Lupin - make it a playable race!

[negiman4]

I think I'll wait for SE's take on them, if a question is asked about them being potentially playable in a Live Letter.
If FFXIV does get around to making a 7th playable race, it's high time for SE to actually make them start in their home village and have them enter Eorzea around the Air Ship envoy quest. Let's say Viera become playable; while people will be happy to just be able to play as this race, it's still going to be jarring to have them suddenly show up in La Noscea, Gridania, or Ul'dah and no one in the MSQ seeming to care about your long ears (or demonic horns, in the Auri's case).

I don't think you realize just how astronomical of an undertaking that would be to please a very small portion of the player base.

[Nestama]

It's not about pleasing (well, I would be pleased for Lupin to be playable), but making sense. I'm not 100% sure, as I have never played as an Au Ra, but I have a feeling that not one NPC comments about what you are, despite being the only Au Ra to appear in Eorzea, with demonic looking horns and a reptilian-looking tail. It's jarring and makes the entire point of Yugiri masking her appearance pointless (she should reveal herself when she sees you're an Au Ra).

That needs to change with any future race and the "easiest" way to do this is to have them start in their home zone. The laziest way would have them start in any of the three cities, hand a letter of 'do not attack me plz' to a guard and then you're golden from there.

[xXBigBroxX]

@Abriael Lmao, so you're going to discredit the fact that there are separate tribes among the beastmen who actually work alongside the human-like races? While yes there are hostile tribes who oppose humanity, it's not as black and white as you put it. Qiqirn can be seen in Limsa and Ul'Dah as traveling merchants, an Ixali can be seen conversing with another NPC within the Arcanist guild.
While I may not be a fan of the Lupin model, I wouldn't immediately cast out the idea of a playable beastkin/beastmen race completely. And while a few couldn't care less about having one, let alone another race period, the masses seem to be clamoring for a beast race at this point. To say it wouldn't be popular, is more of a personal opinion than a fact.

[Clethoria]

To say it wouldn't be popular, is more of a personal opinion than a fact.

It may as well be fact. JP/EU like waifus and host club husbandos.

[Zephanoa]

I cannot even imagine the amount of dev time that would have to go into making the headpieces work for these people. I would be more for the Viera even though I am one of those that loathe the idea of dev work going in to it.

[KisaiTenshi]

We already have a massive thread about this, so what made you think we needed another?

And no. The whole story is about humanoid races vs beastmen. The warrior of light belongs to the former. The wolfheads to the latter. There won't ever be beastmen warriors of light and they're not going to change the whole story to add a race that wouldn't be popular anyway.

I think that's the point.

There hasn't been a lore explanation for Roe, Lalafell, Hyur and Elezen's lack of any animal ears or tails, but clearly the Roe and Miqo'te have a colored nose option, the Elezen and Lalafell have long ears, and the Hyur and Miqo'te have the same height as the teenage Elezen. Even the Imperials are just a taller Hyur.

So put two and two together. They all evolved from the same species at some point.

Metaphorically however, the explanation is much simpler
Lalafell = Dwarf
Miqo'te = Any "half" animal race ( very common, usually cute )
Au Ra = Any "half" demon/dragon/succubus race (less common, usually meant as an evil counterpart to the Half-animal)
Hyur = Your plain ol' Human
Elezen = Clearly not an elf.
Roegadyn = Giants

Of the non-playables that aren't beast tribes, you have the Padjal which appear to be Hyur with Horns ( this is a due to an aetheric connection to the forest, if you play the WHM storyline.)

We've also seen child versions of Elezen, Miqo'te, Au Ra, Hyur. We have not seen any Roe or Lalafell children (though there's been references at least to Lalafell children.) There's also been references to half-breeds (half breed of what though?)

It is easiest for Square-Enix to give us more races that are in the half-animal category because the modeling requirements already exist for the Miqo'te, and largely the hair modeling is the only thing that changes with the Au ra. The horns aren't simply a "hat".

That said, we need to think bigger, or smaller. Another race that shares the Lalafell or Roe gear would be more likely than another race that shares the Hyur-Miqo'te-Au Ra gear set.

Thinking about this a little more, aren't the half-bunny race (Viera) more like the Elezen in stature? I believe we got the Au Ra instead because the modeling requirements were easier (simply put, the Miqo'te gear is exactly the same) where as the feet of the Viera would require having permanent highheels.)

You can't use it as a lore reason when SE was clearly thinking about it until they decided that the playerbase just prefers 'hyurs' (aka Roes are the least played so obviously beastly types are not desired)....

Nevermind the fact that maybe Roes aren't the beastly look people want. They decided to make Au Ra Concept still a realization. Maybe not an actual player race but maybe they can in the future. But that 'lore' excuse is not one that really makes sense when they even -considered- it.

I think the problem with the Roes is that they need to fill a gap in the size chart. Every MMORPG has one "buff" race and one "dwarf" race version of a human. If they didn't have them, then the elezen become the tallest, and a buff highlander Hyur are still diminutive to a Elezen.

Part of this is that the modeling requirements for the cutscenes does not allow for simple "magnet stretching" that you'd see in like Aion. This is because the models in FFXIV are actually layered (also results in the "missing underwear" problem of some clothes if the camera clips through it.) If you've seen how readable the emotions are in faces during the cutscenes.

One of my friends said that the card-throwing scenes in the Hildibrand sidequests on her lalafell, the card actually does moves downward across the face and then back up towards Hildibrand or Briardien's forehead.

If for example, you create a new race, that means you have to go back through all the cutscenes where the Warrior of Light Avatar interacts with something (even as much as where his/her eyes are looking) to make sure it doesn't look awkward.

Hence we will likely not get Lupin as a playable race simply because the vast majority of the game can't model a non-human face. Look at Cait Sith's facial animations to see how awkward it looks. It doesn't appear that the Lupin in the game have any emotive options with their face because their mouths do not work that way. Their mouths move like the beastmen mouths which is mostly in head movements.


I think we need to also look back at the original census:


There is a split down the middle for Japan, but EU and NA are reverse of each other for genders, which means you absolutely can not create a single-gender race.

[syunikiss]

Lupin race does seem rather unique.

[Arutan]

...Please no...

I don't see what's the matter, wolf race is still better than those viera you defend. Between rabbit-hyur and a real new race, real new race > rabbit-hyur

[syunikiss]

viera and lupin should be a playable race.

[Levy9]

Lupin IRL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la4SbyC62S4