Spell effects.

What kind do you prefer? In my mind, there are two ways most RPGs do spells - one is the common way, where you cast a spell and something happens somewhere (lightning comes out of the sky, flames out of the ground, etc.). The second is the rarer type, where the caster emits the spell; think the enemy skill Flamethrower from FF7. I’m bringing this up because my one disappointment (so far) in Final Fantasy Origins is that all the spells are of the common “something happens” type. I liked my Black Mages shooting beams of lighting, by crikey, and my White Mages shooting beams of holy energy! Frankly, I still find something like Flamethrower from FF7 cooler than most of the overdone type 1 stuff in recent games. Heck, one of the only places I can think of off the top of my head to find type 2 spells in a recent game would be the GBA Pokemon games. And Aria of Sorrow - Soma shooting out lightning using the Lightning Doll soul is pretty cool.

Depends on the spell. SaGa Frontier comes to mind. Take Energy Chain for example. All you do is shoot a crazy Energy beam, and it hits the guy. If your magic user is proficient in Realm Magic, and a ‘master’ magician, it’ll envelop the victim. This is a rather small looking spell, and it’s cool that it comes FROM the caster. It would be stupid if it came down on the guy. Now, take the spell, Tower, for example. A HUGE tower emerges over the victim, and a whole bunch lightning bolts come down on the tower, and it’s super duper strong. I think it would be pretty damn retarded if the caster shot the goddamn tower out of his hands. :stuck_out_tongue:

RPT, I suggest you try Arx Fatalis. There, you need to DRAW the spell rune in order to cast it (save for a few quickslots).

Ha, now THIS is a hardcore rpg discussion. I generally prefer the first method where the attack is conjured out of nowhere, since the other type is rarely done as well. When it is though I have to agree it looks way cooler. One of the attacks from Crono Cross comes to mind, I think it was the most basic white elemental attack, just a white beam from the characters hand. I always thought that looked neat.

Let’s not forget BM’s Shinku-Hadou-ken.

When done well, the second type is better. I just think it looks awesome when a character is actually integrated wholely into the spell casting. The most prudent example that comes to mind is Quistis’ Laser Eye blue magic attack in FFVIII. It seems that this kind of spell is used more often with character-specific abilities, but I think the more generic spells could benefit from a bit more imagination than being conjured up out of nowhere.

Like SG said, it depends on the spell. In SO2, Meteor Swarm involves swarms of meteors falling from space and hitting the enemy. That would look rediculous if tried the second way (not to mention it might bug up the game even more:thud: ). On the other hand, Deamons Gate would look so much cooler if done the second type.

I’ve never really thought about it, but I guess I would have to say that I prefer the Type 2 style, although I don’t think there is anything really wrong with the Type 1 style.

I think LC, has a good point. The spells that are set as Type 1, could do with a little more imagination, insted of just appearing out of nowhere.

As SG said, it depends. In Super Mario RPG for instance, all of the spells involve the characters powering up with a particularly cool animation before unleashing them. Most of the spells involve the caster not being too involved, such as a lightning bolt coming from the sky or a giant Boo appearing above enemies to cause fear, but some, like Mario’s famous fireball spell and Geno’s Geno Beam, are actually emitted from the casters’ hands.

LunarCry has a good point in that when done well, emitted spells are better. Geno Beam has to be one of the best done spells in SMRPG, and who couldn’t like Mario’s fireball skill?

Well in the PC series Heroes of Might and Magic II-IV, Heroes casts spells like lightning bolts, and ice bolt right from their finger. I personally don’t care either way, I’m more for pretty flashy spell animations than where the spell comes from.

Originally posted by MegamanX2K
Let’s not forget BM’s Shinku-Hadou-ken.

AHEM! Versus Series Shinkuu-Hadouken. Sheesh.

Anyway…I hate magic altogether, but if faced in a situation where I HAD to cast a freaking spell, I’d prefer it had to do with the type of spell than being either all the first type or the second one.