What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[LisSquid]

Given that back in 2019 it was acceptable to release a race that had to pay $10 to change their hairstyle, midlanders having to pay for their beards came as no surprise.

I know, but when I saw that preview video I had thought someone was having a laugh. Surely after the feedback from Hrothgar SE would see this is a poor decision, right? Right..?

[KizuyaKatogami]

And that is, again, a different complaint. The recent hairstyles have been pulled from the winners and runner ups of that old hair style contest. They have nothing to do with a vocal minority getting their way.

They kind of do though. The “gender neutral” hairstyle winners could easily be solved by choosing one masculine and one feminine hairstyle for each winner. Those terms aren’t very flexible, it’s obvious which is which. Considering these are coming out at the same time the devs are choosing to start remove genderlocks and yeah, don’t think that’s a coinkydink

[SturmChurro]

I mean it’s one of many examples though. Look at the influx of “gender neutral” hairstyles that are incredibly feminine. It’s not just the karen hair, there’s so many hairs now that have curls or bows etc. It’s pretty bad that it took this long just to get some facial hair lmao.

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

I still cannot BELIEVE that they just slapped stubble on copy of the midlander face, and then told people to fanta. Incredible.

It's "hard" to include more customization options apparently. I mean, it took them almost three years to fix the hrothgar fantasia issue.

[Midareyukki]

Given that back in 2019 it was acceptable to release a race that had to pay $10 to change their hairstyle, midlanders having to pay for their beards came as no surprise.

"back in 2019"? xD It only stopped being that way a month ago. Worse still, it only works for one native hairstyle.

I know, but when I saw that preview video I had thought someone was having a laugh. Surely after the feedback from Hrothgar SE would see this is a poor decision, right? Right..?

We were told twice in a row "It's too hard, we don't have time and your models are too weird" ....meanwhile, modders.

Ok I know that's a poor excuse to present, but it's still true A lot of the stuff that modders have made proved that it really wasn't. And many tech-savvy people came out against that statement by showing Square Enix exactly how the process could work, and how the models are done. Nothing since then because to SE the topic "was addressed". People even say that Yoshida's reply felt like scorn more than anything, which already doesn't really bode well for the future.

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

Have you seen Hrothgar modded with the Styled For Hire hairstyle? They look surprisingly good.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Frankly, I think the majority of released hairstyles SUCK. If we are going to get feminine hairs, at least give us stuff that looks good. I want some longer hairs, for example. I'd rather they just release hairs that look great for males, and others that look great for females - and by the way, both can still, often times, look good on either. Instead of looking 'meh' on both.

It's "hard" to include more customization options apparently. I mean, it took them almost three years to fix the hrothgar fantasia issue.

Oh i absolutely agree. The “gender neutral” hairs look pretty bad on both males AND females so it’s like….what exactly is the point of their implementation? Personally i’d like a bit more longer hair options for males like for example, Elidibus’ hair in SoS. Male viera have a good selection so far thankfully, but i think there needs to be a major change in how they do hairstyles because with as infrequent as they come, it doesn’t look like there’s much quality attached to them.

Also….if it’s a creativity issue where they can’t think of any, it’s not like they don’t have an entire series of games they could pull hair from. Give ladies rikku,lulu, or ultimecia’s hair. Give males Jecht,Kuja,Gladio hair etc.

[LisSquid]

I've been waiting on Rikku's FFX-2 hair ever since they released the Tidus and Yuna costumes.

I'm tired of the same scruffy mop of hair they keep trying to pass as a different haircut.

[Rokke]

They kind of do though. The “gender neutral” hairstyle winners could easily be solved by choosing one masculine and one feminine hairstyle for each winner.

the contest had 2 winners + 10 finalists
7 were male styles that won
5 were female styles that won
1 runner up was added later

so, as of today we're at
7 male winners
6 female winners
2 on each side are gender locked, the remaining are all open to both genders

[SturmChurro]

Oh i absolutely agree. The “gender neutral” hairs look pretty bad on both males AND females so it’s like….what exactly is the point of their implementation? Personally i’d like a bit more longer hair options for males like for example, Elidibus’ hair in SoS. Male viera have a good selection so far thankfully, but i think there needs to be a major change in how they do hairstyles because with as infrequent as they come, it doesn’t look like there’s much quality attached to them.

Also….if it’s a creativity issue where they can’t think of any, it’s not like they don’t have an entire series of games they could pull hair from. Give ladies rikku,lulu, or ultimecia’s hair. Give males Jecht,Kuja,Gladio hair etc.

Yeah, if they are going to do another hairstyle contest, I think they should do it like how I think they might have done the weapon design contest (?). Having one for each (male and female, and/or masculine/feminine styles). I don't think they want to put in the work for this either though. Much easier to just do a single more gender neutral hairstyle, and release it for both.

I'm a bit hesitant to even mention a hairstyle design contest though.

[KizuyaKatogami]

the contest had 2 winners + 10 finalists
7 were male styles that won
5 were female styles that won
1 runner up was added later

so, as of today we're at
7 male winners
6 female winners
2 on each side are gender locked, the remaining are all open to both genders

Yes and the ones considered male are usually gender neutral for both genders but lean towards the feminine side i believe. Same for the gender neutral feminine hair.

[LisSquid]

The problem with the original contest is that players voted for it. It was all based on art style when the entries were whittled down, and surprise the generic anime cuts got picked because people who play the Japanese styled MMO liked that art the most.

SE definitely picked the ones that were the most workable, sure, but there was no control over making sure the winners weren't too similar.