After months of speculation and years of waiting, Female Hrothgar are finally coming to Final Fantasy XIV in the Dawntrail expansion, but with them comes the unfortunate reality that this could be the final race added to FFXIV. At least that’s what FFXIV director and producer Yoshi-P implied during his keynote presentation during the Tokyo Fan Fest on Jan. 7.
Speaking through a translator, Yoshi-P stated that: “After a long wait we finally be implementing the last race: Female Hrothgar." This statement was said almost as an afterthought following the incredible Female Hrothgar trailer, and was a slightly jarring end to an otherwise incredible presentation.
FFXIV currently has seven playable races: Hyur, Elezen, Miqo'te, Lalafell, Roegadyn, Viera, and Hrothgar. All but Hrothgar were playable with both male and female characters as of Endwalker, but with the release of Dawntrail, there will be 14 possible race and gender combinations in the game. According to Yoshi-P, it seems there’s no plans for more races after this.
“Making a new race is really hard, and I have said continually throughout these 10 years that this would be the last one," Yoshi-P said after introducing Female Hrothgar to the crowd in the Tokyo Dome. “I’d like to say that this will be the last one. But perhaps I can’t.”
Yoshi-P has a point. Each new race must have all existing glamours, clothing, mounts, animations, and everything else created for them, and as FFXIV grows, the work to add a new race only gets more substantial.
That said, it would be a shame for this to be the final race added to the game, as it effectively makes the world and universe feel smaller. And beyond this, there’s in-game races that currently aren’t playable that we’re sure players would love to experience. For example Garleans and Padjal have been major parts of the game’s story for over a decade, yet they’ve never been playable. And there’s all the incredibly diverse Allied Tribes which would all make incredible playable races in perhaps a limited scope, similar to World of Warcraft’s Allied Races.
But ultimately, the newly introduced fem-Hroth’s look amazing, and complaining that nothing is coming after them seems a little ungrateful, even if it is sad news that they may be the last of the new races added.
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