Legendary Skins: My opinion about the concept and their "rarity" change.
Few hours ago, right after the release of the most recent PTB, I read about the change they made to a couple of skin sets which were originally added as "Legendary Skins", and they are on the way of turning "Ultra Rare" unless devs decide to make a step back on their desition. Those skins are "The Krampus" (as a Trapper outfit) and "The Minotaur" (as an Oni outfit). And now, before I start, let me clear up it all will be based on my own opinion, so if you disagree in some point, feel totally free to let me know your opinion in a healthy and respectful way :).
First of all... What is a "Legendary Skin"?
Since the release of the Legendary Skin concept, I've seen much confusion about it in social media. Many people attributed the "Legendary" cathegory to any skin featuring the "linked set" icon, due to the fact that both skin innovations were added within the same update...
...when the truth is that Legendary outfits is exclusively related to it's "rarity" colour, being this one displayed as a silverish white. And if it's true that all Legendary Skins are Linked, not all of the Linked skins are Legendary. Once it's told, what are Legendary Skins in their theorical way?
Well, the concept of Legendary Skins, really differently from any other rarity in the game, is strictly related to the LORE of the character; or being more accurate, the lack of it. What does it mean? Easy... a Legendary Skin isn't technically a skin. It's an absolute and independent NEW character which replaces the original base killer or survivor, but using the same base power and perks.
It's much more easy to understand with survivors, as recently they were added a new character portrait and name displayed in match for each Legendary Skin.
But in the case of killers, the concept is exactly the same. Evan McMillan (Trapper) and The Krampus aren't the same character in any sense, as well as Kazan Yamaoka (Oni) and The Minotaur. Legendary Skins are also a really smart way to bring new characters into the horror gallery which is Dbd without being forced to introduce new perks and mechanics, and in my opinion, this idea has potential to be the future of the new content releases when Dbd already reaches an excess of New Killers, Survivors, Perks and new Chapters in general.
So we could conclude that the Legendary cathegory is the way this game has to tell us "Yup... this is not the Trapper anymore". But in spite of how clear and interesting this concept is, unfortunately I am seeing after the rarity changes they made to The Krampus and The Minotaur, the devs may be forgetting the real meaning of their own concept. But we'll talk about it later ;).
But... Is it worthy to buy a Legendary Skin?
Yes... and No... let me explain :).
It truly depends on your own way to enjoy this game. Dead by Daylight can be seen as a simple online game to people who only wishes to have fun with its mechanics and diversity of gamemodes/playstyles. If your perspective of the game is similar to this one (which is perfectly legit lmao) it's very probable that you see Legendary Skins as just another skin for a character; more expensive than other skins and maybe not the most beautiful one in the shop. And at the end of the day, it won't change it's gameplay and experience in game. From this point of view, it makes a lot of sense considering them not worthy to be bought.
From the other side, Dead by Daylight is a huge collection of horror icons and a lair of awesome monstrosities been born from true creative designers. People like me, who would spend hours just watching every detail of Blight's cane x), and big enjoyers of all characters' lore will more likely see Legendary Skins as a new piece to add in their collection. When the magic of being controlling a Minotaur is stronger than the fact that gameplay is the same as Oni's. And even that I consider a true pity that some base items, such as Oni's kanabo or Trapper's beartraps don't change when switching the legendary character, I still have faith devs will dedicate a bit more of focus on making them feel more different from their base character, maybe adding a different name and backstory displayed, or even changing some sounds and designs. From this point of view, and even those little issues (which I can't complain much more as there was no real promise about those elements to be changed, so we all perfectly knew what we were buying), enjoying a Legendary Skin is totally justified :).
(The next real issue is the price of each one of them... but this is not the point I want to talk ;-P).
So... Why the "Rarity" change is an ABSOLUTE mistake?
If you've reached this point, the answer should be clear enough. According to what we said before, the only difference between the Legendary rarity and any other rarity of any skin, is that Legendary attributes a totally new and independent identity on a character. We could say the "Legendary Mark" is the (call it) Legit/Psychological agreement about you having a new creature in your collection.
Turning a Legendary Skin into an "Ultra Rare" Skin (even though it'll be the first time we see a whole Ultra Rare outfit) is nothing but the end of that brand new character's independence from its base character. Turning The Krampus into an "Ultra Rare" makes it officially a costume for Evan McMillan and, The Minotaur, a costume for Kazan; which is pretty stupid in my opinion, as Evan McMillan isn't a Christmas goat, and a samourai makes no sense getting dressed as a Greek mythical creature :').
I wish you enjoyed my reflection about this topic, and I wish it wasn't excessively boring. I'd honestly love if this essay could reach some dev's attention in some way, so they could think about this theme a bit more before commiting such a spoil on such an amazing concept ;-P. Please, devs, don't break the magic of Legendari Skins.
Thank you all so much for your attention ;). Peace!
List of Legendary Skins in game currently:
¿?-The Krampus (Trapper)
-The Mordeo (Huntress)
-The Look-See (Doctor)
¿?-The Minotaur (Oni)
-Lisa Garland (Cheryl)
-Cybil Benett (Cheryl)
-Jonathan Byers (Steve)
-Chris Redfield (Leon)
-Claire Redfield (Jill)
Comments
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What was the rarity change?
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I like how you mentioned that legendary skins aren't necessarily just a skin, but rather a new independent character which I fully agree on. It makes my skin crawl when I hear people calling a Lisa or Cybil, Cheryl in their games...
As for the new Ultra-rare rarity, I believe Peanits addressed it at someone else's post and that the reason behind this new rarity was to differentiate the killers and the survivors' "legendary" skins. As of right now, all of the legendary survivors are well-known characters from their respective universes, but the killers are all from I suppose you can say mythical lore...
Since Krampus/Minotaurs don't necessarily pertain to only one universe, I guess the devs wanted to acknowledge or make it clear that these specific skins are their own creations, but obviously using the generic lore of Krampus/minotaurs as a blueprint.
I still see them as their own character and so do some of my friends, but I guess this change is a way to make things more clear? I still see your point though! If they could add some more effects to the skins, then it could help make it feel extra special/unique from their original killer.
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You have a point. I totally agree with you.
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Peanits already addressed this in my thread
Ultra Rare are Original Legendary sets while Legendary rarity are Licenced Legendary sets. Hope this cleared the confusion
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I just read what devs told about it, and the difference they said between Ultra Rare and Legendary; but even so I keep thinking it's a mistake to make that, and I'll explain:
Ultra Rare is a rarity that has been in the game since ever (I think lmao), and has never had this attribution of "changing a character radically". "A Rainbow Map" is also an ultra rare element in this game and doesn't share this kind of meaning they are exposing now with those outfits. Actually, Meg for example has an Ultra Rare shirt and it doesn't mean she (or her torso xD) belongs to a totally different character.
Legendary Rarity was created since the very beginning with this intenction of switching the character, without discriminating if it was licenced or not. Like it simply means "character switch".
In my opinion, it'd be a much better solution to make (if they really want to distinguish between licenced or not) another new rarity for those 2 situations, or simply leaving all in Legendary and adding a Licence Seal on the licenced ones, so they can be identified. Removing all the independence connotations they had on Krampus and Minotaur being part of Legendary Rarity, is a very bad solution to me =/.
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I just hope my P3 Chris can get a bloody outfit as well one day 😔
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