Absolum has the Sauce

16 Jun, 2025

I haven't had this much fun with a game's demo in YEARS

I know that one of my most recent blog posts was about the general state of video games heavily steeping in a rather reductionist "new games are all being being marketed as X existing game with Y twist" and while I stand by that assessment (and again, understand that this is sadly how publishers decide to give a project money), I need to sidestep for a moment to talk about this upcoming title from Dotemu, Guard Crush Games and Supamonks Studio called Absolum because despite some of the marketing for this game being in that vein, holy shit does it have sauce.

To elaborate: Absolum is a game that can be reductionist appraised to "A Castle Crashers / Streets of Rage style game from the team who made Streets of Rage 4, heavily inspired by Hades in terms of the run-based, death-progresses-the-story roguelike vibes with music by Ori and the Blind Forest's Gareth Coker" and I’m guilty of having run to the Steam Nextfest page and smashing the 'download demo' button just from a friend telling me the above - but then I actually looked at it and like - the art direction?? What the fuck??

The goddamn art direction??

I was locked in from the intro / splash screen because unlike a lot of games that have animated cutscenes out of 'engine', this one just screams vibes and energy and sets the tone for the game. Watch it in the trailer. Seriously. Just go watch this and come back. The game then spits you into a heist-style opening sequence that is like a cutscene you also play and it just oozes style.

(I probably have a whole blog post in me about the recent wave of non-gameplay trailers that use gorgeous 2D animation that then make the actual game's visuals look fucking awful by contrast because they're so stylistically different but that's clearly not the case here so let's move on to this incredible demo itself)

This game is ridiculously pretty; but I am biased as a huge fan of fantasy settings with heavy linework. I know what I like and it often looks a lot like this, ok?? It almost reads visually like The Owl House, and as the story bares SOME similarities I'm not entirely sure that's coincidental? We'll get there.

Gameplay wise this again can be reduced to 'side scrolling beat-em-up' - players of Golden Axe, Castle Crashers, TMNT or X-Men arcade will be at home, but it's way more interesting than that. Each character (2 at start, one more unlockable in the demo with what looks like a total of four planned) has a regular attack and a second ability, as well as a special that costs mana which is charged up by using regular attacks. The differentiation of the characters second abilities is really good as they offer unique play-styles and ways to change them based on boons. (There's 2 player co-op as well including online, but the couch is the preferable method I'd think and is what we did; I do wonder if there will eventually be 4 player though?)

After combat on most screens you are given boon options to choose from, which is where the rogue aspects start to come in. You can really start to shape a build based on the options offered.

The world itself feels VERY lived in; there are conflicts all around, massive setpieces to inspect which give you a better glimpse into the setting, which is a fantasy world where magic has mostly been outlawed after a major catastrophe and a fascist opportunist used the event to declare himself emperor and demand tribute from all the tribes. He and his soldiers are hunting the last of the witches because they represent the scary notion of magic that may (or may not) have caused the cataclysm. You, naturally, play on the side of the witches.

The witches stand for the trees, being governed (or “mothered”??) by a tree goddess, so the first time I encountered a village besieged by Goblins there was this odd moment of uncertainty; the village stood allied with the witch-hunting hegemony (I entered a burning house where a family stood cowering and said 'Not goblins, worse; witches!' and I didn't feel bad about leaving them to the inferno) so I assumed we'd be allies with the dispossessed creatures attacking them; not so! As, again, the witch order's entire thing is about following the tree goddesses...the Goblins also fighting for the trees yet against the witches felt odd? Or could have been better explained. I'm all about shaky alliances and disorganized rebellions it just felt off. One of my few criticisms of the experience so far.

Now - I'm a sucker for a good map; and while in video game direction this may not seem the most useful at first, it's SO fucking pretty to look at and makes more sense the more you progress. It honestly reminds me of the level select map from Towerfall of all things and I don't know why but that just clicked something in my brain. Have I mentioned I like the art direction of this game?

Of course, what roguelike doesn't have an 'only in the run' currency to buy things after tough fights? Throughout the adventure a tortoise merchant dots the land to take that pesky gold off your hand - but they've got a coffee-stamp style system that improves the wares the more you shop with them. Love these disaster capitalists. Can't live without 'em.

Oh, and one of my favorite things in these types of games going all the way back to like Golden Axe is here; MOUNTS. So far just boars and one other that come later in this demo that I won't spoil, but I saw an achievement about petting a higher number of types so I'm excited for what they could be.

Certain currencies you collect throughout play last following death and you ultimately use them to level up both in gameplay and in story with each respawn back to the town / hub. It's nice for the game to keep track of your runs for you. Sometimes you wanna remember what that boon you liked was called, or what items you'd picked up. There may just be a way to start a run previously discovered items if you look hard enough.

Wait so Should I Play it™?

(And I'd be remiss to point out that IF the demo stays - it's SIGNIFICANTLY longer than expected; I kept hitting what I thought would be a 'Thanks for playing our demo' wall but it kept going - and when I DID hit that wall it respawned me back in the town like the end of any other run and there were STILL more things to find and unlock and story to branch. What feels initially like 2 paths to take at the start of a run is actually more like 4-5 and they branch quite a bit.)

The criticisms I have so far:

1. Man, couch co-op games really need the option to increase font size. I know it's not ideal for visual artistic design but my god sometimes it's REALLY hard to read the boons from across the room. (Had the same critique of Rotwood - I get that it's because I'm old and have questionable eyesight but c'mon. If it's designed to be played with a controller on a couch, text NEEDS to be bigger or at the very least have that option)
2. Walk speed is prettttty slow (but there are items found that upgrade it so I understand) and running involves either double-tapping your direction or dashing first and it's a tad bit clunky but nothing unique to this game outside of the genre as a whole.
3. The above mentioned weirdness with the factions not seeming to make narrative sense, but that's a minor story gripe and probably just me needing more context.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's a photo of some of our gay cats. Happy pride.

#Absolum #MSD plays games #dotemu #game demo #steam nextfest #summer games fest #video games