How would you change the basic races?Follow

FFXI mythos had Galka coming from the Altepa areas and the Mithra from the Elshimo regions, but for the most part those races squat in other races homes now. It would be nice to see them have their own starting cities in FFXIV.

How do you know that each of the races will have their own starting city? The cities might be mixed.

As cool as it would be to have each race given their own starting city, I expect the cities to be mixed, but I just want a way to get an indepth look at all the races, so I can feel a true connection with them. Even if they don't all get their own starting cities, at least given their own cities in general would be nice. I mean, let's say at one point a new government took control of the mithra homeland, and many of them fled to [Insert Starting City Here] while many still remained. That one sentence already gives so much more detail about the mithras' history than FFXI gave, and the city would still be there for players to explore, just not start in.

I do like the idea, though, of galkas and tarus given their own city together, forming an alliance to make up for what the other lacks. The tarus have strength in magic, and galkas have their physical strength.

Tarus will have laser shooting eyes O.O *pew pew*!

I wanted to be a male Mithra since I first heard about FFXI. I really want more races and creation options in FFXIV, I found FFXI's so disappointing and everyone looked alike. I will be extremely disappointed if FFXIV character creation is just an HD version of FFXI's.

Seconded. It sucks seeing a bunch of people who look exactly like you running around. I sent SE a letter about that a few times.

I would like more customization in character creation than just 5 races, 3 sizes, and 8 hairdos with 2 different colors each.

I want to put a bigger badunkadunk on my Galka, or bust size on my Mithra. Different color skin tones than tan and tanner. An Afro on my Elvaan or a facial scar that I can place on my cheek or in the middle of my forehead. Tribal tatooing on the Mithra that can be of nearly any design or smaller/larger muscle tone to look beefy or lanky.


Imagine City of Heros character creator... only with our beloved Vana'diel residents.

The separation of races gives them their own culture. I think this is why most fantasy based stories specifically give homelands to certain races, while also having a sort of "melting pot" or "mosaic" nation that all of them can call home. Also, by adding these elements of separation an author can use the character's setting to help create a more dynamic character. A Galka born in Bastok may have a different outlook and perception on life than a Galka born in Windurst or San d'Oria, for example. The character's race can intertwine with the character's nation and culture to create a wide breadth of dynamic story elements. It seems to be that fantasy video games tend to draw real world inspirations more than literary fantasy worlds. Sci-Fi can get as crazy as they want, and it's sometimes encouraged, in their lack of racial influences. It's sort of a double edged sword having races being so closely represented in games because it can serve to alienate or include the specified demographic. It's a careful tightrope for a publisher to walk. I think the FF online universe could definitely use a little more diversity though, especially diversity amongst races.

It might be more appropriate to consider what we view as races now, as different species, and then have racial subgroups within those species, but that may be asking for too much on the development side.

Just from what i observed from that really cool drawing on the main site:

I have no idea what cities will be like and i don't really to speculate w/o at least some KIND of info given. To the person who said that 'elvaans will be knights, humes/galka will be techy, taru/mithra will be nature-y"... Seriously, what part of XIV do you not get? It's 3 more than XI. Stop relying on old info.

Taru: The taru seem a bit more proportionate (yay) and taller.

Galka: The galka were redone very nicely from what i can tell. They look like giant hunks now instead of the frankenstein persona they had in ff11. I never understood how boring little humes could 'enslave' them. Nor do i understand how elvaans and galkas had around the same str rating. w/e. Their legs are now more proportionate and they got rid of the random tail.

Mithra: Hmmm. Yes, there will be male mithra from what i see. The tails are remade cooler but other than that they're the same.

Elvaan: Same.

Hume: Same.

-Speculation Race-

Gria: The dragon race is small bodied, we know. They have side horns that point up, leathery dragon wings and a tail (hopefully not). The gria in the picture is definately child like. I'm thinking their race will have the appearance of preteens. I remember reading that Gria were created to be a MOE character in w/e tactics game they were in. All i could think of was lucky star for that... But i hate anime girls. So whiny and pathetic. But maybe these can keep the cute factor. All the gria from tactics had pink hair and this one has blonde so that's wierd. Also, there are no wings, sadly.

-Races I would love to see-

Viera: They are soooo fleshed out in ff12 already. They have their own nice niche, too, because they are so intuned with nature. With tarus we kind of experience this but tarus are more scholarly. They deal with nature when it comes to magic (Cardians) but aren't really just about the trees and bugs. The viera pull off the bunny thing without being horribly cliche, also. I LOVE their buttery cocoa skin color and their long, wispy, snow-white hair. Long hair was definately absent in ff11 but it should be more than possible now. If SE were to just pluck the viera from ff12 and put them in XIV they would be perfect!

And we can't forget the intense scarlet eyes, either. Viera could also bring a really interesting story line with them seeing as how players didn't get that close of look in ff12. SE could basically just expand on what they already had there. They just seem like such a perfect fit... it'd be a waste to just let viera be forgotten :(

Moogle: I think another cute race would be very nice. The moogles in FF12 were/are my favortie design. Other moogles looked like stuffed animals to me but these were very detailed and interesting. They seem to be a little taller than tarus and could also bring a lot of story to the game. I see them as a nomad type race with no particular home. Just like in almost every game, they would be everywhere.

Seeq: Even though i don't like the look of this race, it IS unique and it IS interesting in some form. I think an even 10 races in XIV would be perfect. They look like they'd excel in DEF with all the extra blubber... A female version would definately be nasty but i don't think that's any reason to exclude them from gameplay. I think every race should have an opposite playable gender unless the story is totally against it. Any creature that reproduces needs to have opposite genders to play. It's funny because in FF12 you don't see female Seeq.... Or maybe you do O.o

------

I would love to suggest a 10th race but i think the 3 i listed are the best for the job. If there were to be a 10th race... I would want it to be comepletely new and unheard of. Something very interesting that only certain members would even want to play as. Hmm.. But, overall, I would love to see wings added to Gria and at LEAST Viera added also.




Edited, Jun 5th 2009 8:59pm by Carbi