The development team of Final Fantasy 14 strives to accommodate players in many ways. However, the community had to wait a full 5 years for the new and long-awaited race to finally arrive: With the new expansion Dawntrail, you can finally dive into adventure as female Hrothgar.
On January 7 and 8, 2024, Square Enix held the third fan festival of the 2023/2024 series in Tokyo. There, the last announcements for the upcoming expansion Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail were made, which is set to be released in summer 2024.
Among the fresh announcements is the new magical DPS class, the Pictomancer. This class turns you into a magical painter. Additionally, the dev team led by Naoki Yoshida thrilled players with the announcement of the new playable race: The female Hrothgar are finally here.
After 5 years of waiting, female Hrothgar finally arrive in Final Fantasy 14
What are Hrothgar? Hrothgar are one of the races that can be selected for the player character in Final Fantasy 14. You can check out all races in our article where we discuss whether it is still worth starting anew in the MMORPG in 2024.
This race consists of upright-walking big cats. What is particularly special is that they are the only selectable group for the player character that is not just a human with taste
. The other races in the game are rather conventional: In addition to normal humans, there are elves, very muscular humans, humans with horns, humans with cat ears, and humans with rabbit ears.
The Hrothgar, however, are hairy all over and have feline-like heads.
Why did players have to wait 5 years? The Hrothgar were originally implemented in Final Fantasy 14 in 2019 – at least the male version. The race was released in the Shadowbringers expansion along with the then exclusively female Viera. This caused quite a stir regarding the gender lock of the races.
Traditionally, all races in Final Fantasy 14 have both a female and a male version. Additionally, players at the time increasingly wished for monster-like races, similar to those found in World of Warcraft. Presumably, this is why the male Hrothgar were released together with the female Viera.
Due to numerous requests from the community, the female Hrothgar were finally announced for the Endwalker expansion. However, at release, the male Viera were to be ready first. The release of the Hrothgar ladies was pushed to the patch cycle.
Eventually, it became very quiet about the female Hrothgar. Only at the recent fan festival in Tokyo were they confirmed with video and artworks for Dawntrail.
By the way, the complete trailer for Dawntrail was finally shown in Tokyo:
Even after the long wait, players are excited
How does the community react to the female Hrothgar? The response in the community about the MMORPG is very positive. After the long wait, they express their joy on social media. Here are a few voices:
- Volzod via reddit: „Yep, they are perfect. I was afraid it wouldn’t happen and they are much better than I could have hoped.”
- Dezere via reddit: „Thank God not another Miqo’te. She looks fabulous.”
- Ok_Strawberry_3938 via reddit: „They went straight for FFX-Femme-Ronso, and I think that’s great.”
- @norseorisha69 via X.com: „Oh, how cute they are. I usually don’t play one of the big, bulky races, but they have something.”
- @FurlockODonnel via X.com: „I’m so happy, I’m so happy, I’m so happy. They are so much better than I expected!”
However, there are also some criticisms: Especially in the Dawntrail trailer, the Hrothgar shown looks a bit odd as her head seems very small. In the in-game trailer for the race, however, the proportions appear more balanced, which is why most players do not seem to be bothered by it.
Are you also looking forward to the female Hrothgar? Or will you not use your next Fantasia for the big cat ladies? We are curious about your comments.
