After a recent delay which pushed it back to February,The Thaumaturgeis now set to be one of the early highlights of the year thanks to its unique and captivating take on an alternate history version of early-1900s Poland. Fool’s Theory’s experience in the CRPG genre is well-documented (including working on theupcomingWitcherremake), butThe Thaumaturgerepresents the studio’s ability to create its vision from the ground up. The result is a game that has more than its fair share of creative identity in its world, mechanics, characters, and combat.
InThe Thaumaturge, players assume control of the titular character Wiktor. With his natural abilities as a Thaumaturge, Wiktor draws on the power of Salutors – otherworldly beings that amplify Wiktor’s abilities thanks to their alignment with the game’s Four Dimensions: Word, Heart, Deed, and Mind. The Salutors themselves and the overarching character design, as well as Fool’s Theory’s unique vision of early 20th Century Warsaw, showcase the unique visual character ofThe Thaumaturge.Interested players can check out how its design evolved in some concept art provided to Game Rant during a recent interview with design director Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz.
The Thaumaturge’s Concept Art Highlights the Culture and History of its World
One of the more defining features ofThe Thaumaturgeis the game’shistorical setting and premise, and it’s something that helped to ground the team as they were beginning to come up with their first real attempt at an original IP.
You must familiarize yourself with the characters, the unfolding story, the desired player interactions, and every other aspect. This phase of the project is both exciting and infuriating…A pivotal moment occurred when we settled on the setting. It became evident that the late summer of 1905 provided the perfect backdrop for our vision.
Thanks to the studio choosing its native Poland as the game’s setting and using the team’s combined knowledge and research into the history and culture of the region,The Thaumaturgehas an immediate sense of visual character that permeates nearly every aspect of the title, whether that be its character designs, its use of both supernatural andreal-life historic figures, or its clever reimagining of the city of Warsaw. Regarding using Poland as a setting, the developer notes that its familiarity with the culture and history of the country played a major role in their decision.
We care about telling stories that feel close to us, narratives that could be true given certain circumstances, resonating with what we know, what we’ve learned, or experienced. Placing the game’s action in a location where some of us used to live or still live is our way of expressing how we perceive our reality. We believe that real-life Poland remains somewhat unexplored in the realm of video games, so we aim to shed light on our history, places, and people – inevitably gone, but not forgotten.
While the game certainly has a heavy footing in the real-world history of its setting,The Thaumaturgeis very much a game based on the supernatural. These initial concept art images showcase the team’s deft mix of both the real and the fantastic in how it aims to bringThe Thaumaturge’s world and characters to life, and it’s already shaping up to do so with a style all its own in the realm ofCRPGs.
The Thaumaturge
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The Thaumaturge is an isometric, story-rich RPG with a unique take on turn-based combat, character development features, and investigation mechanics, facing you with morally ambiguous choices – set in a world teeming with mysterious powers and strange ethereal beings called salutors.The year is 1905. Warsaw lives under the yoke of imperial Russian tsardom. Its inhabitants constitute a diverse group of different ancestries, views, and beliefs with often conflicting interests: Russian soldiers, Jewish merchants, Polish townspeople, and more. Despite the circumstances, the city is a buzzing metropolis, where one can attend a breathtaking party with the high society, and later get robbed in one of the dark alleys of the Praga district. A city of great hopes and dreams on one hand and dark desires on the other.A thaumaturge bears both a gift and a burden at the same time. This parallel holds true for Wiktor Szulski, the game’s titular protagonist, who is drawn back to the tumultuous streets of 20th-century Warsaw by family matters. The gift of thaumaturgy is intertwined with family legacy, passed down through one’s ancestors. This mystical inheritance significantly shapes Wiktor’s life journey tied around a pursuit of unearthly entities and their hosts. As only a thaumaturge can tame these ethereal entities - known to a select few as salutors - utilizing their mystical abilities to discover secrets hidden within the human soul and speak to the Darkness, no one understands quite like Wiktor how everyone suffers their own demons.
