Hrothgar Feedback Thread

[Gullis]

To Akimori (and others):

This is the Skirmish I was referring to. I spawned it and recorded it myself after 1h in Zadnor. It's "An End to Atrocities", and though it's not the only Skirmish to feature a little animated dialogue like that, it is the one I'm referring to. You have others, such as the one due East of it, where Gilbrisbert turns people into Archaeodaemons.

I got a detail wrong though. One of the eaten is a Hyur. Honourary Hrothgar :P

Regardless, you guys take this information, as well as the existence of the animation dialogue in the Gilbrisbert Skirmish, however you see fit. I won't go back and add the note that Hrothgar get "gratuitous violence aimed at them" even with this. Especially since not everyone agrees it should be featured.

It's really just so you guys at least now know what I'm talking about.

Thats some effort from your part ^^

Although Its a bit hard to see, aren't those Roegadyns? seems to me they got no tails, and I don't think Hroths can even use those helmets

Again, its a bit hard to see

[Nav_Blue]

It goes against my better judgment to offer an opinion online of all places, but my capacity for concern over the past couple of weeks has been shot so here goes something. Who knows, maybe I can offer a new perspective and solution as a Hrothgar main (and frankly exclusive).

With regard to the horrifying ways Hrothgar meet their end throughout the Save the Queen questline, I honestly appreciate it. The story as a whole made me intensely proud to play as a Hrothgar. I know, it's a direct contrast to the loudest voices in this thread, but allow me to explain.

By comparison to the liberations of Eorzea, Doma, Ala Mhigo, and to an extent Werlyt, Bozja's was depicted as easily the hariest, if you'll pardon the pun. We fought the deadliest beasts Garlemald could find. We fought death machines of immense destructive power. We fought voidsent, lucavi, and undead. We fought our own false goddess and the brothers and sisters she turned against us. We fought some of the most vile scientific experiments the Garleans could come up with. We even fought Diablos riding around in an Ultima styled Allagan Weapon.

The IVth Legion threw so much at us that after the revolution they simply couldn't hold onto Dalmasca or Nanxia. Yet we still won.

For this reason and more, I'd like to see the devs lean into this. I want to see a New Bozja of whom her neighbors are secretly terrified, because they were only ever conquered by Allag and Garlemald. I'd like to see new fur patterns, facial features, and even hair styles that showcase the most grizzly battle scars in the Three Great Continents, because they've shown that while they know exactly what death is, they are no more afraid of it. I'd even like to see new gear sets that convey Bajsaljen's vow to apply what the Resistance had learned from the IVth Legion.

I love that with Hrothgar, we were shown to be a warrior race, rather than just told. I hope this gives the devs better feedback than "just pay more attention to us" and that this perspective may just soften the blow of how they've ignored us in the past. I don't plan on responding to reactions to this post, but if my two cents have made a difference I can be content.

[Midareyukki]

Full Quote

One thing I'd like to add is that even before, while Zadnor was still fresh content, most of my friends weren't Hrothgar players. Many had never even touched the race. But an overall feeling that they expressed was that Bozja did seem to feel more realistic. That we got to see the actual struggles they had gone through, and thanks to that, some of them managed to empathize with their plight. It being so brutal ended up serving the race and giving it credit once they managed to bounce back and reclaim their territory in the end. Like Nav_Blue said, there is pride to gain from Bozja's story if we care enough about our characters to explore it. And it shouldn't be discredited.

It was only after Zadnor that I got more involved with a predominantly-Hrothgar playerbase and found that people felt Bozja as a whole was a little too dark and visceral for what it already was. Though many attribute this to the change in writer: Yasumi Matsuno is NOTORIOUS for his dark and apathetic stories that don't shy away from showing you that cruelty is real. It's what tends to make them memorable. A criticism of this was that there was a tonal shift from the rest of the game, with side-content being more brutal than the MSQ actually had been overall. But it's what we get with different writers altogether: the same happened from Stormblood (warzones) to Shadowbringers (existential dread).

I personally feel like it's a mixed bag. I wouldn't have qualms with the way Hrothgar were portrayed had the race been treated fairly thus far. It just felt like it was compounding onto the situation, as no other form of content thus far had been so predominantly and consistently dark. But the comment has since been deleted, so at least I hope it's now more fair for Square Enix to assess the situation without unnecessary extras.

Still. I'm sorry to have derailed this conversation to a Bozja discussion xD

Keep giving feedback on the race overall, if possible. And I hope Square does at least look into what we say.

[Terin]

I suppose I'll just add, with the name "Hrothgar", I'd really hoped to see a bit more Norse influence. I'd really dig having an option for a more "Canine" looking face. I also wish they stood taller and a bit more lean, like Kimahri from FFX. I know they aren't EXACTLY the same, but I have a hard time distinguishing them from Roegadyn(s?).

I almost feel like I'd be super stoked if they just added another "Clan" for them, one with Canine features, and their bodies a LITTLE less beefy (muscular, but leaner).

[Vuk_Varvarasch]

Good opening arguments, I just hope they reach the ears of the developers.

I do sincerely hope that we will some day, and hopefully we're not talking years here, have decent new hair options that we can freely swap between. I also feel the developers should take the time to fix all helmets and headgear in the game to work for us. And at the very least make sure that any new pieces they add are usable by all the player races. If they can't do that, then give us some alternative rewards when you insist on giving out headgear in seasonal events. It really sucks when an event reward turns out to be completely useless for us.

Besides the already extensively covered topics of hair and helmets, I'd also like more representation. I think I saw a total of one Hrothgar NPC in all of EW. Not even when the support from Bozja arrived was there any Hrothgars present. The only place we seem to be remembered is in the store preview images. In game we barely even exist, and that is something I feel the developers need to handle better from this point forward. Beast races might not be the most popular of player races, but surely our limitations and lack of presence in the world plays a part of this as well.

Other than that, I do wish we could get some love from the animators. The hunchback pose really does not fit us, when our bodies are basically just large human bodies with animal heads. It works for Charr in Guild Wars 2 because they have vastly different anatomy. We do not, so it just looks weird.

An extra sitting pose that looks a bit more relaxed would also be great. The currently existing relaxed one with one foot over the knee just does not work with my glam at all, so I always end up either intently staring into the table, or sitting unnaturally straight up and down.

[Midareyukki]

Thats some effort from your part ^^

Although Its a bit hard to see, aren't those Roegadyns? seems to me they got no tails, and I don't think Hroths can even use those helmets

Again, its a bit hard to see

Me and a friend spawned the Skirmish again on Zadnor. We took a closer look at the NPCs.



They are indeed two green-skinned Seawolf Roegadyn.

I was wrong. Again, I apologize. I recorded the Skirmish so people who weren't familiar with it could be aware that there is such a sequence in Zadnor. But "An End to Atrocities" does not involve any Hrothgar. That was a misunderstanding from my part.

[Milus]

I hope they bring Lovro aan Slanasch back, the redmage master that was tempered, rescused and, hopefull cured. He's one of the few hrothgars that survived zadnor...

[SturmChurro]

I always find Bozja funny - the overall storyline was cut short, but that's for another topic - in regards to the implementation of hrothgar and viera. It doesn't really go too in depth on hrothgar lore, rather it's just a backdrop, but the fact that they used a female roe to represent the hrothgar queen. It would have been the perfect opportunity to reveal female hrothgar. They did male viera instead. Hilarious.

[Karowolus]

I do think one thing to remember with Zadnor and Bozja is that the writer is not the normal writer for XIV, but instead the writer for Ivalice, Yasumi Matsuno. A lot of the small references in Bozja and Zadnor are references to Tactics Ogre. Wind Caller is one big one, along with the Archeodemon Fate which has Hrothgars being turned into Archeodemons by Gilbrisbert being also a reference to an event in Tactics Ogre. We knew the story was going to be kinda... dark. it was just darker than expected. Eldritch abomination levels of dark. It was the perfect chance to reveal female hrothgar, even if they were just an NPC, Like how Viera were introduced in SB.

[Akimori]

I always find Bozja funny - the overall storyline was cut short, but that's for another topic - in regards to the implementation of hrothgar and viera. It doesn't really go too in depth on hrothgar lore, rather it's just a backdrop, but the fact that they used a female roe to represent the hrothgar queen. It would have been the perfect opportunity to reveal female hrothgar. They did male viera instead. Hilarious.

Oh I was so disappointed when they retconned the Bozja queen as a Femhroth. You are right, that was the PERFECT opportunity for that, but ugh...they copped out