So.... why the Races from FFXI?

[Cendres]

I like that they continued with similar races. In fact, I honestly wish they just made FFXIV a true sequel and brought us back to Vana'diel, even if a Vana'diel that exists a thousand years later than the one we experienced in FFXI.

This would have been very cool, like EQ2 is to EQ1 or similar. <3

@Elexia I don't even know where to start if I were to reply to you, your posts don't make much of a lick of sense to me and contain some misplaced angst and just repeat what I said anyway. O.o

Didn't Tanaka say in some interview that they kind of had a plan to have character travel between XI and XIV.
It was some old old article before XIV was out or was during alpha/beta days so can't remember where I read it but that was part of reason he said the characters looked a like...

But then ... this was Tanaka who told everyone all kinds of stuff for XIV.....

Yeah that was like some old scrapped up dream that they decided early on was not going to work with our current technology. That is what was fundamentally wrong with Tanaka he couldn't stop dreaming about what COULD be instead of what IS possible now.

[Duuude007]

Someone ought to tell John Crichton that Sebacians are humans too. It will blow his mind.

[Mireille]

The original dev team obviously had letting go issues, they wanted a brand new world that still felt 'familiar' to players of XI so they transferred the old races with small changes and new names and lore to give things a new spin. Not really sure why they thought this would be preferable to a brand new fresh world with brand new races ( I would have loved to see that... ) but that's not what they decided to do.

I'd point out that any and every FF MMO will consistently contain some variation of Hume/Hyur. I'm not really sure why bringing in other iconic races like Mithra/Miqo'te, or Tarutaru/Lalafel is really an issue. Those options were really popular in XI. Galka weren't so popular hence the leaner tailess Roegadyn in XIV. (I vote to give the tails back.)

This trend isn't really any different than D&D or other pen and paper RPG that all contain some variation on the done to death classic Tolkein races. They may shorten the elves and make the hobbits into kleptomaniacs, but they all stem from the same fantasy origin.

From what Yoshida has implied about content based in worlds from other FF titles it sounds like we may see Viera or Ronso at some point. We'll have rabbits for the cats to chase and dogs to chase after the cats, or were Ronso lion people? Ronso at least are quite iconic, but the Viera are sort of just another sex-bomb to go with the Miqo'te. In 2.0 we will have some new options that weren't in XI with more to come in future expansions. Why is this an issue?

[Cendres]

It's not an issue so much as it lacked a little bit of imagination. Or effort or maybe it was a time issue or just a marketing decision. Whatever the reason was they purposely copied the same races from the first MMO to the second while creating a whole new world for them.

Seems like they could have used other material too, from other FF titles, make it fresh. It's not a problem to me, and I'm not arguing for or against just stating what I think happened from my perspective. I'm more then happy if we get more races down the road. The ronso were also favorites of mine, I love cats so I'm hoping to see them or any non-XI variant actually.

Personally I was very attached to my Mithra so I was more then happy to transfer over to the Miqo'te. I've tried to go hyur to switch it up, but it just didn't feel like me.

[Seif]

From a game developers standpoint it's pretty clear that removing galka's tail means a lot less work on the armors as most races armor can just be scaled to fit.

Same for Tarutarus legs. You can scale mo-cap data to fit the same joints but nodes can't be removed without the end result looking weird.

One can try to justify them as a stylistic choice but whatever the reason the method required a lot less work this way.

Personally I miss Tarutarus and it's what I would play as if they were an option.

[Valmonte]

Disagree entirely. Under this model for identity we're essentially just midgets... Not very exciting.
The monolithic societies of FFXI gave the world diversity and clearly defined cultures that added a richness to the world this game completely lacks in its lore and mythology. If you were a Windurstian Tarutaru visiting Bastok or vice versa you were visiting a foreign land and it felt like it. Traveling to another city in FFXIV just feels like exactly that - traveling to another city. Denying each race a unique culture and civilization deprives them all of any real identity or character.

More over, if each race was given its own home nation the game world would be far more dispersed. Not everyone would be huddled in Ul'dah simply because of the market wards. People would be more inclined to stay in their own nation.

I started as a Lalafell in Gridania and I feel absolutely zero attachment to that place. It's in the woods. It has a creepy kid with horns. It has people of all sorts wearing silly wooden masks. It does nothing for me because it lacks a core or center that it would otherwise have if it were, for example, the home of the Elves.

Gil Hording Evil Casting Midgets....Big difference.

[Zantetsuken]

I really wish this game would have been set in Ivalice...

As I said before, I think that may have been the original plan, but then the financial planners and marketing ppl at SE got involved and decided that the Vana'diel races would play better with their target market.

Of course, they never anticipated that the inclusion of races from FFXI would make everyone furious that the game didnt' PLAY like FFXI either (despite it's other issues at launch). I think this contributed further to it's overall negative reception by players.

New races would have FFXIV judged more on it's own terms, not FFXI's

/sigh

[Doho]

it'd be cool if they slipped something into the lore about how the XIV races are technically "descendants" of the vana'diel races.. maybe some 100, 1000 year gap evolutionary thing *shrug*

[Chiruru53]

I don't mind the same races... but why did they limit themselves to just that? why not let the players choose either the race they once were... OR...OR... a completely different race, like say, Idk, a man made completely from stone. (going to make this sound like a ripoff of wow, I know.) Why not let us play as beastmen? I'm sure everyone has wanted to play as a beastman at least once. I'm just throwing this out there, and know I'll get some replies from haters, but whatever

[Chiruru53]

MEH. All I want is my viera and lamia races.

Thank you sir.