Can we please get more cool looking outfits for male characters?

[KizuyaKatogami]

I think the lack of masculine armor in Endwalker for the most part (not all of it, obviously) has to do with the theme of the expansion, which is going for a sort of 'High Fantasy Victorian' thing.

Part of what makes XIV really unique and good as an MMO is that it highly values diversity of styles and allows a lot of self expression with its glamour system, and that requires unique armors to exist that may not be everyone's style. I personally really liked some of the healer/caster sets in Endwalker, but I can see why not everyone would, and its nice to get stuff like it rather than just more robes. My main issue with Endwalker's armor is actually that they went a bit too far in trying to make some of this very admittedly ostentatious (it is Victorian inspired after all!) armor masculine, even though some of the stuff wasn't actually that gendered (Ex: They made some of the neo-ishgardian male stuff needlessly bulky compared to the female stuff despite neither being gendered clothing).

It would be neat if we could just toggle between a 'masculine/feminine' style for armor that had serious gender differences, because part of what makes XIV special is that it doesn't just have highly customizable armor, but a lot of diversity in how you express yourself: Its nice that there is not just options for female characters to not be wearing boobplate in the form of 'serious/authentic' and 'casual' armor options, but that male characters can wear non-traditionally masculine armor (and not just the token 'yeah sure have a dress' stuff, but also things like the very foppish Endwalker sets!), and its weird that sometimes they do seriously alter sets for both sides.

If you are looking for very 'traditional' armor, Endwalker has a few (cryptlurker for example), but even its traditional armor is leaning towards 'realistic/dark fantasy,' sorta like an ARR 2.0 which frankly does have elements that aren't designed to be sleek or cool (like have you ever SEEN a real gamberson?). Again, just the aethestetic for the expansion, and its fine to wear older glams if it fits your style more, it actually shows you care about how you look if its really clear you picked out what you like rather than assembling just the latest gearset.

I’m assuming instead of Endwalker you mean ShB. Irregardless of that though, i don’t think it really has to do with the theme. Look at the 2b coffer for crying out loud lmao. But even SB had a lack of male themed glams. Instead we got things like the Shisui glams. And the bunny outfit which wasn’t even changed to better suit men, it was just the exact same version as the female one. It just seems like there’s a lot of laziness involved with the male glams where they hardly alter outfits, for example healer and caster gear, where they obviously design them with females in mind. And then barely change it at all for male characters. It’s just a reoccurring thing.

[dezzmont]

I’m assuming instead of Endwalker you mean ShB. Irregardless of that though, i don’t think it really has to do with the theme. Look at the 2b coffer for crying out loud lmao. But even SB had a lack of male themed glams. Instead we got things like the Shisui glams. And the bunny outfit which wasn’t even changed to better suit men, it was just the exact same version as the female one. It just seems like there’s a lot of laziness involved with the male glams where they hardly alter outfits, for example healer and caster gear, where they obviously design them with females in mind. And then barely change it at all for male characters. It’s just a reoccurring thing.

You are right, I meant SHB, whoops!

Shisui is ONE dungeon glam set that was themed well for them and which added variety to the dungeon sets of Stormblood, which you can find here.

Of these, I would say the bonewicca set is fairly 'transgressing' in intent, the Royal Volunteers set is what one might consider... 'more traditionally masculine than normal unisex clothing' with its super chunky combat armor even on casters, and the Shisui set which are... not feminine per-say. I get why you might not want to go out and wear them personally, but I would more say they are for someone seeking a 'certain type of glam.'

So the 'look at stormblood' thing falls flat. ONE dungeon has a glamset that is for people looking to be... flashy lets say, regardless of gender. I very much understand if it is not uhh... 'for you' unless its on a female character, do understand that isn't the case for everyone and XIV strives to be a game where EVERYONE can look like they walked out a Victoria's Secret catalogue if they wish. Gender Equal eye candy being relegated to one optional dungeon which makes sense for the culture of the world seems good with me.

The 2B situation and the bunny set situation are different. The FFXIV team have been getting non-stop requests for the male bunny outfit as is, so they didn't change it and it actually was hard for them to get the office to do it WITHOUT changing it, to the point they had to get female employees to do it. Which I think doesn't reflect great on the guys in the team considering how willing they were to do the girls in it, but that is sorta what the community overall wants: The ability to have glamours for everybody, rather than to gender segregate glamours. This is also why the 2B outfit and the raid sets were the way they were: the community made it fairly clear they don't like the fact that there are these ultra revealing skimpy outfits that hyper-sexualize the female characters and not vice versa, and that so many outfits were gender locked. I do get there is a frustration with how many very explicitly girly girly 'premium' outfits there are, but this was a very special situation in both cases.

As for the healer and caster gear being minimally altered... that is because most are... robes? Which are gender neutral? Unless you mean the YoRHa set being minimally altered, in which case, your I would disagree and point out its one of the most altered outfits in the game. "Kinda femme" doesn't not mean "Clearly meant for a woman."

Don't get me wrong, I 100% get not clicking with a lot of sets this expansion, it happens and in fact I bounced of quite a few of them. But saying 'they are for women' is very silly when so many of them are clearly unisex and merely don't mesh with your personal style. If you can't rock the Neo-Ishgardian caster top into making you look like an awesome steampunk gentleman adventurer, well that is more on you than SE. A lot of these 'frilly' parts are amazing because they are so different and open up glam options in combination with other stuff. That is, again, why we want glam diversity, rather than getting constant repeats of 'Full plate and full body robes' and you might be very shocked at how rugged you could look in an outfit by mixing in some heavily armored boots and gloves to get a 'battle caster' vibe.

Not every set is meant for every person and maximizing variation in sets naturally means there are a large quantity of sets you will never wear. For example, I will almost never wear 'full, masculine armor' on Hrothgar because it kinda makes em look... not even fat, but boxlike, which I don't like and it means every 'full plate' outfit is DOA for me. Certainly SOME should come out, but I am glad its usually 1-3 a set (save fending sets, which still make sure to get non-armor sets out there each expansion) rather than 'all we get as male characters' and even if I never intend to wear the chest-piece often an element from them can come in handy.