Can we get normal manly males ?

[SetStndbySmn100]

I don't really think my character looks like Tarzan. More of a Wyatt Earp thing is what I was going for really.

That being said, I do think there are some weird aspects about human males in this game. For starters, I literally can't make a video game approximation of myself in the game... which is generally pretty easy for me to do in basically every other game that lets you customize a character's appearance. But somehow in Eorzea, to break through the staggering limit of being over 6ft tall, you have to shed your very eyebrows and have a chiseled and robust bone structure.

[Iscah]

I have always played humans in game, i play Au- Ra, and even though they are pretty cool, it was mostly because i think it was the only "manly" option without looking like Tarzan.

Funnily enough – well, my only visual reference for Tarzan is the Disney version but I think I'd pick an Au Ra if I was trying to make a character who looked like that.

They've got the right hempen gear design to complete the cosplay, too.

[Fukuro]

Given that FFXIV is an MMO with multiple playable races, there's even less of an excuse for limitations. It's been a common request for years though - and mysteriously it's often people playing and posting on female characters who seek to downplay the demand and likelihood of male characters getting some attention for a change.

Strange, that.

It's something I've noticed over the years as someone who has repeatedly requested more customisation, glamour and hairstyles made with male characters in mind first and foremost.

i know i might be reaching here, but over the time i have been playing this game, its been mostly dudes that play female characters being opposed to it (personal experience i made through friends and strangers ingame)- which i find even weirder. whenever i complained because we were repeatedly getting andro or feminine hairstyles it always went like: „go play another game, if you don‘t like it or just switch to fem miqo“.
i had one guy really opposed to the idea of adding male viera because it would destroy his fantasies of being (the only male) in a female only society. XD

on the other hand irl female players mostly agreed with the dire need for more handsome options/hairstyles for men.

again, it‘s just the experience i personally made - could be different or the opposite to other people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[KizuyaKatogami]

I consider every Au Ra male face, except for the old man one, to be more or less classically Biseinen(Bishōnen but fully adult). When I was Au Ra male for a couple of years on my main, I used the young looking one, as I liked those horns best (also on my Raen alt on Sargatanas). Though I generally like the one Theodric use's face a bit better. I don't think their more slender, smooth faces are a bad thing, nor the fact that they are slightly less manly than the other manly options in game . I just find the complaint funny, cause in my eyes, OP has more manly options available already. (If I had to do a hierarchy of masculinity it'd go something like Roe Male = Highlander > Hrothgar > Au Ra M > Midlander >= Catboi > Bunny Boi from what we've seen > Lalafell) - (Of these I've played Roe, Highlander, and Au Ra for years at a time. I tried Midlander and Miqote and could only stand them for about a week).

I think y'all basically want Biseinens with muscle sliders heh. Not a bad thing to want. I'd very much like to not have to hide jawline weirdness with facial hair, but that is the option I've got for my favorite race/clan/face combo.

I also think that Highlander faces all play out better outside of the character creator and in motion. A large reason why I stopped being Au Ra, other than being purely sentimental/attached, was that I liked the emotes that Highlander male faces convey, as I feel they convey situations within the story responses more accurately to my own face/how I feel etc. That and... Male Au Ra run like lanky catboi and have very slender hips.

Tbh i can’t really see many highlander’s as masculine unless it’s like...Raubahn. All the other ones i see just look like smushed up clay faces and it doesn’t help that their actual body features aren’t that different from every other race so it just results in a weird contrast and because of not many facial hair options it looks really disjointed. Roe’s kind of fit in that same boat of they just look like someone put a smushed up face on a green body lol. They look like a less intimidating Hulk.

[KizuyaKatogami]

i know i might be reaching here, but over the time i have been playing this game, its been mostly dudes that play female characters being opposed to it (personal experience i made through friends and strangers ingame)- which i find even weirder. whenever i complained because we were repeatedly getting andro or feminine hairstyles it always went like: „go play another game, if you don‘t like it or just switch to fem miqo“.
i had one guy really opposed to the idea of adding male viera because it would destroy his fantasies of being (the only male) in a female only society. XD

on the other hand irl female players mostly agreed with the dire need for more handsome options/hairstyles for men.

again, it‘s just the experience i personally made - could be different or the opposite to other people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh it’s true. It’s also why i think SE panders to the female characters more, they know a lot of the playerbase(men) play as females. Hell, even Yoshi p plays a female lala despite him being why they wanted to add hrothgar in the first place and he wanted to play it So i guess i can see why there’s bias lmao. Need more people on the dev team that play male characters an or are female designers lol.

[Hoehenflug]

I recently witnessed a huge uptick in my Highlander combo (same face, dark skin, Asianesque undercut), so that I decided it was time for a change. But alas, nothing comes close to what I love about my Highlander (animations, physique, the only lush beard available). I just wish I wouldn't have so many perceived clones running around, so maybe the option to be full-bearded on other races. Most males only have patches sadly. I feel like, say for female Viera, you can make the faces look super different, but for me it's more like 'oh look, he's a pale version of me with another standard hair color option'; unless I go neocolor-tattoo bonanza ( which I occasionally enjoy).

I'm also kinda bummed that they went for a more feminine aestethic for male Viera. I don't mind the build, I just hope they at least give us some lush beard options for them and some less almondy eye options.

[Kobalos]

Dudes need some better beard options in this game and what with highlander daddies and no eyebrows!

[Eldevern]

...

I'm an exception in your experience then

I don't mind more options. In fact, a character personalization similar to the one in Aion would have been nice. Tails, beards, scales, ears as options with toggle would have allowed hybrid forms.

[Fukuro]

I'm an exception in your experience then

I don't mind more options. In fact, a character personalization similar to the one in Aion would have been nice. Tails, beards, scales, ears as options with toggle would have allowed hybrid forms.

well i was talking especially about the people that are for some reason strongly opposed to it. most people are in support of it, just the few that happen to neglect or dismiss more customization options for males happened to be male playing female characters in my experience. doesn‘t mean that the majority of people playing the opposite gender are opposed for more customization options for the males! xD

[Lauront]

I consider every Au Ra male face, except for the old man one, to be more or less classically Biseinen(Bishōnen but fully adult). When I was Au Ra male for a couple of years on my main, I used the young looking one, as I liked those horns best (also on my Raen alt on Sargatanas). Though I generally like the one Theodric use's face a bit better. I don't think their more slender, smooth faces are a bad thing, nor the fact that they are slightly less manly than the other manly options in game . I just find the complaint funny, cause in my eyes, OP has more manly options available already. (If I had to do a hierarchy of masculinity it'd go something like Roe Male = Highlander > Hrothgar > Au Ra M > Midlander >= Catboi > Bunny Boi from what we've seen > Lalafell) - (Of these I've played Roe, Highlander, and Au Ra for years at a time. I tried Midlander and Miqote and could only stand them for about a week).

I think y'all basically want Biseinens with muscle sliders heh. Not a bad thing to want. I'd very much like to not have to hide jawline weirdness with facial hair, but that is the option I've got for my favorite race/clan/face combo.

I also think that Highlander faces all play out better outside of the character creator and in motion. A large reason why I stopped being Au Ra, other than being purely sentimental/attached, was that I liked the emotes that Highlander male faces convey, as I feel they convey situations within the story responses more accurately to my own face/how I feel etc. That and... Male Au Ra run like lanky catboi and have very slender hips.

I tend to look at femininity as consisting in rounder, softer and sometimes fuller facial features, verging more towards neoteny; obviously there is variability, much as there is with men, but that's what I regard as its main thrust. It's why I see the faces I mentioned for Au Ra as so at odds with it. You can arguably push the Magnai face in that direction, and certainly the "youthful" one is inherently that way. However, I usually opt for squarer jaws, more angular chins and a fairly long, mildly convex nose - basically the aesthetic of the blood elves from their concept art (and better implemented now in-game as well.) I consider it better to think of masculine facial features as resulting in a number of possible archetypes that are distinctly masculine, rather than resulting in one specific one, i.e. broader/squarer, although that does correlate with it. Biseinen might be the right term for it, provided it isn't taken as being "pretty" as opposed to handsome, but it seems like a pretty broad term.

I don't even tend to rate Hrothgar in that regard. Yes, they're very muscular, but their faces are so far from human they don't register in my mind along the usual masculine/feminine dichotomy. I'd say in terms of my preferences, Au Ra are at the ideal point, followed by Elezen, specific Midlander and specific catboy picks, highlander and then the rest. Male Viera I am reserving judgement on to see the full spectrum of their options.

In practice, Elezen are let down badly by their anatomy and stiff animations, so I find myself jumping between Au Ra and Midlanders (usually derplander, for the strong jaw/nose/stubble options, or the Oboro face for more delicate features) depending on what I feel like playing at any given point, but I prefer Midlanders slightly for their more fluid animations for casters. Just wish they could be customised with more muscle. I even wish the same could be done with Au Ra and hope that they one day get a muscle tone slider.

With Au Ra I do think the emotes can verge on being a bit goofy at times, but I do think the assertiveness fits their unga bunga lore, so I can overlook foibles in SE's design, like the weird hip design in armour.