Current Events > So what's your favourite spellcasting system in a video game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Any games that stick out as particularly good? Looking for ones that allow a lot of experimentation. I really enjoyed Tyranny's different spellcasting formulae, but I wish there was more to the game.

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Warframe

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Bloodborne

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FFT

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R1masher posted...

Bloodborne

Can you tell me what it's like?

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Probably FF7 honestly. Or Morrowind.

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I haven't actually played it yet, but I've heard Treasure of the Rudras has a good spell system.
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Shotgunnova posted...

FFT

Is a lot of fun; shame it hasn't been adopted too much

Charge time and ability to hit either the unit or the panel allowed for a lot of combo plays and proactivity. I love charging quick and having it resolve immediately after the unit has acted, or charging meteor on my own guy who can direct it accordingly just as it drops on everyone.
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FFantasy15

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Lost_All_Senses posted...

FFantasy15

God I hated Final Fantasy 15's spellcasting system.

The system itself is way too limited, but my favorite spell in a game was Frost Storm back in Champions of Norrath. Felt like such a badass stacking 3-4 on top of each other to create this impassable wave of death to herald my arrival.

Kingdom Hearts. I prefer action combat, and the spells felt quick and intuitive. I also like that it's not some complex resource management thing.

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JE19426 posted...

God I hated Final Fantasy 15's spellcasting system.

Haha. I actually like the game. Somehow got 150 hours out of one file. But yeah, dunno what the fuck they were thinking. It's broken and just not fun to use.

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Dragon's Dogma

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divinity original sin 1/2

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Spellcaster posted...

Can you tell me what it's like?

Theyre all items with infinite uses that consume bullets. All very unique compared to one another and the majority of them are broken as fuck.

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There was one game I played... for some reason I want to say it was Drakan: The Ancients' Gates but that's probably not it ... where you switched spells by signing the rune for the spell you wanted. It was maybe kind of tedious but it also felt more real in a way because you were doing something other than just pressing a button.

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Too many games have their spells nerfed or neutered, making the higher level versions of each type worthless.

However, Dragon's Dogma has decent magick (spells, sigils, and enchantments).
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Sackgurl posted...

divinity original sin 1/2

andri_g posted...

Too many games have their spells nerfed or neutered, making the higher level versions of each type worthless.

However, Dragon's Dogma has decent magick (spells, sigils, and enchantments).

Dragons Dogma has the best high level spells Ive ever seen in a video game. They take ages to cast but they are cataclysmic, devastating, and massive spells that are worth the time.

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dragon age.

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Rikiaz posted...

They take ages to cast but they are cataclysmic, devastating, and massive spells that are worth the time.

As long as your pawns keep enemies *entertained* until you finish casting and drop the curtain on them. lol
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monkmith posted...

dragon age.

One of my fav combos in origins is glyph of paralysis + glyph of repulsion

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I like how code vain handle classes and skills alot. Skills themselves were kinda meh thought.

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Squall28 posted...

Kingdom Hearts. I prefer action combat, and the spells felt quick and intuitive. I also like that it's not some complex resource management thing.

Kingdom Hearts is the first game that came to mind also and I haven't played that game since it launched ages ago. I agree. I also prefer action combat and being able to select spells on the fly was extremely satisfying.

You shouldn't have to sacrifice anything in order cast spells. Having to pause combat to scroll through a list of spells breaks the immediate tension of the game and thus breaks the immersion.

It's even worse when it's real-time like in everyone's favorite dick to ride, Dark Souls. Imagine being an actual wizard fumbling through a roll-a-dex until he finds the spell he needs to cast in that specific moment.

It's a criminally neglected ease-of-use feature and in most games actually punishes the player for choosing magic-based builds.

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Magicka
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Rikiaz posted...

Dragons Dogma has the best high level spells Ive ever seen in a video game. They take ages to cast but they are cataclysmic, devastating, and massive spells that are worth the time.

And then you can't see anything because a giant fucking tornado is filling your entire screen

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TerrifyingRei posted...

And then you can't see anything because a giant fucking tornado is filling your entire screen

But you dont have to see anything cause everything is fucking dead.

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UnholyMudcrab posted...

Magicka

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Outward is pretty good, especially the Rune Magic system.

I also really like Magicka.

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One that I really like, the only one that comes to mind right now because I'm playing it, is Breath of Fire 4. It has a "combo" system, where there are 4 elements, but you can create stronger "combo magic" like by casting a wind spell then an ice spell to have it turn into lightning magic spells for the second and third attacks (wind, ice, ice = 1 wind, 2 lightning attacks). There are 4 types of combo spell "elements" that are dual element and stronger than individual spells of the four basic elements: Water, Earth, Fire, Wind. Cast an Earth spell then a Fire spell and you get a lava/magma type attack. Cast a water plus earth and you get a mud flow type attack. Fire plus Wind and you get an explosion attack. It's pretty cool for a basic JRPG. You can also combo other types of attacks to get bonus damage or healing effects.

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It's been mentioned a few times, but Magicka sounds a lot like what you're looking for.

The game contains eight base elements (water, life, shield, cold, lightning, arcane, earth and fire) which can be mixed and combined to cast spells. Up to five elements can be chained together for this purpose, but certain elements cannot be combined together due to their opposing nature (for instance, fire and cold). Additionally, two other elements can be created by mixing two base elements: steam (water and fire) and ice (water and cold); these behave like base elements, that gives players access to ten elements to cast spells from.

When casting a spell composed of multiple elements, there is a set hierarchy which determines the type of the spell cast. Shields take precedence over projectiles (earth and ice), which take precedence over beams (life and arcane), which take precedence over steam, which takes precedence over lightning, which takes precedence over sprays (water, fire and cold). For example, a spell consisting of pure fire would be a spray of flame. A spell of fire and earth would be a fireball projectile. A spell of fire and arcane would create a flaming beam. A spell of fire, arcane and earth would create a flaming, arcane rock projectile. A spell of fire, arcane, earth, and shield would result in a flaming arcane rock barrier. The order in which the component elements of a spell are summoned has no effect on the type or power of the spell, and does not matter, except when attempting to cast a "Magick" as opposed to a regular spell.[7]

Each spell can be cast in four different ways: as a ranged projectile or beam, as an area effect spell, as an enhancement in wielding the player's secondary weapon (normally a sword), or on the players' own bodies. All elements tend to cause damage, except Life, which heals (this is reversed for Undead enemies where Arcane heals them and Life damages them), and Shield, which creates barriers. This can also affect what spell is cast; for instance casting shield and arcane as an area of effect will create a circle of arcane mines around the caster; however, casting it on oneself will instead cause the caster to have an arcane invulnerability aura.

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I've played magicka. It is indeed really great.

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Disgaea. The magic has so many different tiers and configurations that you can tweak it to any possible situation. Most spells are basic and very easy to understand what to use them against. The animations are cool, but you can totally cut them out if you want which is a major boon.

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weirdly enough, the Paper Mario games/Mario RPGs. Timing based, some rhythm based, almost every skill has a unique mechanic behind its usage etc etc

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Rikiaz posted...

Theyre all items with infinite uses that consume bullets. All very unique compared to one another and the majority of them are broken as fuck.

Why do you say the majority are broken?

I loved the system and they all had their uses but I finished NG before getting much of any of the spells, so maybe that impacted my thoughts on them.

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I liked Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Specifically the Echoes of Time game because thats the one I played the most. You pick a spell and manually cast it in a spot, you can then lock that spot and mix another spell into it to create a more powerful or completely different spell depending on what you choose.

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Outward

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Chrono Trigger.

Area based techs, and the dual/triple tech system is still my favorite to this day.

Lost Magic on the DS was also pretty neat. You had to draw the spells out, and there was a pretty wide range of them.
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Chrono Cross baby

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Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance 2

Garioshi posted...

Chrono Cross baby

I fucking hated it.

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MorbidFaithless posted...

One of my fav combos in origins is glyph of paralysis + glyph of repulsion

i just loved a good tempest/blizzard combo. grease fire worked nicely too.

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Conker posted...

Why do you say the majority are broken?

I loved the system and they all had their uses but I finished NG before getting much of any of the spells, so maybe that impacted my thoughts on them.

I mean you get them rather late but Blacksky Eye, Executioners Glove, Augur of Ebreitas, and especially A Call Beyond kinda trivialize most of the game. And I dont mean they are broken in a bad way. Theyre awesome and powerful and totally pay off how long you have to wait for them.

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Rikiaz posted...

I mean you get them rather late but Blacksky Eye, Executioners Glove, Augur of Ebreitas, and especially A Call Beyond kinda trivialize most of the game. And I dont mean they are broken in a bad way. Theyre awesome and powerful and totally pay off how long you have to wait for them.

Yeah. Except Madara's Whistle.

That one just sucks all around

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TerrifyingRei posted...

Yeah. Except Madara's Whistle.

That one just sucks all around

I mean it's strong too, just bad. It's also Bloodtinge... ew.

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