Absinthia

ENG:
First impressions: After an hour of play and what I think could be considered the first chapter I can say that I'm liking it, it has a nice pixel art, a classic but fresh visual style, the story hooks, the characters are nice and the audio is very correct.
In the gameplay, it does not have random encounters, so it leans to a more direct RPG without much grind, although if you need it you have the option of automatic in battles so it would not be a annoying grind. For the moment I recommend it, there are small details that I'm loving, It has a free demo so you don't lose anything by trying it.
Will update when I finish it.
EDIT: Finished the game after 18 hours, loved the story, the characters, everything. I'm going to play the other dev games, Knight Bewitched and the others.
ESP:
Primeras impresiones: Después de una hora de juego y lo que creo podría considerarse ser el primer capitulo puedo decir que me esta gustando, se aprecia un lindo pixel art, con un apartado visual clásico pero fresco, la historia atrapa, los personajes gustan, el apartado sonoro muy correcto.
Respecto al gameplay, no tiene encuentros random, por lo que se inclina a un RPG mas directo y sin mucho grindeo, aunque de necesitarlo tiene la opción de automático en las batallas por lo que no seria un grindeo muy molesto. Por el momento lo recomiendo, hay pequeños detalles que me están gustando, tiene demo así que no pierden nada con probarlo. Actualizare cuando lo termine.
EDIT: Después de 18 horas terminé el juego, me encanto la historia, los personajes, todo. Voy a jugar los demás juegos del dev, Knight Bewitched y demas.

Very cute. Not lighting the world on fire, but it has some above average writing and perfectly functional turn-based RPG combat. Certainly a pleasant way to spend time if you're a fan of the genre. Definitely recommended!

Tons of charm and there's a "fresh" feeling in the narrative so far. Characters are full of life and I've become very interested in their growth. IMO this is the PERFECT rpg to lay down in the bed and play on your steam deck if you have one. Great job dev

I'll keep this short and sweet.
One of my favourite RPGs ever. If it hadn't been for Trails to Azure this would be my GOTY, now it's most likely going to have to be stuck as number 2.
Why do I love it?
- Exploration is rewarded. Basically every (or maybe actually every) dungeon has a Secret Area that the game keeps track of that has loads of goodies to be found.
- Several dungeons are optional, some with side quests and some that are just there for exploring.
- The puzzles are good.
- The story is great.
- The characters feel mostly realistic in their actions and dialogue.
- The dialogue is funny when it needs to be and knows when to rein it back.
- It cowers several sensitive topics but handles them really well.
- And I'm always going to give a slight nudge to any game that dares to be LGBTQIA+ inclusive. Which this does really well.
I'm giving it a 9/10 and the only reason it's not a perfect 10 is that it doesn't always feel like it's Seras story despite her being the main character.
Still, this is a must play for anyone who enjoys classic turn-based RPGs.

Tl;dr:
The game is kind of short and doesn't have that much replay value, but the story it tells is great and the battle mechanics are decent. Would recommend if you are looking for an RPG game with familiar game mechanics, but a fresh story.
Overview / The Good
Absinthia is 2D RPG that reminds me of the flash RPG era: pop culture references and anachronisms abound (DnD and Star Wars come to mind immediately) while it tries to tell a serious story of love and betrayal: it reminds me a bit of MARDEK Chapter 2 in that regard. You may find that this cheapens some of the more serious moments, or that it adds to the charm; both of these are fair assessments.
Combat is turn-based: you select commands for each character from left to right, and the round immediately starts at your final selection. There are options to turn off battle animations and speed up combat: doing so means that a round will end in approximately 3 seconds. This is useful for grinding, but grinding is almost unnecessary in this game (at least on Normal). All encounters are in the overworld (i.e. no random encounters). There are the typical stats and elements that you will find in any RPG (strength, speed, intelligence, etc.), which all increase on level up, except for your MP (which appears to be fixed, or only increases at specific points). Most skills come from level up, but upgrades to those skills (essentially team attacks) are tied to story events, and upgraded skills only work under certain conditions (that both people involved in the team attack are alive and not under certain negative statuses). I'd say that the limited MP growth keeps combat from going too much in the player's favor (you can really only use a skill about 2-3 times before the meter is depleted and you have to use the “restore MP” command). All of the enemies fall into 4 camps: weak to magic, weak to physical, weak to a specific element, and “I use self-destruct when I die”. Each enemy group tends to have that last one at least once in their group in the mid-to-late game. All in all, I'd say the combat is decent, but not groundbreaking.
The main story is great though, and what you play this game for. I went into this game relatively blind and was pleasantly surprised by its content. Three out of the 4 main characters have really fleshed out arcs. The 4th is mostly comic relief, but even he has a few moments of growth/seriousness. Some sidequests even get callbacks later in the story (I assume that completing them is a requirement to see the dialogue). At the end of it all, I still wanted so see more, but I was satisfied with what I had seen.
The Bad
Now, for the negatives (in relative order of importance): this game is somewhat short. I played through it relatively slow and got about 95% of all unlocks and half of the secrets in about 15 hours with grinding. You could probably blaze through this game's main story in about 10. The screen flash effects on some of the special abilities can be a bit intense, worse if you are playing fast (I honestly think that the effects should be auto disabled on fast speeds). There are a couple of solely color-based puzzles (sliding blocks) where you need to place the blocks in their correct positions based on their color. Coromon had an option to add numbers to their color puzzles, which helped immensely; I would copy that functionality. The epilogue is about 10 minutes long and saves are disabled. I understand why this was done story-wise, but I feel like it would have worked better if something was added to go back before the final battle after seeing the epilogue (like Breath of the Wild).

Classic RPG with gorgeous visuals, amazing soundtrack and fun characters. A massive step up from the developer's other games. Definetly recommended.

My time for this game doesn't reflect the time I put into the demo, which covers a nice chunk of the beginning of the game. This wonderful JRPG is a love letter to many of the greats we grew up with. The regenerating MP system in battles actually encourages me to use my skills instead of trying to use just "Attack" for most of my fights and save my MP for the bigger enemies. Having enemies appear in the overworld to start battles rather than random encounters makes it so I don't feel like fights are disruptive and abrupt. It also lets me control the balance between story and gameplay.
Speaking of, the story is very well written with the characters all having unique personalities and much depth. Many indie (and even some AAA) games really suffer from poorly written one-dimensional characters, an issue you will not find here. This is a game I've genuinely enjoyed and think all JRPG lovers should give a try.