There are a lot of people excited to play Viera and Hrothgar in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. There are also a lot of people unhappy that doing so requires you to play a lady or a man, respectively, as the races are both gender-locked to the consternation of fans. The good news? Producer and director Naoki Yoshida is not saying that the other genders will never happen, as he has specifically stated that the developers will consider fan feedback and can add male Viera and female Hrothgar in the future.
Did the team not expect this feedback? Another interview explains that it’s a bit more complicated than that; the team knew that players dearly wanted Viera in the game, but there was also a desire to have a more beastly sort of race design. As a result, it’s less that male Hrothgar replaced male Viera and more that female Viera replaced female Ronso. That won’t take the sting off of having to wait for the other gender to be added, but if the feedback is there, it seems likely they’ll be along in the future.
