This article contains spoilers for the original Mistborn trilogy.
My recent playthrough ofDishonored 2synced up with my first read through of the original Mistborn trilogy, and there’s a powerful synergy betweenArkane’s great immersive sim andBrandon Sanderson’s fantasy novels. Both probe the actions that monarchs take to maintain order and hold onto their power, both center on an older man who mentors a younger woman with magical powers, and both of those younger women happen to be empresses who enjoy sneaking out on the city rooftops after dark.
Learning The Rules Of Hard Magic Systems
Sanderson’s books haven’t had any major adaptations yet in film, TV, or in games. But his books are ripe for adaptation, especially as video games, because he’s known for writing “hard” magic systems. That means there are clear rules governing how the magic works, and that those rules are communicated to the reader through the story. If you pay attention, you can get what’s going on. This is in contrast to books likeThe Lord of the Ringswhere magic is more mysterious and beyond the understanding of the characters.
As a result, you approach a Sanderson book in the same way you approach a tabletop or video game, attempting to understand the rules governing the fictional world you inhabit. Given that immersive sims like Dishonored are also interested in teaching the players the rules of the world, then letting those systems bounce off each other, it might be the best genre for a Sanderson adaptation.
Mistborn even comes with ready made classes. There are three different schools of metal manipulation in the series: Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. Allomancy is the most fleshed out and would be enough, on its own, to support a game. Allomancers ingest metals, and then can ‘burn’ them within their bodies, allowing them to access magical powers. Burning tin enhances your senses, while burning pewter empowers your body. Burning steel allows you to telekinetically push on metal objects, while burning iron allows you to pull on those same metallic bits. Burning bronze allows you to detect someone else using allomancy, while burning copper allows you to hide allomantic activity. There are other metals in the books, and more are introduced as the series progresses. Each provides a new way of interacting with the world that could map pretty cleanly to a game.
In the books, Mistbornare Allomancers who have access to the full suite of abilities, while Mistingscan only use one.
Play Your Way (Of Kings)
Mistborn would work well as an action game, and you could even make its powers sing in a competitive shooter. But an immersive sim like Dishonored would be the best match for these magical abilities because it’s the genre that tends to be most focused on facilitating systemic interaction and emergent play. A great Mistborn game would need to keep track of all the metal in the play space, and simulate how those metals would react when pushed or pulled on.
Mistborn (the characters, not the books) often use coins to get around, dropping a small amount of currency on the ground, then pushing on it with their powers to spring up into the air. This would be a perfect video game traversal system, and using coins means that there’s even an in-game currency you would need to collect to use your powers.
You could also use it as a weapon to launch at your opponents. This is why Mistborn would work so well in interactive form. Like the best games, many of the powers have multiple uses that solve multiple problems at the same time. Coins could be currency, but they could also be a weapon you could shoot at enemies, but they could also power your flight. Similarly, Mistborn carry vials of the metals around their necks and you would need to replenish your supply when you ran out.
The sheer number of abilities is what would make it such a compelling immersive sim. You could focus on pewter, steel, and iron and make it a brutal action game, or emphasize tin, bronze, and copper and play it as a stealth game. You might run out of your preferred metals in the middle of a mission, which would push you to lean into another playstyle. It’s a world with multiple classes, but a Mistborn by their nature can use all of the class abilities which would leave ample room for roleplaying choice.
There hasn’t been a Mistborn video game yet, but when there inevitably is, I need to see an immersive sim dev leading the way. Arkane may be busy with Blade, but it would be the perfect choice to bring this world to life.
