The Thaumaturge

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Many words have been written and much breath spent on the modern attention span. To be precise, we’re usually talking about the lacking nature of the modern attention span. Everybody wants things immediately, there’s no more room for delayed gratification, typically we’ll throw in some technophobia about how phones are ruining everything, yadda yadda…you’ve surely heard this line of thought before.

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Whether or not it’s accurate or just fearmongering is a little up in the air, of course, and I’d argue that the popularity of more introspective game genres like visual novels and investigative-focused adventure games suggests that people are more patient than one might think. A game like The Thaumaturge, for instance, is a leisurely stroll through the gray streets of early 20th-century Poland that’s a little lacking in explosions but just might be worth a look all the same.

Wiktor is a thaumaturge, a worker of miracles, capable of perceiving the world beyond what most of us experience. This has several benefits; Wiktor can pick up psychic readings from objects, manipulate others in conversation and interact with salutors, spiritual manifestations attracted to humans’ spiritual imperfections. These powers are useful, but they also carry risks, among them a vulnerability to the supernatural that the average person lacks which can lead to insanity or worse. Regardless, Wiktor’s going to need every advantage he can get to navigate through a web of intrigue that winds throughout Poland and beyond.

If this sounds vaguely like Persona…well, yeah, you’ve pretty much got it. The Thaumaturge wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and that beloved JRPG franchise is certainly high on the list. Wiktor will gradually build a stable of salutors as you proceed, gaining options to deal with a variety of combat and investigative situations. That’s right, combat; it might be a little surprising to hear that a game like this doesn’t go full-on visual novel, but there you have it. Every so often the local toughs, spiritual or otherwise, are going to show up asking for a beatdown, and you’re going to give it to them, spiritually or otherwise.

Battles are pretty straightforward turn-based affairs that have a lot in common with something like Final Fantasy X. By paying attention to when Wiktor, his salutors, and the enemies are going to act on a timeline, it’s possible to arrange events in such a way as to counter incoming attacks or stop dangerous abilities before they happen. There’s a degree of strategy here, largely revolving around using augments to enhance Wiktor’s skills and add in delays, healing on impact or debuff removal, but the relatively small scale of most fights keeps things from becoming unmanageable. A lot of the impact in combat revolves around spectacle rather than difficulty – The Thaumaturge’s boss battles in particular are very impressive.

This game also has a lot in common with something like Disco Elysium or Gamedec, slow-burning adventures with a heavy emphasis on reading and decision-making. Wiktor’s thaumaturgic abilities expand and improve over time, allowing him to become more perceptive in several categories: Body, Mind, Word and Deed, which are largely self-explanatory but in practice tend to overlap in bizarre ways when it’s convenient for the plot. Word and Mind, in particular, tend to result in fairly similar deductions such that the difference between the two can feel a little tenuous, but generally you want a little bit of everything so this isn’t a dealbreaker.

You’ll use Wiktor’s investigative prowess to uncover evidence and draw conclusions about goings-on, then put your deductions to work to get the upper hand when confronting other characters. The Thaumaturge runs into a common issue with this sort of game as a result in that it’s quite possible to get ahead of the plot when it comes to figuring things out. If you’ve played Ace Attorney, Danganronpa or the like, you’ll be familiar with what we’re talking about. It’s that moment when you know exactly what’s going on but you’re incapable of actually expressing your conclusions because you aren’t taking your logical steps in the order the game expects.

In a game like The Thaumaturge where much of what’s going on is supernatural, this is a little less painful, since there’s not necessarily a rational explanation to a problem every single time, but you’ll still want to approach this title with some patience.

At least The Thaumaturge’s gorgeous presentation can take a little of that edge off. This is a surprisingly nice-looking game, with particular attention paid to the setting and the bizarre designs of the salutors. Don’t come in with your hopes unreasonably high expecting a AAA extravaganza, of course – combat, in particular, reuses a lot of animations – but you might be surprised at how impressive The Thaumaturge can be considering its budget. It’s also pretty decent from an audio perspective, notable in the sense that I didn’t find myself hating any of the voice actors.

The Thaumaturge is, first and foremost, a game for fans of detectivery who’ve already wrapped up more prominent titles like the aforementioned Disco Elysium or Gamedec. It’s got the same digging-through-the-muck feel, the sense of burrowing layer by layer to come to some scrap of truth, and it’s nice that there’s a bit of combat here and there to spice things up a bit as well. If you’ve got the time and patience for a slower pace than most contemporary titles, you just might have an enjoyable investigative experience here.