Absinthia

[h1]Brace yourself for Absinthia: where battles are more dramatic than reality TV and puzzles trickier than assembling IKEA furniture.[/h1] 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. [h3]Storyline[/h3] 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. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] 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. [h3]Graphics & Sound[/h3] 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. [h3]Final Verdict[/h3] 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. [quote]Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

[i]Absinthia[/i] 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, [i]Absinthia[/i] 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 [i]Absinthia[/i] 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 [spoiler]Ruthea, the woman she was with, supposedly leaked her secret that she was transgender, Freya felt scared and left Halonia for Katti Town[/spoiler]. 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 [spoiler]Ruthea appears and she helps out Sera and the others[/spoiler]. 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 [i]Absinthia[/i]? 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 [i]Absinthia[/i] from start to finish. ^^ [quote]Flying free and writing reviews solely for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url].[/quote]

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.

shoutout to supportive yaoi bros in yuri games gotta be one of my favorite genders

So gay and i like it

Absinthia nails an old-school JRPG vibe: turn-based combat, regenerating MP instead of random encounters, crisp pixel art. Representation is handled with genuine intent: queer protagonists, trans and aro/ace characters are part of the core story rather than mere side notes. Despite this, it is never heavy handed. The scope is manageable (10-20 hours depending on how much optional content you explore). If I had to come up with a criticism... I think the OST is sometimes a little weak, but still enjoyable enough. It does not help the weakest track in the game is one you will hear a LOT. If you’re a fan of “classic JRPG” feels, appreciate thoughtful queer representation and want something that doesn’t demand a month of your life, Absinthia is a strong pick. It may not reinvent the wheel, but it drives a well-built vintage model with heart.

The only Joshua Keith RPG that I genuinely didn't enjoy. So many of the bosses and enemies are too overpowered and CONSTANTLY blinding, debuffing, poisoning, etc. your team and the boss fights become an insane juggling of spamming items and praying you can do enough damage to overcome bosses healing abilities and other weird advantages the game seems to give them. There's WAY too much grinding involved and the side quests and even main bosses are often frustratingly hard and not fun at all. The characters are poorly developed stereotypes with LGBT stuff crammed in in the least organic fashion I've ever seen in a videogame, it feels like a really bad fanfiction writer was in charge of writing all these scenarios and relationships, and was more concerned with saying LOOK REPRESENTATION than creating an interesting story or dynamic characters. Everything just falls flat in here and there's not much reason to get attached to the characters, you've seen these characters in other better games hundreds of times. I enjoyed some of the secrets/exploration aspects but the game is too much of a tedious slog and the dialogue and story too plodding predictable and boring to even engage me to finish the game. Pick up some of Keith's other titles like Knight Bewitched they are much better entries, sad to see Keith's final game before retiring was such a misfired hackjob, I hope he comes back to game dev someday and gives us something like Celestial Hearts again, even uneven writing is better than this.

I was hesitant to buy this game, but so glad I did. It became one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. The story took me by surprise, given its unexpected twists and turns. The humor was on point with all characters being likable. Absinthia is such a hidden gem so it saddens me it's not as popular as it could be. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

A neat little old-school turn-based RPG game with a diverse cast and a charming artstyle. The exploration, combat, and power progression is to be expected of this genre and you won't find much further sophistry there. The story itself is also rather basic (find and kill the big bad villain) with a slight twist here and there, but the story's themes and what it explores is quite rare and nuanced. I logged 15 hours on normal difficulty while taking my time with progressing through the game, and that's with maybe 5 missing secrets and a couple of uncompleted "sidequests". There's a surprising amount of content that extended the playtime further than I had originally thought. Overall, it's a safe recommendation. You'll have a decent time if you're someone who enjoys this genre.

I hate to write the first negative review for a game that obviously has a lot of work put into it, but the combat system just annoyed me into not having fun with the game anymore even though initially really liking it. First off, no issue whatsoever with this type of flow-state combat system - I actually enjoy it and have played a number of similar games, what I do have a problem with are the underlying stats. Now, I almost never grind in JRPGs more than a bit here and there and I've rarely (outside of truly bottom of the barrel JRPGs) had this kind of problem in combat. Even on easy enemies simply hit too hard and you take much too much damage. If this is not intended, I'm going to have to assume I'm meant to spend like 45 minutes here just grinding to level up and that is not something I put with in games these days. If the game had a stronger hook I might use that interest to keep going with it, but it really doesn't.