They are boring, "functional" bodysuits or body armor, making them look completely dull compared to the male characters, who are allowed to have fantastical, out-there designs. I'd certainly prefer if they showed some booyah, but the women should be able to have both realistic, covered up designs and weird, slutty ninja outfits. Just like the guys.
This "functional" bullshit drove me up the wall on GAF.
People were bringing it up in Bayonetta threads, ffs.
Oh my God Bayonetta wears heels in battle! Nevermind the fact that she fucking flies and runs on walls, so probably a broken heel was not exactly a design concern during development.
2B jumping 300 meters and cutting a building-sized-crane-robot in two, with her magic Katana is fine, but landing on heels instead of comfy running shoes, is where i draw the line!
Meanwhile people in Dark Souls using scythes (you know, the farming tool) against full plated giant armored dragons wasn't anybody's concern, for some reason.
At this point it's just a meme bullet point people bring up without even thinking about it.
It's got nothing to do with "functionality", and all to do with sexual politics, and i don't even care if someone thinks nobody should ever be sexy, they can hold that opinion, but at least be honest about it.
Dark Souls did it right tho. It had cool women in full armor, and naked half-spider demon women.
But it's outright ridiculous they try to pull it off with Mortal Kombat, where being entertainingly childish and immature is the fun.
Yeah, i have no issue with Dark Souls, i have issue with masking what is a socio-political position, under a "practicality" guise.
Practicality is a design choice that may or may not be relevant to the game's design rules.
So pointing out that heels aren't battle practical in Bayonetta is dumb, saying the same in Ghost Recon is not, but that is an argument that goes beyond sexual stuff: A big ass Berserk-like sword in Dark Souls makes (design) sense, in Kindome Come it'd look stupid and out of place.
But somehow this only came up when discussing sexy designs (on GAF and REE, that is).
TL;DR: If someone wants to make the argument that sexy designs are harmful, they should just say that, not try and justify that position with bullshit arguments about "functionality" or "practicality" of the design, when the game clearly isn't going for that vibe.