Summary
- Some games, like Wildermyth, intertwine magic with the environment, creating dynamic and evolving spell systems.
- Tyranny's spell system requires players to construct spells with Sigils, with spell locations tied to the game's world.
- Arx Fatalis and Divinity: Original Sin 2 emphasize player involvement and strategic gameplay in spellcasting, rewarding tactical brilliance.
There’s no shortage of fantasy games where spellcasting means clicking fireball over and over until something stops breathing. But every now and then, a game dares to mess with the formula and actually makes magic feel like, well, magic. The best ones let spells grow from player experimentation, narrative choices, or weird in-world logic that actually makes sense if you squint hard enough.
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Whether it’s rewriting the rules of mana or letting players literally write their own spells, these games do more than throw glittery particles on screen. Their systems are alive, often chaotic, and always worth learning.
Wildermyth
When Your Magic Is Also Your Story
Wildermyth
- Released
- June 15, 2021
WHERE TO PLAY
Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG. Like the best tabletop roleplaying experiences, Wildermyth gives you choices and answers your every decision with consequences that drive your characters forward.
Lead a band of heroes as they grow from reluctant farmers into unique, legendary fighters. Combat unexpected threats and strange monsters across interactive battlefields. Unravel mysteries and share pensive moments in an ever-new fantasy setting that blends hard truths and sacrifice with humor and personal storytelling.
Where does your myth lead? Come help us uncover it!
Reminiscent of tabletop roleplaying, unique heroes are born in unique settings every game. They age, transform, fall in love, disagree, and make harrowing sacrifices.
Each hero brings their own organic history and personality with them, but your choices and combat skills are what decide their paths and outcomes.
All heroes die someday… but you get to hold on to your favorites. Reintroduce them in the next adventure, and over many lifetimes the myths you make will form your own legendary pantheon.
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Fantasy Violence, Language, Alcohol Reference
- Developer(s)
- Worldwalker Games
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Tactical
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
On paper, Wildermyth isn’t the flashiest fantasy RPG. It looks like a digital storybook with paper-doll characters and procedural tales. But its magic system is one of the most quietly original out there. Each mystic doesn’t just shoot lightning or fire. They interact with the environment through “Interfusions,” linking their power to nearby objects like rocks, trees, or candles to weaponize the battlefield. A lamp can become a burning laser. A statue can be animated to fight.
What makes this even better is how magic evolves with the character. Spells can grow, mutate, or even vanish depending on story choices. One mystic might slowly turn into a crow-like creature and gain avian spells. Another might fuse with a crystal and change how their magic functions entirely. The system isn’t about collecting the strongest spells. It’s about telling stories through how those spells emerge, twist, and reflect the journey of the hero using them.
Tyranny
Wands Don't Make Wizards, Choices Do
Tyranny
- Released
- November 10, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
Play an RPG with meaningful, world-altering choices, unique and memorable companions, and a new perspective on morality. Tyranny casts you as the arbiter of law in a world devastated by war and conquered by a despot.
In a realm where the tyrant has already won, the player must decide how to reshape the world. Strengthen the pillars of a new regime, or search for more power at the top of the new order! Will you work inside the system or try to dismantle it… and will it be for the glory of Kyros, for the good of the world, or for your own ambition?
From Obsidian Entertainment, the team behind Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, and South Park: The Stick of Truth, Tyranny is a classic-styled RPG with a new and original story, shaped and molded by your actions. The very layout of the world will be altered by your decisions as you choose sides, make allies and enemies, and fight for your own vision of law and order in an immersive and reactive story.
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Platform(s)
- Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS
Spells in Tyranny are not loot drops or fixed skills earned after hours of grinding. They’re assembled by the player like magical blueprints, constructed through a system called Sigils. Each spell is made of multiple parts: a core effect, an expression, and modifiers that change its behavior. Want a cone of frost that knocks enemies prone? Combine a Frost core with a Cone expression and the right modifier. Or turn that into a buff that chills attackers when they hit an ally.
But what makes this system more compelling is how it ties into Tyranny’s world. Sigils aren’t just handed out. They’re buried in ancient ruins, rewarded by powerful factions, or hidden in forbidden texts. Some are even off-limits depending on how players align themselves in the story, reinforcing that in this world, knowledge really is power. Magic in Tyranny isn’t about stacking damage. It’s a narrative tool, a weaponized language shaped by who the player chooses to be.
Arx Fatalis
When Casting Spells Feels Like Doing Homework
Arx Fatalis
- Released
- December 23, 2003
WHERE TO PLAY
This critically acclaimed first-person RPG from Arkane Studios takes the player on an amazing journey into the fantasy world of Arx. Arx is wrought with turmoil, brought to the brink of destruction by a violent war. The sun has disappeared from overhead to shroud the world in eternal darkness, forcing communities to begin inhabiting underground mines. But as food and drink becomes scarce, the wars become even more violent as each race – from trolls, goblins, and rat-men, to humans – struggle for survival.
Now, evil has arisen in this sunless world in the form of the God of Destruction, Akbaa. It’s up to you to defeat Akbaa and save Arx from his reign of terror. You must use bravery and cunning to uncover the long hidden secret of Arx. As your epic quest unfolds you will explore ancient temples, bustling cities and abandoned mines; unearth legendary artifacts and face terrifying foes.
You will become the hero of an underground world. Create a customizable character and allocate skill points in categories such as spellcasting, weapons, armor, and stealth to build your champion.
Take out enemy creatures with an innovative casting system featuring 50 powerful spells. Using the mouse, draw runes in mid-air and combine gestures to unleash powerful magical abilities.
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Arkane Studios
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox (Original)
There’s something weirdly satisfying about Arx Fatalis, a game that asks players to trace magical runes with their mouse to cast spells. No hotbars. No autofire. Just the player, the spellbook, and a system that genuinely demands practice. Spells are made by combining runes in specific sequences, and each has to be memorized or read off notes. Mess up a line mid-combat? Tough luck.
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It’s clunky, yes, but it also feels handmade in the best way. Magic in Arx Fatalis is something players do, not just trigger. And it’s baked into everything, from solving puzzles to cooking food. There’s a spell to turn items into gold, another to unlock doors, even one to conjure a temporary bridge out of thin air. The system leans into the idea that magic isn’t just combat flair. It’s a language of logic and rules, and the player’s fluency in it directly shapes how the adventure unfolds.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Where Elemental Logic Meets Tactical Brilliance
Divinity: Original Sin 2
- Released
- September 14, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
Gather your party and get ready for a fantastic adventure! Your imagination is your only limitation as you seek to restore Divinity and save the world. Combine the elements to rain destruction upon your foes. Use your skills to subvert anything in your way. Whether you are an Elf, Human, Dwarf, Lizard or Undead, the people will hear of your travels and react to your legend. But beware, only one of you can become the new Divine!
If Magicka is chaos, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is discipline. Magic here isn’t just about damage, it’s about terrain, timing, and turn economy. Fire creates smoke. Smoke can be electrified. Oil burns. Water conducts lightning. Blood freezes. And all of it depends on positioning and the enemy’s resistance. Every spell cast is a move in a tactical puzzle, and good mages learn how to control the battlefield rather than just nuke it.
But what takes Divinity a step further is how spells interact with player choices. Some abilities come from rare books found only through exploration or side quests. Others are tied to race or class. The Source-powered spells, the strongest in the game, require absorbing magical energy from corpses or special fonts, often forcing moral or strategic decisions. Magic here isn’t just an ability tree. It’s a resource to be earned, weighed, and sometimes feared.
Mages of Mystralia
Spellcrafting, But Make It Adorable
Mages of Mystralia
- Released
- May 18, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
In the kingdom of Mystralia, it takes more brains than brawn to succeed. You will face down giant, powerful creatures and navigate treacherous terrain. You will encounter puzzles that confound even the wisest of the old sages. And you must overcome obstacles put in place by people who do not want you to succeed.
Your path will not be easy. In Mages of Mystralia, you play as Zia, a young girl who discovers that she has been born with an innate sense of magic. Unfortunately, magic has been banned, so she strikes off to train on her own to gain some control over her powers. On her journey, she meets other exiled mages and, discovers runes with magical properties and realizes that she can combine these runes in millions of different ways to come up with completely new spells.
The story was written by bestselling author Ed Greenwood, creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world for Dungeons and Dragons, which served as the basis for games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights, as well as about 170 fantasy books.
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
- Borealys Games
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Players who love fiddling with systems just to see what breaks will find Mages of Mystralia surprisingly deep. On the surface, it looks like a charming action-adventure about a redheaded exile learning spells in exile. But behind its cartoony exterior lies a modular magic system that’s pure sandbox experimentation. Spells start with one of four elements: fire, ice, earth, lightning; and then modifiers are added through “runes” that affect behavior.
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Want a lightning bolt that ricochets, splits, and then causes area damage? That’s three runes, all stackable. Or maybe an ice wall that summons fire orbs when broken? That’s possible too. What makes Mages of Mystralia stand out isn’t just the customization but how the world encourages players to use it. Many puzzles have multiple magical solutions, and the best moments come from spells that were clearly not what the designers intended but still work anyway. It’s like programming with fireworks.
Magicka
The Chaos Is The Point
Magicka
- Released
- January 25, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
Magicka is a satirical action-adventure game set in a rich fantasy world based on Norse mythology. The player assumes the role of a wizard from a sacred order tasked with stopping an evil sorcerer who has thrown the world into turmoil, his foul creations besieging the forces of good.
In Magicka, up to four players take on a grand adventure to save their world from certain doom using a fully dynamic spell system. Players will be able to combine the elements to cast spells, wreaking havoc and devastation on the minions of darkness. They will also be able to team up with friends and fight their way through the campaign, or test their skills in the magickal arts through other challenging modes.
The adventure mode takes the players across three different levels, ranging from the lush forests of mountain valleys to the frozen halls of the Mountain King where wits and creative thinking are the keys to victory. In the unlockable hardcore challenge mode, players fight off waves of enemies to earn their place on local and online leaderboards.
Magicka isn’t subtle. It’s messy, unhinged, and proud of it. Spells are cast by combining eight elemental inputs in real time: water, fire, earth, cold, lightning, shield, life, and arcane. Any combination is fair game. Mix water and cold to freeze enemies. Toss in lightning and self-cast to zap yourself like a soggy Pikachu. Every spell is a chaotic chemistry experiment, and there’s no real safety protocol.
Where it really shines is in co-op, where spells bounce off each other, cancel out, or chain react in the most absurd ways. Accidentally blowing up an ally with a fire-arcane boulder is as much a rite of passage as learning to use haste without overshooting off a cliff. There’s no mana or cooldowns, just pure reaction speed and elemental logic. For those who see magic not as elegance but entropy, Magicka is the perfect playground.
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