The Thaumaturge
by Aethyna
Mar 14, 2024 |
1
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58
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0
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10
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Genres:
RPGGraphics:
3DLabels:
Adventure , Turn Based , StorytellingPlatforms:
Publishers:
11 Bit Studios Join the ambitious and proud Thaumaturge, Wiktor Szulski, as he embarks on a journey to expand his powers by procuring more Flaws so he can attract and tame new Salutors to harness their powers! Meet historical figures like Rasputin and the last tsar of Russian, Czar Nicholas II, and tackle sensitive issues of the era. Play Now Similar Games Played
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Summary
The Thaumaturge is a choice-and-story-driven adventure RPG that puts you into the shoes of an ambitious and proudful Thaumaturge, Wiktor Szulski, as he embarks on a journey to expand his powers by procuring more Flaws so he can attract and tame new Salutors, otherworldly beings that only Thaumaturges can see, and hence, harness their powers. Meet historical figures like Rasputin and the last tsar of Russia, Czar Nicholas II, and tackle sensitive issues of the era, like the workers' uprising. Will you be able to help Wiktor become the powerful Thaumaturge he knows he could become?
Plotline
The protagonist of the story, Wiktor Szulski (yes, with a "W" and not a "V"), is a Thaumaturge. He inherited his powers from his father, whom he doesn't have a particularly significant relationship with, mainly because his father has constantly been disparaging towards him. Thaumaturges are magicians of some sort, having the ability to see, tame, and harness the skills of mystical beings called Salutors, beings who are attracted to Flaws, traits that often arise in a person after some traumatic event.
In this game, Wiktor travels the world in search of a miracle holy man who purportedly was able to heal all manner of ailments, even the more hopeless cases that require nothing short of a miracle to cure. Wiktor needed help badly as he found himself slowly losing his grip on reality and gradually descending into madness after a failed attempt at taming a second Salutor.
As helpfully explained by Wiktor himself, most Thaumaturge don't go beyond having one Salutor, with a handful of them – the more powerful ones - having two or more. Likely stemming from his Flaw of Pride and a compelling urge to prove his father wrong, Wiktor wanted to become the strongest of them all and tame as many Salutors as he can.
Will Wiktor find the miracle worker and get the help he desperately needs? Will he be able to track down various new Flaws and tame the Salutors these very Flaws attract? And most importantly, will he be able to become the powerful Thaumaturge he knows he could be?
Gameplay
As a story-driven adventure with a detective-style theme, The Thaumaturge largely plays out much like a point-and-click adventure. You'll run around the area you're investigating to find objects that contain strong emotional residues that you can then tap into to infer some clues. You can find these objects by using your Perception ability, which kind of scans the area around Wiktor and gives you hints as to which area may have one of these items. That said, you'll need to have the relevant points in each Dimension of Thaumaturgy, whether it is in Heart, Mind, Deed, or Word, to have the skillset needed to uncover a clue.
Once you have all the clues you need, you'll then be able to draw a conclusion based on your findings. The conclusion is pretty much done automatically here, but there are times when you may pick up an object that you can later use as leverage during conversations with suspects or potential witnesses.
The game also interjects these investigative moments with well-animated cutscenes where you may need to choose between several dialogue options to get things going. Aside from using items that you've picked up that might just prompt a person to tell you things that they otherwise won't, you can also choose dialogue options that feed your Flaw (a negative trait, like Pride and Vehemence), further strengthening the bond between you and the Salutor attracted by said Flaw. Sometimes, you can also tap into your Thaumaturgy ability and have your Salutor, Upyr, influence the person you're interrogating. However, note that whether or not this option is available to you depends on how you allocate your Thaumaturgy points into the Thaumaturgy development panel.
A quick side note, the Thaumaturgy development panel is basically your upgrade tree. Wiktor will gain experience points by interacting, reading, and examining interesting objects around him, along with winning fights and completing quests. When the point reaches a threshold, Wiktor will level up, granting him one point to invest into improving his Thaumaturgic abilities, unlocking Upgrades that you can then use to augment your attacks or even new attacks, like Damage-over-time attacks. There are four Dimensions of Thaumaturgy. You can choose to invest in all of them equally or specialize in one or two Dimensions depending on your strategy and playstyle.
Similarly, some options may immediately kick off a series of events, preventing you from accessing the other dialogue options as well. Unfortunately, these kinds of options aren't very clearly indicated, or at least, explained, and I often find myself accidentally picking a choice I wouldn't have chosen had I known that the decision would move the story forward. Naturally, your decisions and choices have an impact in this game, and may aid you or cause you trouble later down the road.
The Thaumaturge also contains bouts of combat where you, your Salutor of choice, your allies, and your enemies will take turns attacking. The actions you take during combat have a cost, and it's time. Due to this, you'll see a timeline at the top of every fight where everyone's actions are etched. Depending on your strategy at that moment, you may choose to use a faster ability, which typically doesn't deal as much damage, or a slower one that usually will deal quite a bit more damage, but at the possible cost of getting socked in the face by your opponent first.
There's a bit of randomness here too, since the damage you can deal varies within a narrow range, depending on your luck or whether you have a buff or debuff that can influence this part of combat.
Focus is another important combat feature in The Thaumaturge. Using certain abilities, you can reduce the Focus of an enemy, and the enemy can do the same to you. Once depleted, the target in question will become open to both your and your Salutor's strong attacks. And, in case you're wondering, yes, you can decide which action to take for both Wiktor and his Salutor, but you can't control any of his allies in the fight.
Some enemies also come with shields that will greatly dampen any damage Wiktor may cause. The only way to dispel the shield is by having your Salutor attack the enemy first. Some Salutors work better against certain types of enemies and as such, you get to swap out your Salutor depending on need, even when a fight is ongoing. There are plenty of buffs and debuffs in this game, too. You'll do well to read the tooltips that come with them carefully, lest you miss out on something important that may cause you the fight.
As mentioned before, you can augment your attacks with a variety of Upgrades that were unlocked via the Thaumaturgy development panel. Prior to each battle, you'll get the chance to swap your Upgrades to fit any strategy you may have in mind for the upcoming fight. There are also three difficulty settings that will be presented to you right before your very first combat, namely Story, Balanced, and Challenge mode. Depending on how difficult you'd like your game to be, you can choose either option.
The Thaumaturge is truly a masterpiece in its own right and is very much worth the time you'll spend in it, helping Wiktor become the powerful Thaumaturge he knows he could be. It may be similar to Gamedec and, to some extent, The Ascent in perhaps design or even in concept, but the stories it decides to tell and the historical references included, as well as its approach to combat helped the game stand out from all the rest.
Graphics/ Sound
The Thaumaturge features meticulously detailed graphics that look absolutely stunning even at lower resolutions. Coupled with its fantastic soundtrack and ambiance, the game provides players with a truly immersive atmosphere, along with engaging storytelling, that they could completely lose themselves in.
However, a quick note for those of you who just can't stand motion blur and bloom effects – you might want to head into the settings and disable these effects first.
Conclusion
The Thaumaturge offers a perfect package of storytelling, fighting, and Salutor-taming/collecting, delightfully wrapped with an immersive atmosphere, believable and multi-faceted characters, satisfying progression, investigative gameplay, and, of course, historical references that not only any history buff can appreciate, but they also blend well with the plot. If you're hankering for an adventure RPG worth playing, The Thaumaturge is definitely one game we can highly recommend.
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