REBUTTAL TO: What Happened To Magic?
Magic. A word that is thrown around when concerned with RPGs. The definition is indeed very broad as Mr. Snyder pointed out. I enjoyed reading his written work on magic and the lack of usage in RPGs but I feel that there are many games out there that call for more than a simple sword swing for complete victory.
While saying that it depends upon the character’s abilities and stats whether such magic would suffice, it doesn’t dispel the fact that magic is indeed needed in many instances. I’m not for sure if Mr. Snyder has experienced as many games as I have but there are quite a few that are out there where not using a skill means either a long drawn out fight or no chance to get past. Shall we look at some of these?
The first series that I can think of where skills are vital are any of the Star Ocean titles. Granted, these titles allow for the characters to be at an ungodly level but who wants to take that long building up? Skills accessible during any part of the game are very beneficial to the progressing of major conflicts between enemies. The Star Ocean franchise takes this into consideration by making skills that do damage effectively to the cost at which they are executed. In a heated battle, magic of any kind is welcomed when dealing with a group of intimidating monsters. Duking it out physically with said group may also be done but often takes a longer time and greater risk of failure. Using skills are not without their costs as well. If you unleash an explosive spell or technique on an enemy, be prepared to pay for it. It isn’t as bad as it sounds though because these party members can gain their losses back through battles but the repeated usage of skills is both necessary and costly at the same time.
Another example of necessary skill usage is located in any Paper Mario title. It is vital to learn how and when a regular attack is needed and when a special attack is the only thing that can be used. A normal jump or hammer hit will not reach those high enemies that are on the top of the roof. Therefore, the throwing of a hammer is vital to reaching those baddies and taking care of them.
I know it may seem that what I have said so far sounds like it is going along with what Mr. Snyder is saying but why it sounds so is because of the fact that there are many titles out there that offer a wide arrange of difficulty at certain intervals where ordinary attacks won’t be effective in the long run. An elemental enemy is such an example where physical attacks do little or no damage at all and a spell is needed in order to dispatch the creature.
There have been a fair share of games where ordinary attacks are effective enough but there have been that same many that have called for a little skill usage when brute strength is rendered useless.
What it boils down to is whether or not magic will be effective in an RPG and the character using it. Certainly, you wouldn’t use ordinary sword thrusts on a final boss that executes magic that damages you a lot more. I would want to use skills that kept the enemy at bay and damaged for a good amount. Ordinary attacks are not as effective on certain enemies as I felt was portrayed in Mr. Snyder’s editorial.
It may seem like all that has been going on since the first word here is a bunch of random rambling that has no plausible grounds. I feel that I have said what is necessary in explaining that magic is available for usage in a major variety of games where it is vital that said magic is executed. Although, I feel the word “magic” as used in Mr. Snyder’s editorial and mine is more effective when used as the word skill instead since magic is a skill that characters are able to execute.
|
RSS feed
iTunes
