Note to other developers: You should be doing this. Capcom has removed the gender-restricted armor sets in Monster Hunter: Wildlands, its upcoming game for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
As revealed today during a developer diary stream live at Gamescom 2024 (and confirmed in my own hands-on demo), Capcom has decided to remove the binary armor selection for female and male hunters. Now, no matter what character you decide to make when creating an avatar for the game, you can equip all types of armor without any restrictions.
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Typically, Monster Hunter games lock you into one of two variants based on the makeup of your custom character, but in the upcoming game, each player will be able to equip either the A or B variant of each outfit. I even tried mixing and matching; it’s possible to use a “male” version of the Chatucabra head and a “female” version of the Chatucabra body in the same outfit. So you can mix and match.
The impact of this is purely cosmetic; the abilities and bonuses granted by each set of gear are the same regardless of which variant you choose, but the aesthetic impact is considerable. Monster Hunter players have long considered the “fashion hunter” a major part of the game’s appeal, and essentially doubling the amount of armor each character can wear will have a huge impact.
Want some skimpy upper armor that shows off some skin and oversized and frankly ridiculous shin guards? Go for it! Want a full-face helmet and an exotic dancer’s belt? Go for it. A cursory glance at the community’s hangout hubs (read: Reddit or Twitter) shows that most people are perfectly fine with it. After all, why should your body type stop you from wearing whatever you want? In real life or in the virtual world.
“Capcom W Masterpiece; now I can make my manhood look more feminine,” said one observer. “I can’t wait to play as the sluttiest sissy in this game,” said another. “This is the best news for fashion hunters since transformation,” said one Redditor. But perhaps my personal favorite comment was this: “Ah yes, two genders: monsters and hunters.”
What I really like about this is that Capcom still went through the effort to make two sets of armor and allow all characters to wear them. It would have been much easier to just make one set of armor and have it be the “only” armor set for each monster or resource. It shows the effort and detail that went into the developers, and really embodies what Monster Hunter has always been about: giving players the choice to play the game the way they want.
The content on offer in the demo was fairly sparse, so we’re not sure if we’ll also see the return of the alpha and beta armor sets. Still, a hunter can dream, a hunter can dream.
Monster Hunter Wildlands It is expected to be released on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC in 2025. Check out the latest trailer here.
