Concept: Cover Armor

I've seen quite a few games recently that have a really awesome mechanic. Say you're going through the game and you find some really great armor. Upon equipping that armor, your character's design changes, to show they're wearing that armor piece. The thing is, maybe that armor piece looks absolutely terrible. You'd hate looking at that character while they wear that piece, right? That's where vanity armor comes in. It goes by different names, depending on the game, but basically, vanity armor allows you to wear whatever armor you'd like to get the effects of, while seeing your character in a completely different set! By equipping vanity armor, you see what you have equipped there, but you gain the effects of the armor you don't see, or the armor you actually have equipped. If it sounds complicated, think of it like this:

Wear a full set of, say, steel armor. Like a full suit. That's the armor that gives you all of your defense.

Now you equip a normal-looking t-shirt, shorts, and maybe a flower in your hair. You put those on in vanity, and now you look like you're wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and have a flower in your hair, but you still have the effects of the steel armor.

So of course, this concept isn't a new idea, nor am I saying it's my own. It's a wonderful idea, though, and I'm definitely adding it, with my own little variant. I've never seen this done before, but if we can have cover armor, why not have cover weapons?

Say you equip the greatest sword in the game. But as a joke, you put an empty tube of wrapping paper in your cover weapon slot. Now you're swinging around an empty cardboard tube of wrapping paper, which looks ridiculous, while dealing damage and having the effects of the greatest sword in the game. It's ridiculous, and I love the idea.

Thanks to Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Terraria, 3 games I've either seen or played that had characters actually wearing the armor they had on, with the option to use vanity armor as well. As I said, not my own idea, but a very nice idea that I'd love to add to my own game.