• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Absolum |OT| Streets of Medieval Mages

John Bilbo

John Bilbo

Gold Member
h6nSii2GtPUaWYxC.png

Absolum NeoGAF OT​

■
Release Date: 9th of October, 2025
Developed by: Dotemu, Guard Crush Games, Supamonks
Published by: Dotemu, Gamirror Games
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4
Demo Available on Steam
■​

Description

Crafted with passion by the dream team that redefined side-scrolling beat 'em ups, Absolum mixes top-of-the-class combat action with modern roguelite elements, bringing all the vibes of the fantasy arcade hits of the past into an immersive adventure set in the original world of Talamh.

An Epic Adventure

Talamh has been shattered by a magical cataclysm caused by ambitious wizards, leaving magic mistrusted by the common folk. Sun King Azra took advantage of this panic, enslaving wizards through his Crimson Order and placing loyal princes to rule over the conquered realms. As Azra's forces claim more and more lands, the high enchantress Uchawi and a small group of rebels rise from the shadows, wielding forbidden magic to challenge his oppressive regime and defy his absolute magic power.

The Rogue 'Em Up Original by Dotemu

Absolum combines Dotemu and Guard Crush's mastery in beat 'em up gameplay with Supamonks' best-in-class art and animation. With its fast-paced action and endless replayability, Absolum will challenge you with multiple paths to explore and unpredictable encounters for a new experience each time you play.

Features

  • From the combat design duo behind one of the decade's best brawlers returns
  • Stunning animation from Supamonks
  • An epic adventure in an original fantasy world
  • Branching pathways to explore, quest to discover, intriguing characters to encounter, and a deep variety of challenging bosses in store!
  • Fight as one of four different rebels, each with their own unique skill set, personality and motivations


Soundtrack available on Steam Soundtracks (no DRM!):​

​


​


Article:
As Dotemu used to reinvent old IPs for contemporary players, we looked at old fantasy games like Golden Axe or Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara as a starting point and looked at how we could modernize them. So the four playable characters had to have this "classic" vibe. We have the dwarf, the warrior, the magician, the rogue, but we wanted to have something that fits more with our modern culture. As a result, the warrior is a woman, non-sexualized. The magician is a frog deeply rooted in his family and community, the dwarf is the last of his kind, more subtle than a usual dwarf, and the rogue is a fantasy version of a ninja.


Things to consider during combat:

  • The progression is tied to your score! Learning long combos is essential to progress.
  • You can use the "walls" of the visible area to bounce enemies. This makes continuing combos much easier.
  • There is a practice area in the main base. It is very useful in learning how different moves string together.
  • Deflect is a very powerful defense ability especially for bosses!
  • Side stepping is as powerful as deflect, in some situations it is even more powerful a tool. You can also attack straight out of a side step! This is a super useful move for evading an enemy attack and starting your own combo.
  • A new mechanic for Streets of Rage 4 veterans! Punishment!! Learn when and how. Why? It kicks ass.
  • Jabbing an enemy slowly with your basic attack causes the enemy to go into an over pressurized state which launches them across the screen. When an enemy is in an over pressurized state they cannot be hit again. The state clears after the enemy drops to the ground and stands up again.
  • Unlocking the ability to gain magic when launching enemies makes your life much easier! When you buff it up you can basically use abilities that use your magic meter constantly.
1FbgLd17piC5KL6y.png
 
Last edited:
It's okay so far, kinda disappointed, but I'm not far in. SoR4 flow and combos (especially with Shiva) are noticeably better. Chaining moves together in Shinobi is much more fun also.

Haven't seen any exciting upgrades so far, they're mostly just 'little bit of fire' 'little bit of wind' damage type things. Character designs are pretty horrible and half the NPCs you meet are pretty eyeroll worthy, there's definitely a theme here lol. Usually i don't mind too much and can ignore it but it's very heavy handed and in your face here.

I wish you didn't have to unlock the Triangle/Y moves as you progress on runs, because until you do it's a lot of basic square square square square triangle into simple combos, but sometimes satisfying when they get into a corner juggle. Hoping the upgrades and unlocks make a big difference further into runs. Music isn't bad

Gameplay is by no means bad, btw. I do like how you can explore areas and find some hidden doors. Different paths etc
 
Last edited:
I adore SoR4, but have zero excitement for this. I'm hoping it's good for those that are playing it, though.
 
It's getting good reviews. Streets of Rage 4 might still be enough for me though, since it has its own roguelike mode built-in (well, the DLC at least) which is already very excellent. And while some reviewers have attached Dotemu's pedigree to SoR4, I'm pretty sure that game was handled more by LizardCube (who recently made the fantastic Shinobi sequel) and Dotemu is more of a publisher than anything.

Is there a demo of this?
 
Last edited:
Rran said:
It's getting good reviews. Streets of Rage 4 might still be enough for me though, since it has its own roguelike mode built-in (well, the DLC at least) which is already very excellent. And while some reviewers have attached Dotemu's pedigree to SoR4, I'm pretty sure that game was handled more by LizardCube (who recently made the fantastic Shinobi sequel) and Dotemu is more of a publisher than anything.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell Absolum is made by the people behind the gameplay of SoR4 and Shinobi Art of Vengeance is made by the graphical team of SoR4.
Rran said:
Is there a demo of this?
Click to expand...
Yes at least on Steam there is.
 
I'm past my refund time on steam but I'm tempted to ask anyway. The dialogue is annoying the more I go on, and the combat doesn't seem to get any more fun, it's not terrible but it feels eh. Should just have unlockable moves/alt moves like SoR4 did rather than having to get some extra ones per run and it be random.
 
Dzab said:
I'm past my refund time on steam but I'm tempted to ask anyway. The dialogue is annoying the more I go on, and the combat doesn't seem to get any more fun, it's not terrible but it feels eh. Should just have unlockable moves/alt moves like SoR4 did rather than having to get some extra ones per run and it be random.
Click to expand...
But there are unlockable moves.
 
Played my first couple of runs and yeah it is as great as the demo. The combo possibilities are greatly enhanced over Streets of Rage 4 and that game had a superb combo system.

A couple of runs and I've unlocked several different moves that use magic.

I love how the scoring system is tied to progression! This is a great idea for a beat em up rogue lite game!

Music is super good, love it. Gonna buy the soundtrack for sure.

Characters are cringe except for the enemies like the dwarves in the mine. Enemies are more endearing and funny than the main characters.

This is a modern bullshit game with heavy nods to Tolkien's work and D&D but it does not respect the cultures those works came from. It's based on no culture and any culture at the same time: "world culture" or some shit. It sucks.

Anyway the gameplay is great so far!
 
Thanks to my boy John Bilbo John Bilbo for creating the OT 👍

Dzab Dzab 's post is spot-on when it comes to the characters and art being..."heavy handed" and "in your face" - there's definitely an agenda behind it, BUUUUT, the game plays SO GOOD that I don't care at the end of the day, besides it's not like it's freaking dragon age Veilguard or anything when it comes to the "pandering"...

Also : this game is gonna get patched to hell and back so I wouldn't worry about things not being 100% as SOR4 or powers/RNG not being what they should right now.

I think that for its price and its great gameplay/gameplay loop, people, and especially beat em up aficionados shouldn't overlook this just because it's not Dragon's Crown, DnD shadows over mystara, Fighting rage or even SOR4.
 
Last edited:
The art style is heavily influenced by such comic artists as Mike Mignola who created the Hellboy comics. I think the game looks gorgeous for most parts. Some of the character designs are embarrassing however and make me cringe.
 
Despite my dislike of the character designs I decided to go ahead and buy it as the demo gameplay was super fun. Gotta wrap up my gacha waifu dailies then I'll put a couple hours into the full release, maybe check out some online.
 
John Bilbo said:
But there are unlockable moves.
Click to expand...
I meant like the full moveset in SoR4, how you have access to all of them from the get-go and can swap them out before you start a run, e.g the double forward attack, the special, forward special, air special.
But in Absolum you only have square and triangle (and the arcana of course) when you start a run, and after a boss I might get the upgrade to get down+square move, or the up+triangle etc. But it's not permanent

The permanent ones are the arcanas right? Unless those other ones permanently unlock? Maybe I'm wrong or not making sense lol
 
Dzab said:
I meant like the full moveset in SoR4, how you have access to all of them from the get-go and can swap them out before you start a run, e.g the double forward attack, the special, forward special, air special.
But in Absolum you only have square and triangle (and the arcana of course) when you start a run, and after a boss I might get the upgrade to get down+square move, or the up+triangle etc. But it's not permanent

The permanent ones are the arcanas right? Unless those other ones permanently unlock? Maybe I'm wrong or not making sense lol
Click to expand...
Yeah I think I understand now!

But if I recall correctly the alternate move set came to SoR4 only in the DLC right? It wasn't there from the get go.

Still you're right. It would be nice to have alternate move sets for each character you can fully customize. I hope we see that in this game as well!
 
Finished 3 runs (about 30mins each) and : Yep, game is great and plays like a friggin' dream, also, after a couple of mins you forget about the forced...ahem..."diversity" (?), not only that but the characters are kind of endearing actually...
Not that you should give a fook since this is a beat em up first and foremost, meaning, no one should give a fook about the "story", in fact, I think that we made it a bigger deal than it actually is - and this is coming from someone that heavily dislikes political correctness 😉

TLDNR : you like beat em ups (and especially SOR4) ? If yes, you should definitely get it - the rogue like stuff comes 2nd if you're actually good at playing these kind of games, it's all about the combos and spacing (like in most good beat em ups).
 
Last edited:
I'm loving this just as much as SoR4.

Everything I love about brawlers but now fleshed out for a more meaty experience with even MORE replay value than just score chasing or 1CC.
 
Did 3 or 4 runs and have unlocked the 4 characters. I really wish they made the Orc trainer playable; she's easily my favorite design. Maybe channel some whirlwinds like muscle mommy Amazon.

TcfDHqBd7jHJKwgh.gif


I chuckle at every new supporting character being a female. I kinda hope they said 'fuck it' and just go all in and it's just a checklist of diverse female characters all the way to the end. The gameplay is great fun.
 
Not very good at beat-em ups but decided to pick this up anyway. Only managed to beat the first orc boss, but from what little I've played, I like it. Not sure if permanent moves will unlock as you progress, but having them would be nice as I'd like to vary my combos from the start as opposed to gradually unlocking random moves during a run. I especially like the art direction, reminds me a lot of Hellboy.
 
I was really intrigued (loved SoR4) but after playing the demo the modernity of the character designs was just too tragically corpo, the now typical nagging "girl boss" characters bummed me out. Kind of over everything being roguelike all the time as well. Maybe one day on a deep sale
 
Last edited:
Got to the final boss as Brome. Thorn daggers are wildly good if you build into it. I set up his main attack to bubble and bubbles drop thorn daggers. Just chucking daggers and doing Kamahameha waves all over the place.

Cinder is the coolest character to play as but is not killing anything fast plus leaves herself too exposed doing air juggles.

Need to try dwarf more.
 
Streets of Rage 4 reigns supreme in the difficulty selection.

Rogue lite rpg mechanics tend to dilute the player experience.

A pure arcade style mode without any rpg mechanics and with a highscore list and with classic difficulty selection would be key for longevity.
 
very nice artwork going on there but not really my kind of game sadly. I may pick it up when its super cheap on steam
 
Put a couple more hours in checking out alternate paths, trying to do quests and unlocking abilities. Ran a pretty awesome build with Gra...whatever the warrior's name is where her special left a thorny flower that took shots at enemies and dropped several thorn knives when it vanished. The knives did great damage and could stagger lock enemies with how fast you could spam them from across the room. Also got an immortal companion sword that floated around doing big swings for good damage. Led to a lot of damage where I didn't have to risk getting hit too much.

I haven't even started playing the other 3 yet.
 
ssringo said:
Put a couple more hours in checking out alternate paths, trying to do quests and unlocking abilities. Ran a pretty awesome build with Gra...whatever the warrior's name is where her special left a thorny flower that took shots at enemies and dropped several thorn knives when it vanished. The knives did great damage and could stagger lock enemies with how fast you could spam them from across the room. Also got an immortal companion sword that floated around doing big swings for good damage. Led to a lot of damage where I didn't have to risk getting hit too much.

I haven't even started playing the other 3 yet.
Click to expand...
This game has a LOT of replay value and build variety. The combo capability, score system per run, lots to unlock, etc.

I think for me it isn't Hades 2 or Returnal good, but I'd put it on the same level as rogue prince of Persia.

It's just fun!
 
Any idea how the Burial Smash move works on the non-sexual female warrior?

The prompt says "After a run attack [attack key] to extend it into a grab and slam."

I can't get it to work.
 
John Bilbo said:
Any idea how the Burial Smash move works on the non-sexual female warrior?

The prompt says "After a run attack [attack key] to extend it into a grab and slam."

I can't get it to work.
Click to expand...

When you buy that specific skill with crystals in the hideout, what it actually means/does is that you can find said power/move while playing after beating a boss, it's a drop basically...

It works as described, perform a dash attack and then the attack button again - it's a GREAT move with good damage output and i-frames 😉

PS : Reached final stage, EVERY character is a female, the only male characters in this a re the dwarf, frog wizard, old guy in the hideout and...the bosses, nope, no agenda whatsoever 😁🤣
 
Last edited:
Giallo Corsa said:
PS : Reached final stage, EVERY character is a female, the only male characters in this a re the dwarf, frog wizard, old guy in the hideout and...the bosses, nope, no agenda whatsoever 😁🤣
Click to expand...
Man, the absolum state...
 
ssringo said:
Jack Nicholson Yes GIF


It's funny but...the game is actually fun!
Click to expand...
It really is. I had such a good run as the dwarf now. Found a whole new area with an undead Necro boss at the end.

Run was absolutely insane. Got this AoE finisher spawning 10+ daggers at once, and my special auto gave me 2,full mana crystals!!! I was spawning turrets on every magic use and filled the screen with turrets while I chuck daggers or refill with a punch combo.

The build diversity creates so many fun runs.
 
This thread is making me realize that I still haven't played Streets if Rage 4!

The concept for this game does seem pretty good. Keeping it on my radar.
 
Just played the demo.

If I'm honest I wasn't 100% sold on it. Maybe I'll pick it up on sale a couple patches down the line.

This is coming straight off the back of SOR4 with the Reignited mod that remixes and ramps up the gameplay even more than normal, and vanilla SOR4 is more satisfying to play than this. It's hard to downgrade. I didn't feel the same way with the Shinobi demo.
 
Finished my first full clear (but another quest awaits...). Didn't even plan on it being a full run, just wanted to knock out a couple quest turn ins and spent half the run nearly dead. Got a couple traits and just steamrolled afterwards. Not even really sure what the final bosses attacks are like because he didn't get to do a whole lot! Dunno about the other branches but ritual of the bramble is busted. I got more than just this, but this is what was insane.

- Finishers (attack x4) drop 2 thorn daggers which do 26.6 damage (increased by other buffs)
- Thorn daggers gain 2.4 damage per meter traveled
- Thorn dagger split into 3
- Thorn daggers pierce enemies
- Spirit Claw inspiration making finishers do a multihit attack. This caused finishers to drop 8(!) thorn daggers
- Sniper scope trinket increases damage by 50% when attacking from afar

billy mayes GIF


- Infinity mirror trinket gives chance (based on luck) to convert killed enemies into companions (I had 15%)

Just flood the screen with daggers to clear out enemies, convert dead enemies into companions and drop a couple basic combos to refill daggers. Absolutely steamrolled everything.
 
ssringo said:
Finished my first full clear (but another quest awaits...). Didn't even plan on it being a full run, just wanted to knock out a couple quest turn ins and spent half the run nearly dead. Got a couple traits and just steamrolled afterwards. Not even really sure what the final bosses attacks are like because he didn't get to do a whole lot! Dunno about the other branches but ritual of the bramble is busted. I got more than just this, but this is what was insane.

- Finishers (attack x4) drop 2 thorn daggers which do 26.6 damage (increased by other buffs)
- Thorn daggers gain 2.4 damage per meter traveled
- Thorn dagger split into 3
- Thorn daggers pierce enemies
- Spirit Claw inspiration making finishers do a multihit attack. This caused finishers to drop 8(!) thorn daggers
- Sniper scope trinket increases damage by 50% when attacking from afar

billy mayes GIF


- Infinity mirror trinket gives chance (based on luck) to convert killed enemies into companions (I had 15%)

Just flood the screen with daggers to clear out enemies, convert dead enemies into companions and drop a couple basic combos to refill daggers. Absolutely steamrolled everything.
Click to expand...
Yeah the game wants you to do fun broken shit. I like that approach.
 
John Bilbo said:
It's fun until you realize the challenge is gone and the game in a sense is finished.
Click to expand...
Roguelike in a nutshell

When you start: Infinite replayability because every run is different

After a couple hours: Do the same meta build that trivializes the game and now every run is the same
 
Picked it up. This should be great on Steam Deck. Between this Hades 2, and Sworn, I have too much to play on it. Still need to play more GoY too.

The assist options are awesome. For dads playing with their kids or wives. Being able to make them more OP is nice.
 
Last edited:
Have put 8 hours in it so far.
The game got its hooks on me, when I'm not playing it I'm actually thinking of doing so, it's incredibly addictive to me due to it being a beat em up first and foremost, pretty hard to put it down and I have been playing it non stop since I got it last night (still have Silent hill f to finish G'dammit).

Also, the game starts switching things up by introducing you to new shortcuts/hidden boss battles/areas after a certain point which is cool, couple that with the multiple paths in specific levels and it's even better.
Almost beat the final boss today but his 2nd phase got me.

All in all, minus the shit-tastic art direction (talking about the characters mostly and how generic high fantasy everything is) the game feels and plays great, 22.5€ well spent 😉
 
Last edited:
Just beat the "final boss", and now the real quest for the final final boss begins.

I haven't beat the lady boss of the necropolis yet. I ended up going to this chaos realm shit by chance. So sick.

This game keeps on giving.

Frog man is OP. All my best runs are with him and it isn't even close.

This run for the final boss I had infinite mana, 5 bars of mana, and could just spam the beam. I had an ability that if I don't attack for 5 seconds I do 300% damage. So before the boss started I popped my ult and then did the triple ray ult and melted the first phase no issue lmao. Then just spammed the Ray and infinite juggled from there. Think I got hit once?
 
Grabbed this last night and played a handful of runs so far. This is fun! I just unlocked Cider, and I think I prefer her playstyle to the other two. I haven't really unlocked anything that made a particular run feel busted yet, but it's early days.
 
11 hours in. Defeated all but one hidden boss that I dunno where it's at (maybe tied to the characters I haven't put much time into) and the final boss who is was just a bit too much of a gauntlet my last run. Got it to ~25% on it's last phase (I hope...) but I had burned my revive earlier in the run against a different slog of a boss fight and fell just short. The overall run was pretty crazy with me taking out 2 new bosses during the run including the one tied to the (current) rarest achievement on Steam Alberich the dragon. Wasn't some meta game breaking build I don't think, just had a lot of damage reduction trinkets and was a walking tank.

Also unlocked the door to the left of where you spawn in. It seems to unlock at Radiance level 50. Some lore behind there but also unlockable alternate skin.

Closing in on all the obvious unlockables as well. Maybe there's something cool behind the final boss that will encourage more replays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

How is Streets of Rage 4 so good GAF?
2
74
925
Hudo replied
A plague tale: innocence, a medieval last of us?
LTTP  2
60
1K
Humdinger replied
Absolum announced - a promising side scrolling brawler from Dotemu, makers of Streets of Rage 4
2 3
118
3K
DavidGzz replied
Total War: Medieval III Announced
33
1K
uncreativename replied
Visible Pregnancy Free Update! (Medieval Dynasty)
17
571
epicurius-seven replied
Top Bottom