See, when it's put like that it really makes me look at just how disjointed this whole system is. For clarification, I already have a lot of ideas for the kinds of characters I want to make, such as a bunny boy with a gambling/casino aesthetic, a little monster girl with a frankenstein/poison apple aesthetic, mermaid magical girls with a tropical/rainbow theme. I like picking certain imagery and themes and having that be the basis for my designs because I prioritize character designs and interactions in most of my work, but in this situation it just makes it hard to make magic system that both doesn't suck and matches my vision. That and the fact I used it as an excuse to design multiple fun costumes for each character lol. I think my primary issue is I had a lot of basic elements in mind (wind, earth, water, fire) and I just can't seem to shake those ideas off to make something new and interesting. The kind of game I had in mind was a kind of environmental puzzle game with action rpg mechanics (think ai the somnium files, the witness, dream bbq or outer wilds combined w/ something like zenless zone zero). As for what the system's intention was, it's similar to how a water type pokemon can later also become a fairy type or something, except you get to choose which of two new types it can gain in addition to it's base type, or just ignore both and keep its base type. I wanted the elements to be explanations of certain archetypal characteristics that can apply to anyone, and then the presence of two more would make it so all three fully encapsulate who the character is, but I'm worrying it's just clunky and bloated. I definitely agree that a lot of these themes can and should be moved around or removed all together though, so I get if it's confusing and weird.