Absinthia
A tale of broken hearts and mending souls…
Absinthia is a turn-based RPG that explores themes of love, loss, betrayal and acceptance as four close friends fight to protect their home.
The Ambrose Isles are home to many things: A port full of cunning pirates, a deadly swamp, a desert kingdom, an isle of tropical beasts… But for those who’d prefer to live a simple life free of danger, Katti Town is the place to be.
…Or was, rather–as the town suddenly found itself battling a horde of shadowy minions and their leader, Lilith. But hope was not lost–before Lilith could claim victory, a traveling knight appeared and drove back Lilith`s forces with ease.
Now known as the Hero of Katti Town, the knight Freya took three villagers under her wing: Sera, a young warrior who fights to protect her grandmother; Thomas, an aspiring mage; and his partner Jake, a talented, yet uninspired, rogue. Together, they train to protect Katti Town, defeat Lilith, and to answer the question on everyone’s minds: Why is Lilith attacking the Ambrose Isles to begin with, and for that matter… Who is Freya?
- Traditional turn-based jRPG battle system featuring a regenerating MP system for faster-paced combat, powerful team-based attacks and no random encounters!
- Difficulty options for those who seek challenge–or only want to focus on the story
- An all-queer character cast featuring Freya, a trans woman, and partners Jake and Thomas
- Colorful handheld-style pixel art and illustrations
- Original soundtrack: Composed by Jazz Stewart, Absinthia’s soundtrack is a modern take on some of the greatest tunes from the SNES era of jRPGs
Steam User 17
Brace yourself for Absinthia: where battles are more dramatic than reality TV and puzzles trickier than assembling IKEA furniture.
Abinthia, a turn-based RPG, tells the story about the Knight Freya and her apprentice Sera. They face challenges of loss, betrayal, and acceptance while protecting their town, Katti, from a mysterious enemy.
Storyline
Absinthia's story is a mix of emotions, challenges, and discoveries, in a world full of mystery and danger. It revolves around Freya, a once-scorned knight, and her apprentice Sera, as they set off on a journey of self-discovery and resilience.
The story begins in the peaceful town of Katti, threatened by an enemy. Freya steps in as an unlikely hero, and Sera, along with friends Jake and Thomas, joins her to protect their home and the Ambrose Isles.
Things take a sad turn with a loss, and Sera has to face both external enemies and inner struggles. Themes of loss, betrayal, and acceptance are part of the story, creating an emotional experience. However, I have one concern about the story focus, sometimes the supposed main character feels overshadowed.
Gameplay
The gameplay is like a classic turn-based RPG, with familiar elements. Exploring optional dungeons and solving puzzles. While the combat is strategic, it may not be as innovative as in some newer RPGs. The game includes LGBTQIA+ elements.
Graphics & Sound
The game has good graphics and sound that work well for the game. The visuals are well-done, with detailed environments and character animations. While not revolutionary, the graphics set the stage for the game's story. The sound, including a fitting soundtrack and appropriate effects, adds to the atmosphere without being standout.
Final Verdict
Absinthia offers a mixed gaming experience that might be liked by some but could leave others wanting more. The game is a classic turn-based RPG with decent graphics and sound, forming a good base for an amazing adventure. While the story tackles interesting themes and includes LGBTQIA+ elements, its execution can feel a bit lacking depth at times. The gameplay, with rewarding exploration and puzzles, could appeal to genre fans, but the overall experience might not stand out significantly. Absinthia offers a decent gaming experience without standing out, making it a good choice for those who prefer a familiar RPG adventure over a groundbreaking one.
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Steam User 9
Absinthia is a JPRG (otherwise, turn-based) developed by Joshua Keith and Team Bewitched and published by Team Bewitched. You take on the role of Sera, a young woman from the Katti Town. Katti Town is being continually attacked by Lilith although her reasons are unknown. Fortunately, the town is under the protection of Freya, a former knight captain from the city of Halonia. Freya has taken on Sera and her two friends, Jake and Thomas, to train them to protect Katti Town and fight Lilith. This is how life is for the party until one fateful night, a tragedy occurs in the village. It affects Sera so much that she vows to deal justice to Lilith, and so she, Jake, Thomas, and Freya set off on a journey across the Ambrose Isles. I'll end my story synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that.
As for the gameplay, Absinthia has turn-based combat. Initially, you play as Sera (warrior), Jake (thief), and Thomas (sorcerer), with Freya (knight) later joining the party. There are battles with enemies that you encounter as the party travels on the world map. The battles are pretty self-explanatory. You have the option to attack, use a skill, use an item, or flee (unless it's a mandatory boss battle). Each party member has initial skills, with additional skills obtained as he or she levels up or learned through various cutscenes. Skills use up MP, while party members have a certain amount of HP (health). Of course, if a member's HP is zero, they're out of the battle although certain items can revive them. Items vary from HP and MP replenishing items to various gems that deal elemental damage. In regards to the enemies, they deal regular and special damage. Special damage includes cursing and poisoning party members. As the party travels to various towns and whatnot, they have the chance to go to inns to replenish their HP and MP as well as to go to shops to purchase items, like the ones I mentioned. Also, shops provide weapons and armor for party members, which are essential for giving them more offensive party and better protection. Of course, there's the main quest in which the party must find and defeat Lilith, but there are plenty of side quests and optional things to do in the game as well. In addition, there are plenty of Steam achievements although they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited".
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. Every once in a while, I like to play a good RPG, and Absinthia caught my attention. I like turn-based combat and the story premise itself caught my interest. I like how the story starts off as we're introduced to Sera and her life living in Katti Town. However, the story doesn't linger too long, as we're then moved right into the gameplay. Although the main story itself, with a tragedy affecting Sera, isn't the most original, there are plots and twists that are totally unexpected. I won't say what they are here, but be prepared for them. There are some romances as well. For example, Jake and Thomas are in a relationship, and Freya was once in a relationship with a woman, but because Ruthea, the woman she was with, supposedly leaked her secret that she was transgender, Freya felt scared and left Halonia for Katti Town. The story took care to tackle on LGBTQ+ issues and acceptance occasionally, which I liked. Getting back to the main story, the ending might be a bit predictable, but it wraps up all the events and such nicely, and I enjoyed it.
As for the gameplay, there's plenty of content, especially if you include the side quests. In the early part of the game, the party members will have to follow the main story, but once they obtain a pirate ship later, then they can explore more of the world, and that's where the side quests come in. I especially enjoyed the quests in which Ruthea appears and she helps out Sera and the others. After getting through the beginning part of the game, you can customize your difficulty. Thus, you can choose from one of four difficulty modes: story mode, easy, normal, or hard. You can change your difficulty level anytime in the main menu, which I liked. Now, to unlock master mode, you need to have beaten the game once (doesn't matter the difficulty level). As for the battles themselves, I was able to complete them fairly well on normal mode on a first playthrough. Now, I am a 100% achievement completionist (or I try to be), so I went through another playthrough to get the master difficulty achievement. Battles on master difficulty are definitely harder and you may need to be careful with what skills and/or items to use, but they're still doable. They may require a couple of retries, though. In addition, there are a good number of puzzles, mainly where the party needs to move color blocks to their respective tiles to unlock certain paths. The puzzles require a bit of thinking but quite doable. All the achievements unlocked for me with no issues, and as I mentioned, there are plenty of them, so there's definitely lots to do.
In regards to the art, it's in the pixelated style that's like from the old school RPGs. Personally, I like this style, as I grew up playing RPGs from before 3D was a thing. The art is beautifully done, and I liked the world map and the character sprites. As for the music, the tracks are beautiful to listen to. They depict that fantasy theme, and the tracks vary from exploring the world to battle engagement.
Overall, would I recommend Absinthia? If you enjoy turn-based RPGs with a plenty of strong female characters (and a fairly good mix of male characters, mainly Jake and Thomas) and don't mind a bit of challenging gameplay, then Absinthia is worth taking a look. For the asking price, I'd say it's worth it, as it took me around 17 hours to finish a first playthrough. (It took me less time to finish a second playthrough on master difficulty, as I knew my way around the world.) Of course, you can wait to get it on sale, and it's in a couple of Steam bundles.
Finally, I want to give a major thanks to the developer for the curator copy. What an exciting, fun journey it was for me to play Absinthia from start to finish. ^^
Flying free and writing reviews solely for The Introverted Gamer.
Steam User 1
Knight Bewitched is still my favourite in this series - because the central romance was so charming - but I'm liking this one so far.
Steam User 1
I liked the game. Combat was pretty fun/a little different from the standard RPG Maker.
Story started to heat up after a few hours, with some good twists and turns.
Has really cute pixel art, interesting characters, definitely worth the price.
Steam User 1
Great plot, great music! I do like this addition to the Knight Bewitched universe. This one feels like a far more personal story than the others--more about hurt/forgiveness and personal growth. I really liked the characters