Ten Quirky Magic Systems - RPG Fortress
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- Magic! Spells! Techniques! Skills! Almost every RPG has some sort of magic system and on this week's episode of RPG Fortress, I am looking at ten of the quirkiest I could find!
(While I don't go out of my way to spoil the games I review, here's a little warning that there may be some incidental plot and / or gameplay spoilers ahead!)
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#videogames #rpgs #magic
Got a quirky magic system I missed? Let me know!
New fan here, I've been bingewatching your videos. Are you into ttrpgs too?
Teasure of the Rudras for SNES should be on this list
Kinda had to wait to watch this one, but I gotta point out one omission with the Suikoden 1+2 mention: Rune combination spells. Got 2 casters with 4th level spells and say Mother Earth Rune and Rage Rune respectively? Cast at the same time for the Scorched Earth spell which basically makes a volcano erupt.
Also missing the Legend of Legaia magic system where every spell is a summon that you have to absorb as an enemy first. And Secret of Evermore's alchemy magic system. Still a good video, though I actually like the FF8 Draw system quite a bit.
@@paulofrota3958 no one's answering your questions kidgirl
Glad u mentioned FF8, that was the first unique magic system that popped into my head. But u left out a couple important bits of info about it. One of the coolest things about it is that u can equip or “junction” magic to different stats of your characters, and depending on the type of magic, they increase your stats to varying degrees! And the potential tediousness of repeatedly having to draw the magic from enemies can be reduced or even eliminated entirely because the game gives u ways to generate large amounts of magic yourself without having to draw it, before you get very far into the game. FF8 can be pretty complicated, but the game does a good job of teaching you about all of its systems itself if you pay attention and choose to read the info that is available in-game. That’s crucial to do, because this is not a game you can cruise thru without really understanding the systems and if u try to do that, you will have a bad time and not understand why lol.
Dragon Marked for Death's Witch and Oracle classes had you casting spells by hitting a Start casting button, then a whole combination of buttons before finally hitting the cast button to use the spell... and that's not all, you also had a time limit that'd go down faster the more modifications you're tacking onto a spell and you had to actually hit the whole combination in that timer or the spell would fail and hitstun you for a split second. Speaking on Witch in particular as it was my favourite class in the game, had special combinations you could use to to apply "Power up(increases the spell's damage/aoe/projectile count, can stack up to 2 times)", "homing" (Usually changes the spell and it's animation in a way that makes it easier to hit things with it even if you aren't particularly aiming it, but can't be stacked with Condense) or "condensed"(Usually changes the spell into a much more damaging variant that you have to carefully aim, can't stack it with homing) effects to the next spell you cast too. If you did a combination that didn't have a spell associated with it, also failed and hitstun... A certain stat could extend the time you could spend casting each spell though. Considering it's a pretty fast paced ARPG, it's a bit nutty to probably sit there pressing a 30+ button combo in a matter of seconds to get off some of the most powerful spells. like start cast, 8 button combo for Power up, maybe dodge the enemy's attack, start cast, 8 more buttons for a 2nd power up, start cast again, 6 button combo to apply homing, start cast, 4 button combo to choose an element of your choice and finally hit the button to fire it off and do damage. A you could actually do all these applications in whatever order you liked. Witch effectively only had to remember the combos for each of the 4 elements (super easy to remember as it was the same button 4 times in the row for all of them), 1 healing spell (5 buttons), Power Up (8 Buttons), Homing (6 Buttons), Condense (6 Buttons), a levitation spell (2 Buttons) and a light spell (4 buttons) but effectively had 53 separate spells thanks to the way they could be combined. Each element and the healing spell effectively had 3 variants of the spell at 3 levels of power, the homing/condense and powerup spells could be fired off without applying an element to them and Shine/Levitate couldn't be combined but they were useful for utility. What made witch very interesting was her Dragon Surge ability which while short lived and took awhile to recharge DP for it, it would "Store" your last used spell for you to cast over and over until the dragon surge ended.... very nice to spam cast one those 30+ button extremely high power spells.
Those are some great selections. Systems that come to mind are games that let you construct your own spells like Morrowind or Two Worlds. FFXV actually had a surprisingly deep magic system that had elements of alchemy/crafting. Games with physicas systems that can have interaction with magic like electrifying water or setting fuels ablaze are usually cool too. Games very often seem to just do a mana pool of some kind and spells that you just cast. It's nice when they do things in a less conventional way. A lot of fantasy book series are considered notable for their unique and intricate magic systems. It would be cool to see more of that in gaming.
Treasure of the Rudras is probably the weirdest magic system i've heard of, you can create new spells by typing in names. and while there is an arguably correct way to do things, such as a pattern akin to how the SMT series names its main line elemental spell (prefix+ element+suffix) but more complicated (there's over a dozen prefixes/suffixes and you can have more than one of each on a single spell) as well as some specific hard coded spell names, it will accept anything up to its 12 character (in the fan translation) limit and create a spell. So yes you can fill your magic list with random swear words and insults if you're so inclined
Wild Arms 3 has another weird one; using magic requires your Force gauge (which is otherwise kind of like a Limit Break gauge) to be at a certain level.
And Secret of Evermore (technically it's alchemy, but there's no other magic-equivalent in the game), where you need formulas and ingredients.
I'm a simple man. UA-cam video mentions Shining Force, I like the vid.
Wonderboy in Monsterland had it right. Put spell in slot. Click button. 🔥
I honestly never had an issue with FF8's Junction system. I am glad it isn't a system tons of games borrowed from or anything, sure, but it never really gave me any trouble. That's more than I can say for some of these.
Treasure of the Rudras?
Shining Force 3 is the perfection of Shining Force 1 and Shining Force CD.
I would love to see a Shining Force 4 that incorporates the best shit about 2 and 3.
Sky is best Trails because the character development isn't ruined with harem garbage.
I'm surprised no one brought up the Chrono Cross magic system. The lack of MP, the field effects, the slotting, I hate it all from the depths of my soul. What a terrible magic system to a game I really didn't enjoy.
I liked magic systems better in Kingdom Hearts, Shining Force, just to name a few.
Paladin's Quest (SNES) has a weird one, and very definition of "interesting does not always mean good". Instead of learning spells directly, you learn new elements as you find new teachers. Your spell list is based on pairings of elements - fire + fire is one spell, fire + air is another, air + air is a third. You have a aptitude meter for each element, and that element's power increases the more you use it. Your elemental aptitudes are also both attack AND defense versus that element, but it's not always obvious that most enemy attacks are elemental. If that wasn't weird enough, the game has no MP stat, all spells cost HP to cast!! And because of this there is no HP healing spell, HP healing is potions only!
The above factors combine to make Paladin's Quest be a brutal experience for a blind player. Most blind players are going to see spells costing HP to very little damage and think that magic sucks. Those players will go on to get shrek't by most enemies because they have no elemental defense. The game wants you to be actively training your elements at every opportunity, which still takes a lot of effort.
Fantastic video. Fantastic video topic.
Final fantasy 8 was so terrible.
Phantasy Star 4s greatest sin was the naming convention for skills.
How about golden sun. Being able to change magic on the fly by swapping djinn and needing to use magic in the dungeons to solve puzzles.
Also how your class, stats, and psi-engeries (ie spells) can change all during midfight, or use djini to release summons but loose stat boost as trade off (iirc)
My GFs ;^; Nuuuuuu