I love magic systems in games that feel impactful, and especially love them if the mechanic is unique and different.

What are your favorites?

  • wagesj45@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    OK, hear me out. I suspect this isn’t quite what you had in mind, but the NES classic Crystalis has interesting magic weapons and spells. The game is similar to Zelda as an action RPG. Your main weapons are collectable swords with different elemental infusions. Each one has three levels of power that you unlock by finding special items. Enemies throughout the game are often only susceptible to certain types of elemental damage. There are also map barriers that require you to destroy them using a specific elemental power, like knocking down a rock wall with wind, or creating an ice bridge.

    Beyond the basic combat, you unlock lots of different magic spells. Some are familiar staples of the genre like Refresh which heals you and Paralysis that freezes enemies and puts NPCs to sleep. But it also has more unique spells like Telepathy that lets you get information from far away NPCs, and Change, which allows you to take the form of NPCs and enter areas and get different NPC interactions.

    Plus, it is just a good game. I sank so many hours into it as a kid, and I recently finished the game (with cheats on this time, the game is Nintendo Hard™).