Since Smilegate RPG released its Korean MMORPG Lost Ark for Western audiences, there have been two vocal criticisms of the game: gender-locked classes and over-sexualized female armor with a lack of alternatives. Amazon, as the game’s publisher for the Western localization, has heard the overwhelming feedback from fans on both of these fronts and promises that they will be addressed over time.
How Lost Ark classes and female armor options will be improved
Soomin Park, franchise lead for Amazon Games, and Smilegate RPG understand that there are taste differences and playstyle preferences between Asian audiences and Western audiences. An official post by the developer released in early December 2021 reveals as much, stating that it “will be creating more counterparts for classes that are still gender locked.”
Speaking with Eurogamer, Park expands on what the roadmap for this update would look like, all while revealing that the female Berserker is in the pipeline for release in Korea:
“First let’s start with gender-locked classes. This is something that will roll out over time. Classes are tied pretty closely to their character models in terms of function and animation, so bringing opposite gender characters to a class takes more work than just making a differently gendered model available.”
Additionally, the lack of regular, less-sexualized armor options for female characters has been a sticking point for many players. Park believes that the proper solution is to add more armor options without removing any existing ones:
“As for armor sets, while we aren’t altering any of the original costumes from the game, we are making adjustments so that the more revealing options won’t be front and center in places like our marketing or the initial character creation screen (although the original character creator outfits are still available in-game as early drops).
We are also including in some new outfit options that are not quite as revealing, but these are an addition and not a replacement.”
In other news, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire has been canceled on Nintendo Switch and Forspoken has been delayed five months. Also check out our guide to upcoming Lost Ark classes.
