In the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV , it was clarified over the weekend that two new races will be added in the expansion “Shadowbringers”. However, you can only play as female Viera and male Hrothgar. This caused an uproar among the fans.
This is the issue: The new information at the fan festival in Tokyo, that the two new races are genderlocked, caused quite a stir.
Here on MeinMMO, some players expressed their dissatisfaction.
The dissatisfied players feel:
- They are restricted in their freedom to play the avatar they created and want to immerse themselves in.
In the international forums, the frustration was also significant. Until now, all races in Final Fantasy XIV had male and female options. Therefore, fans assumed that this would remain the case.
On reddit, “fan art” was posted showing how male Viera and female Hrothgar might look. This received a lot of support.
Together with further unexpected new info about the new job, the topic of “genderlock” created mixed feelings in the forums over the weekend.
Here’s what the boss says now: In an interview with GameSpot , the mastermind behind Final Fantasy XIV, Naoki Yoshida, has now commented on the subject.
He says that there hasn’t been enough time to consider all the feedback that came after the announcement of the Hrothgar:
We want to review every piece of feedback that players have given us. But in the end, adding a new race is quite complex; it’s a pretty big project.
Hrothgar are only male because Viera are only female
This is why Viera are only women: Yoshida further explains that in Final Fantasy XII, the male Viera remained hidden and did not show themselves publicly.
Therefore, Final Fantasy XIV remains true to the lore by offering only the female Viera.
This is why Hrothgar are only men: The fact that Hrothgar are only male is Square Enix’s effort to introduce a purely male race to balance out the fact that Viera are only female.
Will this change? Yoshida does not want to commit to easing the genderlock; first, he wants to evaluate the feedback.
Additionally, Yoshida states that it may be that the Hrothgar are the last new race that Final Fantasy XIV receives – as introducing a new race and balancing it is complex and time-consuming.
