New hrothgar hairstyles are really bad.

[Vahlnir]

In my case, I remember seeing bad signs that wore on my faith ever since the abysmal implementation of Eureka, that and the huge controversy at the time that Blue Mage launched as a limited job and the playerbase allowed for that word to enter and even be used in their vocabulary, when it never should have been. I remember that they somehow thought that releasing Baldesion Arsenal with its convoluted method of entry was also ok at the time-thank goodness Bozja, while imperfect, is nowhere near as bad as that was.

No amount of promises could hold up to the stacking evidence that I saw mounting up at the time, in any case it seems I was correct to be suspicious of the situation. There is no excuse for Hrothgar to be in the state that they are in now, and while Viera have had great strides they are still missing various hair options, saying nothing of how little hats work on them.

And supposedly the excuse for all this is clipping. Enough already, we do not care about clipping. We never did.

While I questioned those things, and made my dissatisfaction known, perhaps I didn't realize where things were headed.

[Denji]

I agree with some of the things in your post. I had little, if any confidence that they could somehow do a beast race in this game. They did, and did it badly. Given the overwhelming preference of FFXIV's target population favoring attractive, anime-beauty standards for lack of a better description, both genders of Viera was objectively the correct choice to add rather than chasing after niche things only to do them badly.

It is said that during the fanfest when Hrothgar were revealed that the audience booed the stage. Now in 2022, everyone is collectively upset at how poorly done these new hairstyles are, nevermind that they are coming 3 years too late. Should Hrothgar players be receiving more than they currently are getting? Absolutely. But should Hrothgar have been implemented as a gender-locked, limited race at the cost of taking male Viera's spot back then? Absolutely not.

I'm not interested in entertaining conversations about what race was decided to be included first whether it was Hrothgar or Viera, what is clear is that from concept artists to 3d modelers that there is clear bias in favor of Viera. They may have decided to add Hrothgar in Stormblood, but it was Viera who was nearly added back in Heavensward. Male Viera are also the result of individual passion that was likely shared with fans-they took everything from the first post of that thread and made it reality.

Viera are the result of what these concept artists and modelers wanted to do.

Hrothgar are the result of what these concept artists and modelers were instructed to do.

However, I cannot stress this enough, there were so many people who shunned the supporters of causes like male Viera/female Hrothgar all while arguing with others to "just be patient!" in terms of waiting on new hairstyles and hat options. It is your responsibility as a customer to keep the producer of a product in check, and not argue against people who feel as if they were given an inferior product. This situation could have been avoided early on if the playerbase had made it clear that limited races with hardly any hair or hat options wasn't acceptable, and this is the result of what happens when things like that are let to slide.

people booed because nobody liked stormblood and the player base at the time were a collection of mai waifu nerds who only played ffxiv because it was cuter than wow and gw2. all anyone did was talk about how much they hated male roes and the (english) community mostly consisted of a million cat girls played by dudes who at the time still thought "i play a girl because don't want to stare at a man's ass all day" was peak humour. they were out for blood over just lyse alone.

it wasn't until shb and the free trial push that the community branched out and i started seeing a larger variety of people. for once it wasn't just 2.2 roe per sq malm.

[juicybug]

they should just have another hairstyle design contest with viera and hrothgar in mind.
there are more players now, more potential artists- who are dissatisfied with what we've been presented in terms of hair designs.

[aveyond-dreams]

they should just have another hairstyle design contest with viera and hrothgar in mind.
there are more players now, more potential artists- who are dissatisfied with what we've been presented in terms of hair designs.

The more recent hairstyles we are receiving (as additions to all races throughout Shadowbringers, not the 6.1 additions to Hrothgar) are products of the last hairstyle contest. On the contrary, I would like to see more original dev team work from the same people who conceived of both male and female Viera's hairstyles, which include traditionally feminine looks for women along with very decent "fantasy" style hairs for men.

The playerbase is said to have voted on those hairs largely based on artstyle alone, the result has been 4 years of gender neutral haircuts of only passable quality.

[Budimir]

To those who feel players are asking for too much, I respect your views, but I think there is a difference between asking for too much and simply wanting a good product. Personally, I don't think anyone here is asking for too much. From reading the thread, my understanding is that most players simply want more transparency from the developers and hairstyles that fit Hrothgar. Nobody is asking the developers' to add an unreasonable amount of hairstyles to Hrothgar, nor are they asking for them to address other limitations that Hrothgar has. People only want the developers to be more transparent and considerate of what hair options look good on Hrothgar moving forward.

It is worth noting that Hrothgar and Viera are behind a paywall (you need Shadowbringers to create a character of either race), so I don't think it is unjust for people to expect a certain quality from their purchase. As for the idea that Hrothgar and Viera are limited races, so players are unreasonable in expecting too much customization, that is fine. If the developers choose to take that approach, that is their right. However, if this is their official stance, they need to clarify it to players on official channels to make this view relevant, and players can make a more informed decision when selecting their race. I've looked and cannot find any indication in-game or where Shadowbringers is for sale about Hrothgar and Viera being limited races, so I don't think it makes sense to blame people for not knowing something and expecting customization options that are more in line with the other races when the developers don't even touch on it officially.

[Allegor]

people booed because nobody liked stormblood and the player base at the time were a collection of mai waifu nerds who only played ffxiv because it was cuter than wow and gw2. all anyone did was talk about how much they hated male roes and the (english) community mostly consisted of a million cat girls played by dudes who at the time still thought "i play a girl because don't want to stare at a man's ass all day" was peak humour. they were out for blood over just lyse alone.

it wasn't until shb and the free trial push that the community branched out and i started seeing a larger variety of people. for once it wasn't just 2.2 roe per sq malm.

I've been seeing a lot more femroes the past few months, wouldn't surprise me many of them come from you-know-which-game.

[Midareyukki]

It is said that during the fanfest when Hrothgar were revealed that the audience booed the stage. Now in 2022, everyone is collectively upset at how poorly done these new hairstyles are, nevermind that they are coming 3 years too late. Should Hrothgar players be receiving more than they currently are getting? Absolutely. But should Hrothgar have been implemented as a gender-locked, limited race at the cost of taking male Viera's spot back then? Absolutely not.

I'm not interested in entertaining conversations about what race was decided to be included first whether it was Hrothgar or Viera, what is clear is that from concept artists to 3d modelers that there is clear bias in favor of Viera. They may have decided to add Hrothgar in Stormblood, but it was Viera who was nearly added back in Heavensward. Male Viera are also the result of individual passion that was likely shared with fans-they took everything from the first post of that thread and made it reality.

Adding to what Denji said above, but people booed because they wanted Male Viera.

That was all. They booed because Square only announced Female Viera, nothing else, then we spent a good while speculating what came next (with a french translation leaking Hrothgar on accident), and then fans were met with that.

Having been a Roe myself a the time, I agree with Denji. There was A LOT of disdain toward Roegadyn, and there still is. ESPECIALLY from Miqo'te players, as far as I have witnessed. But it was also because it wasn't a male counterpart to Viera, but instead a furry race. Then came the accusations that Male Viera don't exist because of Hrothgar, that Viera don't have hairstyles or headgear because Hrothgar were made. When in truth, Yoshida wanted to make Hrothgars way before and had experimented with such with the Lupine race. Something people are irritatingly quick to forget.

And something you say you don't want to discuss. But there's no discussing it when not only is it the truth, it's also brought up a lot of bile from you all. Unjustified and unwarranted bile.

True. 2% of the playerbase doesn't necessarily mean that the sentiment has grown any fonder. But I like to think it did, not just because of how Hrothgar players usually are in communities, but also from the devs making interesting NPCs that people enjoy. Specifically Runar. Regardless? The sheer support that Hrothgars are having over this topic should be enough evidence for Square to at least reconsider.

Edit: I just realized you whined that "B-But they had Viera designs before". No, they had Viera designs SINCE TACTICS ADVANCE. What they wanted was a Bestial race. And they did touch on the Vieras, hence the concept art. But you didn't even bother to stop and wonder why they didn't approve it back then. The answer? BECAUSE YOSHIDA WANTED A BESTIAL RACE. Just look at the original drafts for Au Ra. THAT'S what he wanted, and THAT'S why he discarded Viera. Don't even try, mate. You can't say "Oh they wanted Viera" when they clearly entertained the thought for one minute and then threw it in the trash. The only reason you're playing the character you're playing is specifically because people demanded it. The devs have no love for you, they only care about what brought them attention and money. And your race was what would make people open their wallets for.

No wonder you don't want to talk about it when you hallucinate half-truths like that.

[Berret_Snow]

Oh boy do I remember the horrible bile because we got Hrothgar instead of male Viera, I still remember all the nasty stuff that was said. Never forgetting that.

[Midareyukki]

To add to my edit. Here's what people are misremembering, HARD.

It was stuff like this that Yoshida asked to include in the game.





He wanted a bestial race. Because he felt the game had a lot of human-like races. The major variance was just "human with cat ears".

And he wanted to deviate from it.

This is what you're clinging onto.



They had considered options such as Viera but discarded it due to it being too similar to Miqo'te. He wanted a bestial race, not this. And even Au Ra weren't ultimately too bestial, because the dev team thought it was too hard and too rigid.

Viera weren't even the only ones considered.

And we have Yoshida's own statements saying that he experimented with the Lupines specifically to bring his vision of a more bestial-looking race to fruition. But that the limitations were still there. Hrothgar is the best solution he's gotten.

So if you're going to claim anything, please understand the context beforehand.

[Akimori]

Snappu

Daaaaaaaang

Anyway: Enough of this "They wanted viera first". Despite there being proof to suggest against that, the thread is about the god awful hairstyles and the seemingly lack of transparency

I know Im not hallucinating when during the LL in 2019, that yoshi said that there was going to be more racial hairs added down the line. Instead of letting the community speculate, they need to have their translators there with them translating this stuff. A mistranslation has caused them a 3 year headache. If you dont wanna have the translators there during the LL? Have an official blog and/or forum post of your translators doing what they do best: Translate. Also, wasn't there a Japanese player that came in and passively confirmed that what he said during the 2019 LL was what he said and not some kind of mistranslation?