Please do NOT alter Dark Knight AF for female characters.

[Reinha]

So again, armor isn't meant to be "masculine" or "feminine" it's suppose to provide the most protection to your body. In fantasy, feel free to do whatever ridiculous thing you want to it, but if it's going to make sense on the male model (Or make little sense on the girls model) it ought to be equal for both sides.

There's no need for armor to "make sense" in a fantasy game, when we already suspend our disbelief with other things related to physics. We can fall from any height without dying, make a flame into a ball that flies, jump ridiculous lengths, have a 4 foot person be as strong as a 6 foot person, have an almost wingless bird fly (fat chocobo), have bullets or arrows not one-shot people, not feel any fatigue from fighting or running, and have a crown be equally good head protection as a helmet.

We also have females that are always as strong as their male counterpart in the game, despite that not being the case in real life. Why else would there be different requirements for certain jobs (army, police, fireman) and different sport and martial art leagues for different genders? Different fighting styles are a fact.

If a physically taller and more muscular person isn't any stronger and more durable than a non-muscular smaller person, then why would a thicker plate of metal be more durable than a thinner one? If we are going to abandon real life physics in all the other cases I mentioned, it won't be a sufficient argument in the case of gender based armor either. The truth is that character strength and stamina is determined by the visible stats the same way gear durability and weapon power is, regardless of their looks.

Samcaesar, you were willing to believe (direct quote), that "maybe there's some magic shield thing with the dumb little crown, it looks like it's gold, which means canon-wise it'll dampen magic attack in FFXIV". That same logic can be used to cover any visible differences in male and female specific gear. Practicality is not something you require of every gear piece, which is why I must ask if you have some other motive to argue against more feminine outfits. Do you, for example, believe that having separate gear is an act to diminish female fighter's value (in showing that they are different from men)? Or that tightly fitted armor makes a female character to be taken less seriously? Or that having different outfits for one job would not portray the general look of the job as well as a unisex outfit?