I love when RPGs are made in historical settings as opposed to purely fictional ones. I also happen to love it when developers take inspiration from popular franchises and attempt to do something new with them. The Thaumaturge is a blend of both things, taking inspiration from games such as the Persona franchise, while also taking place in an alternative version of Early 1900s Poland.

In The Thaumaturge, you play the titular “Thaumaturge” known as Wiktor Szulski. In this alternate history world, unearthly entities known as Salutors take root in the souls of people with extreme flaws such as Pride or Brutality. Wiktor is born as a Thaumaturge, a “magician” with the ability to make pacts with Salutors, using their abilities to influence or even fight people.

This connection to Salutors comes at a cost. The connection with a Salutor (or multiple) is taxing on the mind, thus causing a Thaumaturge to choose between developing their abilities or risk losing their sanity. It is this struggle that is the center of The Thaumaturge, as Wiktor tries to investigate the goings on in Russian-dominated Warsaw whilst risking his sanity and the lives of his loved ones.

In many ways, The Thaumaturge is a mashup of detective games, RPGs like Persona, and CRPGs with multiple endings and choices that branch off. The Thaumaturge has 12 different endings, all related to choices you make across Wiktor’s story. Particularly the endings center around whether you feed Wiktor’s pride (noted by certain dialogue options) and how you treat various NPCs such as Wiktor’s sister Ligia.

You gain experience through using your Thaumaturge powers in dialogue, combat, and by exploring the environment and collecting documents or lore bits. You also collect items that have “traces” which make use of Wiktor’s clairvoyant-esque abilities as a Thaumaturge to help him make conclusions about characters and situations.

As you level up, you put points into various mental/emotional stats such as Heart, Deed, or Word. These stats dictate how you approach things, can open dialogue options, and are also tied to specific Salutors. Each Salutor has different abilities in battle as well, and as you level up on the skill tree you can add modifiers to the Salutor’s abilities to change how they function.

For example, in combat, you have two currencies, health and Focus. Focus works like armor or defensive currency, while health is exactly what it says on the tin. To do the most damage to an enemy it is wise to deplete their focus. Some modifiers may make it so you recover focus when you attack an enemy, or even cause a status ailment on a successful attack.

Similarly to Persona, in combat you must swap Salutors to make the most of your abilities. Some Salutors are more effective against certain types of enemies, but you can build them up (with modifiers) to create a variety of playstyles. Combat is engaging and often asks you to think about your actions beforehand. There is a layer of strategy for most encounters, and depending on your difficulty level you might have some trouble with more difficult fights.

But this is where The Thaumaturge stumbles. The world-building and story are well executed, and the combat gameplay is solid. However, the exploration and investigative side of the gameplay feels tacked on, like the developers weren’t sure how to marry the world-building and combat elements with a proper investigative exploration mechanic.

Had the developers taken the time to really hunker down and consider ways to effectively use Wiktor’s clairvoyant Thaumaturge abilities, The Thaumaturge would be a first-class experience. I could even see them integrating elements akin to Pillars of Eternity’s method of connecting with various souls, perhaps letting players “see” what Wiktor sees when he uses his abilities.

Instead, you get an almost point-and-click style of gameplay that just has you looking for everything you can interact with in an area, without much thought of why. It is nice to be able to explore this alternate version of Warsaw, and the lore strewn through each area is fascinating and engaging. I just wish there was a more immersive connection between the story, the combat, and the world you interface with.

My only other complaint has to be that some of the character models feel wooden. The movement of the features during dialogue can sometimes be strange-looking and unnatural. It doesn’t completely remove the atmosphere and immersion but it can be a little weird to watch.

Overall though, The Thaumaturge is a fantastic RPG experience that takes a historical setting and folds in Slavic mythos and a nice dose of creativity. This might be one of the more unique and interesting RPGs I’ve played in the last few years. It needed a bit more polish to make it truly great, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time.

A PC Review copy of The Thaumaturge was provided by 11 bit Studios for this review.

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The Thaumaturge

$34.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Solid, Strategic Combat
• Intriguing story and world
• Beautiful environments
• Fantastic voice acting

Cons

• Wooden character animations in dialogue
• Exploration is a little bland mechanically