It isn’t asking for too much. It’s just not an easy thing to do for a small indie studio and it’s not a priority right now. I’m pretty sure it will happen eventually.
If making both genders is twice the work, what you want is 100 times the work 
Might happen in the future, if things all go well with LE, but it will take a much longer time than just doing 2 genders.
I don’t know if it’s the latest official answer on the subject or not as it’s hard to find the staff answers, would be great if we could filter by group appartenance (EHG in this case) as not everyone has a nickname with EHG_ at the beginning.
Games like Last Epoch aren’t really the games where genderlocking is the most disappointing. You don’t really see your character up close. Until there’s a lot of cinematics and such.
Still, seems like it’s the most voted suggestion. I’m not sure how more than 2 genders could be represented. Visually, i think the 2 sexes would be enough(?).
Character editor, until we often see our character up close, is probably overkill. But if it’d be a possibility, nobody would be against it that’s for sure. And the presets option wouldn’t be a preference, it’s more about what resources would you like to put in a suggestion such as this one.
So the first step, most wanted here: no more genderlocking. Second one: presets to choose from. Third one (icing on the cake): character editor.
It is the current state of play, yes. They want to do it, it’s expensive, it wasn’t budgeted for for 1.0 (& now they have way bigger fish to fry).
I mean I have a suggestion for this that could potentially save some time and money.
This game has time travel as part of its story, so what if the alternate gender for each class is just one of the other characters from an alternate reality?
Female Sentinel = Rogue character (I think she would make a good shield maiden)
Female Mage = Acolyte character from a timeline where she did not study dark arts (maybe just make her hair white, or could be older with her hair in a bun or something)
Female Primalist = honestly I think either the Acolyte or Rogue character can work fine for this one (maybe a version of the acolyte that became more nature oriented, could just make her hair a little longer and put some flowers in it or something)
Male Acolyte = Mage character, maybe just make his hair black (like he used black magic to stall aging, make him paler or something)
Male Rogue = The Primalist character, he already looks like a woodsman/hunter so I think it works fine
Maybe there are other complexities with uniques that still make this complicated but at least youre reusing assets still and I think it still works with the story
Plot/lore wise, sure. But it doesn’t get away from all the skill animations & armour 3d stuff that would need to be redone.
I think the only thing going for him is that he’s got the upper body strength for a bow user, everything else about him screams front-line tank rather than stealthy evasive assassin.
The entire story plot is literally that you are in one of many alternate realities brought about by splitting timelines: ergo, the story is about these characters and the explanation for there being many of the same character (players) is that we are all “alternate timeline versions of each other”.
Not all games need to be a self insert: there are many many games on the market that already do this well, but it is not a requirement that every game do so. Some games are closer to a book: its about a specific character, intended to be viewed as third person or first person but not from the perspective of YOU as the main character. Its a story about a series of characters, and all their alternate selves that chose different powers to focus on.
The devs have been pretty clear that the reason they chose to forego allowed gender swapped classes is the workload involved (which also carries a monetary cost as well). If they’ve chosen to put more of their money and workload into making the insane and fun skill system in the game, a great atmosphere in the game, better and better models and animations in the game, etc I will take that trade off 10 times out of 10 for a small developer.
Almost every argument I’ve seen for gender swapped classes boils down to two things: wanting to create your own narrative, or wanting to self insert. Sometimes, just sometimes, its perfectly okay for a game to simply tell you a story about the DEVS characters that they’ve made. Diablo did it, Diablo 2 did it, and both of those games are literally genre defining for ARPGs. This game is trying to be neither, but it does show proof of concept that games do not NEED to be self inserts to be good, playable, and successful (yes, even in the modern era)
Reading this thread always makes me feel old… And above all, very sorry for the kids who have to grow up nowadays.
So many self-inflicted issues to sort out… 
Agree with you 100%, and I’m exactly the same.
Except… the opposite (lol).
I’m a male in real life. I pretty much only play male characters in a game.
When it’s a female avatar, it makes me feel like a perv, or has something to do with exerting power over a female (controlling their actions), idk, but I don’t like it at all.
Immersion is completely broken for me.
In PoE, its shadow, duelist and marauder only for me. I dont play heirophant, and I think thats likely because he literally doesn’t have pants on (unless they’ve changed it). Plus his cheesy religiousy voice lines make me cringe, and also… when the character is sort of an extension of yourself, who would want to think of themselves as being 40 years older than in real life? I would equally dislike it if it was an 8 year old boy.
Skyrim and previous Elder Scrolls was a bit of a turn off. I liked the racial traits of the lizard and cat people, but I have no ability to imagine myself being one. Maybe has something to do with disliking talking animal movies/tv, which probably stems from knowing they used to literally wire the animals mouths and animal cruelty stuff (Mr. Ed).
C’mon… you know why.
I am all for gender equality so I hope the next class, if ever, will be an asian girl.
I also wish I could downvote this.
Why? Wouldn’t it be “better” for that which you wish for (apart from the Asian bit, obviously) to be able to play either gender on any character?
Just so that the anti-wokers who are suddenly all for gender equality would have to play either a tomboy or an emo if they wanted to play either of the top two classes. Or a black guy, ha ha.
I guess they’ll have to stick to the Primalists, at least those are still real men.
New player here, but I think the fact that you get to name the character, instead of the character being named already, leads many to think that the character should be able to swap genders. I think players would have a lot less qualms about the classes being gender locked if these were named characters already. I can see what the devs were trying to do with the gender lock but I can also see how a player might see the ability to custom name the character as an invitation to self-insert.
I’m going to throw this out there that the game cost 50% less than the other games, go from there.
I have to say… the notion of a game providing free customization for gender is in itself ridiculous.
It’s extra load on the devs to make the models and animations where the resources can be allocated into better things… like making enemy models and animations as well as the character animations and models which are existing better and more precise/well looking.
Sure, it’s a nice thing to have, but such a ‘high quality complaint’ that it’s utterly silly. It’s something to implement into a game when there’s ‘nothing else left to do’ which is more important, free-time stuff… a bonus.
In Last Epoch you’re playing the role of a wanderer, which depending on class has a specific personality with fitting voice-lines done for them depending on the class. This includes also gender. Sure it would be nice to play a sorceress… or a male necromancer. But plainly spoken and in very clear words as a tldr at the end:
‘Who actually gives a fuck?’ because that should be the main notion there.
I’d point you to some of the earlier posts 'cause there are people that “give a fuck” & if that’s the main view then that can be used on any part of the game. I don’t like Primalist so that should clearly have never been implemented 'cause I don’t give a fuck. What you’re arguing for is tyranny of the majority.
It’s actually funny how people only complain about female characters and the “old man”.
Lmao
There doesn’t have to be a male and female variant for all classes. It’s better to work on additional classes so that everyone has enough choices.
That sound more then entitled. If we get a in-game survey rather then looking at forum threads which barely anyone of the community even uses then I’ll gladly agree.
Though I would also love to see EHG providing it in a similar manner like this:
‘What would you have rather?
-Chapter 10 of the story
-Free gender choice for all character classes’
Because that’s the amount of work-load behind such and endeavor. It always sounds easy, like ‘Oh, why didn’t they do it?’. Commonly it’s because either there’s a distinct story told of a specific character (Path of Exile for example does that) or because it just takes up too much development resources to warrant it.
Obviously nobody has anything actively against the notion. But if it makes sense is quite another topic.
And if we simply see it in a realistic manner rather then just trying to push for pure vanity stuff in a great game then it comes down to the following here:
Last Epoch is first and foremost a good looking diablo-style loot ARPG. In the absolute foreground are the game mechanics, the loot and the direct combat. Everything beyond that is mostly worthless if those don’t do well.
Prime example is Diablo 4, massive hype, great look, nice story… gameplay? Mediocre at best. Hence it’s barely staying afloat rather then pushing Path of Exile out of the genre. They focused on the wrong stuff simply.
EHG currently doesn’t, which is the reason why their game is wildly popular like no other game of the same genre ever was before to date.
And as Vathras said it: Rather then having something not bringing any direct benefit to me as a player, maybe even subconsciously ignoring it… I would rather have new content in prime quality then free gender choice. If there’s time in-between though… then sure! They should go for it and work piece by piece on that stuff if nothing else more important is available.
First and foremost this is a game after all, and in a game the biggest point is the game mechanics, not the graphics, not the story… it’s the mechanics which need to work. Sure, it’s combined with an interactive story as well, but that’s secondary for any game which doesn’t solely want to tell that said story (Like for example… Layers of Fear. Zero game-play mechanics, nearly pure storytelling).
You get to name the character… so you can tell what character it is youre selecting from the main menu. That name never shows in game, is never said by NPCs in game, has no impact on the game. Even your account name is shown to other players, in the friends list, etc.
They couldnt very well let you have 3 mages, that might look functionally the same in your character select, and then force them to have the same name. If they did, people would be rioting over that instead of this. Allowing you to name the characters is specifically for your convenience, has absolutely no baring on the story, and it has no implication on whether or not this game is a self insert.
There are tons of RPGs and ARPGs that function this way. Its a story about their characters, not a story about you. Naming the characters is a QOL feature, not a lore feature