Absinthia is a game that is difficult to recommend simply because of how odd it can be. To start with, this RPG doesn't tell a massive story but a much more personal one. The story is largely about Freya, one of your party members, and Lilith, a woman who is out to destroy lives for whatever reason. Lilith is constantly attacking a single town, Katti Town, and largely ignores the rest of the world. Freya is training three children of Katti Town to help defend it. Sera, the knight's apprentice, Jake, the thief, and Thomas, the wizard. These three make up your party for the majority of the game, playing as Sera.
First up, the combat. The combat is unique in that the entire thing is a balancing act. You can attack, use skills, use items, and flee in most battles, with every character having a sort of 'defend' action in their skills menu. This skill will typically give some sort of self-buff for a few turns and regenerate MP. Every character has the same maximum MP and you regenerate some of it per turn. This means combat is a dance of sorts; balancing offensive actions with defensive ones to keep your MP high so you can keep using skills. This also means going all-out can often be a difficult choice, as it leaves you basically helpless in following battles until you get your MP back. As you play it a lot, you get the hang of this system and get a good sense of when you should go offensive and when you should fight strategically, especially on higher difficulties.
The characters are a part that is... difficult to talk about, since they're handled a bit differently than most RPGs. Characters aren't really explored too deeply; while everyone has some elements of depth to them, characters are much more grounded in this world. You get just enough personality to get an idea of how they're like, but not much more than that. What's a little harder to swallow for some is that every party member is some element of LGBTQ+. Jake and Thomas are a couple, Freya is a lesbian, and Sera is asexual. I bring this up because these are things that will come up in conversation. However, this is also where I applaud the game as they're treated less like they're a big deal and just aspects to the characters; small parts of the whole. Sera struggles the most with her asexuality and, even then, merely coming to the conclusion that it's okay to have no real attraction to anyone as of now, nor drive to change that. She accepts it, which is fine.
The one downside to this is that it does come across a little like 'if everyone is special, no one is special', but, like I said, these relationships are downplayed as much as possible not to be a vocal point of any one character or their interactions with others. Jake and Thomas get the most exploration of their relationship and, even then, they have their minor issues between them; moments of trust needing to be built upon. Freya's relationship with Ruthea, doesn't get quite as much development as it probably needed to have, but I can't hold this against the game. None of the interactions overstayed their welcome, as far as I'm concerned.
The soundtrack is also quite good, though I wish some themes would show up more often. Certain boss themes are amazing, but only show up once and only in side quests, making them really easy to miss. The world also feels a little small, making it feel like there isn't much to find, but considering this is a shorter RPG, I feel that's to the game's strength.
If I had to say something negative about the game... the story isn't great. It gets a little generic and, by the end, I felt like Lilith's motivations weren't explored enough. For how well the main cast is characterized, the villains are significantly less so. There is also a later curveball about Freya that gets dropped and... basically never brought up again.
All in all, a very good, competently made RPG. I'd recommend it for the gameplay alone; the combat system is pretty interesting and is the reason to play it.
