For as long as we have had aesthetic equipment slots, we have had fashion sets in games. You may equip whatever buffs you need for the next fight, with no regard for how it looks; or you may have a favorite set you always wear, even to your detriment. Regardless of how you play, there is no wrong way to. I’ve been doing it since I picked up my first Monster Hunter game, I didn’t stop when Pokemon introduced outfit customization on the 3DS, and I was elated when the Zelda franchise embraced it in Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom, however, truly blew me out of the water with how the developers took the customization fans had come to love and used it to expand the world and make the Hyrule of the Upheaval feel even more alive.
The first and most glorious example is the Mayoral Election questline and its focus on the mushroom-loving designer Cece. Hateno Village is the hub of fashion fever in post-Calamity Hyrule, and Ventest Clothing has become the host of the fashion prodigy Cece. It is also the birthplace of Cece’s magnum opus: the Cece Hat. But one does not simply purchase the hat, it must be freely given by Cece herself after Link completes a few favors for her. Namely, the Hero of Hyrule must become involved in the world of small-town politics, conducting espionage and going door to door campaigning for either Cece and her new vision for Hateno, or the incumbent mayor Reede that is tied to the pastoral and agricultural roots of the town. If you ask this writer, Cece would have gained more traction and business in Lookout Landing than anywhere else in Hyrule; though it is a heartening conclusion to watch as the two mayoral candidates understand the desires of the people in their home and make way for both tradition and progress. The hat was also certainly a unique reward beyond the cutscene.
Of course, as a world-renouned designer, Cece’s unique fashions are not just a local sensation. Her followers span Hyrule, with many Hylians being able to be found at various stables and on roads throughout the map. These trend-setters are seekers of the exquisite and unique tastes of a fashion bandit whose name returning players may recognize: the Great Bandit Misko. Apparently, the fabled bandit had a taste for the latest trends and has amassed quite a collection of rare clothing from across the world, squirreled away in the vast network of tunnels and caves that the Upheaval has revealed. Deposited everywhere from the sinkhole caves beneath the Gerudo Desert to the dotted landscape under the watch of the Akkala Citadel, Misko has hidden away many priceless pieces of Hyrule’s history in troves remembered only by legend, myth, and decaying, multicolored markers whose muted color schemes barely stand out in the landscapes of all Hyrule, save the white-capped mountains of Hebra.
The fashionable, mushroom-clad Hylians are not the only ones with an interest in Misko’s troves, as my favorite dynamic duo also makes a return for perhaps my favorite of Misko’s riddles. Prissen and Domidak, the treasure hunting siblings that most players met for the first time in Breath of the Wild at the Dueling Peaks Stable, are hot on the trail of one of Misko’s bigger hordes in the Eldin region – a Cave of Chests. Cephla Lake Cave is only the first stop on a much longer journey to reclaim not just armor fashioned in the likeness of the final aspect of the Hero of Termina, the Fierce Deity. It is also the resting place of the Fierce Deity’s Sword. It is also, fantastically, a quest that requires the employ of the, regrettably still unable to be pet, dogs of Hyrule in all their pure goodness.
The cave, and its associated quests, have quite a few implications about the influence of the Great Bandit, who collected all manner of artifacts from different eras. In this cave alone, Link can find not only the Ember trousers, a piece of ceremonial clothing that is suggested to be from the era of Hyrule’s first king, but the Fierce Deity’s Sword from another realm and time entirely. What could this say about Misko? I’d love to think that the time, space, and worlds that the collection comes from, while clearly more a mechanism to allow for nostalgia within the newer game, might suggest that our Great Bandit is Hyrule’s version of a Dread Pirate Roberts: a thief, or perhaps something more noble like an Indiana Jones-esque archivist, who passes the mantle through each era of Hyrule much like the Hero, “whether skyward bound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight.”
Of course, maybe I’m stretching too far and stepping on the toes of theorists out there. It is a thought that certainly brought me joy while playing the game, the thought of a hidden reason why Hyrule’s extensive history never fades from myth across all its calamitous circumstances, but is just out of grasp of a true, written history. All I do know is that Ganondorf should have spent more time looking for Misko’s troves if he truly wanted to be unbeatable. The Great Bandit had an excellent fashion sense and an eye for powerful artifacts.
