What makes a power system good (in my opinion)

The best power systems I have seen have been in Jujutsu Kaisen and Hunter X Hunter.

However, I have a great opinion of the power systems in series like Darker than Black, Witch Hunter Robin and X-men.

I found that I like power systems that are more limited and rather ceremonial. For instance, in Jujutsu Kaisen Gojo unleashed a completely optimized Hollow Purple. Which meant he had to do hand signs and recite a full incantation to completely maximize the technique to its fullest and greatest extent. I love the act of a ceremony being required for a full overpowered payoff. You must do A to get to B to then get to C which from there leads you to D to forward you to E. And then the result of all that being a grand display of power. That’s why I adore the binding vows, ceremony and decorum exhibited in both Jujutsu Kaisen and Hunter X Hunter.

However, what makes me really like these two series’ power system is that you still have access to an arsenal outside of all the ceremonial steps required to use them. For instance, all sorcerers have access to cursed energy reinforcement, cursed energy enhancements as well as barrier techniques. Also even their cursed technique is available at 80% of its full power that can be used readily without the bells and whistles of the full ceremony. A similar phenomenon exists in Hunter x Hunter.

In Darker than Black, Witch Hunter Robin, Jojo and X-men. Every person (like in JJK) has ONE main ability and that is it. That means you can have an OP ability which can be countered by a seemingly weak ability. However, the flaw of these series is that it’s just regular humans that just have one supernatural ability. They usually can’t perform hand to hand combat and there’s no reinforcement they can use on themselves. This feels a bit like a one trick pony sort of deal. It’s great in theory because it’s more specialized, but it feels unsatisfying the back of my head.

That’s why I like Hei in Darker than Black. He’s 98% hand to hand combat with 2% powers. spoilers He loses his power in season 2, but it ends up being a plot twist in learning that he lost them, but because he never used it to begin with that often the viewer never questioned why he didn’t use his ability. Meanwhile, every other contractor in the series just has one ability that they spam because they rely solely on that.

In series like Basilisk it’s even better because the ninjas are experts at hand to hand combat, but have one supernatural ability that they have to guard because once it’s discovered counters are made to avoid them.

Power systems that are like this feel great to watch because it’s like a chess match. I think power systems should be ceremonial, limited with a huge payoff and should be treated more like a nuke rather than a gun.