I love magic systems in games that feel impactful, and especially love them if the mechanic is unique and different.
What are your favorites?
Dragon’s Dogma has to be near the top of the list for me…if not number one.
Can you describe what makes it great? My first thought was also Magicka, actually.
No words, just watch this:
I’m posting this again because I may have accidentally made a new comment instead of replying to you. I’m still working out the kbin kinks…
I haven’t played Magicka so I can’t compare (although reading the comments I feel like I have to play it now) but for me, what makes DD great is its smooth combat system. It’s real-time action with varying casting times, so you need to be strategic about how you cast spells and when. Your character can switch classes pretty much whenever you want and you gain access to different spells the more you play certain classes. I could go on, but the last thing I’ll say is that I’ve never played a better version of “magic Archer” in video games.
One massive downside to the game is its story; It’s pretty much non-existent. But if you like awesome combat and party management it’s one of the coolest games out there. And I haven’t even mentioned the pawn system yet lol
I’m glad someone mentioned Dragon’s dogma! I can’t wait for the 2nd one to come out
In video games, I think it was Magicka wherein you could craft your own spells more-or-less on the fly.
In TTRPG, Mage: the Ascension, for much the same reason.
The issue for me is that I want to feel like I know Magic. I want to feel like a wizard, shaping the power of the cosmos to my will. If all I have is a collection of pre-scripted tricks… it really doesn’t matter how many pre-scripted tricks I have, the feeling of creativity in spellcasting is lost.
Seconding Magicka (and the sequel).
The spells have hilarious effects especially when playing the game in co-op.
Magicka is amazing for short burts of coop fun.
However, at some point you find that one spell that is just too busted and trivializes everything, until the DLCs decide to chuck a billion enemies at you.
From a technical standpoint, it’s also a bit rough around the edges and likes to crash to desktop.
Definitely a decent investment if you can pick it up on sale.
Tyranny had a fun system where you could create custom spells based around combining a Core Sigil with Expression, Accent, and Enhancement Sigils to modify the spell’s behavior. So you could have a Fire core sigil, combined with an AoE expression, fast cooldown accent, and a bleed enhancement. Of course the spells have a cost attached to them so you couldn’t have your mages casting ridiculously powerful spells on rotation until you ran out of magic, but you could pop it off once or twice then fall back on weaker, faster spells. Unfortunately like with most flexible magic systems like this, mage characters are overpowered as hell, as long as you have your party tank camping a chokepoint.
Oh, that sounds interesting. I have Tyranny in my backlog, I should get to it sometime…
Tyranny is underrated. It was incredibly ambitious, with an actually dynamic story, and inventive story and gameplay elements.
It was very flawed, partially because of the engine I believe (it doesn’t allow large maps at all), but it held so much promise!
I feel like the ideas it introduced have never been exploited fully.
It’s definitely worth a play.
Only real complaint is that the last half of the game feels a bit rushed and it seems to setup for a sequel that may or may not ever come.
Morrowind was amazingly versatile. You could combine any effect, and they weren’t any safety mechanisms. Want to jump 2000 ft in the air? Don’t forget your feather fall spell. Hundreds of ways to kill or die amusingly. My old husk of a brain is having trouble remembering, but maybe some others have a fond memory of their best spell or enchanted item combos.
One of my faves was reflect 100% on self for 1-2 seconds. It acted as a low cost, timed parry and was mega fun to fight mages with.
You can do the same with sanctuary, but any % of sanctuary is useful, and people really sleep on it imo.
ETA: Just remembered another old fave, very low damage fire damage on target, enchanted on something. Because there’s no cooldown for the animation of casting from an enchanted item, it was basically a little flamethrower. I liked to put it on my gauntlet and feel like Boba Fett.
I loved the combos you could do in Dragon Age Origins. My favorite was creating a giant oil slick under enemies so they fell down, casting a fire spell, which set them AND the oil on fire, then summoning bees to attack them.