Genderlocked gear. Again.

[Sated]

Wait, is that a thing? Is this probably the reason why?

Out of curiosity I was running posts from the JP forums through a translator to gauge the general response.

Regarding the PCT and RPR changes specifically, the posts asking for the original version of the AF got about 50% more upvotes than the ones saying they prefer the changes, and those currently have ~30 and ~20 upvotes respectively.

Using a translator I can't know things like nuance that might indicate trolls or intentionally antagonistic phrasing, but the feedback supporting the changes sounded genuine and reasonable and mostly in support of letting players choose between the two versions.

Several comments were sentiments similar to:

"I'm very glad they added the extra fabric. I play a male character and I'm not comfortable showing that much skin, but I think maybe it would be best if players could choose between the two."

Going back further in the thread several years it looked to be a bit more volatile, so maybe some of that mood still lingers and was lost in translation.

Like looking through random old posts in that thread, the JP forum generally seems to favor having different gendered looks (many complaints about male healers wearing robes, even).
I'm seeing complaints about old event sets being designed for female characters as a "base" and then edited for male characters as an afterthought (which it does feel like the art team does...).
Older posts seem to have suggestions to push the designs even further apart to make them more distinct, but the recent posts seem to focus more on the "if there are already two designs, why not let players choose which one they want to use?" part.

Personally I'm still very surprised how many players on the JP forums support the gendered armor at all, considering it is a daily disappointment for me and the hundreds of complaints I see about it on the EN side. But I'd also love to see two different versions of outfits... if we can choose which to wear.