Thymesia Review

Developed by OverBorder Studio and published by Team17 Gamera, Thymesia is the latest souls-style game set in a kingdom infected with a plague due to the mishandling of Alchemy. With a strong gloomy atmosphere and an interesting art style, you will need a good memory and fast reflexes if you wish to progress in this challenging game.

                You play as Corvus, an agent with amnesia who could hold all the answers to what caused – and possibly how to cure – the plague. You are guided by some child-like angel who helps you tap into your memory to replay events that happened in your life to try and regain what was lost. Unfortunately all the memories Corvus has seemed to be of grotesque and confusing architecture with mutated enemies from the plague trying to kill you. Aside from everyone wanting to kill you there are snippets of information in the form of drops from enemies or hidden in destructible items which help you piece together what has happened.

               It will be really hard to immerse yourself in this kind of story, as the combat will take the majority of your cerebral attention to master, leaving very little to work on what happened with the plague. But regardless, you aim to find all the information on each of these maze-like levels to help the story unfold.

                The combat, although quite complex, is clearly the best part of this game. Don’t get me wrong, the graphics are impressive and the animation and feel of play are very swift but it’s the combat that steals the show – if you are willing to put in the effort and patience. I mentioned before that it is a Souls-style game and that is because there are familiar elements. Unlike in Dark Souls, there is no stamina meter here so you can run and dodge to your heart’s content, or until you still get slapped about anyway. But don’t think that makes the game too easy, far from it as there is no block either. Only a dodge and parry are your defence here.

                For those thinking the game would then be a hit and move type of game, you are only partially correct. That is because the enemy has a dual health meter, one for bleed damage and one for actual damage. Any standard strikes you do will cause the enemy to bleed which drains some of their health bar from white to green. Whilst it is green you have to attack with your special claw attack to then remove the bleed damage which in turn reduces the enemy’s health. Your standard attacks will only cause bleed damage and cannot be felled with that attack alone. The claw attack can only remove the bleed damage and will do next to nothing to the enemies normal health bar. A trick seems to be missed as you cannot combo your standard attack with your claw attack even with upgrades and so each action is done separately. If you try to wail on your enemies you will get punished quite quickly, but if you dither when the enemy has bleed damage then they will regenerate the bleed damage back to normal health if enough time has passed.

                Another interesting move you have is the plague weapon. These weapons are what you absorb from the enemy you are fighting. By holding the claw attack button you a lunging claw attack which reduces the enemy’s bleed damage and also steals a copy of their weapon for a single-use attack. The enemies have a variety of weapons so it’s interesting to steal all varieties to see what you find useful. Also, the enemies have the potential to drop weapon skill pickups which allow you to assign a plague weapon as a separate attack which costs energy to use. You do also have a ranged feather attack which you have a limited number of but that is to be used to disrupt the enemy’s special attacks as it barely does any damage to most enemies.

                The parts of the game I found very Souls-y are around each of the maze-like stages called beacons. You can sit on these beacons to upgrade your level, play with your skills or amend the potions you have. Each time you sit at a beacon though all the enemies respawn so you need to use them wisely. Also each enemy you defeat drops experience which you accumulate and use to level up when you reach a beacon providing you have enough. Levelling up gives you the chance to improve stats and select from the available skills. You can also upgrade your potions if you default some of the tougher enemies on the level. There are plenty of skills to choose from when you upgrade and you are not locked into them. If you feel a skill path is not aiding your cause you can remove them and reallocate your skill points elsewhere. If you die before you reach a beacon then all the experience is lost in one big drop. Once you respawn at a beacon you will have to find the location you died and pick up that experience as a lost memory as if you fail to do so and or are killed again then all the experience is lost. It would have been nice to have that as a warning though before you walk into a boss battle though.

I say this because the first main carnival boss you fight is right (insert your choice of aggressive expletive). They are unnecessarily tough for the first main boss and I am not going to lie, it almost made me give up the game there and then after my 15^th failed attempt. But alas, with the aid of some grinding, patience and the right amount of focus to master the attack patterns I was able to take down the first health bar of the boss only to realise there was a second stage to the boss and he got all his health back. After going through a day or more of despair I mustered all the determination to defeat this boss with an attempt well into the 30’s I am sure.

                After you defeat a boss they drop the core which you need to help in restoring your memory and so you are taken back to yourself in the current time. You can now access other parts of your memory which means the next level to the game. But you can also return to the same level for some side quests which is a bit bland as it just starts you in a different part of the same map and you have to either find something or kill something to end the side quest with no boss at the end of it thankfully. If you are a glutton for punishment you can go back and try to fight the boss again. The other levels are just as eerie and maze-like with a blood-soaked library or a castle in ruins with the occasional greenhouse.  I don’t think there are many other levels after those if there are any but it’s just that tricky to progress and find out.

Conclusion

Thymesia is a game that has a story as complex as the pronunciation of the title itself. If a brutally tough game that puts your reflexes, memory and patience to the test like many Dark Souls-type games then there is some joy for you here. The combat is tricky to master but fast and fluid. If you are willing to commit yourself to the game and repetition doesn’t phase you then I would recommend you try this out.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.