After launching earlier this year, the Magic Legends beta is now in full swing. There have been a handful of exciting short-term events and the game has received some significant patches to take care of bugs and make quality-of-life improvements based on player feedback. Now it is time to start looking toward the future.
With upcoming content in mind, Game Rant sat down with Magic Legends senior writer Winter "Winwin" Mullenix to talk about inspirations for the game's narrative and how it ties into the greater multiverse story in Magic: The Gathering. During the chat, the conversation turned to some of the most iconic items in Magic's history and how they could play into this game's story.
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Winwin, who is clearly a massive fan of Magic lore, said there are three key items from Magic's established canon that play the most important role in the early stages of the ARPG's story mode. Those three items, combined with some brand-new creations from the game's writers, help put events into motion and establish a unique narrative for planeswalkers who are working through each act of the game.
Game Rant: A lot of Magic lore is tied to items (like Sol Ring or Sword of Feast and Famine); what items from multiverse lore have helped inspire this part of your storybuilding process?
Mullenix: With the starting story, I can cite three items that served as pointed inspiration: the Damping Sphere, the Hedron Matrix, and the Khalni Heart. Since we’re just beginning to weave our story into the larger tapestry of the Magic Multiverse, many of the items players see will be brand new ... We are always paying attention to the items and the lore surrounding them. In the long term, we hope to incorporate a considerable number of them into Magic Legends.
Considering the locations that the early levels of Magic Legends take players to, the mentioned items make a lot of sense. Of course, other items could become more important as the story shifts planes to other locations in the future.
As time goes on and more content is released, it will be interesting to see what other items from the card game's 20-plus-year history make their way into the hands of players through new cards, or play a key role in the game's story as MacGuffins or other plot devices to help motivate or frighten the world's heroes. Each plane has its own set of exciting artifacts, weapons, and other items; so the possibilities are endless if the game manages to find a dedicated audience and continue to release new content to explore.
There is still no full release date available for Magic Legends, and it's unclear exactly when the Xbox and PlayStation versions are going to be available. Hopefully PC and console gamers can see a full release sometime in late 2021.
Magic Legends is available now in open beta on PC, and is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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