Which race deserves to be the main protagonist?

[Mahri]

a catgirl, duh.

[Fredco191]

Probably the guy in every trailer. (Hyur)

[Uielyave]

Hyur. Just because its the generic "human" race. Because humans are always the protag.

[Ghastly]

Hyur is a subcategory, it's not the human race


Human = roegadyn, lalafel, au ra, miqo'te, hyur, elezen
It's a subcategory, not the original race before all other existed

[Coratanni]

The non-troll answer is Male Midlander.

[Caitlyn]

Lalafell! And the story about their true origin from Azys L(a)la.

Or Raen, because we know nothing about them except of the ones who living in a pineapple under the ruby sea.

[Iscah]

Hyur is a subcategory, it's not the human race

Human = roegadyn, lalafel, au ra, miqo'te, hyur, elezen
It's a subcategory, not the original race before all other existed

You know what they mean though, don’t you? Yes, all the races are considered “human” within the game world (although they generally avoid using that term), but Hyurans are the one race that are actually human-by-normal-definition as opposed to being approximately orcs, elves, hobbits and half-animal hybrids.

[Zsolen]

You know what they mean though, don’t you? Yes, all the races are considered “human” within the game world (although they generally avoid using that term), but Hyurans are the one race that are actually human-by-normal-definition as opposed to being approximately orcs, elves, hobbits and half-animal hybrids.

Not only that, we have the term "Hume" also. Human, hyur, hume. Anyone notice a pattern?

Technically, the other races aren't human but humanoid. I'm not sure why SE decided to muddy the waters. Humanoids are species whose characteristics are relatable to a human. Usually it means being bipedal (which does have exceptions like lamia), often walking upright (although there are exceptions with things like faeries and kobolds), and requiring a certain amount of intelligence. Those that get 2 out of 3 still may be considered humanoid, but it is more of a gray area. Maybe they wanted a term specific to playable races, but they didn't have one.

[Lilseph]

My vote goes to the male hyur from the trailer as well. The fabled derplander.

[AmemeAmeklin]

Is it too hard to ask to see a default character like this with tan skin or something and actually looking...different than a typical light skin guy you can practically pick up on the street anywhere and say "here's your main protagnist; go nuts"?

You should also remember that this game is made/developed in Japan, which is not only at least 90% one ethnicity (which happens to be pale), but also has a history of their own form of racism (see: Ainu people, WWII and Japanese Imperialism) and until about 300 years ago was completely xenophobic as well. When I look at the faces for characters, I tend to see 'Japanese' rather than 'white', although I recognize the features that are considered more European as well. Japan has their own racial stereotypes for us Americans, of course...but the fact that all races get such a wide variety of skin tones and NPCs run around in all colors of the rainbow is quite nice. Of course, when most of the MSQ characters are pale, anyone picking a darker skin tone ends up being the token person of color in the story XD

It's funny how everyone labors under the misapprehension that there were no ethnically Nubian/African people in medieval Europe and thus never include characters with a darker skin tone in stories. Back then they had the Moors (who were from a specific area), Nubians, etc... 'black' was not a concept before the US was established but that doesn't mean the people who would fall into that category today weren't around.