Is my magic system too convoluted for my own story?
I am planning an adventure story, focused in the fights, like a shonen anime. For that purpose I want to have a magic system similar to the the shaman's king one (fusing spirits with objects to give them magic powers), but more strategy oriented. So this is what I came up with:
The world will be inhabited by dangerous magic creatures, each one of a concrete element (fire, water, etc.), like Pokemon. Some individuals will have the ability to tame these creatures by defeating them. Once a creature is tamed, it becomes weaker and smaller, but its user can temporarily turn it into a magic weapon (example: a fire snake becomes a fire sword) that only he/she can use.
Each person can tame only two creatures, but with some training, its possible to fuse them in a new and powerful weapon. For example, fusing earth and thunder creatures can create a hammer with magnetic powers, but fusing fire and water can create a steam monster. This state is also temporal (2-4 minutes) and exhaust the creatures once it ends. Also, two fusions made with the same elements can grant distinct powers depending on the user. Last but not least, protagonist’s powers would work a little different. 183
He has a creature of each element (he would find them one by one) and can use two at the same time but he is unable to fusing them. My goal is to make him fight more strategically to compensate for his lack of raw power. My main concern is that the idea seems a little too complicated for and adventure story. In a sense, any character capable of fusing its creatures would have 3 distinct powers. Also, the fusion could be either a weapon or a new creature that fight for its user (again, like Pokemon). To resolve this I came up with 2 ideas:
1-Turn both creatures and their fusion in the same weapon if they have the same user. The only difference would be its element. My only problem is that this would make the fusion feels less special.
2-Replace the creatures with elemental crystals, which only could be used in tandem (the equivalent to the fusions). I like this, because I’m not planning to explore in detail the person-creature relationship but I also feel that this change removes the small power scale that the original system has.
In your opinion, what option is the best to achieve my goal and why? Or do think that the original system is fine? Thanks in advance. 183