We need a second smol race

[Poporito_Popoto]

Always glad for more races to punt.

[Avoidy]

On the topic of infantilization that's been mentioned early in this thread: Honestly, just give lalafell players an option (maybe ticking a box in character settings) to use the 1.0 walking animations and lalas would go from looking like they're waddling around in a diaper to having an actual stylish walk that fits their true nature. There's a certain video of Momodi in 1.0 ... if you know, you know. Her hips actually sway a little when she walks, and it's got soul, is all I'll say. But then ARR came out and we've had the diaper waddle ever since. Feelsbadman. I'd have made a lala if not for that, because I like being small in fantasy games.

[Kuroka]

The furry in me wants some cute little furballs... but yeah, they used roe for Hrotgar and elezen for viera... some other small race would be nice, even if its just something like Orks, actual dwarfs or even moogle...

[CidHeiral]

I'd definitely vote for FFXII Moogles. Not only does it add a second small race but it would add a second distinctly non-human race as well which the game sorely needs.

Plus I think they look pretty neat! Presumably there would be a variety of options in the character creator so you don't have to be as "cute" if you're an edgelord.

[Kuroka]

Could use literally the same skin - so yes pls.

[LioJen]

Moogles or Loporrits would be great, I might actually play one. Weird that despite this game catering hard to Japan, they neglect to capitalize on Japan's love for small cute things. But none of the races either lean toward the edgy, masculine ideals of the West. They all kinda fall in a weird in-between and I find none of them to be really appealing or cool.

[LilimoLimomo]

I don't care if its cute, I just want it to be more respected by players as a serious thing. If we had playable Burmecians, Nu Mou, Ivalice Moogles, etc. It would be much more appealing than what we have in my opinion.

If what players think is your primary concern, I don't think this will lead to a satisfactory solution for you.

Because if you take a step back, you'll find that the game itself treats Lalafells with a fairly even hand. There are certainly numerous portrayals of Lalafells that are silly, but there are also many that are shown to be adults with serious commitments, stoic personalities, and sexual relationships. In this way Lalafells are no different than other races, which all have a variety of characters ranging from silly to serious and everything between. But from what I've seen, most players conveniently forget about characters like Papalymo, Krile, Lolorito, and Shamani Lohmani in favor of the broad stereotypes they bring with them from the real world.

There's a good XKCD comic that sums up this manner of stereotyping:


When a human character is silly, the interpretation is "this character is silly". But when a Lalafell (a race seen as not normal) is silly, the interpretation is "Lalafells are silly". Even though the canon of the game transparently demonstrates that no such generalization can be made.

It's a bummer for me as someone who likes playing a character that I pour my true self into, and I can only imagine how much worse it feels for someone like you who has to deal with a similar flavor of BS in their real-world daily life.

But it's also similar to how other races are treated by players. Pretty much every race has stereotypes associated with them, and in general these stereotypes too come from what people have learned outside the game, not in it. I don't want to repeat the stuff I'm used to hearing about certain races and genders, but suffice to say that whether it comes from ignorance or malice, it's unfortunate.

Anyway, all of this is to say, if they made another short race, I can't imagine that players wouldn't give them the exact same treatment they've already given to Lalafells and other races. Nu Mou would be endless good dog jokes. Burmecians would be rat jokes. Moogles would be infantilized even more than Lalafells. And because they're all short, it's likely that they would all be infantilized by the community.

I think the best that we can do is to recognize the true source of the problem: people. And that being the case, we can do our best to change their minds through earnest dialogue, while also doing our best to surround ourselves with the kind of people who aren't going to propagate needless stereotypes and will treat everyone as the individuals they deserve to be treated as. It's something I've been trying to do for awhile now, and now that you've shared your feelings with me that inspires me to work even harder at it.

Regardless, I hope things get better!

[iVolke]

Which is why I keep trying to suggest this. Lalafell are a bit offensive by themselves. A second small race would make it more inclusive and kind to people.

If you're offended by fantasy characters in a fantasy game you've got some things to work through.

Lalafells are not meant to represent real life Dwarfs. They're meant to represent Lalafells. They have nothing to do with you and your real life condition.

[Higashikata]

Burmecians would be cool but no more child-coded races, thanks

[ty_taurus]

I've thought a little bit about how I might go about doing a new Final Fantasy MMO with more distinct differences from XI and XIV, and what I've come up with so far is having a setting where there are four different worlds, each with one of the four elemental crystals as its "core" essentially, harkening back to the traditional Final Fantasy story, but each world also reaches different technological thresholds based on the different types of settings we see in Final Fantasy. Like the world of the Earth Crystal is more medieval with airships like with FFIX or FFI-FFV, the world of the Water Crystal is a more original fantasy setting with mixed technology levels like with FFX, the world of the Fire Crystal is very Magitek a la FFVI and FFVII, and the world of the Wind Crystal is more Modern Chic like with FFXIII. And in the world of the Wind Crystal, I imagine we'd see a much higher population of one of the playable races that is 'the short race' but goes in a very different direction than Tarutaru and Lalafell.

I've been calling them the Pixx, and they are inspired by a more obscure Tri-Ace game that Square Enix produced on the PS2 called Radiata Stories, where they're inspired by the light elves and dark elves which look like this:



They'd be maybe around 3-4 feet tall, so more of a mid-short height than really small, and they'd have a more modern style of design to compliment the very FFXIII like environment.