Thymesia from OverBorder Studio and Team 17 is a “soulslike” game that clearly draws a lot of inspiration from Bloodborne. Looking at the game’s overview, you’d immediately be drawn to it if you’re a fan of Bloodborne and the comparisons don’t stop there. This is a title that knows what it set out to do but changed things up significantly enough to set itself apart from its competition.
So what is Thymesia all about ? The answer to that is something that you’ll be asking yourself for quite some time since the game is very light on its story details.
Corvus, a plague knight?
In Thymesia, players will take on the role of Corvus. Corvus, clad in what looks like a plague doctor outfit with crow-esque embellishments is thrust into a dark, disturbing world where everything and everyone is out to get you. Players will encounter a tutorial which gets you up to speed with the game’s mechanics and from then on out, you’re on your own to explore the game’s unlocked areas.
Thymesia is broken up into 4 fairly straightforward areas. Each area features a range of enemies and paths to explore but don’t expect a massively open and interconnected world as seen in Bloodborne. This is more focused. Think NiOh this time around and you’d be right on the money. There are shortcuts to unlock and you will be retreading a lot of the same location over and over though.
Why would you be doing that? The short answer is that you will need to kill enemies in levels to upgrade Corvus. This becomes easier as you progress further into the game. Thymesia’s difficulty curve is quite brutal at first but as you level up, Corvus unlocks a lot more abilities which helps make the rest of the game feel like a breeze. There’s no stamina bar here but there are other features which are tied to levelling up which you will make use of. An example of this are the feathers that Corvus has access to.
Throwing feathers at enemies damages them but also stops them from healing. Corvus also has access to a “Claw” attack which does the same thing but is far more effective. The “Claw” attacks strip away at enemy healthbars and prevents them from regenerating over time. This is essential to victory in Thymesia and players will have to time their attacks so as to not be killed quite easily. Enemies in Thymesia are incredibly strong and some don’t even flinch when hitting them which makes things even more difficult for you as the player.
As such, Thymesia’s gameplay is very similar to Bloodborne with parrying, dodging and striking at the right moment being key to victory. Thymesia also lets players use enemy weaponry against them. Corvus is able to steal enemy weapons by executing them using his “Claw” attack. As you progress throughout the game, you will be able to unlock and equip plague weapons and these augment your arsenal and damage output considerably. Soon enough you’ll be combining your standard attacks with dodging, feathers, plague weapon attacks and Claw attacks and executions in no time.
Forgotten Feathers
What Thymesia gets right here is the upgrade system tied to the gameplay. Defeating enemies and upgrading your abilities initially starts off pretty simple but the deeper you go into the game, the more there is to it. Once you’ve gained enough memory fragments, you can eventually start playing around with specializing your build to suit your play style. The upgrading system in Thymesia is really well done since you can respec Corvus using “Forgotten Feathers” obtained from bosses. This gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility to try different things out as you get through the game.
Thymesia falters in two significant ways. While “soulslike” games generally don’t explain their story up front and leave a lot to players to find out. Thymesia’s story feels as if it’s trying to weave a complex tale here but ultimately fails at doing so. There a plenty of interactables in levels which have tidbits of text but these don’t really explain too much about what’s going on in the game’s world. It does its job of propelling you forward but a lot more could have been done to really flesh things out. Alas, the story was given a backseat here and given the game’s rather short length, we would have liked a bit more.
Visceral, Action driven Soulslike
Thymesia’s boss fights are a mixed bag with some bosses being rather difficult to defeat while others are a walk in the park. If you’ve spent some time retreading old areas and farming enemies, you’d be upgraded a lot more and therefore later bosses might feel a lot easier than the earlier ones you’ve faced off against. Some enemies in the game can come across as cheap or unfair with attacks that quite literally obliterate your health bar but after some trial and error, you should be able to get past them. Attack pattern recognition and quickly adapting to a situation is the order of the day here.
The fact that there’s no stamina bar to hinder you in Thymesia makes it a lot more action driven and newcomer friendly. If this is the first time you’re playing a soulslike game, Thymesia might be the game to ease you into the genre since it’s possible to level up Corvus quite easily to become a powerful plague weapon bearer.
Graphically, Thymesia looks good with plenty of dark, moody and mysterious environments. Enemy designs are varied and look great too. Player Claw attacks look spectacular and the plague weapon attacks look amazing in action. The only drawback being that while a lot of the stronger attacks look visceral, bloody and fantastic, they don’t really feel as if they are doing much damage to tougher foes who seemingly just shrug it off. You’ll often find yourself just running in, hitting an enemy and running away again in many circumstances. If the developers could overhaul some of this with a patch in the future, that would make the gameplay feel a heck of a lot more satisfying.
The atmospheric soundtrack of Thymesia fits the game perfectly and the sound effects used are great too. Weapons certainly sound powerful enough but again, there’s a mismatch with how much damage they do to enemies and how enemies react to this damage. Thymesia also crashed quite a few times during intense battles. This might be a hardware or driver specific issue though and hopefully it can be pinpointed an addressed with a future patch.
Final Verdict
Overall, Thymesia has a lot of good ideas. It implemented these ideas in a safe way and doesn’t attempt to bite off more than it can chew. The game takes around 10 hours to complete depending on your skill level and this means that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Some boss and mini-boss enemies definitely need to be balanced and tweaked a bit to make the gameplay seem fairer on the player though. Other than that, Thymesia is definitely worth checking out. If you’re a fan of soulslike games, Thymesia will appeal to you, just be sure to keep your expectations in check.
Developer: OverBorder Studio
Publisher: Team17
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
Reviewed on PC
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