Nico Minoru may not be one of the most popular heroes onMarvel’s roster, but she is one of the most unique. As a member of the Runaways, she and her like-minded friends ran from their supervillain parents (The Pride) before eventually stopping them. There are some twists and turns on the way, but she has a lot of potential outside of this origin story. She appears inMarvel’s Midnight Suns, for one example, and is a leading character alongside many more well-known characters.
What sets her apart fromother Marvel heroesis that she inherited her parents' magical aptitude, and it manifested in a powerful staff known as the Staff of One. This lets her bend magic in ways normal magic cannot. Through her comic series, Nico eventually develops magic abilities outside the Staff of One, and at one point, her arm is replaced with one of supernatural energy. It is said to be even more powerful than the Staff of One, somewhat undercutting it in that story, but a game (whether focused on Nico or with a similar concept) could go over great.
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The Staff of One as a Gameplay Mechanic
This would only work in a game where the main character was a spellcaster, again if a game utilized a similar concept but was not focused onThe Runaways’ Nico. This is because the character would need magical abilities to operate as standard combat options. The Staff of One would operate as a special ability of sorts.
For Nico to use the Staff of One, she has to bleed—because all magic comes at a cost. What makes the Staff of One so powerful is that it can cast almost any “wish” effectively once—to do so more than once would create unforeseen and unintended consequences. This would make a great power source in a video game.
Conceptually, something similar could have 25-50 powerful magic abilities players could cast. It would no doubt make combat encounters easier, but there would need to be some concept in when these could be used and in what way. However, if there was a way to say simply kill a powerful boss and yet a player needed to use the Staff of One to cast such a spell again, perhaps it would killa friendly NPC. It would mean that players have to manage combat, the Staff of One, and so on. Some would no doubt push themselves to not use the Staff of One, but there could be something like a requirement to use it when the character would die.
Balancing narratives and combat on such a powerful weapon would no doubt make an interesting game. It doesn’t serve quite this purpose inMarvel’s Midnight Suns, but without any games with major mechanics like this, fans will get to seeNico Minoru in all her glory in the upcoming strategy RPG.
Marvel’s Midnight Sunsreleases October 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
