KMS v1.2.155 - Mikhail

the main difference is that those guys were introduced as Player classes. Mihile was not. His canon in game gender was established years ago.

And as for the heroes thing... wlel.. each game has their own taste and flavors when it comes to them. Some games have the heroes be regular warriors with the same skills you can have. Some don't.

Except they were also introduced as a single entity. In the "canon" of the game's story, there's only one Mercedes, one Aran, one Evan, one Phantom, one [Pirate Hero's name here] and one Mikhail. To suddenly decide that gender matters in the actual gameplay, when it didn't for the previous 4 single entity classes is yet another sudden change in how they are making the game. They change MapleStory around so much that it's hard to keep track anymore.

If you want to use the "Well they introduced the others as playable classes and this guy wasn't" excuse; well then they shouldn't have ever made him playable at all. But most of us are already in agreement on that one.