Capcom confirms that 'all characters can use any gear' in Monster Hunter Wilds.

The top post in the Monster Hunter subreddit with almost 4,000 votes is simply titled, WE DEFEATED GENDER, without any context. Below it, Monster Hunter players will be happy to learn the news they have been waiting for for years: For the first time ever in Wilds armor designs won't be restricted to male or female characters.

"In previous Monster Hunter titles, male and female armour were separate," said Capcom's developer during a livestreamed hour-long presentation at Gamescom today. "I'm pleased to confirm that there is no longer male and female armor in Monster Hunter Wilds. All characters can wear any equipment."

The "loop" in Monster Hunter is about fighting the same monsters repeatedly to collect their body parts for use in crafting better armor and weapons. The armor you make from a wyvern Rathalos, for example, has the same stats, regardless of the gender of your character, but its physical appearance will be different. Female armor tends to be more skin-revealing, while male armor is bulkier. It wasn't the case for every armor set but the designs were often quite different. It was frustrating for players who wanted to play a female character but were playing a male.

In Monster Hunter: World, you could only use one free character edit voucher and then pay $3 for a second one. Monster Hunter Rise removed the terms male and woman, but the differences in armor between "type 1" (body) and "type 2", as well as the character voucher restriction, remained.

Wilds will still require you to pay a few bucks for a voucher that allows you to redesign your character. However, now that armor design is no longer tied to body type, this is no longer a major reason to do so. Wilds will likely also bring back Monster Hunter's "layered-armor" system, which lets you wear one set of armor but retain the stats from another underneath.

Wilds, the next Monster Hunter game, will allow fans to display their hunting style like never before. Jonno Stanton, Capcom's Community Manager, said during the stream that "Fashion is the endgame". He's right.