Who thought of this moronic system, anyway?

by Wisdom 

When you get down to bare bones of the fantasy genre, the defining factor is magic. It's not really "fantasy" unless there's something fantastic involved, and really, nothing implies grandeur the way magic does. So why has magic, in almost every RPG, become so mundane? There's no inherent respect or fear of magic in the games we play--if anything, magic is seen as something that's almost commonplace and trite. I have serious qualms about this, so sit back and hear me out.

The first point I want to hit is the wholehearted disdain of magic shown in most RPGs. The entire point of fantasy is to convey a sense of wonder and surrealism. This is the one concession I am willing to make to most "old school" gamers: game developers focus far too much on graphics to achieve this. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate a developer's desire to create a graphical world that awes in its grandeur, but the presence of a fantastic environment can only do so much. If developers put a quarter of their ingenuity into new forms of magic, could you even imagine the sort of game we'd have on our hands? It boggles my mind.

And why did magic go from "innate power" to "follow prescribed set of instructions here?" The tabletop RPG presumption that magical power comes from rare ingredients and spoken words is probably the dumbest sort of system I've ever been exposed to. Think of what this is suggesting: by saying a few words and tossing sand in the air, you can cause an earthquake. Yeah, ok. Maybe if I sneeze and shake my handkerchief suggestively, I can grow a third arm? How did this idea gain popularity? In most RPGs, the same sort of idea prevails, without the idiotic idea of "ingredients." If a spellcaster is "muted," he or she suddenly loses his/her ability to wreak havoc. Why in the world should a wizard's loss of speech inhibit their ability to fry some monster ass? Magic should come as easily as a thought. Perhaps the new status ailment to inhibit magic ability should be called "concussion," or at least blindness, like the warriors. If you can't see your enemy, how can you expect to target him? And you can "buy" new spells. Excuse me? When was the last time you went into Wal-Mart and purchased the power to suck someone into a black hole? Magic isn't some distributal power; how did it start getting treated like one?

The general approach to magic in RPGs is flawed. It doesn't inspire any sort of fear anymore; I wonder if it ever did? Think about it. If some dude came up to me in the street and started shooting fireballs out of his eyes, my reaction wouldn't be: "The shop is on the west side of town." (This also applies to large, monster-blood covered warriors, but someone who knows how to swing a sword is a bit more common that someone who can cause lightning to split me in half.) The way most games introduce magic is as a perfectly natural force, and it's not. Some will argue that in a fantasy setting, it should be, but I disagree completely. Why should townspeople be frightened by the sudden appearance of monsters, or ominous storms, and not by the presence of a person who can make meteors fall from the sky? Magic should be more frightening than anything else, because the power of magic suggests the ability to warp reality. Developers need to create more superstition and general fear surrounding the arcane. It has tremendous potential.

And who thought of the idea that magic should be accessible to everyone? It's an anomaly, not the norm, and I've never understood why developers made magic so incredibly easy to possess. Some games have taken to respecting this aspect of magic, but not many. In Final Fantasy IX, only Vivi could use destructive magic, and he was feared and reviled for it. (Though more because of the stigma magic ended up carrying with it, and not out of genuine surprise at the force of magic.) In SaGa Frontier, only Blue, Rouge, and the Mystics really had access to the power of magic. But the rarity of this force should carry with it more gravity. In Final Fantasy IV, the kingdom of Baron didn't waste any time in striking at the heart of the magic in the world. Both Mysidia and Mist were attacked in the first half-hour of the game, and for probably more reason than the similarity of their names. Throughout the game, Rydia was met with hesitance at best, and outright fear in most cases. In Skies of Arcadia, using magic was unheard of. Humans couldn't even perform magic without the aid of the Moon Crystals, and Fina's inherent magical ability turned quite a few heads. Final Fantasy VI is another wonderful example of a setting where the use of magic is reviled by the world.

But why hasn't this become the norm? A game should devote much more time to the complications that magic brings with it. It's not an inherent ability in most humans, and the ones that can perform it are rarely shown to be conflicted over their innate powers. Why not? Who wouldn't be tempted towards corruption with such an awesome gift? Magic, when brought to its highest form, is enough to bring entire armies to their knees. (I believe Bahamut's role in FFIX proved this rather succinctly.)

Why don't developers try to devote more time and energy to the system of magic? It's probably the only aspect of RPGs that has literally received no significant attention or innovation. Let's get with it, eh?