Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I can't lie: Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog system sounds like everything my materialistic ass has been waiting for. Transmogrification has become a staple in some of the best RPGs around, but there are many ways to skin a cat. Or in this case, alter your appearance to look like one.
If you read my last sartorial tirade – a piece I've affectionately nicknamed Fashion's Creed – you'll know that looks matter to me. That makes transmog a key area of interest in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Blissfully, my silent prayers and not-so-silent grumblings have been heard by Ubisoft, as stipulated in a recent dev diary. I'm delighted to report that the the upcoming adventure in Japan has finally addressed one of my biggest pet peeves about the last two games.
Sling your hook
Ubisoft has been trying for years to nail transmog since it added it to Assassin's Creed Odyssey post-release, and to be honest, the last couple of attempts have fallen flat by my estimation. There's something fundamentally upsetting about schlepping Basim to a blacksmith in Assassin's Creed Mirage all the time for the gift of altering his weapon appearance, but I was even more irritated about having to journey back to Ravensthorpe to change Eivor's hairdo in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. What, you're telling me a Viking can't use the flat side of her axe as a mirror and get a little creative?
The hassle of having to flit from pillar to post in the name of the drip has long burdened my impatient shoulders. Worse still, having to pay a blacksmith for the pleasure felt ludicrously unfair in Valhalla, though I believe Mirage righted that financial wrong. Still, the latest revelation about Shadows' transmog has me hooting with delight, with it set to combine the best of Valhalla's base-building elements with Odyssey's inventory immediacy to create the perfect amount of optional realism.
To unlock transmog in Shadows, as detailed in the Ubisoft announcement above, you "simply need to build the Forge in the Hideout" – but instead of having to visit it all the time like you had to in Valhalla, placing the building allows you to swap out both clothing and weapon appearances via the inventory screen. It's a neat trick I loved about Odyssey, even if it's less steeped in immersion, and I was devastated to find that Valhalla did away with it. Shadows looks to rectify that by tying transmog to something else rooted in the more creative side of the best Assassin's Creed games – in my mind, it's the perfect middle ground.
The more sophisticated implementation of transmog is inherently linked to the importance of Shadows' huge improvements to the base-building systems of Valhalla. Sure, it was satisfying to see Ravensthorpe grow into a thriving town-stead, but with a grid-based building system, placeable animals, and more nuanced construction methods like creating corridors and themed rooms, it looks like Shadows' "fully customizable sandbox" Hideout is going full Sims 4. With so much to see, do, and create, this might actually sway me from my constant need for immediate gratification in video games – including and especially regarding RPGs – so much so that I actually want to visit my forge in person to swap out Yasuke and Naoe's appearances.
Ok, that's a bit of a stretch, even for me. But the moral of the story is that the element of choice is a profoundly important one when it comes to letting players interact with as much or as little of the more robust RPG systems out there. Here's hoping that Ubisoft has landed on a goldmine that will go on to influence something similar in upcoming Assassin's Creed games like the reportedly witch trials-themed, Codename Hexe. A spooky, sprawling coven hideout with a built-in wardrobe for all my transmog needs? Count me every bit in.
A fan of the stealthy series and looking for something to play while you wait for Shadows? Check out our pick of the best games like Assassin's Creed.
