I feel like an alternate solution to the second issue might just be to change the setting? The clichés are probably due at least in part to how people view the elements in our real world- fire can be uncontrollable, and destructive; water can stop the fire and be calm. If your setting is on a tiny island constantly buffeted by storms, rough seas, and rain, water isn’t associated with niceness and calm anymore. It’s a powerful unpredictable stormy force. Fire can’t stand up to the torrential downfall outside. It’s not fiery, hot-tempered and destructive- it’s small and precious and warm.

It’s worth noting that in the lore, mages do actually exist without necessarily being tied to visions (or even elements). Mona’s divination powers for example are completely separate from her hydro vision, Albedo’s alchemy comes from a nation that isn’t tied to any of the seven elements, and while Signora gets half her power from delusions (artificial visions), her other half comes from her study of ancient volatile magic. So while Genshin’s magic is more accessible to a variety of characters, it also has more traditional mages (as well as people like Xiao and Yae Miko who are supernatural beings naturally imbued with different elements, or Childe who harnesses abyssal powers from harsh training).

"How can Genshin screw up in story telling sometimes when they make so much money" You could ask that question so many large companies. Truth is, the most talented writers are busy writing their own story and hard to purchase with money. Also they have improved since Sumeru. But Genshin's worldbuilding and lore are definitely awesome.

The thing I like about Genshin’s elemental system is that is tied not just to gameplay, but also to the characters and the world around it. The nations ruled by the respective archon have their own set of ideals that correspond well enough to the elements they represent

I've never really thought of vision holders as mages even though they technically are, likely because yeah they don't fit into the regular archetypes of Mages and Wizards with magic. Interesting video, very insightful.

I like how elemental magic in Genshin Impact isn't just limited to the creation and manipulation of nature's natural elements. It's also energy projection, illusion manifestation, telekinesis, teleportation, elemental mimicry, telepathy and even pocket dimension generation.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this channel grew big. It has good production, a good script, and good ideas.

One theory about how character receive their Vision is their back story all have some kind of “theme.” For example, Electro generally have characters that view the world differently or anemo infamously have characters who have experienced some kind of loss of a loved one or close one and became isolated in some way. It’s not always like that but that’s the theiry

7:31 I just wanted to correct this (maybe you knew and kept things generic by referring to the power of this world like "Gods", but anyway). A minority of people can obtain Visions only because of some sort of genetic predisposition or something like that, the details are a secret. Gods don't give Visions, that's a common misconception in the world of Teyvat itself, hence why a lot of players still believe it, even though it's false (I mean players often don't even read the dialogues, so that's not surprising). From the dialogue with Venti after the Mondstadt Arc: Venti: As you know, Visions are external magical foci that only a small minority of people possess. They use these Visions to channel elemental power. Venti: In truth, every wielder of a Vision is one who can attain godhood and ascend to Celestia. We call such people allogenes. Paimon: Allogenes? Paimon's never heard of them before. Venti: Hehe, that's because this is a secret that only archons are privy to. We don't need primitive tools like Visions. Venti: Instead, each archon has an internal magical focus that resonates directly with Celestia itself... known as a Gnosis. [...] From Raiden's line "About the Visions": Raiden: Really? So in all this time, no new Electro Visions have appeared in the outside world? Well, what I can say on this topic is subject to certain constraints, but... it is not by my will that Visions are granted or denied. The key is people's desire, and... well, there's another side to it too. Btw it doesn't really change the content of the video, I just wanted to avoid misinformation on Genshin's lore. Nice video so far!

they definitely paid way more money to whoever wrote the Act 3 Sumeru main story. but i treat the game as a journey not as a storytelling, so i just enjoy the flow with self-insert as the traveler. besides the great world building and how much effort they put into the detail to make it feels alive, the elemental reaction system is also what makes me still play this game for almost 3 years now

found this video from a genshin subreddit, and wanted to thank you for your analysis! Interesting how many magical systems have same 3 traits, and i loved how you analyse the genshin's elemental magic! Not gona lie, when you first mentioned the hybrid system of magic, i thought that you would mention genshin's two different system : the elemental via the vision and the pure magic. The magic is something that isn't mentioned much, but in the world of genshin some people knows how to use magic, that are unrelated to the elemental vision. There are witches, for example, and i think one of Amber's voicelines mention that Lisa tought her some magic. Probably if u look into it you would find more mentions of non-elemental magic in the world of genshin. Again, thank you for your work, that was an interesting video!

Ah, this is very inspiring for a writer who has struggled to move past the cliched and shackled ways of handling elements. More videos like this, please :)

One of the current theories as to how your get a specific type of Vision is that it has to do, at least in part, with your history, but that still leaves a huge amount of room for different personalities or character growth. Like, I think that every Anemo character has lost someone close to them, but no one is going to mistake the nervous introvert Sucrose with the teasingly analytical Heizou or the twisted Wanderer, despite them also all using the same weapon class. Similarly, Pyro characters seem to be very career oriented, but that ranges from funeral directors, to chefs, to housekeepers/fixers, and former military captain Diluc is still a powerful pyro user, but he's gotten disillusioned with the job he was dedicated to at the time he got his Vision and has since quit and become a vigilante instead.

just a bit of a correction, dendro is not only a plant power, si more of a "reality and memory powers" and so the powers of dendro is more about nature than ONLY plants, actually the dendro god skill are based in computers tropes than nature

I love it when new types of elemental systems are created. When it's different from the usual fire/water/plant cycle. I also write and in my universe I've been trying to make "magic" more scientific. One doesn't just create water pulses out of nothing, but rather has to utilise what already exists. Say for example condensing the water in the air to form a bubble of water. I'm aware that it has been done before but I still think it's neat. My story puts most focus on a different type of "magic" which could be tied more to biology. Take light and dark for example. If a creature is light or dark depends on its species and its habitat. Like how we call owls nocturnal because they hunt at night. There's also an "element" in my world called demonic, and it works like a genetic trait. It changes the appearance and abilities of the one with the trait (just how genes code our appearance and personality) and it can be passed on though offspring or it can be acquired thought certain means. But unlike in most cases, demonic does not equal bad/evil. Just how light doesn't necessarily mean good. Every "element" exists on a spectrum and cannot be defined by one type of behaviour (but it doesn't mean stereotypes don't exist). There are even some species that ARE their own magic system, such as the dragons. I'm trying not to ramble too much so this explanation is super unpolished 😅 In short, there are many tiers and categories of forces in my world, some of them are elemental which are inspired by physics, while others are more like traits based on biology. Some are even closer to concepts like what makes up the world itself (space, time, life death etc) which can't normally be controlled by anyone.

I get why you said it was more game play/design related - but your analysis of weakness/resistance and Genshin's magic really inspired me with my world building. Conflict is really hard for me to generate - and I think that answered several of the problems I was facing and opened up a new world of possibilities for me

Found this on the genshin subreddit but your content seems really interesting. I've been struggling with my worldbuilding lol

I saw this video from your Reddit post, and I love how analytical it is. But can you at least give an exception to your mentioning of weak writing in Sumeru? Because the writing in Sumeru’s story quests is phenomenal. It’s like the exact opposite of Inazuma’s rushed story quests.

What you mentioned kinda sums up why I haven't gotten too tired of genshin. Mostly on the hard magic system part, creating different dances or rotations for the characters I collect is endlessly fun for me and it becomes an extra fulfilling challenge to incorporate not so popular units into established rotations to see how the dance can change.

seems the developers are also getting more and more creative when associating elements with their god's ideology, The first two chapters (wind as freedom and earth as protection) are stereotypical, but they chose Eternity in contrast of brief thunder and lightning (which turns out the "eternity" is to cherish the transient and dynamic nature of ever evolving human society) and associating Grass with computer science and dreams is something beyond my expectation, but quite logical if you think about it. Hence the Matrix references everywhere.

I'm glad this video exists. I also have an elemental magic system as well but I tried tweaking them to stand out, but with purposes. In my magic system, each element represents a theme of personal, philosophical developed in which the more you understand an element and what they represent, the more you are enlightened by it. For example: Fire is the elemental of Change, as one can alter almost any material into whatever the need by "cindering", they lean that changes are a part of life, for good or bad, and that knowing what you can and cannot change will help you become a better person. Or how Earth is an element of growth, patience, and/or maternity. To not rush or force anything but to wait and give care to what you're doing so that the seed you planted will become a mighty oak, so to speak. Air is about clearing your mind and finding joy or peace in anything like playing or singing in the rain. Water is about finding ways to adapt and to thrive when in a difficult situation or different environment. Im still working out the details, but essentially, each ekement has like one singular ability, but it's how you apply that ability that makes it stand out. Like you have to get creative with your techniques or develop strategies to use your magic effectively.

Your insights into worldbuilding are great. Your ideas on the patterns of genshin's elements really opened my eyes.

While I did love your opinion on the elemental gameplay, as someone who plays games for the story and the writing, it pains me to see takes like yours on that department xD And hopefully you will be willing to reconsider? Ashikai is my favorite lore expert/theorist in genshin, and she was the first to show me how astoundingly good Genshin's writing is if you know what to look for and don't expect the storytelling to be linear and streamlined. And in this video where she is interviewed for another channel (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qKyddsJmyJvJgac.html&ab_channel=SevyPlays), she says one thing that really sums it up for me: "genshin is not an adventure game, it's an archelogy game." The quests as they are could even be called bad writing, but that's because most people won't approach it like an archeologist and go hunting for information and unreliable narrators' perspectives and all of that, in literally every item in the game that actually offers explanations. It's not streamlined at all, and it's one of the reasons why it's so dear and special to me due to how realistic it is, but also breaks my heart because it's what the general public doesn't bother to learn and hates de most. Now, I agree that the quests are not always super well set up, the 3 act in Inazuma's main quest suffered specially (even though there were real world justifications to explain why Hoyoverse was in a low point at the time), but they recovered quite well, with Sumeru's main quest having really good writing in my perspective. I would also ask you to consider that the game is Chinese, not western. This matters for 2 reasons: - First is that a lot of the things that get translated to english are either really poorly translated (there are tons of fan articles and threads on that, the amount of misunderstanding that the translations cause is scary), and a lot of the dialogue that sounds verbose is also a consequence of, well, the english and chinese language working in very different ways. - The second reason is that western lessons on storytelling and tropes that work won't necessarily be what the chinese community values, and while I don't know much about Chinese culture, having grown up with anime before this big boon, I can definitely say that non-western stories often don't adhere, nor should adhere, to our standards. Our way of doing things is not inherently superior. As Genshin characters say frequently, this game is about the journey, not the destination. Many of the moments that the story offers are just meant to serve bonding moments and the small things that we will be able to look fondly back upon. Not everything is meant to drive the story forward, and I personally think that western stories could learn a lot from that, but clearly most people don't share that sentiment so perhaps it wouldn't be such a good idea. Also... man, so many explanations for things are exclusive to limited time events. I would say that my top of favorite moments are from those. That is definitely one thing that I consider bad about Genshin. This is it from me. Apologies for the wall of text, and you don't have (and probably won't) reply but I still hope that you read and that other people come across this as well and are open enough to at least admit that genshin's writing can hit pretty differently depending on how you approach it.

You did a fantastic job explaining the basics of Genshin's magic system! All the information in this video is accurate to how the game presents it to any new player (even though, as a player progresses through the story, they start learning more about the nature of visions and where they come from, but that's a topic for a different video...) Love the points you made in the video, made me think more about the game's world building. Side note, I wonder if it would be interesting at some point (maybe when the game is closer to the end of its story) to do an analysis of the way it's telling the main story by contrasting the journey of the protagonist (which we get to play) vs the journey of their twin (which we get to discover as we progress).

Another great video! Always come back to your channel to inspire and encourage me in my writing and story telling. Thank you and keep going my friend :)

Great presentation and production values, but more importantly, the actual content is well-thought out and considered. For all the hate that Genshin gets, including its own community, this video is a good argument for what it does well, especially its world building and combat system.

Eu fiquei o vídeo inteiro pensando "ele tem nome de brasileiro" kk eu nunca tinha visto o genshin dessa forma, apesar de ter notado e gostar muito da forma como as visões são distribuídas. Pela primeira vez alguém conseguiu colocar em palavras tudo que precisava ser colocado sobre sistemas elementais! As vezes eu brinco sobre criar histórias, etc. E em uma dessas, resumindo muito a história eu imaginei um personagem alegre mas que manipulasse o frio. Basicamente seria por causa da relação dele com sorvete (o mundo é meio Jojo) kk Eu gostei da ideia mas não sabia o pq... Mas agora você me mostrou o motivo! Foi pq ela fugia do padrão "gelo = personagem frio, refinado, etc", nesse caso o gelo refletia a alegria dele. +1 inscrito! Nos próximos vídeos eu comento em inglês, hoje o sono não me permitiu kk

The system behind my elemental magic system comes from its origin in my fantasy world. Back before magic became part of my world, there were many wars taking place. But one day, a man happened upon a tear in the fabric of their dimension. On the other side was an informed world of pure energy, with no catalyst to harness it. So when the man reached out his hand to examine the rift, all of the magic in that realm flowed through his body and tore his soul apart, shattering every fragment of his being, and instantaneously stitching it back together piece by piece. As the magical energy left his body, it was released into the world. A world with abundant catalysts (humans included among the catalysts), but no magic. Until now. The magic that was now free on this world fused itself into everything that would accept it. Everything natural to this world was a prime host for the energy of the other world. Natural objects which hosted natural energy. Although the energy wasn’t natural to that specific dimension, it was still a natural energy. As a natural energy, the magic could only take the form of something natural. Any attempt to force it to do something outside of the laws of the universe would result in the “shattering” of one’s soul. To make a fire with magic, they needed to heat up the air around where they wanted the fire. To make ice, they first had to absorb a form of water and freeze it. Every form of elemental magic needed to be carefully executed to avoid disaster. And that’s why they need to undergo intense training to avoid such tragic situations. I have many other magic systems, but this is my most relevant and reasonable magic system.

Cara, no final descobri q tu é brasileiro... Cool man!!! Eu tenho lido Xianxia ultimamente, e essa experiencia (recheada de clichés mas ainda assim satisfatória) me fez repensar bastante os sistemas de magia, fraquezas e coisas assim. Se algum dia interessar no tópico, te recomendo começar por "Against the Gods"... a história ainda está em "ongoing", mas a fantasia da coisa é muito gostosa, e a história tem "arcos de história" que permitem um senso de final em cada resolução. Era isso. Abraço.

I recently came across a ttrpg magic system called the Eight Elements. It has some really interesting ideas, like how the various elements interact, as well as a spell-powering mechanic that works both narratively and mechanically. In a lot of ways, It's a much harder magic system than D&D, in that D&D works without much explanation why, but this depends on understanding to make it work. D&D compensates by using carefully defined spells to do whatever magic can do, while the other is a no-spell system, requiring the user to shape the magic according to its laws. This is always a fascinating subject to me. Good video.

MDS!!!! Eu não tinha ideia que vc é br!!!! Vi um dos seus vídeos e já tinha começado a seguir kkkkk. AMO seu conteúdoooo!!!

You're a brazilian writer ? I am brazilian as well. I came here from your post on reddit ^^, nice video and good luck with your channel Joriam. I also love some parts of genshin's writting, and I put up with the other part... as you pointed out yourself. I hope fontaine brings better execution to the stories, that would be nice.

The Fourth Aspect that makes elemental magic boring is that there are not interesting spells, everything is just... throwing elements. No teleportation, no transmutation, no gravtiy spells, no mental/ psiquic spells. etc

It could be a system where everyone has an element and there’s 3 aspects of it. Creation, control and transformation. Creation is making your element appear out of nothing, or with your internal energy. Control is manipulating elements around you. Transformation is changing part of your body into your element. So two people who have air as their element would both be able to fly. But it would be different depending on what aspect they use. With creation they would force air out from their body and fly as a jet engine. With control they would cause powerful winds to carry them. With transform they could turn their legs into wind in the shape of a cloud or tornado. I have been thinking of this system in a world similar to Solo leveling and many other manhwa like it. Where there’s these game like portals with monsters in them. So everyone, maybe everyone over 18, gets these powers, and they’re level 1. At level one you can only use 1 cubic centimeter of your element for each aspect. But you can level it up by beating monsters. So if you want to level up you have to be creative with how you use your limited amount of element. If you have what it takes, then a bullet doesn’t need to be that big to be effective. So while there’s people whose hands are flamethrowers and others are throwing mountains at monsters in the portals, your grandma can also use her finger to light candles.

Obrigado pela aula, Joriam! Percebi que tenho muitas oportunidades para melhorar o sistema de magia do meu livro S2

there is this theory about genshin vision element users have in common like fire corresponds to passion where we can see the lawyer/cook/funeral parlor owner etc. have overwhelming passion on what they do, an adventurer that despite having the worst luck, he still pushes on the geo users or earth have steady and unyielding personalities like zhongli who stick with contracts, yunjin who is strict about her opera performances, ningguang who have strong mind and will to go from rags to richest and the others, cryo or the ice that have some sort of existential crisis where the nun does not want to do any cathedral work, an adepti who lives among human, a human who lives among the adepti, an exorcist who have too much yin energy so spirits run away as soon as they see him, a bartender who hates the wine industry and so on. anemo or the wind element which represent freedom have the opposite for its users where a guild master locks herself to serve her nation, an alchemy student who is so invested in alchemy she does not have time for herself, and most of them have dead friend(s) who they blame themselves because of it. electro users are quite hard to explain but most of them are quite the rebel where a child is to be told to stop daydreaming but then she decided to become one of the character of her favorite story, a sailor who is always being kept in check but then slayed a sea monster in her own, a best student in the academia with so many people that have great expectation but then decided to left the academia to live comfortably. hydro or the water element have users that are loyal to their beliefs or duties, a deaconess who is loyal to her archon, an astrologist who is devoted to the stars, a leader who is devoted to his nation, a duelist who is loyal to his queen. and lastly dendro or the plant users have in common is that they harbor some type of secret or is mysterious on their own and is smart in their own way, a scholar who is a walking mystery, a herbalist who is adept at plants(obviously), the archon herself holds the secrets of the world thru irminsul(world three), a pharmacist that seeks the secret for immortality these are just the few characters and these are just a theory but we can see that vision element "determines one's will and aspirations"(this one is lore accurate)

I feel like I need to explain the confusion about my name. Sam is in fact my Real-name, what happened was someone hacked my account and changed my username back to an old name I no longer use. It was very disturbing and I'm glad you still called me Sam. 💛

Thought the counterpart for Zhongli being stoic would be Itto being a Chaotic Himbo

Mano que incrivel. Se vc não dissesse que era brasileiro eu nao ia perceber nmrl. Seu inglês é mt bom. Ok, agr falando sobre o video, eu já vi um sistema de RPG chamado A Lenda dos Cinco Anéis, onde os atributos que seria sla, Força, Destreza. São elementos tipo Fogo, Água. Onde cada elemento é uma "abordagem". Ah, um cara vai atacar, ele pode usar Fogo se for atacar ferozmente, ou Ar se for atacar de forma mais precisa. É muito legal e me lembrou isso ai que vc disse no video. Nmrl parabens, que conteúdo legal o seu :)

As an engineering student, I loved the engineers engineering engineery stuff.

Oooh, I love this! I this helps a lot! I have been working on a magic system and I have had issues thinking about how to avoid personality cliches... But I think I figured out something? I know that people have different layers to their personality, so I thought the core of ones being could determine what element they born with and how they interact with others and their environment changes how they can use their abilities. For example the core of fire is passion and it can be expressed in various ways: such as a gentle mother providing a welcoming home for her children through causally using her flames to make warm meals. Other fire users could be an imaginative artisan that pours their soul into creating beautiful sculptures and vases from molten lava, or a seemingly stoic soldier focusing all their energy towards firing direct explosions at an invading army to protect the country he loves... Of course since passion is the core of the their magic, the amount of it they have determines the strength of their magic. Any critiques?

o tema é maravilhoso e o seu entusiasmo em explicar deixa o vídeo melhor ainda obrigado pela nova perspectiva em magia elemental

Great video, I actually loved the little game design section! Thank you so much for putting this together Joriam!

Ah não, percebi um leve sotaque ao longo do vídeo, mas nem me liguei, já assisto conteúdo de vários lugares mesmo, o importante é entender mesmo. Mas aí no final o cara manda do nada "I'm a brazillian writer", que que véi, vivo achando wild BRs por aí kkkkk Parabéns pelo vídeo btw, muito bom

I loved the video, the energy and your work! Love from Brazil

super interesting, fun, and helpful vid!

Really interesting video, well structured and loved the examples. Keep going!

You should read Tamora Pierce’s Emmelan books. The main characters have crafting magic derived from their work- sewing, blacksmithing, gardening, and weather-with the last two leaning more elemental. Before they can be proficient in their magic, they must be proficient in their craft as that is the source of their magic. This system also live along side the more common and traditional academic magic. It’s a really wonderful series about four orphans becoming family. Also the magic system seemed a bit similar to the one described in your video. Also I hadn’t really thought about it before watching your video, but the personalities of the characters have more to do with their backgrounds than their associated elements. For instance, Briar (he chose his own name) the plant mage, grew up in a street gang from the age of 4 and his solutions to most problems is either violence or theft and it takes him a while to out grow this mindset. His work in the gardens and his teacher ground him , despite his teacher not having the most gentle personality. I really think that you would enjoy these books. Thank You for your wonderful video.

Thanks, I'm gonna watch the rest of your videos now.

Very insightful video.

Thanks for the upload. Instant subscription.

Good video ^^ I felt like I was listening and by the time I realize it was over even thou it's 16min long!

This is truly an amazing video! It helped me with my game world-building. I'm fairly new to world-building and I had all these questions about how to make the world and elemental magic feel interesting and somewhat similar to existing stories but not cliche. Your knowledge and delivery are great, you got yourself a new subscriber!

The topic was wonderful and I enjoyed listening and the added subtitles really helped. Thank you!

this video is literally incredible. i look forward to seeing how this channel and its content is going to evolve

Magic coming from fame sounds like it can lead to a commentary about online content creation and/or social media influencers, which could be a MASSIVELY impactful type of story to tell right now.

14:57, You should check out Cassette Beasts. They have a similar sort of interaction system and a few more elements. (Poison, plastic, astral, _glitter_, just to name a few) to go with the standard set. Might line up well with that third point of yours

Came from Reddit stayed for the quality content!!! Keep up the awesome work

Great video!!! I love the way that something so small as questioning how one acquires magic can have such profound changes. I would love to see a deep dive into different magic acquisition systems. The way you go so in depth with your examples is truly wonderful as it exposes stories and worldbuilding that I would have never though of or been exposed to and it broadens the scope of the impossibly possible.

Oh, agreed, this aspect of the worldbuilding was one of the things that really drew me into Genshin, although it is also true that I wish the writing would use it better...but that's a whole other rabbit trail. One thing I'll add is that I do believe that there is meant to be a connection between the character and the element they received, just not in a stereotypical mono-personality way. The Pyro (fire) characters are passionate about doing some particular thing for its own sake, without really looking to some final goal, and they are also very attached to and motivated by family. The ice characters are fighting more for survival and self-actualization, and they often have a complicated relationship with family, either trying to separate themselves from a bad situation or trying to find themselves in the face of great expectations. The water characters strive for excellence and will often take great care to present a certain image of themselves to match, hiding their intentions, weaknesses, and/or true feelings in the process. Saying that to say, you can see these commonalities between characters, but they can still embody that ideal in very different ways and have very different personalities. So, it keeps things interesting and gives fans a lot of depth to analyze. So yeah, I do wish that more stories would take something like this, kind of like the possibilities you were suggesting at the video's end. Having a commonality beyond just the shape of the thing they shoot from their fingertips can be very fun worldbuilding fuel when you consider the many different possibilities beyond just 'the fire person is hotheaded'

Magic System Pitfalls: 1.Too ridged and predictable 2.Revolves around raw power and not utility and problem solving 3. Chosen ones, characters with heavy duty plot armor

Interesting video that reminded me that my magic system has a lot of elemental based magic in it XD Although I supposed it is not really bad to have since elemental magic tend to be the type of magic that is easier to visualise.

I mostly hate elemental system,and prefer Magic system that change the fundamental state of the world rather than Throwing Fireball,Rock,Water,and conventrated air at each other with some alteration

MDS como assim vc é brasileiro?! Cara eu adorei o vídeo, as dicas foram mt boas e me fizeram repensar mt no que eu estou escrevendo e já me inscrevi no canal para ver mais!

I had no idea you were Brazilian! Amei o seu canal!

The way i like "explaining", more like artfully describing, the drastic variety is just to put the variety back in the element. Water can be a calm, celestine lake like the top of Jueyun Karst, but it can also be the destructive, drowning storms we see threaten Liyue at the hands of Osial, as well as a soft, practical rain that gives nature it's life and color. Geo can be a hard, stead-fast cliff like the stone spears holding down Osial when we arrive in Liyue, and it's also the beautiful mountains that make up its landscapes, not even mentioning the beaches of beautifully nature-crafted sand that stand fluid yet stubborn in their existence. Ice can be the dangerous hailstorm on Dragonspine and the beautiful, delicate snowflakes that inspire wonder instead of fear, as well as ice cubes that can make things more pleasant or even last longer. Pryo can be a raging, uncontrollable firestorm, but also a beautiful, dormant volcano, a joyous firework, or home-y hearth in the center of your home. I could go on. Variety exists in these elements, in all of us, and i'm glad Genshin made that immensely clear to me as i've played.

Here from reddit! You just got yourself a subscriber, keep up the good work!

nossa só no final eu fui descobrir que você era Brasileiro hahaha muito boa a revisão!

Hello, 🙂 first time I saw a video of yours and I have to say; that was indeed entertaining so there is that 😄. I recently started to play Genshin Impact a few months ago, and I really agree with what you said about the game freeing itself of the clichés related to elementalists or chara design of elementalists. Also at the beginning of the video, when you were about to adress the " 3 mains issues/stereotypes of the elementalists design " , as a GAMER, I immediately thought of " gameplay mechanics and aspects of the fights " So I pressed pause and try guessing what you were going to tell. And for me the main issue was: - The wizard/sorcerer/mage tropes - Long distance combat, very powerful spells, good dps .. but weak defense! No close combat with weapons (which people do enjoy) range combatant, weak at close range: being destroyed by swordmen if they catch you, etc .. Yeah cause in video games, if elementalists exist, to make it balanced and fair and not only around magic, we create tropes. We give them powerfull mid to long range attacks, with large zoning effects, different types of magic to make it diversified and allowing different type of actions to the player. In short: paranormal abilities and actions (and it s fun to play). So to make it not overpowered, we make them vulnerable! Low defense, low hp .., bad capacity to take hits without flinching etc etc.. And all of that to make a contrast with the warrior tropes, the archers tropes, .. the physical dmg tropes . There is also the " mana/ ressources managing " which can be frustrated for the player , but essential game aspect again to make it fair .. if you can send a giant fireball 🔥 in the face of the ennemy without sweating, I guess it s logic not to make it happen each 2 sec, or nobody would play archery if they don t want to get insta killed each time they play PvP 😂. I could tell so much more about magic or elementalists in video games . But all of that to say, in Genshin Impact, they also break free of the cliché in gameplay mechanics as well! No mana, the majority of the cast use close range weapons with magic.. no sorcerer tropes :) Ps: you re so cute I subbed haha

caraca, cê é br kkk q mundo pequeno dá pra dizer q eu sou um aspirante a escritor, tô bolando um universo autoral q começou como um RPG com amigos no colégio, mas tenho a sensação de quê dá pra fazer mais com ele, já imaginei até livro, jogo, animação e tal. trabalhar nisso me fez estudar bastante sobre escrita de fantasia, construção de mundo e sistema de magia. descobri q eu adoro esse assunto kk enfim, ótimo vídeo, faz mais 👍

A very enjoyable video! thanks for creating and sharing it. I was laughing at myself a bit, as I have a lot of elemental based magic systems. so I was sort of thinking about them in the back of my mind as I was watching this. and when you said "water mages are kind." I laughed a bit as the water mage character of mine I thought of is not kind. she's a protagonist but she is also the meanest and most villainous of a trio. the cruel and cunning lady of the lake. regardless it was an interesting analysis of elemental magic systems and why it can become stale. it also goes to show you that there are many ways to do a thing.

I'd agree with you on Genshin's writing quality a year ago, but it got miles better for Sumeru.

You are simply incredible, I'm so glad to have found your channel. Keep doing what you do! Proud to see a fellow brazilian doing such a great job

My magic system takes elemental magic to a way different level. 7 elements- Kinesis-control a matter Duplication-dupe matter Materialization-change matter into another matter Crystalization-break the f4cking air to form spikes and barriers Chi control-control chi and focus or transfer it Astral projection-be so connected with spirits including yours. Portaling- never bother learning this if your not a royal blood With this magic system the "sorcerers" can be creative and have endless possibilities(whilest also being restricted with rules like-you can only control one specific material at a time unless you have mastered your element to great extent)

I would like to see more game design tangents please ^^

Irmão eu jurava que tu era gringo até vc falar q é brasileiro no final do video. Adorei sua visão sobre assunto, o video ficou bom dmais!

me: wow, he has such great points and shares the same passion I had for Genshin when I played! Joriam: I'm a Brazillian writer-- me: OXI Mas sério, o modo que você elaborou na distribuição de visões e essa "soft magic" foi tão bem feito que já me inscrevi

There is one important thing to note about magic systems in writing IMO. Magic in our world is part of the spectrum of explanations of the natural world, alongside and often combined with or indistinguishable from similar disciplines like philosophy, religion, science, etc. These disciplines are not metaphors or expressions of the human world eg. personalities, character arcs, plotlines etc. which are the things of storywriting. So in writing, you should either tie it to worldbuilding literally, or to the story metaphorically, but be careful doing both. Otherwise you end up with weird conclusions. Like polar and nonpolar molecules don't mix. If there is a magic system based on this for some reason, tying it to character will lead you to conclude that people who have more fat in their diet are the enemies of people who like soup, or something. And I guess vinaigrette consumers are the chosen ones to end this blood feud? Idk it feels forced and confusing to me. The laws of the universe don't have to apply to the human realm necessarily.

Yoooo hello! New fan, also Brazilian, making an RPG system. Thank you for your VISION on this topic. Looking 4 a job to support you now. My magic system is inspired a lot on Genshin Impact, magic is inherent to someone's personality and likings most of the time. Tullyphaeres is a Gorgon Enchantress that makes magical clothing. And so her magic in a pure form take form of tulip petals amd flowers while in a more controled state form straps and strings as if it is clothing material. Her grand daughter in other hand, Amarílisia is a free spirit and it shows I her inventions and she is a tecno-magician. But her magic hasn't bloomed yet. Still she got her name due to how pure magic conducts through her: as Amarilia petals and flowers. She will only be a magic user when she discovers that for her what works is not the creativity of her grandmother or her father(that has as his alecrim flowers, fibers and paper) but in fact cold control solidifying as chains, engines and other mechanical parts. Her mind despite the spirit is chained to her idea and status quo of something and so her magic will reflect that. Looking outside the family the calm and collected Jhon Natalan discovered magic through the arts and so his words take forms as clouds as he frees his heavy opinions onto others and soft steam conforting when dancing to a valsa. But his passion brings him to cooking and so when he concentrates his magic in his alchemical knowledge the result is often a banquet, snack or a cotton candy spider if you want something cute. And this goes for everyone: magic can only be bent by those who found themselves or give importance to something

About mages all being wizards or not. I think one cool idea would be to have a worldbuilding explanation on why magic got widespread, so not just wizards in a "magical university" can learn it: Was some human trained by an elf called Flamme whom spreaded magic to mankind, almost like a magical Prometheus spreading fire, because she loved magic so much, and now her elf disciple is collecting all sorts of folk magic as a hobby? Has the printing press been recently invented, and just like how it happened in our world, there was a fierce competition among the press owners in whom could make more books and profit from it, but books in this case are magical grimoires? Magic has always been around, because it's literally that world's "science", so even an old villager lits her candles for prayer and start her hearth fire with a snap of her fingers, and thus, all those old firestarting methods were never invented. Maybe humans and other humanoid creatures domesticated elemental beings and through a symbiotic relationship, one can use sylphs to cast wind magic or salamanders to cast fire magic, at the cost of vitality or something. So the creature will slowly eat away your life force with the more you ask it to make magic for you, and those creatures are sentient beings, so they might like you or not.

I'm working on a story where emotions dictate elemental powers. Besides the core 4 (fire, ice, air, and earth) with raw emotions like anger, sorrow, nervousness, and protectiveness, other characters exist with unique powers. The life/health user relies on the emotion of sincere love, while an electricity user might suffer from anxiety.

This reminds me of the anime Magi Madoka Magica where girls make a contract with scheming entities, the girls receive a wish and in exchange they must battle magical disasters for their entire lives. The strength of their magical powers is determined by the amount and size of misfortune in their fate, while their abilities are determined by the wish they made. So, there was this one girl who wished for her crush to recover from some fatal illness or a disability I think, so her power became the ability to self-heal and self-regenerate but she had no attack or defensive power, so she can only be abused and because she doesnt have much misfortune in her fate her ability was limited to just that.

The problem I have with this approach is that now I am asking myself why some of those characters's magic are tied to one element in the first place? I mean, why does the catgirl's magic needs to be tied to nature instead of just being box magic or why the dancer's magic is tied to earth instead of just being dance magic for example. If you bring elemental magic to the table, the elements kind of needs to be somewhat relevant instead of just being some spice spread on top of it. Pokémon elements in game mechanics might be simple and unoriginal but the elements in Pokémon's designs are much more than that: you don't just have Rock-type Pokémons looking like big rocks but also mountains wolves with fur as hard as rock, fossils brought back to life and more.

I am working on an elemental hydra. What makes them unique is their main theme on unity, despite their contrasting personalities and different magic styles that conflict with each other, they need each other to help solve not only their individual, personal quests, but the main quest of reuniting a broken world and the races that are constantly at each other's throats. despite being a multiheaded hydra, each head has their own separate physical form that can manifest themselves by separating from the main body. This is useful when they need to separate to solve puzzles or tackle enemies that require a specific combination of elements. Separating is useful, but leaves them vulnerable with smaller mana pools and stats overall. The main body formed by fusing two or more heads is useful as they share each head's mana pool and can modify the body depending on which head is in which position, the central head is the one who controls most of the bodies and decisions, while the right head is the sniper which controls the wings and uses long ranged spells and attacks to strike enemies from afar and the left head is the shield that protects and controls the arms and legs of the body for offense and defensive purposes. Each head has their main preference for position, but their spellcasting variability can enable them to take on different positions with varied effectiveness of their element. Each head is made of two elements: fire and earth, wind and lightning, water and ice- and they are more a manifestation of those elements with a lost soul chosen to be incarnated with those elements to create each of the heads.

Tbh genshins elemental system aka the visions is closely related dc's lantern cores than to avatar's elemental system, both are recieved by the person's will and individuality and the vision's magic is based more on construct than manipulating elements like the avaters do

I have a magic system where when something dies it creates a special substance that can be used to animate things, usually earth, water, or air, but some other less elemental things as well.

Que video bom cara! Me ajudou a repensar mt coisa q nn tava me satisfazendo com minha historia

ngl in my own magic system i have "natural affinities" dependant on personality that affects elemental leaning but it's more about on'es state of mind, disposition, and how they interpret the elements themselves like two fire mages would both have intense personalities but one would be more of a physical fighter who views fire as "uncontrolled strength" while the other is more of a healer viewing fire as a "force of creation and new life", a person must discover their spiritual element but one can choose to reject it entirely.

I find it helps that while the 7 gods that grant the visions to people are directly tied to certain nations, the people that they choose aren't tied to where they're born. Yoimiya, Yanfei, and Diluc are all Pyro vision wielders, but not only are they all from different nations, none of them are from the nation that holds the Pyro Archon

An explanation for why the writing may seem stale, or too long, is that the game is Chinese, and in Chinese there are words that might explain something in less than what English needs, and the translations might be too literal sometimes.

Honorable mention to Limbus, which thematically (and literally with EGO/abnormalities) ties elements to sin- so sloth is earth/metal, Lust is acid/poison, gluttony is plants/clams, eletricty is envy, wrath is fire, ect. This gives a strong design unity to both charecter thematics and the various EGOs they use and enemies they find without limiting themselves to the element’s stereotypes- or rather giving a whole new set of stereotypes, symbols and implications to each sin/element that allows them to be used for fresh visual language The weirdest part is that greed is not an element, being replaced with gloom/water/ice: I have no idea if this reflects a mistranslation, a deliberate exclusion, a lore-important oversight, or a gatcha company trying to cover it’s ass😂. It seems to have been folded in with gluttony, but at the same time I wouldn’t call depression a sin.

This is wild. I paused the video after the intro, turned to my wife, and explained how I fixed the elemental magic issue in my own comic and then sat down to draw. You then proceeded to almost verbatim explain what I said while explaining genshin impact. I have never played genshin a day in my life nor paid much attention to it. My concept was thought up in 2012! Lol, welp, that's the life of a creative. Every idea under the sun was thought up by somebody else. You just gotta add your own personal flavoring to make it special again.

My only issue with this is that it dilutes the terms used. If you don't need to study to become a 'wizard', then what is a 'wizard'? Just someone who casts magic? What do we call the subdivisions then? For some narratives, sure, that can work. You might not need the subdivisions. On the other hand, you might have a narrative where you should have those subdivisions, and a general term like 'wizard' ends up being too narrow to be a general term (since "wizard" usually implies "study & practice"). Such is where you'd then get the non-Wizard terms for alternate magic systems within the world (Sorcerer, Druid, Warlock, Paladin, Witch, Monk, Alchemist, Cleric, Ranger, Bard, Artificer, etc), which could themselves be broken down into thematically-consistent subdivisions as well, while also grouping all the 'major divisions' under a general header term like "Mage" or "Caster". In other words, it can be good to keep these terms more exclusive rather than inclusive.

The elemental interaction in Genshin Impact is partly based on Wu Xing or the chinese elements, where each elements is strong but also weak at the same time to other element depending of the quantity or if is Yin or Yang based. In such cycle also includes interactions where buffs and debuffs can ocurr, with balance as a key part of their philosophy.

This is awesome mate!! I also want to add what makes genshin’s magic feel so unique and awesome is how utterly queer it all is lol. Nearly every character is a queen and i love that ✨💚✨💚✨💚🌈✨💚

As an electrical engineer, I was actually curious where you were going with your engineering team example. XD

Hey man, a friend of mine is creating an original story and is trying to devise a power system but is unsure of how to proceed. Here is what he has so far. I recommended him various other power system videos, but he feels some of them don't necessarily touch upon the issue at all. Characters even in the beginning of the series are significantly above the average human in terms of strength, showcasing superhuman levels of strength and durability that would kill the average human, due to their Arks granting them superhuman characteristics with elemental manipulation. It's nothing too original since elemental powers are basically the standard norm for most shonen works but he wants advice on how to make it unique. He is considering taking the Bleach route where the owner's weapons basically have their souls attached to their weapons but he feels that would be far too complicated. For each weapon, there's also a "release" command that was majorly inspired by Bleach where a user's power is multiplied by a factor of ten at the cost of increased stamina consumption leading to fatigue. He has played a lot of mobile games and is a fan of Arknights power system of Originium Arts but doesn't want to copy it entirely. He is basically considering scrapping and starting all over since the power system he wants basically contrasts heavily with the story arcs he has in mind and is too complicated and riddled with what he knows are plotholes and basically is trying to come up with more drawbacks, limitations, and what is established. For example, his main OC protagonist, who uses water and ice, can effectively feed his team with water thus eliminating the need for most water bottles to hydrate and keep on going, yet on the downside, it consumes his stamina, yet he also wants more drawbacks and trying to find ways to innovate the system rather than come up with new powers. Though again, he is considering rewriting and scrapping the entire system of elemental powers since he reads a lot of fanfiction and is aware that the system he is using as a general concept has been done to death. Any advice would be appreciated

Not the AI art.....

I like your voice 👌🏼, it’s lovely to the ears

Muito bom mano!!