Personal Feedback on Hrothgar

[Vexander]

Just posting my own thoughts on them. The reveal was heavily marred by the knowledge of two gender locked races, but after a day to take it in, I want to be a bit constructive.

So, the Hrothgar.

They're obviously inspired from FFX's Ronso. I don't know what the Lore is yet, but I'm hoping we're not going to go the usual route of, "Male big. Male Dumb. Male smash rocks." I don't think it's possible to entirely avoid that kind of stigma with them given their design, but I am hoping that their lore will branch out.

The model isn't bad. It feels like the Developers looked at Kratos from God of War and said, "Let's make something like this an option for the players." That's fantastic and all given our only big muscular guys to date really were Roegadyn and Highlanders.

So, some things I'm hoping for.

Lore: I'm hoping we see a lot of Norse/Celtic themes tied to the Hrothgar. It gives an opportunity for them to be much more than big dumb guys. A nice blend of natural wisdom and inner strength being their focus as a race would be wonderful. The great heroes of Hrothgar Legend should be people who are celebrated for their choices moreso than their ability/strength. I'd like to imagine for them that strength/ability is a means to an end, and the end would be to grow as a person, to become wiser, smarter, etc...

Appearance: Right now in the videos they seem hunched, and I'd rather they stood up straight. I imagine that will probably be a /changepose option, but really, I wish it would be the default, since the default pose gets used in cutscenes. Also, I'm not a fan of the, "Patchy Fur," thing they've got going on. Either the Hrothgar should be completely covered in fur, making them a solid Beast Race option, or they should be hairless from the head down. Right now the patches of fur make them look like diseased cat men.

Women: I'd like to see Hrothgar females added, even if not playable right away. Keeping in line with the idea of a Norse culture, I think it'd be great if Hrothgar women were portrayed as exceedingly strong individuals. Shield Maidens, if you will. I would love to see an order of female Hrothgar that are Dragoons and take a lot of inspiration from Valkyries. It'd be a nice chance to see Dragoons outside of Ishgard as well.

[BiddyBatnana]

I like your Dragoon idea, it could be very interesting to see both Ishagardian DRG and Ronso DRG (if there is any) exchange and interact.
And yes given their name I highly suppose they will be Viking - Nordic themed.

[Lacan]

I'm kinda hoping they go the "no females at all" route kind of like the galka. If you look closely at the art for them I think the mothercrystal is in the background? It is a bit hard to see though. My thinking was that maybe they were born by the mothercrystal directly to serve as its protectors. Something similar happened in 11.

[Vexander]

I'm kinda hoping they go the "no females at all" route kind of like the galka. If you look closely at the art for them I think the mothercrystal is in the background? It is a bit hard to see though. My thinking was that maybe they were born by the mothercrystal directly to serve as its protectors. Something similar happened in 11.

If I recall my FFXI lore correctly, the Galka were genderless (though obviously looked male), and reincarnated periodically. I can't imagine the Hrothgar will reincarnate.

[cicatriz313]

I wasn't too excited with how they looked but I see potential in one of the three they showed. I enjoyed how they moved and emoted because it's pretty different compared to what we have now. Benchmark will determine if I fantasia or not. I don't really care much about lore so however they want to explain only males works and could indicate if we will ever get female.

[Vexander]

I wasn't too excited with how they looked but I see potential in one of the three they showed. I enjoyed how they moved and emoted because it's pretty different compared to what we have now.

To be fair, the movements also reminded me very strongly of Kratos from God of War 4. So, I see potential in the Hrothgar from that perspective. With the proper lore and some adjustments to the model, they could really be something awesome. I think for people who really want a Beastman race though, we need them to be completely furred. The patch job does NOT look good.

[cicatriz313]

I think for people who really want a Beastman race though, we need them to be completely furred. The patch job does NOT look good.

Yeah I think this is pretty clearly kimahri ronso fanservice. So the fact that they closely resemble ronso is a good thing imo

[Allegor]

Yeah, gotta admit I wasn't a fan of the fur shirt either, but it's growing on me a little. If my guess is right, it probably changes based on hair color, not skin, so it'd be nice if we get an extra color pallet option to at least camouflage it.