.
Anyway, this aint a Miqote. Ears are in Hrothgar Position, are not shaped like Miqote and are colored the same way Hrothgar are (Miqote Ears are the color of their hair, Hroth is their base fur color). There's also the fact that it looks exactly like the Mural Hrothgals and we can all agree those cat women aint Miqote (unless I slipped into a timeline where Miqote can be bald and/or anywhere close to Femroe tall).

And no, the thought process isn't that they made them look "More human" because of covid, it's that the only reason they replaced the head with a Femroe is because they couldn't find time to model/ rig/ animate this head. The art in the art books is the finalized art for these characters, so it seems she was supposed to look like this art but for w/e reason (my guess, covid) turned into a face 2 Femroe head in game to save time. The fact that they didn't go back and redraw this head as a Femroe gives me hope that they may show something at the LL (this book comes out after the LL).

The females looking like taller Mithra/ Miqote was always a possibility in my eyes, given how these devs make these races. It lines up with the only female Ronso art of note over the past decade, it's the best way to address some glaring problems with the males and it "walks the line" that pleases more people. There's also the fact that they're a JPN company, and Japan doesn't seem to care nearly as much about this.

Yes, of a character that isn't actually in the game...

This character is in the game, this is supposed to be the Queen we fight.
The art books have art of all the trail bosses we face.

[Minsue]

Anyone have a link I tried googling it and have no luck I wana see what all the fuss is over

[MsQi]

maybe one day this meme'll stop being relevant.

But not this day!

[KageTokage]

I'm kind of expecting them to just look how they did in FF X; much more lithe but still muscular, not unlike female Roegadyn.