What does Super Mario Odyssey do, what the last two Zelda games didn't? That's right, the game keeps updating with new content, specifically in the form of new outfits / costumes. Almost every month the game is getting one new set of clothing, from Satellaview Mario to Zombie Mario...
Given, it's not exactly the most exciting and engaging way of updating a game. These outfits cost lots of coins and all you need to do to get them is grind money, where Luigi's Balloon World minigame seems to be the preferred method. But it's still something that keeps you going back the game from time to time. And that's better than nothing at all.
Now, the last two Zelda games had something similar: there were the different collectible outfits in Tri Force Heroes, as well as the many different armor pieces in Breath of the Wild. Both had the potential to add some regular, free DLC updates to the game, but in both cases Nintendo passed after one or two updates, while they still keep updating Super Mario Odyssey after one year. And that's a shame, because it could have done a lot with little for these two games...
Tri Force Heroes
Ah, the outfits in Tri Force Heroes. They were easily the best thing about the game and it was a lot of fun to unlock and try them all. In the end not every outfit was all that useful, but that doesn't really matter for the fun of it. And putting Toon Link in all these different costumes sure was fun.
At the time data miners found out that there were six reserved spots for DLC outfits and two of them actually got released together with the Den of Trials: Linebeck's Uniform and the Fierce Deity Armor.
This was certainly exciting, but what happened to the other four planned outfits? We probably will never know, but it would have been a good way of bringing players back. Even if it's just a small addition of one outfit at a time, it's something that dedicated players would like to check and try out. This could lead to playing some rounds online, helping other players with their Challenges and so on. Maybe you even need to get some more materials first before you can get the new outfits... So, there's an incentive to play more
It would have been a way of keeping the game alive a little longer, but sadly Nintendo didn't pursue this.
Breath of the Wild
While there have been many additional armor pieces via amiibo and the two DLC packs, there was only one set of armor distributed via a free update, the Salvager set based on Xenoblade Chronicles 2:
It wasn't the best outfit and some fans didn't really like it, but it was still a nice promotion and it was still a reason to return to the new Hyrule for a moment, looking for the special red shooting stars. At least the sidequest itself was much more entertaining than the lazy sidequests that lead to all the other DLC armor pieces...
So, it was something and apparently Nintendo didn't have any interest in adding something more. It probably was due to the fact that they didn't want to keep updating a Wii U game, but it would have been something that kept Breath of the Wild in the news and that kept players returning to the game every once in a while, even the ones that already completed everything (like me).
And of course they could and should have expanded the armor limit, while they're at it. It's still annoying that they never bothered with fixing that... And some more costumes to finally use the expansion would have been a nice apology.
Well, maybe with the next Zelda game they will consider putting Link in some new clothes every once in a while.
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