Only One Studio Should Make Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Game

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn might finally get a AAA video game, and there's exactly one studio that could make the perfect adaptation. According to Sanderson's year-end recap on his blog, he's currently talking to AAA studios about the possibility of the game, but he doesn't name any names. This leaves plenty of room for the imagination to run wild, whether with anticipation of a great adaptation or fear of a studio mangling the source material.

Ultimately, it's hard to imagine that most AAA studios would be great at tackling Mistborn. Pulling it off would require a mastery of both complex storytelling and immersive combat, to say nothing of building a dark fantasy world that feels like more than window dressing. If any company has the perfect set of skills, it's Arkane Studios, and Dishonored is the perfect proof.

Arkane Would Be Great At Mistborn Action

Even on a surface level, Mistborn has a lot in common with Arkane's breakout hit Dishonored. Both stories follow assassins with special powers, and both take place in pessimistic takes on industrialized fantasy worlds. Rather than sneaking through the woods like a stealth archer in Skyrim, Mistborn protagonist Vin and Dishonored protagonist Corvo slink through winding staircases of multi-story buildings and dash between grimy rooftops.

Delving deeper reveals starker differences, naturally, but it also highlights just how much Arkane's talents would suit a Mistborn game. Considering Mistborn's emphasis on a dynamic action system, the gameplay would have to come first and foremost, and Arkane always delivers on that front.

From Dishonored to Deathloop, Arkane games focus on fluid action with dynamic possibilities. You can make it through Dishonored by walking around with a crossbow, if you're so inclined, but you can also teleport across gaps, slow time, possess rats, and so much more. In the vein of games like Half-Life and Deus Ex, Dishonored is a deadly playground, which is exactly what a Mistborn game would need to be.

Ultimately, Vin needs to feel like an acrobat, and Corvo (along with Dishonored 2's Emily) provides the perfect template. It's a stark contrast to other studios that might be interested in Mistborn. Dishonored's seventh-generation competition largely favored lumbering protagonists, some as extreme as Gears of War's Marcus Fenix and Resident Evil 5's Chris Redfield.

As for fantasy-focused studios, action gameplay is rarely even the prerogative. Bethesda would be an obvious choice, but Elder Scrolls gameplay is undeniably clunky. While the turn-based combat favored by Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios highlights experimentation and reactivity, it lacks the moment-to-moment intensity found in Mistborn. CD Projekt Red's work on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 is probably the closest competition, but neither game feels quite as fundamentally propulsive.

Dishonored Has The Bones Of A Great Fantasy Story

Although Arkane hasn't yet attempted a story quite as ambitious as Mistborn, Dishonored shows off all the necessary tricks. Like Mistborn, it's a tale of violent resistance against an oppressive leader, taking shots at the irredeemably corrupt nobility along the way. While neither story loses sight of the central injustice, they're both also willing to question the motives and methods of the resistance, departing from the black-and-white heroics of most blockbuster action narratives.

More than anything else, Dishonored highlights Arkane's ability to craft a compelling setting. The game is sometimes tossed into a steampunk categorization, but like Mistborn, it resists the typical tropes of the genre. The city of Dunwall is dripping with oil, overflowing with plague-ridden rats, and oozing with atmosphere, conveying the same sense of a deadened world that's essential to Mistborn.

Within that space, Arkane crafts an assortment of levels that balance relative linearity with endless opportunity. There's always a sense of forward momentum in Dishonored, and the game never collapses into the vague repetition that tends to define open-world cities. The same approach would be pivotal to Mistborn, letting Vin chase foes across the rooftops without building an unconvincing environment of urban facade.

An Arkane Mistborn Game Might Be A Pipe Dream

Whether Arkane would actually be interested in a Mistborn game — and whether Sanderson would offer it to them — is another story entirely. At the moment, Arkane is clearly busy with the upcoming Marvel's Blade game, which still has no set release date or gameplay footage. Mistborn might not fit onto the studio's plate, especially after the unfortunate closure of Arkane Austin.

Marvel's Blade does prove the studio's willingness to work with a license, though, and I can't imagine a better one than Mistborn. I'd rather wait a few more years for an Arkane Mistborn game than get an earlier release from another studio. At any rate, it's unlikely that any major studio would be able to enter development immediately, as the calendar is filled up with projects like The Elder Scrolls 6 and The Witcher 4.

I'm sure Sanderson already has his own opinions about the perfect studio to adapt Mistborn, and I'm willing to trust his judgment on whatever contract he signs. All the same, I'll be a little disappointed in the likely event that it's anyone but Arkane.