Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[AduroT]

That kind of looks like a Hynerian from Farscape

One of the problems I have with Elezen are their ears. They are like door stoppers, and the ear armor looks stupid as heck. I know we have cat girls, and cat guys, but the ear armor looks so DUMB. ON TOP of those proportions. Have you seen a male elezen in the ShB full dark knight set? It looks ridiculous.

Yeah, I dislike the ear armor and pockets stuff has. I tend to try and avoid those. Would much rather they just had holes for the ears to stick out thru.

[SturmChurro]

Yeah, I dislike the ear armor and pockets stuff has. I tend to try and avoid those. Would much rather they just had holes for the ears to stick out thru.

Don't get me wrong, I think elezens can looks really good in specially crafted glam. Like for females they can look really nice in turtlenecks, etc. to take your attention away from the proportions, BUT I would be in the camp for a full elezen redesign. "Fix" their proportions to more normal, give them better hairstyles, and redo the face options - and for that matter elezen females need new face options as it stands! Though, making them more human-like, and changing their ear shape to something more traditional (western elf), like Hilda, would just effectively turn them into a Hyur and remove their uniqueness. Still, if they had a playable mixed race like Hilda (elezen/hyur) it would probably be my go to, if the animations were good.

[Colt47]

I agree that elezen are pretty badly crafted in terms of proportions. What made me a little miffed is that they made Viera instead of fixing elezen so they could be the viera of this game.

[Anvaire]

I agree that elezen are pretty badly crafted in terms of proportions. What made me a little miffed is that they made Viera instead of fixing elezen so they could be the viera of this game.

I suppose it is one of those they were never going to do. There will be a group of people who like the proportions as they are. If they were to change it, they could lead to a situation where a thread like this exists to turn the Elezen back to how they were. Kinda like how there are ones with people who want the original Gunbreaker sounds restored.

[Theodric]

I suppose it is one of those they were never going to do. There will be a group of people who like the proportions as they are. If they were to change it, they could lead to a situation where a thread like this exists to turn the Elezen back to how they were. Kinda like how there are ones with people who want the original Gunbreaker sounds restored.

The number of people complaining would be very small, though - and the most popular MMO in existence (World of Warcraft) did the same thing to every single playable race after recognising that the character models were outdated. It also managed to do so in a way that kept much of the original look but improved on things where needed.

[Lauront]

You can't please everyone and sometimes it is worth taking risks to realise greater (potential) gains. I sincerely doubt they're going to vex many by reworking elezen to look better; even that 5% or so of people who play the race.

[Colt47]

There are a few things that are problematic with the Viera head composition as well at the moment anatomically. They chose the ear position based on what made them look the most "rabbit like", so they put the ear canal going upwards without thinking about the functionality of the component. The reason rabbits have that slightly upward facing ear canal is because they are low to the ground and everything they are worried about is coming at them from above like hawks and owls. That and they act as a way to exhaust heat from the body quickly.

Viera, on the other hand, are apex predators that are above average in height on both sexes. Because they are upright they get more wind exposure than the low to the ground rabbit and they have little to no body hair, so heat isn't as much of a problem for them. In fact they are adapted to an environment similar to humans, so they probably would have been living in moderate to dry climates with relatively hot summers.

Since the viera are naturally tall, the evolution of their ear position would likely have went more towards that of the Fennec Fox exhibited here:

They'd probably be the Final Fantasy version of elves. Long furry ears and an above average height with a strong build that bends a bit more towards the mesomorphic side.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I think the Elf models look fine, the weird proportions to me make them look unique to this game. Plus from what Ive seen they are still popular despite this, and outside of the handful of people here in this thread Ive never seen anybody really want the proportions changed.
Id say more then 'updating' the proportions, they need to Update Creation Options. Heck every race could use more options: Faces mostly, facial hair and scars to.

[Allegor]

Elezen bodies are generally fine, I actually think the long necks make them unique, plus supermodels tend to have long necks and elongated limbs, I think that was the aesthetic they were going for -- It's their posture, head size, and shoulder area that are noticeably...weird. I don't know how to put it but it's like there are 3 invisible Moogles pulling from each of their limbs and their head, it doesn't feel natural. Female Viera and male Hroth have an overall better body structure despite sharing the same skeleton as Elezen and Roe so I don't really doubt the same would be done for the opposite genders.

That said, it's kinda sad that we would need an entirely new race to 'fix' older ones. I agree with the above comments in that there may be people that won't like any potential character overhaul, but that would be a minuscule portion of people who already play the 2 least popular races. There's more to gain than what's there to lose.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Elezen bodies are generally fine, I actually think the long necks make them unique, plus supermodels tend to have long necks and elongated limbs, I think that was the aesthetic they were going for -- It's their posture, head size, and shoulder area that are noticeably...weird. I don't know how to put it but it's like there are 3 invisible Moogles pulling from each of their limbs and their head, it doesn't feel natural. Female Viera and male Hroth have an overall better body structure despite sharing the same skeleton as Elezen and Roe so I don't really doubt the same would be done for the opposite genders.

That said, it's kinda sad that we would need an entirely new race to 'fix' older ones. I agree with the above comments in that there may be people that won't like any potential character overhaul, but that would be a minuscule portion of people who already play the 2 least popular races. There's more to gain than what's there to lose.

After reading this I just thought about and realized that if they did update the model, they in turn would also have to update the Gear.
And....we all know how that is considering the "missing genders issue"