The Women FFXIV Needs

[aveyond-dreams]

I do not believe that it is sensible to prioritize "muscle women" like Moenbryda over more conventionally attractive, athletic women like Fang and similar heroines like Tifa or Fran, all of which are largely absent from the main cast outside of Stormblood when we had Lyse accompanying us.

These characters are all quite strong and act as a reasonable compromise between niche and standard. People prefer to see attractive characters on screen, and it is perfectly reasonable to focus on designing those sort of characters first and foremost before dedicating some time to additional options. For the time being it is best to concentrate on introducing characters with new color palettes and more of a feminine flair to them.

[TheMightyMollusk]

This thread OP doesn't seem to be the women that XIV needs and more just the superficial options that should be available. I agree with other posters that if we want variety, the focus should be on body types, aging, and muscle tone instead of hair and facial features.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just focusing more on what seems more plausible. Whether due to engine limitations, understaffing, SE's refusal to put more of the money this game makes back into this game, or whatever other reason, I'm not holding my breath for huge changes to customization like new body types. I would love to be wrong on this, but I don't expect to be. New hair at least seems reasonable.

[Haruka_R]

Except for the fact female characters are locked at being scrawny (the arms especially) and male characters are locked at being bulky. You simply have different levels of scrawny/bulky. The muscle slider is as much of a joke as it is in FFXIV, namely the fact that you have the muscular body type regardless of if you have any muscle definition on males and no muscles regardless of the definition on females.

Dammit. All of this is true.

[Silverbane]

One thing SWTOR had that FFXIV does not is substantially different body types within each species.
The sexy-ist of which was, in the opinion of all the players I knew, the female body type 4 "zaftig" twi'lic.

[Cach]

Improve the muscle slider, specially for girl abs.

Fit tomboy is very "in" right now it's what I'm sayin'

[Theodric]

Nah, no Aerith, thanks. I hate this character for her band personnality.

I would definitly love to have more "particular" features possible though. Aquiline noses for example - give a more unique face, while being charming. I'm a little tired of having the choice between a doll, a russian model... and another doll. I also regret the total impossibility to be androgynous (while male have this possibility with each race) if you're not playing a roe.

I was indifferent to Aerith in the original game though the remake improved her considerably.

As for Russian aesthetics, I don't think the game has many at the moment? A shame, that, since I'd definitely appreciate the ability to tap into authentic Russian aesthetics within the character creator. For men on my part though I'm sure there's a lot of people who would like to create Russian women in-game!

[Merrigan]

I do not believe that it is sensible to prioritize "muscle women" like Moenbryda over more conventionally attractive, athletic women like Fang and similar heroines like Tifa or Fran, all of which are largely absent from the main cast outside of Stormblood when we had Lyse accompanying us.

These characters are all quite strong and act as a reasonable compromise between niche and standard. People prefer to see attractive characters on screen, and it is perfectly reasonable to focus on designing those sort of characters first and foremost before dedicating some time to additional options. For the time being it is best to concentrate on introducing characters with new color palettes and more of a feminine flair to them.

That doesn't make any sense.

FFXIV is full of "attractive" characters. In reality, no Scion is really ugly (edit : no character, PNJ included, is ugly). We're in an MMO-JRPG, where what's missing are the more atypical, less smooth characters.

I also disagree with the fact that people prefer to see attractive people on screen. On the contrary, I feel there's a general fed-up with flawless actors/actresses; with Geralt having undergone plastic surgery between the book and the video game; and in general with the lack of realism that comes from any content where the participants are too smooth.

So no, on the contrary: give us rougher men. Women who are not feminine. People who look "real", which makes a lot of sense in a game where immersion is central.

[Merrigan]

I was indifferent to Aerith in the original game though the remake improved her considerably.

As for Russian aesthetics, I don't think the game has many at the moment? A shame, that, since I'd definitely appreciate the ability to tap into authentic Russian aesthetics within the character creator. For men on my part though I'm sure there's a lot of people who would like to create Russian women in-game!

It is an expression. Russian tourists are usually the "nouveau riche" type: they put a lot of make up, they're flawless, always very well dressed, and so on.

It doesn't really refer to the nationality as such

[Avidria]

Our entire cast right now is pretty pale light haired people and the proposed examples are all... pretty (mostly) pale dark haired people.
Like I'm all for visual variety but the examples presented just... aren't terribly visually interesting, quirky green hair and outfit aside, or even all that different from what we have now barring maybe a little more color.

Granted, I've never played another FF game and don't plan to, so idk zip about those characters outside the looks, but saying we need more "conventionally attractive" people with... longer and darker hair as the only real change I'm seeing seems like kind of an odd take to me. Heck, my biggest beef with the current character creator is that it's hard to get a character who looks beautiful and mature vs capital p Pretty on the races I like the most. Viera is the best I can get and I still have to tweak them a lot to get something I really like and can stick with for a long time before I get bored of the look. Like, I actually would love to see more variety in both looks and personality, but... not framed like this.

[aveyond-dreams]

That doesn't make any sense.

FFXIV is full of "attractive" characters. In reality, no Scion is really ugly (edit : no character, PNJ included, is ugly). We're in an MMO-JRPG, where what's missing are the more atypical, less smooth characters.

I also disagree with the fact that people prefer to see attractive people on screen. On the contrary, I feel there's a general fed-up with flawless actors/actresses; with Geralt having undergone plastic surgery between the book and the video game; and in general with the lack of realism that comes from any content where the participants are too smooth.

So no, on the contrary: give us rougher men. Women who are not feminine. People who look "real", which makes a lot of sense in a game where immersion is central.

Please re-read the OP to gain further insight as to the current issues in the visual designs of the main cast. My post focuses more on hairstyles and color palettes more than any other aspect of their design.