On the surface level, Thymesia seems reliant on its obvious influences pulling in interested parties. But the game has enough interesting ideas, and executes the most important elements well enough, to make it a gratifying and worthwhile game to check out.
It is fundamentally in line with other Souls-likes, but the main twist is that enemies have two health bars overlapping with each other, and you need to deplete them both in order to kill them. You have regular sword attacks that will mainly deal damage against the main health bar, and claw attacks that will only deplete the secondary bar. There's also plague weapons, which are secondary weapons that has different damage properties depending on the weapon. This system is the very basis of the game's aggressive and ferocious feel, since the main health bar can regenerate according to the secondary bar if you don't damage the enemy for too long. Most of your moves are also not limited by a stamina/energy bar (only plague weapons), which only supports that feeling.
The game has limited character customization, in exchange for progression systems that feel closer to hack and slash games like Devil May Cry. There are skill trees that provide ways to tailor your abilities to your sensibilities. For example, widening your deflect/parry timing period in exchange for lower damage against enemies, or choosing to double down on your deflect damage instead. You have many plague weapons to choose from, like a scythe that can heal you when you hit enemies with it, or a whip that can help you close the gap against enemies. Even the Estus Flask equivalents here are customizable, being able to switch different potion types and add ingredients to introduce extra effects. In my experience, these systems are quite flexible in letting me play how I wanted to play, and making the game bend to my will is very satisfying. It helps that you can freely unlearn skills, which lets you experiment to find your favorite way to play the game.
Unfortunately the levels and environment designs are not as well done. The level design is just mediocre, nothing really sticks out in my mind right now. There's some atmospheric environments that are quite nice to look at, but most of the time it fits the bill of a "generic dark fantasy world on a low budget" world too well. Same goes for the enemy designs (although mechanically they're varied enough for a game of this length, about 10 hours for me, I got all the endings) and soundtrack. At least the bosses are pretty damn good overall, especially the optional bosses, with the exception of one terrible gimmick boss.
The story here is pretty decent, it definitely won't be the main driving force of your experience. It's mostly told through text logs without any voice acting, which isn't very exciting, but I do appreciate its relatively straightforward nature. Find enough of these logs and you should have a good grasp of the story, the game isn't very vague about this.
Overall, Thymesia delivers on its intent of an approachable and reasonably sized Souls clone, while still managing to provide a challenging and aggressive combat experience. But it is let down by visibly middling budget, low production values, and a general lack of memorablity.
It is fundamentally in line with other Souls-likes, but the main twist is that enemies have two health bars overlapping with each other, and you need to deplete them both in order to kill them. You have regular sword attacks that will mainly deal damage against the main health bar, and claw attacks that will only deplete the secondary bar. There's also plague weapons, which are secondary weapons that has different damage properties depending on the weapon. This system is the very basis of the game's aggressive and ferocious feel, since the main health bar can regenerate according to the secondary bar if you don't damage the enemy for too long. Most of your moves are also not limited by a stamina/energy bar (only plague weapons), which only supports that feeling.
The game has limited character customization, in exchange for progression systems that feel closer to hack and slash games like Devil May Cry. There are skill trees that provide ways to tailor your abilities to your sensibilities. For example, widening your deflect/parry timing period in exchange for lower damage against enemies, or choosing to double down on your deflect damage instead. You have many plague weapons to choose from, like a scythe that can heal you when you hit enemies with it, or a whip that can help you close the gap against enemies. Even the Estus Flask equivalents here are customizable, being able to switch different potion types and add ingredients to introduce extra effects. In my experience, these systems are quite flexible in letting me play how I wanted to play, and making the game bend to my will is very satisfying. It helps that you can freely unlearn skills, which lets you experiment to find your favorite way to play the game.
Unfortunately the levels and environment designs are not as well done. The level design is just mediocre, nothing really sticks out in my mind right now. There's some atmospheric environments that are quite nice to look at, but most of the time it fits the bill of a "generic dark fantasy world on a low budget" world too well. Same goes for the enemy designs (although mechanically they're varied enough for a game of this length, about 10 hours for me, I got all the endings) and soundtrack. At least the bosses are pretty damn good overall, especially the optional bosses, with the exception of one terrible gimmick boss.
The story here is pretty decent, it definitely won't be the main driving force of your experience. It's mostly told through text logs without any voice acting, which isn't very exciting, but I do appreciate its relatively straightforward nature. Find enough of these logs and you should have a good grasp of the story, the game isn't very vague about this.
Overall, Thymesia delivers on its intent of an approachable and reasonably sized Souls clone, while still managing to provide a challenging and aggressive combat experience. But it is let down by visibly middling budget, low production values, and a general lack of memorablity.
cowboyjosh
10 months ago