Finally got a holy Sabre from Jedi looking guy in Ibags tower. wont let me forge the item so it is useless because it is non gendered so neither male or female can use it. i have noticed that some other items are not available in the list of forgeable items any help on this would be great.

Many of the top tier weapons (basically any top tier weapon that isn't cursed) are not forgeable, and an annoying number of them are male only for some strange reason. If/when I replay the game, I am seriously considering modding gender restrictions out of the game; personally I think they should have had the innocent only restriction instead.

The Holy Sabre isn't useless; you just need a character who isn't male or female to equip it. (Remember, this game has more than 2 gender options.)

By the way, speaking of innocent only restriction, while data mining I noticed an item called the Bicorn Horn, which has an unusual value for that field (if unrestricted is 0 and innocent only is 1, this item is 2). Have you obtained it, and if so, which characters can equip it?

Two options here:

1. When asked to choose your gender, there is an option to choose "?" as your gender; choose that option.
2. Find an enemy that, when summoned and Spirit Pact'ed, becomes a Lord of "?" gender. (I believe there's an enemy called a "Dragon Lord", which will work for this purpose.) Then, use Contract on it (summoner spell that has a low success rate), summon the resulting monster, and then use Spirit Pact (EX skill that a summoner can use) to turn it into a regular party member.

Option 1 is, of course, easier, but I actually used Option 2 myself.

Why? You already know about these restrictions, so you can create male characters accordingly. And even if someone is playing first time and doesn't know, then it's not a big problem, because you can make new characters at any time you want (the only problem could be leveling them up).

Except that:
1. The restriction is sexist and has no rational basis. Why can't my female priest use that Hekaton Hammer when a male priest can? (I note that this particular item *can* be forged, but removing a gender restriction costs AP that could be used for other upgrades instead? Also, many others can't be forged.)
2. Many of these weapons appear *very* late in the game, at which point the rest of your party is already at very high levels; why should a player have to level up a new character because of a choice that should have only been aesthetic?
3. There's no balance to the restriction either; female characters (unless they're Valkyries, which can't be male anyway (but can be "?") don't get their own endgame equipment to balance it out.

In summary, why can't I play the characters I want and not be handicapped for some arbitrary sexist reason?

Innocent only would have been a better restriction since there's actually a trade-off here; either you class change and learn extra spells, or you stay innocent and can use powerful equipment.

(Incidentally, I hear the Japanese 3DS version of the game got rid of most of the male only restrictions, made the ultimate equipment forgeable, and added new items (stolen from enemies) that can change a character's sex.)

Well, I think it's just like characters race. Devilish can wear cursed items, fearies are not able to use most of the stuff and so on. If differences between dragon, elf, and dwarf were only aesthetic, then it would be pretty boring and bad for gameplay.

Here is the thing:

When it comes to races, there is (at least on paper) a fair trade-off. Devilishes can't wear certain holy equipment, fairies get some unique equipment (including, relatively early, a weapon that would be very nice for a fairy brawler), dragonewts (which I would argue are a bit too powerful) have low mental stats. Furthermore, the game makes many of these trade-offs rather clear.

When it comes to genders, however, there is not a fair trade-off. Male characters get exclusive access to too much of the best equipment, while the only comparable advantage to female characters is access to the valkyrie class, which is useless for characters you don't plan on using in one of the classes. Furthermore, the game doesn't make it clear that this happens until rather late in the game, after you've invested in your characters quite heavily. (Also, I note that for Valkyries, the best spear that doesn't require stealing from the game's superboss is female only and can't be used by third-gender Valkyries.)

It's nice that the game lets you create female characters, but it isn't nice that they (and, with the exception of the ability to use one specific piece of equipment, third-gender characters) are inferior to their male counterparts. To me, female characters ought to be equal to male characters in terms of their capabilities. (Incidentally, I also have a similar issue with the SSI gold box games; female characters have lower strength caps than male characters.)

So, the problem is that it's not propely balanced, not the fact that there are differences?