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

[reivaxe]

Thats not true in the slightest.....the concept art was posted in promotion to HW. Or is that somehow not context?....
You realize you just agreed with the POINT, that concept art doesn't always match the end product. They look at different ideas and chose one in the end, which is Exactly what happened with the Au-Ra. Again...thats the POINT.
Those 2 pictures you just posted are Finalized images; Character Art. Not concept art that is subject to change. The main thing being that they have finalized 3D Rendered Models

Here is the context.
That Au Ra art is a part of the process of making a new race. You make different things, get "yes/ No/ I like that, keep that thing" and so on to come to the final look.

The art in the op is not that. The OP art is "Finalized image; Character Art. Not concept art that is subject to change" because THAT is the only trail art they put in these books, just like the images I posted.

That's not concept art of them trying to "figure out" what they want Female Hrothgar to look like, it's finalized art of what they want a character to look like. Not sure how you don't understand that other than willful ignorance, unless you think that they suddenly bucked the trend that's been going on throughout all these books and are now showing the process of making trail bosses. We'll find out in a few days when I get the book, but I'd be willing to bet that this is the only "Queen Gunhildra" in this book.

And...outside of Fanart I dont think Viera were ever illustrated Beastly. Gonna need to see a picture. They've always had weird feet, but I dont recall a concept art that ever tried to Deviate from their designs from Tactics & XII.

boom it's all a part of the process.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

The game exploded more so in recent popularity via WoW people leaving WoW and trying out FF14 ... because WoW and its devs have been driving them away. Growth in numbers comes from somewhere, and though not every new player is from another MMO, it's completely common sense to appeal to players who already like MMOs.

word of mouth is what got these people to play the game as they fled from WoW. Not a Beast Race

Glad we can mostly agree on something.

[Nestama]

Honestly, the only thing that would make sense for female Hrothgar is to make them as beastly as the males (feline face, fur-texture for skin, fang options, etc like the males). I'd be extremely disappointed in SE if they decide to just go the "sexy dimorphism" route and not make the race make sense.

[reivaxe]

Glad we can mostly agree on something.

Nah, cause I never EVER said that people by large came over because of Hrothgar so don't put words in my mouth. Hrothgar make the game MORE appealing to Western people who like beast races in these games (yes, some people think this game is too weeby for them). That is all. Someone could love Charr or worgen or tauren or Orcs or w/e and now feel like there's something in FF14 they like. The question of if people who like "female Beast people" are something SE wants to go for is up to them to answer, but statically they have always been far less liked than their male counterparts, so I understand if they don't.

Also, I'd argue Blizzard is by large the reason for the recent flood of converts in the past few months. FF14 is the only other BIG MMO for these types to go to.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Here is the context.
That Au Ra art is a part of the process of making a new race. .

.......no duh. -_-;

The art in the op is not that. The OP art is "Finalized image; Character Art. Not concept art that is subject to change" because THAT is the only trail art they put in these books, just like the images I posted
That's not concept art of them trying to "figure out" what they want Female Hrothgar to look like, it's finalized art of what they want a character to look like. Not sure how you don't understand that other than willful ignorance, unless you think that they suddenly bucked the trend that's been going on throughout all these books and are now showing the process of making trail bosses.

So your logic is that because its the only image we've seen, its undisputedly the final design being put into the game. Even though they are still in planning stages.
If this were true, they'd actually have something to show us other 1 picture that they hid in an artbook that not everybody would have access to. Plus, you know they would have more then 1 image of the Hrothgar, not just that 1 image and then its done.
I never argued anything about Trial Bosses. I am talking about the fact that there were many different looks of concept for the Au-Ra before the final chosen design. The same COULD be done to female Hrothgar. If they are already finalized, why have we gotten No conversation from the Devs other then; "they are coming?" why do we possibly have to wait another 2 years if they already have it figured out?
And what ignorance do you speak of? Other then the proven statement that; Until we actually see them, we wont know exactly what they will look like.


Also....is the Beastly Viera your talking about the weird lil bunny on the Far Right? You know that is a comical joke image.
When you design, its good to have fun like that. Thats all that is...that wasnt going to be serious and possibly the design.

Also, I'd argue Blizzard is by large the reason for the recent flood of converts in the past few months. FF14 is the only other BIG MMO for these types to go to.

Yes...it is.
People being sick of WoW is why the game became even more popular. And with the Legal issues now there is a Mass Exodus, and people like Asmongold have inspired an even bigger flood to come into FFXIV.
A Beast Race wasnt a selling point though. Beast Races are not gonna attract more people.

[Allegor]

Nah, cause I never EVER said that people by large came over because of Hrothgar so don't put words in my mouth. Hrothgar make the game MORE appealing to Western people who like beast races in these games (yes, some people think this game is too weeby for them). That is all. Someone could love Charr or worgen or tauren or Orcs or w/e and now feel like there's something in FF14 they like. The question of if people who like "female Beast people" are something SE wants to go for is up to them to answer, but statically they have always been far less liked than their male counterparts, so I understand if they don't.

Also, I'd argue Blizzard is by large the reason for the recent flood of converts in the past few months. FF14 is the only other BIG MMO for these types to go to.

But furries have as much of a bad reputation, if not worse, than weebs as far as western gamers are concerned, so if they actually wanted to attract western players they could've gone for a more stereotypical race like an orc or an actual dwarf. If anything, under that pretense, it's ESO/GW2 players who they would've tried catering to if we take into account both of those games have actual anthropomorphic cat races whereas WoW, despite having more furry races to chose from, has none.

Either way, as it's been pointed out before, if it was about the money, it would've been far more profitable to just make both Viera genders and be done with it, than cater to a niche audience, half ass it, and then [potentially] back down on the reason they were even added in the first place. The whole thing is just a mess no matter where you look at it.

[Iscah]

The fact that the character was entirely changed after being depicted in this "character art not concept art" inherently proves that the character art is not final.

Also, it's possible that the art was final in terms of illustrating the machine rather than the pilot – though I disagree on that being final too, as the illustration with the Hrothgar queen looks like she is much more inside the machine than the final model being more of a throne.

(Also also, we fight bosses in "trials" not "trails".)

[reivaxe]

So your logic is that because its the only image we've seen, its undisputedly the final design being put into the game.

No, my logic is that this is finalized art in the art book for the Queen we fight ... because she's a trail boss and literally every trail boss in the game gets finalized art in the art book. I can legit walk 10ft to the book I have and find finalized art of every trail boss in the patches that book covers, and it's pretty much always "1 picture and maybe a front/ back" that represents what we got in game.

Tis why I said you gotta think they're bucking the trend for the first time if you think this isn't finalized art of the queen. If you want to try to drag up the question of how far they would have developed the concept of Hrothgal's appearance, that's all speculative, as none of us work for SE. I stand by my logic born over a year ago that they wouldn't bother shipping the mural (Which looks just like this art) or even designing a Hrothgal NPC if they didn't know what they planned for them to look like. You can believe w/e you want about that.
But by all accounts, this art is what they intended this character to look like. And this art looks just like the faces we got in the mural that's in the game.

But furries have as much of a bad reputation, if not worse, than weebs as far as western gamers are concerned.

I have no clue what you're getting at.
WoW, GW2, ESO, EQ2 and so on are Western MMOs that have beast races. That's something this game didn't have and something some people who like those games like playing. Simple as that. You can easily not be into Eastern games and still play a game with beast people in them ... like, wtf?
Hell, I had to be dragged away from GW2 to try this game in ARR by my friends because I never played a FF game and thought it would some stupid weeb game where everyone's running around pretending to be Japanese in the most cringe manner. (I love anime and manga, don't like engaging in those circles) I've seen a number of WoW players talk about how they didn't try FF14 for a long time because they thought it was weeby bs.

You people are trying awfully hard to frame Hrothgar as some charitable gesture to the gods of "diversity" that doesn't in any way make the game more appealing to some people who like beast races in MMOs. I have seen people who used to play WoW talk about how they love their Hrothgar because they remind them of Mag'har Orcs and Tauren, yet somehow the idea that Hrothgar could be appealing to someone who plays a monster Cow Dude or a Charr is too much, huh?

The fact that the character was entirely changed after being depicted in this "character art not concept art" inherently proves that the character art is not final.

Actually, no. It's a sign that something changed far into development, resulting in the character being given a generic Femroe face 2 head. Because if there IS art of this character with a Femroe head, they would have used that art.
What could have happened? IDK, maybe covid struggles made them reassess their priorities, and they didn't have time to make a custom head for side content boss/ npc. We already know they cut things because of covid, so makes sense to me and explains why this is the first time we see finalized art that's not representative of what we got in game.

[HollowedDoll]

Yeah I'm sure they changed the entire story arc because covid /s

[reivaxe]

Yeah I'm sure they changed the entire story arc because covid /s

You do realize that the story line and character arcs was never dependent on the Femroes being Femroes, right? Turn them Hrothgal and literally nothing changes. Anyone with a passing interest in the story could tell that the only reason the Femroe were there was because they didn't make Hrothgals. Or they could have stayed Femroe and the primal hosting Femroe Ex-shrine-maiden could just take on the appearance of a female Hrothgar instead of being a Femroe with a unique body and cat eyes.