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Au Ra Character Creation Screens discussion! - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Au Ra Character Creation Screens discussion! (/showthread.php?tid=11291)

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RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - ArmachiA - 04-26-2015

^ I agree.

I think there's a case to be made here about what is stereotypically female and whether or not those stereotypes are something we, when playing females, want, but saying they are children ruin the argument since people will focus on that aspect.

Women are expected to look very, very female. That usually means short, big eyes, small noses, dewy features, and puckers lips. The Au Ra look pretty much exactly the way Japan sees ideal female beauty. Just look at their idols (Girls who are supposed to represent ideal Japanese beauty):

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Mayu Watanabe (21) of AKB48

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Sayumi Michishige (25) of Morning Musume

These girls are beautifully small faced and youthful, and very popular in Japan. Au Ra females pretty much look like Japanese idols.

The problem comes that we, as players, fall for it. Because we find those features attractive as well. Look at how popular Miqo'te and Midlander Hyur's ARE. Half of the server is pretty much Miqo'te on it's own, add Midlander Hyurs to the mix and finding an Elezen, Roe, Lalafell, and Highlander can actually be difficult. The truth is, this race was designed on what would sell and WE AS PLAYERS have made it clear what we like.

Do I think it's an issue overall? Of course. We shouldn't be afraid to play the Roe's and the Highlanders, and it's a problem that they are seen as somehow less feminine than their Moqote counterparts.

We should also talk about the Male Au Ra, too, who are basically designed like Fujoshi-bait anime boys to be slender, tall, and attractive. But less heat seems to be hitting the males even though the males absolutely 100% look like Japanese male idols to me.

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What up, Yamapi?

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Seriphyn - 04-26-2015

Yeah that DBZ hair is nonsense.

The lack of excessive anime aesthetic on the other races (with exception) is laudable. However, this is a teenage high school girl villain taken straight-up from your worst anime.

IDK, I'm just looking at these screens and thinking "Wow, this is as shit as I'd imagined". Remove the horns and they're terribad generic anime people. I'm sure people can make compelling characters who are decidedly hornless.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Sophia_Grave - 04-26-2015

I don't think anyone with a brain thinks that looking like a Japanese idol is inherently bad. What does rub me the wrong way is that those of us who want something different are simply left sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.

What I personally like about the game is that there are options. If I don't feel like raiding, I can still progress. If I don't feel like progression, I can decorate my house, craft, do Saucer stuff, or anything else, and that doesn't even include RP, which takes up most of my playtime. Every one of us are looking forward to Heavensward. But when it comes to the Au Ra, I'm left scratching my head as to why they'd not only cater to a specific taste, but fail to even throw anyone else a bone. Personally, I love reptillian races; always have. If Bangaa were a playable race, I'd literally drop both my RP characters and Fantasia into one without a second thought. I was psyched about Au Ra, naturally: scales? Woo! But I feel like the race was saddled with a bunch of stuff simply to make it appeal to the majority.

Why don't the races have the diverse options that Hyur do? Midlanders and Highlander may as well be completely different races, if one considers how much variety both have. The whole point of racial choice in fantasy is diversity but currently, each race's appearance options are paltry by comparison to Hyur. Lalafell tribe choice is hardly anything more than which eye type you like better. Miqo'te are a warm palette with cat eyes, or a cold palette with cat teeth. Roegadyn and Elezen are both simply warm vs. cold palette swaps. Are other races simply not as diverse in appearance as Hyur are? Why?

I simply don't like the idea that Au Ra is synonymous with this heavy anime aesthetic. Reptilian/demon-like is already unique enough compared to what we have, so it is just baffling that they'd go a step further and say "how about scales, but only if you like shonen anime!"

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Aaron - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 01:29 AM)Nero Wrote: The males have some serious anime hair syndrome going on. That's not unexpected in the slightest of course, but it still makes me laugh.

[Image: a4581161-s.jpg]

Dude must spend five hours a day just soaking his head in roofing sealant or polymer cement, I swear.

Somewhat unrelated, but I don't see enough female characters wearing the dreadlocks hairstyle. I almost like it as much as the ponytail.
[Image: img_20150426_224110_by_advent_fantasy-d8r6n4i.jpg]

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - ArmachiA - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 06:33 PM)Apl_Juice Wrote: I don't think anyone with a brain thinks that looking like a Japanese idol is inherently bad. What does rub me the wrong way is that those of us who want something different are simply left sitting here, twiddling our thumbs.

I never said that, I'm explaining the aesthetic. In fact reading on, I go on to say the Aesthetic is what needs to be talked about, wrong or right, not the fact they look like children. Those stereotypes are wrong, where certain things look Feminine and certain things look Masculine. But let's talk about them from the same place SE is coming from: Japanese culture, instead of "Short and cute = kids".

Quotin myself:
Quote:Do I think it's an issue overall? Of course. We shouldn't be afraid to play the Roe's and the Highlanders, and it's a problem that they are seen as somehow less feminine than their Moqote counterparts.


RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Sophia_Grave - 04-26-2015

My post wasn't "aimed" at you, Arma or anyone else. I used your Idol description because its succinct and helps make my point.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - ArmachiA - 04-26-2015

That's fine. I'm just making sure my point is clear. It's just really easy to get a point confused around here so I'm easily on the defensive. Thumbsup

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Sophia_Grave - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 06:50 PM)ArmachiA Wrote: That's fine. I'm just making sure my point is clear. It's just really easy to get a point confused around here so I'm easily on the defensive. Thumbsup
Fair enough! Yea, I was giving my piece on the general mood of the Au Ra discussion around here. I feel like there's this sort of weird vibe that says "I would like it this way, and it should only be this and everything else is bad" when we should actually be wondering why such style options aren't just available to everyone, you know?

I pretty much agree with your more critical points

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - ArmachiA - 04-26-2015

For me, it's just makes me confused on what SE wants the Au Ra to be. I'm fine with the aesthetic choice generally, but if the Au Ra are supposed to be a battle hardened, warring Tribe kinda thing that the lore is implying... the aesthetic of Japanese idols isn't making much sense and it kind effs up my immersion on them.

I dunno maybe I'm wrong and they'll be less war-y then implied, but the aesthetic should match the lore and so far, at least for the Xaela females, it's not really so much. We'll see. Like, I said, I think the females look fine on their own, it's just gonna be weird if their look doesn't match the lore.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Wymsical - 04-26-2015

At this point in the thread, I'm just going to say that I personally am happy with the Au Ra females so far, barring me somehow not making anything I like in the benchmark. 
But there are some that definitely don't and I think we can all agree the scales and horns have some odd choices. Would it have been great if they had clans with actual physical differences instead of just coloring? Absolutely.

Ultimately, I think the people who do like Au Ra are getting weary of all the negativity in most of the threads about them but the people who are dissatisfied with the design are expressing their disappointment and feedback. And, after all, Square Enix should be aware of all the varying tastes in the game so they can take these opinions under consideration too.

Me, it's a little disheartening to be excited about Au Ra and run across very harsh judgments of the race and sometimes implications about the reasons for their design. But I also want super neat more mature looking ladies for the others too! 

So, uh... I guess I don't have any good advice besides maybe some threads about ideas for new races and feedback about old concept art on the official and these forums to bring awareness to SE would be awesome?

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Nero - 04-26-2015

It's also interesting to note the bestial aesthetic of the original concept art, particularly regarding the FemRa:
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The concept art has the FemRa looking voluptuous with much more prominent, savage features. The one on the left also has some kind of scaled growth obscuring the top of their face as if to highlight the unnatural nature of their less humanoid aspects. This design is interesting for me, mostly because it seems like a concept artist drew this up, showed this to the producers, who then went "Hey, this looks good. Let's take this as far in the opposite direction as possible."

Concept art for the ManRa runs a similar route. I can only dream of what kind of nightmarish clipping issues would have arosen from the in-game model borne of this design.

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I may have gripes with the blandness of the design, but ultimately Square would rather create something bland and commonly played than something unique that has only niche appeal. I don't agree with their aesthetic choices, but I do understand them.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Sophia_Grave - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 07:32 PM)Nero Wrote: snip
Hnng. I want that. See, why can't we have these as the Highlander Au Ra to the what we currently have as the Midlander-esque Au Ra? Yea, yea, I know; gotta keep costs down on animations and modelling and whatever. ;-;

I'm sort of hoping that after tomorrow, they'll be some outcry and consequent tweaking. Not to take away anyone's options of course, but to add more.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Meena - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 07:32 PM)Nero Wrote: It's also interesting to note the bestial aesthetic of the original concept art, particularly regarding the FemRa:
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Whoa whoa whoa whoa!

This looks absolutely amazeballs!

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Wymsical - 04-26-2015

(04-26-2015, 07:45 PM)Apl_Juice Wrote: I'm sort of hoping that after tomorrow, they'll be some outcry and consequent tweaking. Not to take away anyone's options of course, but to add more.

Adding more most likely won't happen - because it probably can't. Time and time again, when we ask for new options for old races they say that 'Character Data Limits' prevent it. I believe the last time this was brought up, it was when people were asking for new Highlander male beards and they quoted this as the reason why they couldn't. I'm not certain but it sounds like PS3 support limitations.

It'd be neat if they tweaked the textures so the scales blend more with the skin or changed one of the faces to look older, though.

RE: Au Ra Character Creation Screens! - Meena - 04-26-2015

I'd just be happier if the height cap was raised from 5'2 to something like 5'6?