It's time to stand up for us Monks.

Instead of talking about the disadvantages Monks have at the moment like maintaining Grease lightning, I'd rather focus on something most people over look. The way the gear looks. Now I understand that the developers wish to be unique, however I feel that we Monks have suffered heavy in the looks department. Particularly the male's. If you really look closely we only have one other piece of gear that could be considered monk gear which would be the lvl 58 gear that was copy and pasted among machinist, bards, and ninjas.I find that some choices such as giant blades on a monk, lack of monk robes of any sort, copy/paste dragoon alexander/law gear, heavy female influenced esoteric gear, etc is really detrimental to my enjoy-ability in this game. All I wish is to actually look like a male monk in robes (not dresses, skirts, or kilts)who fights with his fist. From looking at Female monks vs Male monks I can see that their is an extremely heavy bias toward females. Please can you fix this.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaddai

...heavy female influenced esoteric gear...

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Except it's actually influenced from a male in the FF series.

FF4 Yang
FF4 Yang (Amano Art)

Ok. That's fine then. Just take off the bra we males have.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaddai

Ok. That's fine then. Just take off the bra we males have.

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I'd probably use this to look more like Yang : The Emperor's New Robe

Or some other body piece for glamour.

Sorry man but he looks like a circus performer. Here are some examples of monks. I doubt anything will happen, but I have to try anyway. Who knows maybe people will be inspired more in this direction in the future.

http://thehellmod.ucoz.ru/Guide/Monk_06.jpg
http://paizo.com/image/content/Crims...O9009-Monk.jpg
http://img0.91huo.com/us/img/news/20...0913_mmonk.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...6d527803b6.jpg
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/_/rsrc/14181...y-Yama-320.png
http://www.gameranx.com/img/14-Jul/diablo-3.jpg
https://bstaveley.files.wordpress.co...sbladespsd.jpg

those are all monks from different games. monks in FF look like yang. all of the job armor is based off of a certain aesthetic, they're always going to keep to that aesthetic whether people like it or not. thats why glamour exists, if you dont like it you're free to change.

I hope your wrong. No offense. Yang looks nothing like a monk. Looks more like a clown in flashy pants with braids. I glamour all the time, but the problem is their is not anything to glamour too. I use different classes. it just sucks that my favorite and main doesn't actually look like its name lol.

http://www.aibd.org/blog/wp-content/...monks-2014.jpg
http://www.the-fanboy-perspective.co...9_orig.png?482

There was talk of gender specific AF2 armor after you "repair" it so maybe it would change. I would love to see the halter top dropped and just have the tattoos on the chest for males. Also the weird hat isn't something they've had before in previous games, why not the old school Ryu headband which has been in previous FFs.

Monk gear is one of the reasons I play the job. It's so colorful, flashy and full of life. Also I like the wrap around the chest area. I like it with the Arachne set I'm wearing now and I like it with the AF2. I don't like being straight up shirtless to be honest but I do still like to show off a bit.

I think AF1 is a good alternative if you're not a fan of the more revealing attire. Or how about they add the armor for the job that monk advances into in FF3 which is the BlackBelt.

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...-BlackBelt.png

Well atleast your AF2 doesn't look like what the designer of Evenstar shit last night

The thing that turns me off from leveling monk any higher is the weapons. It's just that almost all of them look so stupid. I think the armor is okay but lacks a lot in terms of variety. There's always Odin's armor for a heavy armor look, and the new PvP gear looks great. But yikes, those weapons. I just glamoured the smallest "regular" weapon I could find, opting for realism over the absolutely ridiculous and quite frankly bad looking weapons.

The armor looks fine to me, but the weapon, that spike frisbee, the moment I got it I glamour it with Hive claw, at least that looks decent. Well the Gordian one looks kinda ok too. But really though can we get better design weapon instead of just spiky and blade like weapon.
This is a nice looking fist weapon, maybe a tad huge, at least it's not bladed or spiky
http://massivelyop.com/wp-content/up...ss-860x280.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by valho

The armor looks fine to me, but the weapon, that spike frisbee, the moment I got it I glamour it with Hive claw, at least that looks decent. Well the Gordian one looks kinda ok too. But really though can we get better design weapon instead of just spiky and blade like weapon.
This is a nice looking fist weapon, maybe a tad huge, at least it's not bladed or spiky
http://massivelyop.com/wp-content/up...ss-860x280.jpg

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I am for this. This is one of the main problems I have had with monks. I feel like a monk needs a gauntlet type weapon not these weapons that just extends your reach. I am fine having both, but I would love for them to add some gauntlet type weapons in game. As for the body armor, I do agree that is looks better on the female characters and would like to see more traditional robes as well like Fuma from crystal tower. Well either way monk is still my favorite. ^^

http://i1.2pcdn.com/node14/image/art...ld91qyd0lb.jpg

only glam for weps I need ^.^ (but the weps I will agree is my least favorite part of the class)

I think the new PVP armor looks pretty good for male character and it's not flashy, the Hawkliege set wasn't that bad either and looks nice on both male and female.

if it's weapon glamor, i love the relic weapon.

http://i.imgur.com/rtLnzOL.png

Yeah, remove the white cloth on the chest and make it more like Yang.
(but keep it for the girls')

The point of "monk has always been like this in FF series" is not convincing at all. Monk equipment design seems lazy. You have "heavy" armored equip from the raid (cause doing cut&paste for Monk and Dragoon is pretty useful) then you have fancy light armor in your artifact/currency armor. Plus, those weapons. Even if Ravana weapon are coherent with the Primal design still it's stupid to have monk using claws and such weapon design.

About the female bias. A lot of equipments, especially healer ones, are designed around female character, one recent example is Astrologian. Why they don't put some effort and at least try to make the equipment look more "manly" for male characters?

Of all the jobs, MNK has the coolest looking AF1.

I'm just waiting for SE to cave and finally give us our sleeveless Gi's. We have the hadouken, and to a degree the Shoryuken and the Hurricane Kick, just add in the rest already XD

Please end the ridiculous looking scissor, hook, blade, and needle weapons. Even the knuckle weapons look so protruded and unnatural. Please give us the option to have invisible weapons like the option for the helmet, or make weapon that go ON the hand instead of IN them. EX: the AF1 Gloves look very familiar to a weapon and look amazing. Monks are revered for being strict masters of the body. This is evident in the skills that are used and the body actions. The weapons just make them look like puppets or Freddy Crueger(sp). Give us some dignity please.

And yes stop being lazy with armor layouts and stop copy pasta everything....Please.

Thank you

Finally people are speaking out. I was beginning to think I was the only one bothered immensely by the design choices SE made particularly for Monks. I feel like SE tends to look at all the other classes but throws us Monks under the bus HARD.

I feel your pain, but I think casters are in an even worse place. Every single piece of gear you get is a long grandma dress. Seriously, as a guy the design style starts to get old really fast, but it's impossible for the designers to understand anything other than "magic powers = grandma dress". At least monk does get some athletic/vaguely masculine armor choices, and I've always thought the original monk af gear was the nicest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaddai

Sorry man but he looks like a circus performer. Here are some examples of monks.

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Are... are you serious?

That's like saying chocobos aren't REAL mounts because OTHER games have horses. While I respect your opinion that male Monk equipment should look more 'manly' -- I have several friends who have said the same thing -- to say that they are 'not Monks' is absurd. This game belongs to Square Enix, as does the realm of Eorzea, as well as all the other realms featured in past FF games. Simply put, SE can decide the style of Monks in their worlds. It doesn't make them fake Monks. It makes them Monks designed by SE.

Why not take inspiration from those Monks that you consider to be more aesthetically pleasing, and use it to design your own custom look? As others said, that's exactly what glamour is for. You don't want to look like all the other Monks in Idyllshire anyways, do you?

+1 for OP.

I think male monk gear and monk weapons look pretty bad in general.

All monk weapons are terrible

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Boxworm

Stuff

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If you call something a very general name people will expect some semblance of the name. Using the name "Monk" comes with an entire culture and several styles. As such I assumed some sort of style within those boundaries associated with that name. SE is free to design as they wish of course and was not saying to remove old gear. I am asking for new gear to be more along the lines of actual Monks. I do not consider the current gear to resemble Monks at all. The closest thing to it is the AF1 gear which has a martial art style to it. I also did not call the Fake Monks. They are only Monks in name only as well as gameplay wise to a certain degree. I have all Monk gear only AF1 is the closest thing to a Monk as well as the pvp power rangers gear. The 180 pvp chest is nice but not very monk ish but nice none the less. I am no stranger to glamour. I have pretty much all the gear and it's why i made this thread lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaddai

If you call something a very general name people will expect some semblance of the name. Using the name "Monk" comes with an entire culture and several styles. As such I assumed some sort of style within those boundaries associated with that name. SE is free to design as they wish of course and was not saying to remove old gear. I am asking for new gear to be more along the lines of actual Monks. I do not consider the current gear to resemble Monks at all. The closest thing to it is the AF1 gear which has a martial art style to it. I also did not call the Fake Monks. They are only Monks in name only as well as gameplay wise to a certain degree. I have all Monk gear only AF1 is the closest thing to a Monk as well as the pvp power rangers gear. The 180 pvp chest is nice but not very monk ish but nice none the less. I am no stranger to glamour. I have pretty much all the gear and it's why i made this thread lol.

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FF's MNKs have a heavy Indian influence mixed into the Chinese Shaolin type monk and Japanese martial art forms.
You can see this in the aesthetics and Job skills.
That's what makes a FF MNK distinct. And yea, FF has enough of a legacy on their Jobs that it should pull from its own icons not general ones.

The male version of the AF should've looked like Yang's After years though (if not just bareback with tattoos).
Like this:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../00/Cgyang.jpg

Many of the Job names are general, but FF versions have been refined to be very distinct from those general meanings.
They should stay true to that legacy while also improving upon it and adapting appropriately.

That said, the weapons could definitely be less Indian based. They weren't even like that in previous FF's anyway (most were just barefisted anyway).

They just need to make barehanded an option.

I completely agree with you guys! I never really had desire to play MNK because I didn't really like most of their weapon designs and armor so I chose NIN because the daggers looked so cool. The one thing I do love about MNKs is the stance females have compared to male. Personally, I would LOVE MNKs to have a weapon that is just their hands being bandaged up similar to rocklee from naruto or ryohei from hitman reborn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Allyrion

FF's MNKs have a heavy Indian influence mixed into the Chinese Shaolin type monk and Japanese martial art forms.
You can see this in the aesthetics and Job skills.
That's what makes a FF MNK distinct. And yea, FF has enough of a legacy on their Jobs that it should pull from its own icons not general ones.

The male version of the AF should've looked like Yang's After years though (if not just bareback with tattoos).
Like this:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../00/Cgyang.jpg

Many of the Job names are general, but FF versions have been refined to be very distinct from those general meanings.
They should stay true to that legacy while also improving upon it and adapting appropriately.

That said, the weapons could definitely be less Indian based. They weren't even like that in previous FF's anyway (most were just barefisted anyway).

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They should use FF aesthetics for MNKs, yes... but I've seen a ton of people complaining about the MNK AF2 gear, and if it looked like in the picture you provided, it would be really cool. I really mean it, that looks fantastic.

The AF2 gear doesn't even look like Yang from any picture I've seen... The white strap thing is ugly, and the legs look more like some hippie thing IMO.

Don't even get me started on the headpiece... I mean... w..what is that ?! It looks stupid. On males at least.

The biggest problem is weapons though, like others have mentioned.

I actually like the design of the Alexander weapons, cause they aren't huge, and the look more logical when it comes to the handle, than some other designs we have had in the past... but good looking MNK weapons are few and far apart. The Esoteric weapon looks like some huge spiky UFOs or something.

They should derive some weapon styles for MNK using inspiration from Zell from FF8, which were basically patterned gloves of various materials.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Allyrion

FF's MNKs have a heavy Indian influence mixed into the Chinese Shaolin type monk and Japanese martial art forms.
You can see this in the aesthetics and Job skills.
That's what makes a FF MNK distinct. And yea, FF has enough of a legacy on their Jobs that it should pull from its own icons not general ones.

The male version of the AF should've looked like Yang's After years though (if not just bareback with tattoos).
Like this:

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../00/Cgyang.jpg

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YOOOOOOOOO That loooks amazing. WTF SE. I would love something like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shaddai

YOOOOOOOOO That loooks amazing. WTF SE. I would love something like that.

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It is almost the same thing. Do you just not like the shirt?

I love that FFXIV is using Amano inspired designs for the new armor. It helps immensely in giving that Final Fantasy feel in the game. Especially the BRD gear. We have gone a long way from recolored/reskinned Haubergeons and robes.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...4071326b6b.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Velhart

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...4071326b6b.jpghttp://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../00/Cgyang.jpg

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Not the same. Only color pallete. Unless you mean the Mnk AF2 in which case it is a different style. The small things make all the difference. Even the original Yang looks better than AF2 gear on males. Please refer to earlier pictures in the thread. Between the two yangs one looks akin to a circus acrobat while the other looks more like a seasoned martial artist.