ze submitted:

First costume

Stockings rather than boots and there’s a window to her bare back, though it’s mostly covered.

Second costume

You’ll have to take my word for it, but stockings again rather than boots.
This is literally the first time she’s introduced wearing her new outfit. I did not crop her face out; the devs did.
Not sure if it counts for boobplate; there is skin-tight armor on the boobs, it just doesn’t connect in the front.

Third costume

Two versions of it because she later sheds almost all of it for a single scene. Again will have to take my word for there being heels, and the outfit being mostly worn in a cold area. (You can’t see it, but the more bare one is in a rather small valley surrounded on all sides by snow-covered mountains.) Does this count as boob window and boob plate though?

I might be being generous with the “no padding” since there’s some kind of thin bodysuit under it. And with “no head protection” since there’s kinda some ornaments that were stated to be protective, but uh… yeah. There’s also no male equivalent to any of her costumes, but if matching armor designs in this game have any kind of theme going, it definitely follows the stereotype. (Minus being practical. Holy crap this game loves impractically ornate/pointy armor.)

Of course there’s also the in-universe excuse that bare skin = more sensitive to photons (basically any and all energy for both combat and resources) so you’re stronger. Except the outfit descriptions for full, flowing robes say their material is specially made to absorb said photons to make you stronger… So there’s still no real reason to not have more armor.
Do note that this “armor” doesn’t affect stats or gameplay in any way. It’s just flavor text for clothing to try and justify itself.

This character, Matoi, is hardly the only offender in the series, but there’s too many costumes to go through since it’s an MMO. She’s just the worst offender from the main cast (not counting the player character, who can wear anything– even Matoi’s outfits).

First I thought this might be a Scarlet Blade character (as we asked for bingo propositions from it), then I noticed the name Phantasy Star Online 2.

Needless to say, being easily confusable with Scarlet Blade says everything we (don’t) want to know about this game’s design priorities.
And judging by their breathing through skin, I mean photon magic excuse AND how it is directly contradicted it for other costumes, Phantasy Star’s writing isn’t worth anyone’s time either.

While you probably are too generous with a few squares, ze, I wouldn’t say that in regards to  “No padding”. Personally I don’t count something that looks like bodypaint as “padding”.

~Ozzie