The good:
- Costumes are an easy way to switch instantly to a different look that can be used effectively to "look new" and to switch to dark clothes
- Costumes allow for changes to the pirate that the current cosmetic system does not support like masks, jewlery, 2 peg legs, ect.
- Costumes are (probably) easier to add to the game allowing Rare to release more, more frequently
- Many costume allow for the use of curses, tatoos, scars, hair, and some allow hats (I think, I don't wear a hat or costumes but I think I remember it being possible with some)
- Clothing sets aren't in the emporium which I don't want to spend money to get my pirate to look how I want
The bad:
- Costumes make all players using the costume look the same and some costumes don't allow the use of any other cosmetics like the ancient costume
- Emotes are tied to costumes, many people see this as a positive but I dislike this due to it requiring the use of the costume which I already don't want to use. I would prefer it if you unlocked the costume emote to use whenever after purchasing the costume
- This is similar to the first negative, but you can't make "your pirate" you become "Fortnite galaxy skin guy" or "skeleton santa"
- A lot of costumes (emporium items in general) don't fit SoT and look like they came straight out of Fortnite
The ugly:
This is where to positive stop seeming so positive
- If/when saving clothing sets is a thing (please make it a thing Rare) switching clothing sets quickly will not be exclusive to costumes
- Instead of adding costumes that have effects the cosmetic system doesn't support, a much better option (takes a lot more work from Rare) would be to expand the cosmetic system. Add jewlery cosmetics, either have certain peg legs that transform both legs, or have an unlockable second peg leg slot, add a mask slot instead of having the current ingame mask be a beard put it into the mask slot along with the reaper mask and others. Add hoods to the hat section too.
- There are now many "curses" that we will not see in game because it is part of a costume (I am still holding on to hope that they will add the skeleton curse)
I actually don't hate costumes as much as the next guy because I dislike the idea of clothing being in the emporium, but when I get a costume from 30 athena it is annoying because I know I will never use it outside of a joke (I call it either "The Alpha Glowstick," or "Glowstick Prime"). In the future I would love to see Rare expand the current cosmetic system and then break the gold bought costumes into individual pieces but leave costumes in the emporium. I am open to discussion if you think I missed something or if you disagree with a point I made, but this post is a summary of my thoughts on costumes.
