Lost Ark quickly found a passionate fanbase in the west, but many players have been unhappy with the game’s female representation. Notably, some classes in the game are locked to specific genders, while many of the clothing options for female characters are more revealing than some would prefer. However, it seems that Amazon Games and developer Smilegate are aware of these fan requests, and changes are coming as a result. In a statement to Eurogamer, Soomin Park of Amazon Games stated that counterparts for classes that are gender locked are on the way, but will require a bit of development effort, first.
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“Classes are tied pretty closely to their character models in terms offunction and animation, so bringing opposite gender characters to aclass takes more work than just making a differently gendered modelavailable. However, Smilegate RPG is actively working on this;the female Berserker is the next class coming to Korea. While not everyclass in the game currently has a male and female counterpart available,we made an effort to include those that do in our launch class lineup. Inthe future, Smilegate RPG will be creating more counterparts forclasses that are still gender locked, and we will bring these to Arkesiain time,” said Park.
Revealing outfits in video games have long been a source of controversy, and changes to existing games have often resulted in concerns over censorship. Park told Eurogamer that current clothing options will remain in the game, but less revealing outfits and armor will be added. Additionally, “the more revealing options won’t be front and centre in places like our marketing or the initial character creation screen.”
“As we are aware of the balance between hardcore fans who want a LostArk experience that is close to the original Korean version and newplayers who may not like the current armour and costume options, we areadding outfits and alternatives to the game instead of taking awayoptions,” said Park.
Alternate armor and costumes will likely take a lot less time to bring into the game, as opposed to classes for different genders. However, no specific timeframe was mentioned for any of these changes; hopefully, players won’t be kept waiting too long! In the meantime, readers can check out all of our previous coverage of Lost Ark right here.
Have you been enjoying Lost Ark? How do you feel about these in-game changes? Let us know in thecomments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
