Thoughts on the Au Ra?

[Steel Wolf]

Chances are, it'll offload some work that your graphics card could be doing from your CPU. ...little optimizations for a few more FPS and some fancy effects. SE keeps saying they won't give us the hi-res textures they said they have :<

 

Awe, no hi-res textures? :<

[Altitis Acquired]

Others probably have said this before, but I think the female Au Ras look like evil female Miqo'tes. I do like the size difference, but the overall shape of the females are very close to the miqo's.

[Naunet]

Chances are, it'll offload some work that your graphics card could be doing from your CPU. ...little optimizations for a few more FPS and some fancy effects. SE keeps saying they won't give us the hi-res textures they said they have :<

 

Awe, no hi-res textures?  :<

 

I really don't know why they're being such sticks in the mud about that. PS3 limitations, I guess.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Chances are, it'll offload some work that your graphics card could be doing from your CPU. ...little optimizations for a few more FPS and some fancy effects. SE keeps saying they won't give us the hi-res textures they said they have :

 

Awe, no hi-res textures?  :

 

Nope. ...at least from what they've said. ...now things like the water and the cobblestones are gonna look awesome from tesselation, but if you've ever zoomed in on like, the trees or some armor, that's where textures would be nice.

 

...improved shader code does work wonders though!

[Aya]

I just wish they'd make the females as bestial as the males, but I know its not something that's going to happen.  They like these aesthetics, and its not hard to understand why.  I don't really think technical limitations come into play, both WoW and TERA have dealt with non-humanoid shapes (with differing levels of grace), and FF could have found a way if that is what they had wanted to do.  But they want to make the Miqo'te version of dragon-people, and that's their prerogative

 

I'll roll my eyes at it still, because, of course they would make an unbelievably dainty feminine model, and a hyper masculine model, of course!

 

They have done a nice job of making some highly muscled feminine characters in the game, at least, so I have to give them their due for that!  Something other games (*cough* TERA *cough*) utterly fail at providing. [Then I remembered the Amani, but I'm going to keep this as I wrote it originally ^^]

[Naunet]

Then I remembered the Amani, but I'm going to keep this as I wrote it originally ^^]

 

I think even BHS forgets the Amani.

[Kellach Woods]

Considering my graphics card is dogshit and my cpu is baller. I'm kinda glad they're doing that.

[Iex]

I just wish they'd make the females as bestial as the males, but I know its not something that's going to happen.  They like these aesthetics, and its not hard to understand why.  I don't really think technical limitations come into play, both WoW and TERA have dealt with non-humanoid shapes (with differing levels of grace), and FF could have found a way if that is what they had wanted to do.  But they want to make the Miqo'te version of dragon-people, and that's their prerogative

 

I'll roll my eyes at it still, because, of course they would make an unbelievably dainty feminine model, and a hyper masculine model, of course!

 

They have done a nice job of making some highly muscled feminine characters in the game, at least, so I have to give them their due for that!  Something other games (*cough* TERA *cough*) utterly fail at providing. [Then I remembered the Amani, but I'm going to keep this as I wrote it originally ^^]

Perhaps we are all looking at this wrong...

 

It was mentioned by a first time poster who I will look up and Rep here in as second that they look almost demonic.

 

I am inclined to agree. To me neither of the genders look bestial in comparison to Charr and Aman. HOWEVER, they do look demonic... and if you note the horn direction on the succubus from Haukke manor... it matches the female horns of Au Ra. Perhaps we are off on the origin... They also share the frighteningly haunting look.

 

(I am aware they Succubus in the dungeon has ears and the horns don't replace them, but they have an eerie similarity.)

[Altitis Acquired]

I just wish they'd make the females as bestial as the males, but I know its not something that's going to happen.  They like these aesthetics, and its not hard to understand why.  I don't really think technical limitations come into play, both WoW and TERA have dealt with non-humanoid shapes (with differing levels of grace), and FF could have found a way if that is what they had wanted to do.  But they want to make the Miqo'te version of dragon-people, and that's their prerogative

 

I'll roll my eyes at it still, because, of course they would make an unbelievably dainty feminine model, and a hyper masculine model, of course!

 

They have done a nice job of making some highly muscled feminine characters in the game, at least, so I have to give them their due for that!  Something other games (*cough* TERA *cough*) utterly fail at providing. [Then I remembered the Amani, but I'm going to keep this as I wrote it originally ^^]

Perhaps we are all looking at this wrong...

 

It was mentioned by a first time poster who I will look up and Rep here in as second that they look almost demonic.

 

I am inclined to agree. To me neither of the genders look bestial in comparison to Charr and Aman. HOWEVER, they do look demonic... and if you note the horn direction on the succubus from Haukke manor... it matches the female horns of Au Ra. Perhaps we are off on the origin... They also share the frighteningly haunting look.

 

(I am aware they Succubus in the dungeon has ears and the horns don't replace them, but they have an eerie similarity.)

 

I would absolutely love it if they were demonic rather than draconic... however, it seems like they're definately half-dragons.

[Havoc Snow]

Given the major theme of the expansion is "Dragons" it is entirely unlikely they are anything but Dragonkin, or at least have an appearance inspired by Dragons. That being said, I don't honestly think that the Males look anymore "fierce" than the Females do. The biggest differences are of course the much larger horns and the fact that the Males have that sort of bearded-dragon thing going on in place of having facial hair. Considering it is supposed to replace the aesthetics of having a beard, I can understand why they didn't give it to the females as well. It would be like adding the mutton chops/goatee option that the Miqo'te Males have to the Miqo'te Females. Other than this I suppose the only thing that makes the Males more fierce looking than Females is that the Males seem to have a permanent look of being pissed off.

[Altitis Acquired]

Given the major theme of the expansion is "Dragons" it is entirely unlikely they are anything but Dragonkin, or at least have an appearance inspired by Dragons. That being said, I don't honestly think that the Males look anymore "fierce" than the Females do. The biggest differences are of course the much larger horns and the fact that the Males have that sort of bearded-dragon thing going on in place of having facial hair. Considering it is supposed to replace the aesthetics of having a beard, I can understand why they didn't give it to the females as well. It would be like adding the mutton chops/goatee option that the Miqo'te Males have to the Miqo'te Females. Other than this I suppose the only thing that makes the Males more fierce looking than Females is that the Males seem to have a permanent look of being pissed off.

 

Well, that, and the fact they are alot taller and alot more muscular than the females.

[Arrelaine]

I want big horns on the females! MAKE IT HAPPEN.

[Seriphyn]

Actually, I think SE will come up with a lore reasoning for the sexual dimorphism. It just seems their style in how they explain things in FFXIV.

[Zyrusticae]

[...]Not to mention the majority of players don't seem to really object to the style. We're a minority after all' date=' us roleplayers. [...']

Hah. You're not paying much attention, are you?

 

A selection of quotes from various places on the Internet:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/22/the-mog-log-final-fantasy-xivs-big-fanfest-reveals/

I was pretty disappointed in the new race, even though it's pretty much what i expected, humans shaded/sized up with a token difference that in other games could be a cosmetic accessory. I was hoping something more akin to a Ronso, Banga, etc. I understand maintaining a certain shape is necessary to not give the art/modeling team complete anyeurisms with every new set of gear, but give me something a more out there.

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/12/20/final-fantasy-xiv-introduces-two-new-jobs-and-new-races-for-heav/

not a particularly huge fan of the new race, or rather, the ridiculous gender dimorphism they got going on there... I mean really now.. but hey... still better than the cats *shrug*

The Au Ra look surprisingly humanoid. The description on Gamer Escape mentions a long tail, but it's only visible in the concept art and on one of the females in the Au Ra quartet screenshot. I expected more bestial from that dragonoid description, what with being the first new player race since FFXI launched.

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed in the Au Ra. The guys look beastly, but the girls just look like cute little Hyur. It's hard to even see their horns and tails. I guess Roegadyn women being the least popular race/gender combo means any new races will have traditional gender disparities like this. Kinda sad.

Au Ra race is disappointing for me. Not a fan of everyone looking basically like a human, with certain themes attached to them.

Totally this. I really wanted an Ivalice Alliance kind of new race. I would squeal out loud if an FFXII style Moogle became playable.

What a boring-looking race. Why bother sticking other races in your MMO if they're just going to be human+random animal parts?

 

I am admittedly disappointed. I was hoping they'd go full reptilian, rather than just human with some extra bits glued on.

Agreed. But I'm hardly surprised. We had one human race and four more also-human-but-slightly-different races. It's just annoying that this one is even less different that the ones we already had.

Same, I was wishing for something truly beastly.

Also very disappointed, but in the end... I guess it's what I should have expected. 11 and 14... neither has ever had races that were not essentially human + 5% of something else. Hell most are just human but with a different build or pointy ears.

I think what annoys me more is how Viera clearly won the player poll for what was desired as a race, aaaaand SE said fuck off and just did something else. But hell even Viera are just human + 5% bunny.

But meh, it's just very obvious that if you want very differing races that are not sort of anime-safe, FF14 is not the MMO for you. This race certainly does nothing to draw me back into the game, personally, but I hope plenty of people do enjoy it and are excited.

 

http://kotaku.com/check-out-final-fantasy-xivs-new-race-raid-and-classe-1673451919/all

Okay, I am officially underwhelmed. I was hoping for Chemist as a new healer.. and the new race looks dumb /sigh Guess I'll have no issue staying a Lalafell Scholar

This is so weird, they don't even look like they're the same race. The girls are extremely shorter, and well... basically nothing matches between female and male.

The men look way better/cooler than the females. They need to make them both equally badass.

New race just looks like roegadyn an elezen put together... So stupid. Oh with dumb horns added. I knew I shouldn't have got my hopes up.

The female version is a disappointment... They don't fit together with the males , in fact they don't even look like they are he same race. You could have left out or remove the females and said that they only have males who mate with other species.

 

I could go on, and on, and on. But it's pretty clear that a fairly sizable portion of the playerbase is not happy with or interested in the Au Ra as they stand.

[Flickering Ember]

For all we know though, Final Fantasy XIV's target audience, Japan, could think it is amazing. I mean, I am disappointed but I was expecting for them to be pretty. My honest impression is that the Japanese players probably wouldn't like any race that wasn't pretty. Judging from anime and Japanese RPG's, they don't really do sympathetic non-pretty characters. Attractiveness goes a long way towards a character's popularity.

[Kage]

I take reviews/comments/waatttt with a grain of salt because in my experience those with the negative opinions tend to have much more quantity / more vocal.

 

People who are content and/or happy just don't tend to review things.

[Zyrusticae]

For all we know though, Final Fantasy XIV's target audience, Japan, could think it is amazing. I mean, I am disappointed but I was expecting for them to be pretty. My honest impression is that the Japanese players probably wouldn't like any race that wasn't pretty. Judging from anime and Japanese RPG's, they don't really do sympathetic non-pretty characters. Attractiveness goes a long way towards a character's popularity.

But this is a fallacy.

 

Puppies and cats are universally loved and adored for their cuteness. They are not even remotely human.

 

For an actually extant race example, Asura are also super-cute and very obviously not human:

 

Argonians can be made very cute as well:

 

Attractiveness does not require humanity whatsoever. We find pleeenty of things attractive that have only the barest similarities to humanity (as in bilateral symmetry, eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). This is why I am utterly convinced that just throwing on a couple of non-human features on top of a human template is laziness.

[Kage]

*whispers* Creeeeeeeepy.

[Aysun]

This is why I am utterly convinced that just throwing on a couple of non-human features on top of a human template is laziness.

Or it could be, you know, what the devs wanted to make the race look like. I for one was surprised that Yugiri, after kicking so much major ass, will look like a doll, and kind of like that.

[Havoc Snow]

Given the major theme of the expansion is "Dragons" it is entirely unlikely they are anything but Dragonkin, or at least have an appearance inspired by Dragons. That being said, I don't honestly think that the Males look anymore "fierce" than the Females do. The biggest differences are of course the much larger horns and the fact that the Males have that sort of bearded-dragon thing going on in place of having facial hair. Considering it is supposed to replace the aesthetics of having a beard, I can understand why they didn't give it to the females as well. It would be like adding the mutton chops/goatee option that the Miqo'te Males have to the Miqo'te Females. Other than this I suppose the only thing that makes the Males more fierce looking than Females is that the Males seem to have a permanent look of being pissed off.

 

Well, that, and the fact they are alot taller and alot more muscular than the females.

So are Roegadyn, what's your point?

 

Also in response to posting a few comments and reviews from across the internet. Pretty much have to agree with what Kage said, people who are unhappy are much more vocal than people who are not. Notice how only the first few pages of this thread had anything positive to say about the race and than the last 15 or so pages have been people arguing and being negative? Would you dare to try and say that the handful of people in this thread responding speak for the entirety of the RPC or the FFXIV community as a whole?

[Flickering Ember]

For all we know though, Final Fantasy XIV's target audience, Japan, could think it is amazing. I mean, I am disappointed but I was expecting for them to be pretty. My honest impression is that the Japanese players probably wouldn't like any race that wasn't pretty. Judging from anime and Japanese RPG's, they don't really do sympathetic non-pretty characters. Attractiveness goes a long way towards a character's popularity.

But this is a fallacy.

 

Puppies and cats are universally loved and adored for their cuteness. They are not even remotely human.

 

For an actually extant race example, Asura are also super-cute and very obviously not human:

 

Argonians can be made very cute as well:

 

Attractiveness does not require humanity whatsoever. We find pleeenty of things attractive that have only the barest similarities to humanity (as in bilateral symmetry, eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). This is why I am utterly convinced that just throwing on a couple of non-human features on top of a human template is laziness.

 

While I agree, they are cute, I don't know if a lot of other people would find them cute. Neither of those races were made for Japanese audiences in mind. The Japanese concept of cuteness is different. I don't want to generalize too much because I don't live in their culture. But going off of all their forms of entertainment that I have gotten to interact with, beauty plays a very important role. The Western idea of beauty can often times be much more rugged, even for females.

[Havoc Snow]

The Western idea of beauty can often times be much more rugged, even for females.

 

I don't know that I necessarily agree with this. I think beauty is subjective no matter what culture you are in. I'm sure there are probably at least a few people in Japan who find Roegadyn women beautiful, which is probably the best example of a woman with a rugged appearance we have in FFXIV. I'm willing to bet there are probably a lot more people who find Hyur or Miqo'te a lot more attractive (and thus more appealing to play) than there are people who would want an Argonian or something like that, in either the West or the East.

 

You have to keep in mind that FFXIV is a multination game, it has to appeal to the beauty standards of not just it's home country of Japan, but also Northern America, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, and China (I may be missing a few places, so forgive me if I have). Beauty can be incredibly different in all of these places, but ultimately using typical beauty standards that are common worldwide (such as with the Hyur and Miqo'te) is a safe bet.

 

People tend to be far less critical of what Male characters look like in video games because it's incredibly difficult to go wrong with them. If male characters almost all look the same, or fit into certain stereotypes or follow certain societal standards nobody really gives a shit. If the same thing happens with Female character models people lose their freaking minds over it.

 

In short, it's not really lazy on SEs part. They made the race exactly how they wanted it to look, based on the concept art (which is usually done looooong in advance before renders and ingame models start getting done). What they did do though was play it safe, make a race they knew would appeal to the larger portion of their demographic, which at the end of the day while you can object to it, you can't fault them for it. They are a business after all, and the bottom line is they want to and need to make money on their product, which meant making Dragon Waifus instead of Argonians.

[Zyrusticae]

Also in response to posting a few comments and reviews from across the internet. Pretty much have to agree with what Kage said, people who are unhappy are much more vocal than people who are not. Notice how only the first few pages of this thread had anything positive to say about the race and than the last 15 or so pages have been people arguing and being negative? Would you dare to try and say that the handful of people in this thread responding speak for the entirety of the RPC or the FFXIV community as a whole?

This is a really poor argument.

 

Look, most every other feature of the expansion is pretty much getting universal praise wherever you look. It's only the Au Ra who are getting much in the way of criticism, and that says something. Not only that, it's in such sheer volume that it is pretty much impossible to avoid.

 

The official forums are going to be chock-full of negativity, yes, but this isn't necessarily the case for the entire rest of the Internet.

 

While I agree, they are cute, I don't know if a lot of other people would find them cute. Neither of those races were made for Japanese audiences in mind. The Japanese concept of cuteness is different. I don't want to generalize too much because I don't live in their culture. But going off of all their forms of entertainment that I have gotten to interact with, beauty plays a very important role. The Western idea of beauty can often times be much more rugged, even for females.

I can assure you that the standard for cuteness is a human thing, not a Japanese thing. What's different is one's tolerance for saccharine cuteness (something made obvious just by looking at Western viewers complaining about cute designs being unmanly etc.), and whether or not you place any value on the concept of cuteness. But generally speaking, most people will be able to agree on whether or not something qualifies as 'cute' or 'adorable'.

 

Of course, I can then argue that we are already extremely well-served on that front with the existing races and that they should endeavor to try to fill NEW niches with brand new races. I mean, if the 'new race' could easily have been created simply by adding more facial and skin texture options to an existing race, well, quite frankly that reflects very poorly on the breadth of their character creation.

 

People tend to be far less critical of what Male characters look like in video games because it's incredibly difficult to go wrong with them. If male characters almost all look the same, or fit into certain stereotypes or follow certain societal standards nobody really gives a shit. If the same thing happens with Female character models people lose their freaking minds over it.

This is because there is a ubiquitous trend to make the male characters capable and "badass" while the females are made to be doted on and fawned over.

 

Quite frankly, it's condescending and super-irritating to be relegated to that kind of role again and again and again and again, so yeah, people (women mostly) WILL lose their shit over it, because it's blatantly and unequivocally sexist.

[Havoc Snow]

Also in response to posting a few comments and reviews from across the internet. Pretty much have to agree with what Kage said, people who are unhappy are much more vocal than people who are not. Notice how only the first few pages of this thread had anything positive to say about the race and than the last 15 or so pages have been people arguing and being negative? Would you dare to try and say that the handful of people in this thread responding speak for the entirety of the RPC or the FFXIV community as a whole?

This is a really poor argument.

 

Look, most every other feature of the expansion is pretty much getting universal praise wherever you look. It's only the Au Ra who are getting much in the way of criticism, and that says something. Not only that, it's in such sheer volume that it is pretty much impossible to avoid.

 

The official forums are going to be chock-full of negativity, yes, but this isn't necessarily the case for the entire rest of the Internet.

 

Say what you want, I still think you're wrong on this one. Just because a vocal few are angry and protesting it does not mean that the majority of the playerbase are either excited about it or just don't care.

[Gone.]

This is because there is a ubiquitous trend to make the male characters capable and "badass" while the females are made to be doted on and fawned over.

 

Quite frankly, it's condescending and super-irritating to be relegated to that kind of role again and again and again and again, so yeah, people (women mostly) WILL lose their shit over it, because it's blatantly and unequivocally sexist.

 

Who's forcing you into that role other than yourself? It's about how a character acts, not how they appear that defines them in that way. Looks can be incredibly deceiving, or so the cliche goes.

 

Anyway, I am a lady and personally? I love the Au Ra women, enough so that there is high probability I will be making one the moment Heavensward is in my hands. What she'll be exactly I cannot say, but I do know that as with all my characters, she won't be a delicate pushover in the slightest, rest assured.