Just from reading this thread, I can add a couple people to the list of those I hope not to see when the game releases!
Personally, I like the races just fine. It would have been nice to see all-new races, different from those in FFXI, but I understand why SE chose to go with the same races. It does help that I liked them in XI. Then again, I like the entire FF art style and I accept all of the decisions they make that do not affect gameplay. I absolutely loved FFXI but only played for a few months because it just became too boring for me. Most of my time was spent waiting for groups. I'm hopeful that they changed this for FFXIV, without ruining the elements that made the community so great, but I couldn't care less that they didn't change the races.
Just from reading this thread, I can add a couple people to the list of those I hope not to see when the game releases!
Personally, I like the races just fine. It would have been nice to see all-new races, different from those in FFXI, but I understand why SE chose to go with the same races. It does help that I liked them in XI. Then again, I like the entire FF art style and I accept all of the decisions they make that do not affect gameplay. I absolutely loved FFXI but only played for a few months because it just became too boring for me. Most of my time was spent waiting for groups. I'm hopeful that they changed this for FFXIV, without ruining the elements that made the community so great, but I couldn't care less that they didn't change the races.
Anyway 8-9 years ago we did know what races there were going to be in FFXI, well before its Japanese release date, and way way before it's NA release date. Just like with this game. (people have been translating famitsu since forever!)
I was getting info off of FF fansites that dont even exist anymore, and trying to figure out along with everyone else just what exactly a Red Mage did? Red magic? Slower cast time on the same spells as white and black mages? What does it doooo?! And Why were Galka so ugly and why galka can't possibly play a compentant mage class everrrrrr. And taru omg so cute and omg so powerful if you made one as a black mage? And lol I bet all the dirty people will play mithra, and why did they release pics of mithra in bathing suits wtf?!
Flashbacks aside, it does seem like SE doesn't care about character models, races, or flashy things in general doesn't it...
Mithra and Tarus were the reasons I played FFXI, and its going to be the reason I play FFXIV. Art is subjective, and everyone is going to have their own opinion of it.
And, 8 years out? 9 years out? 6.5 years out? Does it really matter aside from who wins the argument?
Yeah it was rough as a mage on the galka. Luckilly the races are more normalized in XIV and you dont have such a big difference in there stats at startup and you can always add to the stats in the game so meh.
But the whole roughness of playing the galka was what kept me coming back, here i am I am a galka mage, yes my mana pool stinks but I bet I can heal or dps with the best of them. I liked being the underdog, you can go with your Taru and take the easy way out and I will still stick with my harder to play galka. Some might think dude your gimping yourself, but hey I am not in it to take the easy way out, I am in it to play what I like. That is one of the things that kills me a lot on the MMO front the cookie cutter mentality, everyone thinks that you should be a certain thing, be different and be shuned. Its all crap I tell you!
And I dont want to see a female galka! Come on we who played galka knew we where an ugly race but we played them anyways. Now imagine how ugly the female galka is going to be.... and I thought Galka where genderless in FFXI to begin with.
Yeah it was rough as a mage on the galka. Luckilly the races are more normalized in XIV and you dont have such a big difference in there stats at startup and you can always add to the stats in the game so meh.
But the whole roughness of playing the galka was what kept me coming back, here i am I am a galka mage, yes my mana pool stinks but I bet I can heal or dps with the best of them. I liked being the underdog, you can go with your Taru and take the easy way out and I will still stick with my harder to play galka. Some might think dude your gimping yourself, but hey I am not in it to take the easy way out, I am in it to play what I like. That is one of the things that kills me a lot on the MMO front the cookie cutter mentality, everyone thinks that you should be a certain thing, be different and be shuned. Its all crap I tell you!
And I dont want to see a female galka! Come on we who played galka knew we where an ugly race but we played them anyways. Now imagine how ugly the female galka is going to be.... and I thought Galka where genderless in FFXI to begin with.
I played a Taru DK and Warrior. My DK was OP though cause my spells were kick butt along with scythe DPS. Anyways, galka is still only male and mithra only female. Or Reodgyn and ......something else.
Yeah it was rough as a mage on the galka. Luckilly the races are more normalized in XIV and you dont have such a big difference in there stats at startup and you can always add to the stats in the game so meh.
I liked that different races were more suited for classes as it adds to the race history for the character but now I'm not sure how that's going to work...
btw for ur comparison on that F2P game FFXI came out before that game did :P so they had the cat like creature first >:( and as for the child like race lawlz its no different then dwarves in other games grumpy midget old men who cares but then again theirs nothing wrong with the "child 'like races unless someones thinking about the wrong things :P then ugh
IMO, the difference isn't really big enough between races.. cat-humans, large humans, pointy-eared humans, and.. children?(okay, so the Lallafel are unique enough).
Compare those to GW2's Charr, Asura, and even Sylvari, it's clear how they're different from humans; it's not just different skin tones and body types. Seems as if I'm forced to play a low-fantasy character in a high-fantasy world.
But that just makes FFXIV's races appealing in their own way.. they kinda remind me of old-school anime/JRPGs for some reason, and they're at least somewhat original.. not just blatant rip-offs of Tolkien races.
I guess as long as what we will be encountering in combat appears at least a little intimidating I am OK with it. If the goal is to kill child-looking beings, teddy bears and other care-bear/dragon tales looking characters then maybe this is not the right game for me. Especially after coming from AoC where I was able to literally decapitate Picts and the like.
you dont kill child looking things :P you normally kill ugly shit anyways but thats where people get mislead :P , you guys have to wait till it comes out see how it is then make fun of it or enjoy it not before you even tried it.
I never played the older Final Fantasy MMO but I really don't care what races they had there. It doesn't mean they have to use them here.
But whats the deal with the race that looks like 5-year old children??? Are we supposed to take them seriously? What kind of sicko came up with that idea?
That giant guy is a bit disappointing with that undersized, non-intimidating head.
Cat-girl reaks of an overdone FTP MMO class, e.g., Archlord
So it's choose between human (effeminate male or tomboy) or the goat boy/girl with those goat ears. Choices, choices...
It seems they are unneccessarily limiting us to few race selections. I guess all I can hope is that they are going to suprise us with some more!
Am I the only one thinking this? Please give me the smack down if I am off base here
I am going to agree with Torment's comment close to the beginning. These races are basically archtypal. Each type of race is needed to attract a portion of the demographic.
Humans represent the average, average strength, average beauty, average height. Usually they are described in most games as jacks-of-all-trades. I find it also somewhat disappointing that the men look more like late teen boys but that seems to be more the norm with asian games and anime art. In other games they are usually humans also. (duh)
The big guy is just that "the big guy." The tough guy. You have to have the big race for those who want to be big on the field. Usually very strong and physical. More often warrior and tanks. The starting linebacker of mmos. In other games they may be Tauren, Ogres or Black Orcs
The cat girl race brings the sexy girl to the choices though in this game she is not played up to an extreme. That is a bit refreshing. Some play these races to watch them, some will play them to see if they can get a more positive initial reaction from other players and some will play them because they simply want to look sexy or feel sexy. Some girls fall into this last catagory. For what ever reason, your world needs its sexy girl race. In other games they are usally elves of some type, night elves, blood elves, dark elves, witch elves, high elves, less often humans or something completely different like with Tera's Castanics.
Elves don't always serve as the sexy race though they always tend to be more beautiful, but in some games they are more dignified and modest. I could be wrong, I don't follow FF lore but thats what the elves look like here and from FFXI. They are the high intellectual, dignified, usually older and wiser race. Often the keepers of Lore. Stronger on magic though often able to bring superior fighting though fighting arts rather than brute force. In other games they are also elves specifically usually high elves. Draenai might also fit this catagory.
Finally, you always have a small, often cute, often funny little race. They are often comic relief. Some people like to be small. They are often unassuming but with great power. I understand these little-uns are supposed to be better at magic. Small races often are. They are almost always smart races though not in a high intellectual way but more often in a clever or tinkering kind of way. Often people also like to make them rogues of some kind. Often some will seek the odd juxtaposition of a small person playing a role that is usually for someone bigger like tanking. In other games they are gnomes, halflings, possibly goblins, or perhaps faeries. Dwarves in Warhammer.
There are possibly two optional types as well. An evil race and a monsterous race. These are not univeral, I believe because the default for most games is to represent the good guys. Final Fantasy appears to be squarly in that mold, at least with respect to evil. The galka(?) race is somewhat on the monsterous side but FF seems to be going for the gentle giant meme with them. In other games you have usually dark elves being an evil foil to light or high elves. Sometimes there might be a demon or fallen angel style race. On the monsterous side they are usually just big and hideous, trolls, ogres, orcs, lizardmen or some dragon decended race.
As for the elves having goat ears I couldn't even figure out what you were refering to at first. Between FF and Lineage, I think it is just more of an Asian thing to show elves with long pointed ears pointing straight out rather than straight back or with smaller pointed ears.
Were those screenshots really the mobs that we can look forward to facing? Looks like the same ones from Final Fantasy Playstation I version.
whatever it is you are smoking can you please send me some it has to be amazing, cause you are out of your mind if you think that sheep looks like soemthing from ff 1 considering fff1 was made for normal nintendo not playstation and tjhere were no sheep in that game at all.
Humans represent the average, average strength, average beauty, average height. Usually they are described in most games as jacks-of-all-trades. I find it also somewhat disappointing that the men look more like late teen boys but that seems to be more the norm with asian games and anime art. In other games they are usually humans also. (duh)
I agree but to be fair, FFXIV you have the Highlanders(the other Human tribe):
Is that beard manly enough for ya? :P
@Khrymson, Whoever designed those monsters is a genius! Exactly what I want to see in a FF game.
Ahh remember those spriggans they were a very good of income for the early levels when they dropped their bags with seeds I think.
Can't wait for the game to launch!
Too bad the race I would like miqo'te male won't be in game at launch (They may release it after) prolly will have to be a human or elf depending on the customizations, height and whatever.
I was happy that they brought over the some of the races in ffxi but I was hoping they would add a couple more. Also, to me the elvaan & human races look too similar. Perhaps, dropping the elvaan race & adding in a substitute?
I still enjoyed ffxi though & plan to give this one a try.
Comments
Just from reading this thread, I can add a couple people to the list of those I hope not to see when the game releases!
Personally, I like the races just fine. It would have been nice to see all-new races, different from those in FFXI, but I understand why SE chose to go with the same races. It does help that I liked them in XI. Then again, I like the entire FF art style and I accept all of the decisions they make that do not affect gameplay. I absolutely loved FFXI but only played for a few months because it just became too boring for me. Most of my time was spent waiting for groups. I'm hopeful that they changed this for FFXIV, without ruining the elements that made the community so great, but I couldn't care less that they didn't change the races.
Agree 100 percent. Preach on.
END OF LINE_
~V
Woah...
Anyway 8-9 years ago we did know what races there were going to be in FFXI, well before its Japanese release date, and way way before it's NA release date. Just like with this game. (people have been translating famitsu since forever!)
I was getting info off of FF fansites that dont even exist anymore, and trying to figure out along with everyone else just what exactly a Red Mage did? Red magic? Slower cast time on the same spells as white and black mages? What does it doooo?! And Why were Galka so ugly and why galka can't possibly play a compentant mage class everrrrrr. And taru omg so cute and omg so powerful if you made one as a black mage? And lol I bet all the dirty people will play mithra, and why did they release pics of mithra in bathing suits wtf?!
Flashbacks aside, it does seem like SE doesn't care about character models, races, or flashy things in general doesn't it...
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Mithra and Tarus were the reasons I played FFXI, and its going to be the reason I play FFXIV. Art is subjective, and everyone is going to have their own opinion of it.
And, 8 years out? 9 years out? 6.5 years out? Does it really matter aside from who wins the argument?
And they say Wow looks cartoon, theses races are cartoons. At least moogles arent playable... what a mess
Personally, the FFXI races are my favorite from any MMO. They look awesome. Tarus/Lalafell will always be number one for me.
Edeus dont talk bad about my galka!
Yeah it was rough as a mage on the galka. Luckilly the races are more normalized in XIV and you dont have such a big difference in there stats at startup and you can always add to the stats in the game so meh.
But the whole roughness of playing the galka was what kept me coming back, here i am I am a galka mage, yes my mana pool stinks but I bet I can heal or dps with the best of them. I liked being the underdog, you can go with your Taru and take the easy way out and I will still stick with my harder to play galka. Some might think dude your gimping yourself, but hey I am not in it to take the easy way out, I am in it to play what I like. That is one of the things that kills me a lot on the MMO front the cookie cutter mentality, everyone thinks that you should be a certain thing, be different and be shuned. Its all crap I tell you!
And I dont want to see a female galka! Come on we who played galka knew we where an ugly race but we played them anyways. Now imagine how ugly the female galka is going to be.... and I thought Galka where genderless in FFXI to begin with.
I played a Taru DK and Warrior.
My DK was OP though cause my spells were kick butt along with scythe DPS. Anyways, galka is still only male and mithra only female. Or Reodgyn and ......something else.
I liked that different races were more suited for classes as it adds to the race history for the character but now I'm not sure how that's going to work...
btw for ur comparison on that F2P game FFXI came out before that game did :P so they had the cat like creature first >:( and as for the child like race lawlz its no different then dwarves in other games grumpy midget old men who cares
but then again theirs nothing wrong with the "child 'like races unless someones thinking about the wrong things :P then ugh 
Apparently someone needs to learn what a cartoon is.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
IMO, the difference isn't really big enough between races.. cat-humans, large humans, pointy-eared humans, and.. children?(okay, so the Lallafel are unique enough).
Compare those to GW2's Charr, Asura, and even Sylvari, it's clear how they're different from humans; it's not just different skin tones and body types. Seems as if I'm forced to play a low-fantasy character in a high-fantasy world.
But that just makes FFXIV's races appealing in their own way.. they kinda remind me of old-school anime/JRPGs for some reason, and they're at least somewhat original.. not just blatant rip-offs of Tolkien races.
I guess as long as what we will be encountering in combat appears at least a little intimidating I am OK with it. If the goal is to kill child-looking beings, teddy bears and other care-bear/dragon tales looking characters then maybe this is not the right game for me. Especially after coming from AoC where I was able to literally decapitate Picts and the like.
you dont kill child looking things :P you normally kill ugly shit anyways but thats where people get mislead :P , you guys have to wait till it comes out see how it is then make fun of it or enjoy it
not before you even tried it.
If you don't think this is awesome, you can go die in a fire.
Don't forget these awesome looking and fearsome monsters!
Spriggan {too fricken cute, but prolly super-ebil and stuffs!}
Salamander
Drake
Goobbue
And of course this one, which the name escapes me atm, but seriously...that looks amazing!
That is possibly one of the coolest normal creatures I have seen in years of gaming, LOL. I can't wait!
END OF LINE_
~V
I actually agree with the OP on this.
These races don't really catch my attention. They are just a bunch of reused content from past games. Considering it's SE though, I'm not surprised
Green Giants and felines are average. I wouldn't really mind playing as them.
Humans are Humans. No problem there.
Goat Eared dudes are basically Elves(very creative...). Wouldn't really mind playing as them either.
And then we come to the biggest problem of the races: The Lalafell/5 year old kids.
Apparently the 5 year old kids are also incredibly smart. Who knew.
What bothers me though is seeing a five year old kid getting killed from like a huge drake/ogre/raptor or whatever.
Doesn't seem right...
"Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet." -Bob Marley
I'm probably one of those people who just get wet.
I am going to agree with Torment's comment close to the beginning. These races are basically archtypal. Each type of race is needed to attract a portion of the demographic.
Humans represent the average, average strength, average beauty, average height. Usually they are described in most games as jacks-of-all-trades. I find it also somewhat disappointing that the men look more like late teen boys but that seems to be more the norm with asian games and anime art. In other games they are usually humans also. (duh)
The big guy is just that "the big guy." The tough guy. You have to have the big race for those who want to be big on the field. Usually very strong and physical. More often warrior and tanks. The starting linebacker of mmos. In other games they may be Tauren, Ogres or Black Orcs
The cat girl race brings the sexy girl to the choices though in this game she is not played up to an extreme. That is a bit refreshing. Some play these races to watch them, some will play them to see if they can get a more positive initial reaction from other players and some will play them because they simply want to look sexy or feel sexy. Some girls fall into this last catagory. For what ever reason, your world needs its sexy girl race. In other games they are usally elves of some type, night elves, blood elves, dark elves, witch elves, high elves, less often humans or something completely different like with Tera's Castanics.
Elves don't always serve as the sexy race though they always tend to be more beautiful, but in some games they are more dignified and modest. I could be wrong, I don't follow FF lore but thats what the elves look like here and from FFXI. They are the high intellectual, dignified, usually older and wiser race. Often the keepers of Lore. Stronger on magic though often able to bring superior fighting though fighting arts rather than brute force. In other games they are also elves specifically usually high elves. Draenai might also fit this catagory.
Finally, you always have a small, often cute, often funny little race. They are often comic relief. Some people like to be small. They are often unassuming but with great power. I understand these little-uns are supposed to be better at magic. Small races often are. They are almost always smart races though not in a high intellectual way but more often in a clever or tinkering kind of way. Often people also like to make them rogues of some kind. Often some will seek the odd juxtaposition of a small person playing a role that is usually for someone bigger like tanking. In other games they are gnomes, halflings, possibly goblins, or perhaps faeries. Dwarves in Warhammer.
There are possibly two optional types as well. An evil race and a monsterous race. These are not univeral, I believe because the default for most games is to represent the good guys. Final Fantasy appears to be squarly in that mold, at least with respect to evil. The galka(?) race is somewhat on the monsterous side but FF seems to be going for the gentle giant meme with them. In other games you have usually dark elves being an evil foil to light or high elves. Sometimes there might be a demon or fallen angel style race. On the monsterous side they are usually just big and hideous, trolls, ogres, orcs, lizardmen or some dragon decended race.
As for the elves having goat ears I couldn't even figure out what you were refering to at first. Between FF and Lineage, I think it is just more of an Asian thing to show elves with long pointed ears pointing straight out rather than straight back or with smaller pointed ears.
All die, so die well.
whatever it is you are smoking can you please send me some it has to be amazing, cause you are out of your mind if you think that sheep looks like soemthing from ff 1 considering fff1 was made for normal nintendo not playstation and tjhere were no sheep in that game at all.
I agree but to be fair, FFXIV you have the Highlanders(the other Human tribe):
Is that beard manly enough for ya? :P
@Khrymson, Whoever designed those monsters is a genius! Exactly what I want to see in a FF game.
Here's another pretty boyyy
Ahh remember those spriggans they were a very good of income for the early levels when they dropped their bags with seeds I think.
Can't wait for the game to launch!
Too bad the race I would like miqo'te male won't be in game at launch (They may release it after) prolly will have to be a human or elf depending on the customizations, height and whatever.
I was happy that they brought over the some of the races in ffxi but I was hoping they would add a couple more. Also, to me the elvaan & human races look too similar. Perhaps, dropping the elvaan race & adding in a substitute?
I still enjoyed ffxi though & plan to give this one a try.