New glamour dress on a male (art)

[kyuven]

What I do have an issue with - this is not a Japanese game. I mean, yeah, most of the devs are Japanese.

This is a contradiction.
This is the 14th main entry in a Japanese game series that premiered on Japanese consoles, had 12 of the 14 originally exclusive to Japanese consoles (later ports don't count) originally created by Japanese creators in a Japanese company located in Japan for a Japanese audience.
This 14 entry is staffed by Japanese people. The artists and designers are Japanese. Most of the writers are Japanese.
The fact that they've embraced the fact that foreigners actually LIKE Final Fantasy and made the game accessible across many nations doesn't change the simple fact that it comes from Japanese heads and Japanese hands, thus making the game Japanese.
Moreover, something incredibly nuanced like this that IS considered a problem (specifically, a joke) in their home country (where their Japanese bosses and Japanese stockholders live and can tell them, in Japanese, that it makes them uncomfortable) but evokes feelings of "betrayal" from a very select group of foreigners (and an even more select group of their own countrymen and women), it behooves them to do nothing and say nothing, both by their culture and basic Public Relations logic. Therefore, they take the safe route that only gets them actively ostracized by a very small subset of players.
And then you consider that there are foreigners who hate the idea of men in dresses too, and you have a whole hornets nest it's best to just avoid entirely. You can't please everyone. It's actually an interesting Japanese frustration with foreigners too, since we come from wildly different backgrounds even within the same country.
They made their decision, and yeah people are going to criticize it and that's their right, but it's very important to remember that this isn't as black-and-white an issue as people are making it out to be, and that you're dealing with the interactions and differences of dozens of cultures.
Yes, in some cultures and for some people it's considered "unseemly" for a woman to dress in men's clothing (and was for many years in the U.S. even.) but for many reasons this has successfully changed. The reverse hasn't become as accepted.
Though my theory is the cultural allowances for women in men's clothing can have a lot to do with men's clothing being a lot more practical than women's clothing in many cases.
Oddly enough I do NOT think the problem is Yoshida, but possibly someone in the art department drawing a hard line, or someone above his head, because his wardrobe we've seen includes scarves, shirts with cuts usually seen in women's clothes, etc. Not totally "feminine" but not the western idea of traditionally masculine either. And as mentioned there have been a lot of outfits that skirt the line of masculinity and femininity.
But we don't know the whole reason, and we'll probably never know the full reason because stating as such would be a PR nightmare and create more questions than it would answer. Mostly because there's no answer they can possible give that wouldn't make people more angry than they actually are.
"More freedom" is a good thing, but sometimes you have to weigh the costs of that freedom.

[Ashkendor]

Outside of gender equality (won't get on it), why would men want to look like women? You can just purchase a fantasia if you want to look the part. This particular dress wouldn't match male physiology anyways and looks foolish.

You could just as well ask why would women want to look like men. The answer is options. People just want the same amount of options for exclusive and unique glamours available to both genders. It's completely unfair for females to have glamours that are exclusive to them, but for males to have to share almost all of theirs with females.

[Hito-Shura]

Outside of gender equality (won't get on it), why would men want to look like women? You can just purchase a fantasia if you want to look the part. This particular dress wouldn't match male physiology anyways and looks foolish.

The same could be said about a player who wants his female character to wear male clothes. You can just purchase a fantasia if you want to look the part. Why are the devs caving in to the demands but are not considering the other side aswell? Why disallow male characters to wear the opposite gender clothes for comedic and/or serious purposes?

[Yasria]

I found the quote I was looking for!

Greetings,



Currently there are many pieces of male equipment that can be altered to be worn by the female characters, but certain equipment specific to females cannot be adjusted for males due to the differences in the character models.

However, there is female-specific gear (such as the head and hand equipment) that can be modified to fit with male character models, so we'll consider those requests based on the feedback we've been receiving. Also, we plan on creating more exciting male-specific equipment in the future to help the balance of gender-specific gear.

[Skeith-Adeline]

You could just as well ask why would women want to look like men. The answer is options. People just want the same amount of options for exclusive and unique glamours available to both genders. It's completely unfair for females to have glamours that are exclusive to them, but for males to have to share almost all of theirs with females.

I said outside of gender equality to fight against that argument. It seems like people want this into fruition not because it looks fair on them, but just for the sake of gender equality. This whole thing is absolutely silly.

[DATA REDACTED]

[Evantide]

Mmorpgs used to be about xp, killing monsters, having fun with friends. Its sad that they turned into these gender bias disputes. If you are a dude and wanna wear a dress in real life do it. If you want to complain about gender bias in real life do it.

But please leave that stuff out of this game. It's getting old seeing these petty requests appear over and over on the forums.

I would rather see developers dedicate time to real issues, such as the dang RMT junk that litters the chat log.

[Gramul]

Outside of gender equality (won't get on it), why would men want to look like women? You can just purchase a fantasia if you want to look the part. This particular dress wouldn't match male physiology anyways and looks foolish.

Some people just might want to look softer or smoother. It's true that most male bodies are going to be a lot more angular and heavier, and many dresses would come in heavy contrast to a typical dress, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to find something that's a good complement. And really, OP's example doesn't look bad.

Honestly, the definition of male vs female clothing has changes so much over the last 2 millennium through many cultures, that defining dress as strictly male or female seems a little arbitrary. I typically just choose what's comfortable and and what I think complements my form and features.

[NozomiKei]

Cloth has no gender.

[Skeith-Adeline]

Oh I'm not against adding in long length dress-like garments at all; I like looking eccentric; however, dresses that were made to show-off womens shapes just wouldn't fit.

[BreathlessTao]

dev quote

Someone knowledgeable in 3D design. Please enlighten me: what on earth is the difference between making a change from A to B and making that same change from B to A? Sorry, but that's felt like such hogwash to me ever since I saw it, I just can't wrap my head around this reasoning.

Mmorpgs used to be about xp, killing monsters, having fun with friends.

And now it's about watching all the videos and reading all the guides and writing a script that does the scripted fight perfectly instead of you so you can move to the next, rinse and repeat. Not the definition of "having fun with friends" either, as far as I'm concerned.
That said, RMT is indeed another major issue, one other about which it behooves them to do nothing and say nothing. (Except it really isn't, because the pot keeps bubbling more and more as time goes on... And yes, they periodically report about accounts banned, but it's a fact that we don't experience any effect of that.)


Again, I'd reiterate: crossdressing comes into the picture sort of as a side effect - of the fact that the number of male and female specific outfits has lately been increasing on one side only. I do believe this is the main issue.