Amazon outlines why it changed Lost Ark's Artist class skins for Western audiences
"Some skins will be modified to better fit Western norms."
Amazon Games has outlined a little more about Lost Ark's all-new advanced class, Artist, including an explanation about why it chose to "make localisation updates" that modified Artists skins to make them less sexualised and "better fit Western norms".
The first in an "entirely new class category" called Specialists, the Artist is "capable of tactical versatility with illusion powers, and specialises in supporting her team".
"The Artist’s Class identity is built around the Harmony Meter Identity Gauge," Amazon explains. "Landing skills on enemies will fill up three Harmony Orbs which can be used to cast two Identity Skills – Moonfall and Sunrise.
"Similar to other Advanced Classes, the Artist has two unique Class Engravings: Full Bloom, which improves her support capabilities, and Recurrence, which bolsters her offense. The Artist’s skill categories consist of Stroke, Paint and Masterwork skills; players can choose to attack foes directly or summon beasts or dimensional energy to inflict damage by painting them."
The team also addressed the "speculation" about how the Artist Class would arrive in the game's Western version, saying it wanted to be "transparent" about why the class has been modified for Western audiences, including adding shorts under short skirts.
"While our goal is to preserve the authenticity of the original game, we also work with Smilegate RPG to make localisation updates to ensure the game feels approachable and representative of our Western players," the team said.
"Nothing gameplay-related will change for the Artist Class, but some skins will be modified to better fit Western norms. Specifically, skins with short skirts will have shorts added underneath the skirt, and other skins will have adjusted pant lengths or tights added. We will be working to preserve the original spirit of the skins when applying these changes to ensure players will have a variety of compelling customisation options for this uniquely versatile class."
There's more, too. From 15th March to 14th June, the Art of War update will feature new Progression Events, including Punika Powerpass, Hyper Express Plus, and Story Express events.
We'll also get a new 48x48 PvP Tulubik Battlefield "along with quality of life updates, balance changes, new events, cosmetics and the third Ark Pass".
As part of its first anniversary celebrations, Lost Ark recently gave us a lowdown on the game's most surprising statistics, including confirmation that players died to Guardians far more than the other way around, with 1,672,050,487 player deaths against 99,281,741 dead Guardians.
As for PvP? Across 16,294,441 PvP matches, we killed each other 192,894,473 times, and dealt out - wait for it – 29,695,327,291,260 damage.