Something doesn't make sense about the recent un-genderlocking.

[VerdeLuck]

That's the thing though - it was never locked in the firstplace, so it was never unlocked. A very key distinction here. Square has never unlocked any NPC outfit that was previous locked at all. Any that work for both genders were released that way at the start.

That being said, as others have said, Alphinaud's outfit was easy to release on both sexes because of the fact that in the game-data pre-SHB, Alphinaud & Alisae in ARR & HW shared a unique body type, due to the fact they are young Elezens. This body is basically a scaled down male Hyur body, making it extremely easy to port over to female bodies due to the fact they just had to scale it back up using female Hyur proportions. It's made even easier by the fact the outfit's bulkiness hides any gender characteristics. Literally a 5min job in any 3D modeling software.

Contrast an outfit like Lyse's, which not only would require a complete re-shape of the chest area, but would also require multiple edits to several aspects of the outfit itself in order for it to fit the slimmer male body types, then require a 2nd round of editing in order for it to even work for Hroth/Roe due to their unique body type. That's also part of the reason you see so many male -> female unlocks on general gear but not vice versa. Every female race in the game shares a single body type that just has different scaling values apply to it. Meanwhile on the male side, Miqo'te, Hyur, Elezen and sometimes Au Ra share the same body type, but Hroth, Roe & the other sometimes Au Ra have unique body types that require custom editing to models to fit. Thus a male outfit only requires a single round of 3D edits in order to fit all female races, but a female outfit might sometimes require 3 rounds of edits to fit all males.

Also a key point - ever since SHB, Alisae & Alphinaud de-coupled their body type from each other in the data, meaning Alisae's newer outfits would fall under the same issues that something like Lyse's does - it wouldn't be a simple scalar job, it would require actual editing to the model itself.

That's very convenient and all, it just doesn't change the fact that the un-gendering of items seems to universally only benefit female characters over male characters. Don't get confused, I don't want the female gear, it looks bad on my character. I just want them to keep it equal and not just shovel everything over to female miqo/aura/hyur/lala because they already have enough. If you're going to have female only gear, make male only gear and leave it locked. It definitely looks a lot like favoritism, and that's leaving out my biases from seeing other races get basic things I can't as viera.

[Rokke]

That's very convenient and all, it just doesn't change the fact that the un-gendering of items seems to universally only benefit female characters over male characters.

Sadly thats been an issue in the game since 2.x when female characters got to double dip with gendered and unisex sets both being available to them.

funfact:
Cid and aymeric's cash shop outfits have female equivalents in the game files (and have had them for years!). Both were released as male exclusive but their hairstyles were unisex. If I had to guess why, both were likely planned to be unisex sets but the pushback on the forums/at Q&As about the cashshop being so female leaning that they locked them to inflate the male only tab :^)

[VerdeLuck]

Sadly thats been an issue in the game since 2.x when female characters got to double dip with gendered and unisex sets both being available to them.

funfact:
Cid and aymeric's cash shop outfits have female equivalents in the game files (and have had them for years!). Both were released as male exclusive but their hairstyles were unisex. If I had to guess why, both were likely planned to be unisex sets but the pushback on the forums/at Q&As about the cashshop being so female leaning that they locked them to inflate the male only tab :^)

That's a big problem looking through the cash shop, why would anyone want big flowing dresses on their male character. Why would anyone want that to be unlocked? Pretty much the only outcry I see is people wanting pants and suits on their female characters. Realistically out of the batch taht was just unlocked, there really aren't any that are even good for male characters.

[Rokke]

That's a big problem looking through the cash shop, why would anyone want big flowing dresses on their male character. Why would anyone want that to be unlocked? Pretty much the only outcry I see is people wanting pants and suits on their female characters. Realistically out of the batch taht was just unlocked, there really aren't any that are even good for male characters.

The flowy dresses are meh but I think the value is generally the smaller bits + legpieces. On crystal I've seen the tights from the 2 unlocked valentines sets as well as the corset from that octoberfest looking set getting some mileage.

[Caro178]

That's a big problem looking through the cash shop, why would anyone want big flowing dresses on their male character. Why would anyone want that to be unlocked? Pretty much the only outcry I see is people wanting pants and suits on their female characters. Realistically out of the batch taht was just unlocked, there really aren't any that are even good for male characters.

I have a few friends who like to dress their male characters quite "feminine", and they've been having a field day with the recent removal of restrictions. Of course, female styles tend to have a lot more variety in terms of cut and fit, and I can understand those styles not being immensely popular beyond the niche that really cares about having them, but I think they should still be available for them as long the edits are within reason. There are definitely players who will dress their male characters in "female" Mogstation clothing, heels, skirts, etc.

[Eloah]

funfact:
Cid and aymeric's cash shop outfits have female equivalents in the game files (and have had them for years!). Both were released as male exclusive but their hairstyles were unisex. If I had to guess why, both were likely planned to be unisex sets but the pushback on the forums/at Q&As about the cashshop being so female leaning that they locked them to inflate the male only tab :^)

That's interesting about the Cid and Aymeric outfits, and sorta explains the oddity that is Aymeric's hair. Is it just their outfits for females or is the outfit unique in any way?

[Rokke]

That's interesting about the Cid and Aymeric outfits, and sorta explains the oddity that is Aymeric's hair. Is it just their outfits for females or is the outfit unique in any way?

No extra bells or whistles, just the pieces fitted for female character bodies

[Eloah]

No extra bells or whistles, just the pieces fitted for female character bodies

This makes me wonder if the outfit was updated for female Viera. Obviously it would be updated for Hrothgar and male Viera, but updating it for female Viera would indicate intention down the line.

[Rokke]

This makes me wonder if the outfit was updated for female Viera. Obviously it would be updated for Hrothgar and male Viera, but updating it for female Viera would indicate intention down the line.

Viera use the female midlander body so there is no real "updating" needed, the game just scales it to fit their skeleton.

[Nihility]

Viera use the female midlander body so there is no real "updating" needed, the game just scales it to fit their skeleton.

I could be wrong but I think all females use the same base model which actually isn't super far off from male midlander already making female gear only take about a third of the effort as male which may explain why female only gear tends to be a bit more intricate. A fair tradeoff for not having three different body models
personally I would rather they spend their time making headgear work on viera and hrothgar, that seems like far more of an injustice to me