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

[Eloah]

So in recent patches, several genderlocked items have been unlocked, which is a good thing, so yay. But the devs also stated, during the 6.3 patch notes reading, that costume sets, from NPCs will remain locked. Now while a bit disappointing to some, this is "acceptable" considering the costume is meant to represent a specific character. But then if you look at a certain set or sets, this logic doesn't make sense.

I would like to point out that the brand new Alphinaud outfit he received in HW isn't genderlocked.

This directly contradicts what was said. There is an argument to be made for Alphinaud's original outfit being unlocked, since him and Alisaie wear the same thing, but this just highlights another issue.

As the story progresses, a lot of the Scions are getting new outfits, which is fine, but who can use those outfits is an issue. In Shadowbringers, Y'shtola, Thancred, and Urianger all got new outfits, but only Y'shtola's was unique. Thancred and Urianger's outfits are the job gear, so they are available to everyone. Similarly, in Endwalker, Alphinaud and Alisaie got new outfits, but again Alisaie's is unique and Alphinaud's is job gear. This means everyone has access to Thancred's, Urianger's, and Alphinaud's new gear, but only people who play female characters can wear Y'shtola's and Alisaie's; and they'd have to buy it with real money.

Now, G'raha has a new outfit as well, two of them technically, so his might be added to the mogstation soon. But this doesn't distract from the issue of catering to people who play female characters.

My "suggestion" since this appears to only be an issue with Alphinaud's outfits, so far, is to make any outfit worn by the twins not genderlocked. So hopefully that means one day guys can prance around in Alisaie's RDM attire.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I personally don't gravitate towards the NPC costumes, but I know a lot of people do. And it's a shame not everyone can enjoy the outfit of their favorite NPC, regardless of in-game gender.

Semi-update: I remembered that technically there is a female version of the above mentioned job gear "issue". Yugiri's new outfit is also job gear, so it is available for both genders. This doesn't negate the oddities in some of the outfit decisions, but not mentioning her outfit wouldn't be fair.

[rainichan]

tbf, the twins' costumes are on Elezen kid bodies, which are pretty formless and don't have defining obvious gender bits so they're easier to mold to fit a body with no booba, and a body with booba. You could swap the hairstyles on Alphinaud and give the head the lip tint and bam, you'd just have Alisaie in his costume, which is probably their thinking (same with Alphi in Alisaie's SB costume; switch the hair on her model, take off the lip tint, and you have Alphinaud instead in her costume.)

Characters that have more defined bodies are probably more "iconic" in their thinking, like the cleavage window on Lyse's red dress, or the halter top and butt window Minfilia's Antecedent attire has. Aymeric's coat is genderlocked to dudes because that's the body type it was modeled for, but the hair is not (imagine spending $18 for hair... couldn't be me... lmao) but it's likely just that: these looks are more defined by who is wearing them, and they don't want to take that away, much like a black mage can't wear white mage AF. Probably those same reasons.

[VerdeLuck]

It's probably not going to be addressed, but what you're seeing is female outfits will stay gender locked but female characters are going to be allowed to wear the male outfits too.

I mentioned this when we had threads about removing gender locks. It seemed like 90% of the posts were just people with female characters asking to be able to wear everything without really anything to give back the other way. I honestly don't know a solution since most female gear looks terrible on male characters so it's not like we want that gear anyway.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It's probably not going to be addressed, but what you're seeing is female outfits will stay gender locked but female characters are going to be allowed to wear the male outfits too.

I mentioned this when we had threads about removing gender locks. It seemed like 90% of the posts were just people with female characters asking to be able to wear everything without really anything to give back the other way. I honestly don't know a solution since most female gear looks terrible on male characters so it's not like we want that gear anyway.

There were lots of requests for female gear to be unlocked, and most of that (outside NPC outfits) have been unlocked. Also to note, no NPC outfits have been unlocked for either gender. Alphi and Ali's outfit was identical, hence no lock, and theres no reason to add two genderlocked sets of literally the same gear. People would have also complained about that saying SE is double dipping on the same outfit lol....

[Eloah]

I honestly don't know a solution since most female gear looks terrible on male characters so it's not like we want that gear anyway.

I personally would love to try on Alisaie's new outfit. But I'm not sure how it would look on a lala body.

There were lots of requests for female gear to be unlocked, and most of that (outside NPC outfits) have been unlocked. Also to note, no NPC outfits have been unlocked for either gender. Alphi and Ali's outfit was identical, hence no lock, and theres no reason to add two genderlocked sets of literally the same gear. People would have also complained about that saying SE is double dipping on the same outfit lol....

.
That's just their initial outfit, since HW they've worn different outfits. But there is still it "issue" that all of Alphinaud's outfits are unlocked, but Alisaie's are still female only. Granted an issue really only comes about if/when her outfits get added to the mogstation. But it is a possibility. That's why I figured unlocking just their outfits would be best. Although full unlocks would be nice too, but I'll take the win where it makes sense.

[Caro178]

There hasn't been any kind of contradiction, though? Alphinaud's Heavensward attire was unisex upon its release. Same goes for Alphinaud/Alisae's pre-Heavensward sets which are identical anyway. The same can't be said of Lyse's, Minfilia's, Thancred's, Hien's, etc. They were released for one gender and they're still for only that one gender. Heck, even Aymeric's outfit can't be worn by female characters but provides a hairstyle that can be, as utterly bizarre as that is.

If their stance right now is that they don't plan to change the existing gender exclusivity of NPC outfits then they have yet to negate that statement. As of yet I don't see them changing the gender locks on the available male only outfits either, so it simply isn't true that they're only removing restrictions on masculine outfits. Perhaps that will be the case going forward, but we haven't received a male NPC costume (that wasn't Alphinaud) since... maybe Hien or Gosetsu, and both of those are male only. If OmegaM counts then that too is male only.

Whether the reason behind this decision is maintaining NPC cosplay accuracy (the reason the items can't be dyed and mostly come in one piece) or if it has something to do with it being too difficult to warp the outfits for larger/different body types the end result is the same. I'm personally super thankful that they've gone through the trouble of removing restrictions on all the items they have, and if anybody has glanced at recent datamines the next event sets also won't be gender locked. All in all it's great progress. If the devs say "no" about NPC outfits outside of the exceptions they make themselves (Alphinaud) then that's just how it's going to be unless they one day change their minds.

[Renalt]

or the halter top and butt window Minfilia's Antecedent attire has.

You have my attention...

[Eloah]

There hasn't been any kind of contradiction, though? Alphinaud's Heavensward attire was unisex upon its release. Same goes for Alphinaud/Alisae's pre-Heavensward sets which are identical anyway.

How was his HW outfit unisex? He's the only one who wears it. The initial ARR outfit makes sense since both twins wear it. But the HW outfit is only his.

[Nihility]

How was his HW outfit unisex? He's the only one who wears it. The initial ARR outfit makes sense since both twins wear it. But the HW outfit is only his.

it's already been explained repeatedly in this very post... the twins have the same body... and head. Their gear is a non-issue

[Caro178]

How was his HW outfit unisex? He's the only one who wears it. The initial ARR outfit makes sense since both twins wear it. But the HW outfit is only his.

Unisex as in the outfit itself sold on the cash shop fits both genders. Also, the twins have virtually the same body. I'm not saying any other character wears it, just that Alphinaud and Alisae have very simple, easily adjusted body shapes that are almost identical to begin with. The answer here is probably as easy as: the twins' unique Elezen teen body is easier to work with than something like Lyse's custom red dress (which already looks a bit funky and stretched if your character has larger breasts than it was intended to accommodate.) Even with a lot of tweaking it's probably close to impossible to make it look passable on a Hrothgar or male Roe, for example.