Please do NOT alter Dark Knight AF for female characters.

[Niwashi]

And again, armor isn't meant to look masculine or feminine, it's armor, which is meant to protect you, not show off all your curves and what not. If you want skin tight outfits that show off curves, go with a set that isn't meant to protect your body from attacks.

Actually, in terms of heavy plate armour, if it's supposed to be useful and protective, then it would be as skintight as the people making it are capable of making it. The way plate armour protects you is by spreading out the force of blows. You get hit by a weapon in one spot and you absorb that blow with your entire body, with the force dispersed by the larger area. Bulky armour that's not form-fitting simply can't do that nearly as effectively. With bulky ill-fitted armour, there will always be some spots where it's closer to your body than others and those same smallish spots would have to absorb all the force of every blow you're hit with.

The reason armour is at times rather bulky is simply because it's difficult and costly to shape more precisely. Most soldiers would have to settle for whatever off the rack one-size-fits-all piece of gear they might be able to get. Skin-tight armour, on the other hand, would have to be custom built to the exact size and shape of the individual it's being made for and would be pretty useless for almost anyone else. For that matter, it could become useless even to the person it was made for if they ever gained or lost weight, since metal plates won't flex to allow for such variations.

But for anyone who could get it, perfectly form-fitted armour would spread the force of blows more effectively so therefore provide much better protection than bulky armour. And at the same time, it creates far less hindrance to your movements, allowing you to fight more effectively (including to protect yourself more effectively). The fact that such well-fitted armour would match your shape well enough that it's likely to be visible which gender you are is completely irrelevant to its purpose, but no less true for that fact.



p.s. I agree with you when it comes to overly revealing armour that tries to be "feminine" by covering less of the body. That's ridiculous. It's only when you try applying that same argument to armour that's feminine simply by being well-fitted that the argument doesn't work. Well-fitted armour is effective, and in fact more so than bulky armour is.