@johncage
You have no idea what you're talking about.
How wearing the Holy Cross on your crusader helmet is useful?
How having a fucking MOUSTACHE on your mask is useful (Menpo masks)?
Why did ancient Greece warriors have feathers on top of their helmets?
Why were there snakes or scorpions on Achilles' shield?
Why would I want the hair of my beloved inside my sword's pommel?
Not mentionning people who still fight nowadays basically NAKED and have done so for hundreds of years.
And I could go on with that for hours. Utility works on today's standards, when every country use the same armors, the same cloths and the same weapons and (sometimes even) tactics.
Before, you had culture, different technological, philosophical or theological levels, tradition, honor, intimidation, God or the wish to be a legend mixed in the bag.
Don't make me start on video games, where the only truly useful thing is... stats. Dark Souls is full of silly stuff, I used to have three builds and each had a different purpose:
- I had one build which I called the "noob build", in which I used the most popular armor (Elite Knight Armor) and weapon in the game to look like a noob and make people think I'm new to PvP
- I had an "intimidation" build when I started PvP to look like a badass who doesn't fear anything. My skeleton mask helped me more than the generic useful knight helmet
- I had a the biggest hat possible to cover my face (to make an impression of uneasiness), a chest armor to look like Clint Eastwood (personal taste) and a armored leggings to have better stats (utility)
"Utilitarian" makes no sense in a game that doesn't strive for realism; not unlike how realism has nothing to do with fiction.