Highlights

  • Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom brought armor sets to Zelda, a new concept for the series.
  • While armor sets offered great stats, players were discouraged from mixing and maxing for aesthetics due to the set bonus mechanic.
  • A transmog system, allowing players to change armor's appearance without altering stats, could benefit future Zelda games after Tears of the Kingdom.

One of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's and Tears of the Kingdom's most prominent features is Link's hugely customizable wardrobe, allowing players to don a variety of armor sets, each providing gameplay benefits of some kind. This was an unprecedented move in The Legend of Zelda's history, as previous games in the franchise have never leaned heavily into what Link wears, aside from occasionally requiring him to wear certain tunics to ward off elemental effects. As such, armor, as it is now, is a relatively new concept to the Zelda series and one that may not be so quickly set aside in subsequent installments.

Nintendo has yet to confirm where it is taking The Legend of Zelda after Tears of the Kingdom, but it's possible that the series could be going back to its roots. If it does, Link's current equipment system would need to be drastically altered, as there is little room for such an enormous amount of armor in traditional Zelda. However, barring Nintendo choosing to retain Breath of the Wild's and Tears of the Kingdom's foundational mechanics to some extent, it could potentially preserve Link's current equipment system as well, though there is one feature it should consider adding in that case that both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom passed on.

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The Next Legend of Zelda Game Needs an Armor Transmog System

How Transmog Systems Work

Transmogrification (transmog) is a feature that has been around for some time in the gaming industry and has become increasingly popular as the desire for character customization has grown. With transmog, players can alter the appearance of their character's gear without changing the gear itself. This feature is especially useful in games where certain armor pieces work well with other visually non-matching pieces due to their stat/perk combinations. The Monster Hunter franchise, for example, adopted transmog in Monster Hunter Rise with Layered Armor, as the series is notorious for having armor pieces that match mechanically but not cosmetically.

How Transmog Could Benefit Zelda Beyond Tears of the Kingdom

Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom solve the issue of mismatched cosmetics by including set bonuses, which encourage players to equip a complete armor set rather than mixing individual armor pieces. As each armor set has been created to match from a visual standpoint, there is seemingly no need for a transmog system, from a certain point of view. However, players may want to wear an armor set for its gameplay benefits and still want Link to take on a different appearance, and this is where the need for a transmog system comes into play.

In Tears of the Kingdom, there are 35 different armor sets for players to collect plus 30 individual armor pieces. This means there is a rather strong case for a transmog system in the game, simply due to the wide variety of armor pieces and the diverse bonuses they offer. Unfortunately, Nintendo chose not to implement the ability to transmog items into the game, but it may need to in future installments, especially if it chooses to continue using Link's current equipment system. On the other hand, even if the series does go back to its roots, some sort of outfit customization system for Link would be enough to compensate for the lack of armor as a feature.

It's unclear why Nintendo opted not to include a transmog system in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, other than perhaps wanting to encourage players to observe their armor set bonus mechanics. Still, as The Legend of Zelda progresses, whether it ends up back at its roots or evolves beyond Tears of the Kingdom, a transmog or appearance customization system is long overdue for the franchise, considering the high demand for character customization in modern gaming.