Amazon's adding shorts and tights to a new Lost Ark class to dial-down the lewdness
"Some skins will be modified to better fit Western norms".
Isometric fantasy fashion parade Lost Ark is one of those games that's at slightly different points in different regions. The Korean version runs ahead of the western one, essentially, meaning that players of the Amazon Games published version over here usually have some idea of what they're getting: and one of the most anticipated additions has been the addition of a new class, the Artist.
The Artist is a young woman who, in the Korean version, favors extremely short skirts. And it appears that Amazon considers some of the Artist's Korean skins to be, well, just a bit too thirsty. "Nothing gameplay-related will change for the Artist Class, but some skins will be modified to better fit Western norms", reads the official announcement. "Specifically, skins with short skirts will have shorts added underneath the skirt, and other skins will have adjusted pant lengths or tights added."
This class itself summons monsters by painting them, though I think they can also just whack monsters with their brush. The Artist is a support-leaning playstyle with damage on the low side but a whole bunch of ways to buff and heal the party, and the developers say it's the first of a new class category called specialists, with another example to arrive later in the year.
The Korean version also began a Witcher crossover event back in November, which the western version will be receiving in January. Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Triss, and Dandelion are all coming to the game with "voiceover work from the game's original actors", along with a new event set on an island called White Wolf's Haven. There will also be a bunch of Witcher-themed cosmetics (clothes being the game's true endgame), and QoL improvements to the guild systems and guild PvP.
February will see the one-year anniversary of the game's launch in the west, and is going to be celebrated with a series of quests set on the continent of Rowen. After completing these questlines players can choose a faction to compete in open-world PvP and the war over the continent begins, leading up to a new type of PvP activity being added in March. This is a 96-player (48vs48) battle with bases to capture and secondary objectives, which are held at certain times during the week.
April and the Artist is as far as this 2023 roadmap goes, which doesn't quite seem to fulfil the brief but there we are. The Witcher's Kaer Morhen background art is pretty sweet, and in the runup to the collab Lost Ark players are getting the Summoner class and endgame Brelshaza legion raid, among many other goodies.
As for Geralt, the man belongs in a tub but he's bloody everywhere these days. The Witcher crossovers include Monster Hunter World, Soulcalibur 6, and soon enough he'll be turning up in Fortnite Chapter 4.