Highlights
- Magic systems in games can come with drawbacks and consequences, adding depth and challenge to the gameplay experience.
- The use of powerful magic or magic-like abilities can have severe repercussions on the protagonist's life or the game's world.
- Balancing great power with responsibility is a common theme in games with cursed magic, as characters must navigate the potential dangers and sacrifices that come with their abilities.
In most games, there is a cost to magic. For example, in Final Fantasy, players need to use MP, or Magic Points, to use spells like Fire or Blizzard. What if there was more than an energy cost on these games, though? What if magic took a toll on one’s life, or what if the magic system threatened to corrupt a save file?
The following examples will go down the rabbit hole of cursed magic or magic-like powers that could be perceived as curses. “With great power comes great responsibility,” as Uncle Ben once said to Peter Parker. Maybe he should have said, “With great power comes a drawback of epic proportions” to Peter instead.
This list includes spoilers
8 .hack//Infection
.hack//Infection is the first game in a quadrilogy of action RPGs for the PS2. The series revolves around Kite, a new user in the MMORPG called The World. He stumbles upon a powerful item, the Twilight Bracelet, which he finds while fighting an undefeatable monster that puts his friend in a coma in real life.
There are data bugs littering The World after this, and these corrupted monsters can only be defeated through the Twilight Bracelet. It’s a powerful source of magic that can also damage the game if overused, and there is a meter analyzing player activity.
7 Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter has a similar gameplay mechanic in its game. This is the last console title the Capcom series received. It threw away the typical fantasy setting of the previous games and instead set the world in a post-apocalypse wherein societies lived underground. Battles are turned-based, and the main character, Ryu, could turn into a dragon. It’s a powerful form with a cost. Use it too much, and the game is over, meaning that players have to restart from scratch.
6 Final Fantasy 16
Final Fantasy 16 is the latest game in the series that inspired this list. The main character, Clive, is known as a Dominant, meaning that he houses an Eikon within him. Eikons are this game’s version of Summons, and Clive has the power of Ifrit.
Dominants can use magic, pass it along to others, and transform into the avatar of these Eikons as well. The more characters use it in this world, the weaker their bodies will become. Even characters that receive the blessing of Dominants will get diseased if they use magic too much. This does not translate to gameplay.
5 Life Is Strange
Life is Strange is an adventure game starring a young teen named Max. She had just moved to her hometown and discovered a hidden ability within her. Max can look at photos and travel back in time to when those photos took place. This leads her down a road to help her former best friend Chloe try and avoid death.
This goes against the will of fate, and if players choose, through Max, they can sacrifice their town to a storm to save Chloe instead, at the cost of hundreds of lives. The good ending has Max let Chloe go and reset the timeline to its status quo. Time travel may seem cool, but this magical power can be a curse too.
4 Rogue Legacy 1 & 2
Rogue Legacy is a roguelike action game that helped redefine the genre. The game begins with an adventurer who tries to destroy a great evil and their castle. He fails and gets a curse placed on his lineage. Until the evil is defeated, every descendant is fated to go to this castle to try and save their family. Players get to choose from a small pool of characters who are next in line. These characters can have great gifts through classes like Ninjas or Wizards, but they can also be afflicted by status ailments.
Characters can be blind, have glass armor that makes them die in one hit, be forced to walk on the ceiling backward, and much, much more. It gets even more complicated in the sequel, Rogue Legacy 2.
3 The Witcher Series
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is considered to be one of the best action RPGs of all time. With a giant open world, tons of unique side quests, and fun characters, it’s not hard to see why. The main character Geralt is known as a Witcher. These monster slayers for hire go through a righteous process as children to become superhuman.
They gain great power in return, such as the ability to use magic, super strength, heightened sense like smell, resistance to diseases, and so on. Their power comes at a high price, though, such as sterility and people not trusting them as they are mutants.
2 Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a cross between an action RPG and one with MMO-style turn-based combat. Players assume the role of Noah, a soldier in the Keves nation. Their enemy is the Agnus nation, and they have been waging war for hundreds of years. In death, characters are reborn to fight anew in a rushed gestation process done through magic. Characters like Noah are cursed to live, die, and repeat the process through reincarnation. Noah, his friends, and some unlikely allies are determined to break this curse.
1 Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is an example of modern magic, aka technology, saving a life. Dingo is a simple miner who gets thrown into a conflict of warring mechs when he discovers the mech unit known as Jehuty. Dingo eventually gets shot in the heart outside of battle. He manages to crawl back to Jehuty, who can stabilize his condition. The cost is Dingo cannot leave the mech unless he wants to die. Is a cool robot with immense power worth it if one cannot leave?