Thymesia review: Do you like

You will find details of the new souls-like game in our Thymesia review. Thymesia is one of the newest examples of the souls-like genre, which has become a very popular genre in recent years.

It seems inevitable that we will see more games in this genre, especially after the success of Elden Ring, but we encounter very few successful and original examples. Although we see quality work such as the Nioh series and Mortal Shell, most games do not do a good job to remember.

Thymesia review

Before I start the Thymesia review, I have to say that it is very reminiscent of Bloodborne, which only PlayStation players have the chance to experience. Let’s examine together whether it succeeded or whether it went beyond being a boring souls-like copy game.

Story

The story of Thymesia, just like in Bloodborne, begins with the spread of a disease. The unstoppable plague has nearly destroyed the Kingdom of Hermes, and the believers have lost their selves and become strange creatures. Our main character, Corvus, is looking for the cause of the plague spreading throughout the kingdom and ways to prevent it.

As Corvus, we are beaten by a powerful enemy when we first start the fight, and then we find ourselves with a girl. This is a Hunter’s Dream-style home area, and what Corvus has to do is find a solution to the plague by embarking on a journey through his lost memories. The story is not told in great detail, it wants you to solve it by combining the pieces you find around.

You learn more about the kingdom, the enemies and the disease, thanks to the information you collect while walking around in the game. This information will help you in a choice that will affect the end of the game, so it is worth to attention. However, I did not like the presentation part very much. There are fewer NPC characters than usual, the dialogues are limited, and none of the dialogues are voiced.

There are a total of 21 different endings in the game, but the number of endings we can call the actual ending is 4. The endings weren’t very satisfying to me, they didn’t offer the “I’ve accomplished something” feeling that I get in Souls games.

Gameplay

Thymesia is a souls-like game and as you can see at first glance, it has taken the system of Bloodborne as an example. Our main character, who uses swords and knives, has a more offensive fighting style.

We damage the enemy with the sword, and we get the chance to attack the opponent’s attacks with the knife. There is also the plague claw, which allows us to lower the opponent’s second health bar by making attacks that will prevent the healing of the wounds we inflict with the sword.

The combat system of the game is against Sekiro and Bloodborne, you damage the opponent with your weapons, you prevent the damage you have done with claw attacks. It is possible to dodge the opponent’s attacks and counterattack or to stop special attacks with the help of feathers, but there are ways that I don’t use much because the Tyhmesia gameplay mechanics don’t always work very well.

With Claw, you also have the chance to make a “plague copy” of your opponent’s weapon and use it once. The weapon you steal is not necessarily in disposable attacks, but also in different things such as abilities that allow you to escape faster for a certain period of time.

You do not have the chance to change your weapons in the game, you play with only one weapon, just like Sekiro. You can change the game style to a certain extent with the plague weapons you steal from the enemies and the points you will give on the character development screen, but it is difficult to go beyond the main lines.

If you’re a player who doesn’t like parry and dodge like me, you might get bored. To be fair, though, it was a bit more fun for me when I replaced dodge with block and swapped raven feathers for melee attack.

Combat Mechanics

Although the game’s combat system is actually fun, this fun can be hampered by some technical problems. When I tried the first demo, I was very annoyed with the timing issue, but I thought it would be fixed in the full version.

It has improved a bit, but there are still problems. Even the parry you press just in time doesn’t work sometimes, and attacks that can normally be stopped with a single feather land in the middle of your mouth. If these are the only problems, it will recover again, but it is not over.

Thymesia wants you to play fast and aggressively, but the character isn’t equipped for that. Plague claw is making heavy attacks and we cannot stop the attack in any way. Worst of all, there is no such thing as spoiling the poise of the enemies, sometimes it deteriorates on its own, sometimes it doesn’t even tremble in the biggest attacks.

I can accept making the character fragile, but unstoppable enemies are only added to increase difficulty and lengthen gameplay. It is another matter that such a nimble character does not have the ability to stop his attack and dodge.

Boss fights also suffer from the above problems. In addition, there are problems such as the opponent’s attack following you in the air even if you avoid it, and the sword that you get out of its range hits you.

After a while, you have to face the fact that the game, which should encourage aggressive gameplay, actually wastes a lot of time if you don’t play with hit-and-run tactics. Although the boss fights of the game are very enjoyable, it is unpleasant to have such a difficulty.

In addition to the main missions in the game, there are also side missions where you return to the same sections for a different purpose. Nioh games also resorted to a similar path and I didn’t like it there either, and considering that I don’t like the interior designs of this place, I will say that you can enter it just to fight some bosses that you can’t normally see.

Corvus is also an alchemist, and we can make better healing potions by gathering objects from the environment and adding new ones. There are items like potions that immediately restore health or provide a health boost over time. With the right materials, we can also create items that increase our attack and defense or provide various bonuses.

Visual and Audio Performance

I’ve played Thymesia on PlayStation 5 and I’m confused on what I’ve seen. First of all, the game does not look bad, the visual designs of the sections, character models and graphics are fine. Although some of the enemy designs and the movements of our character in some situations look a bit like wood, but when we evaluate the game according to its own category, a good job has been done.

The game is visually pleasing, the animations are well done, but in some finishing animations, both the enemy and we can pass through the walls and go to other places. It’s not a pleasant experience to find myself off the map and fall because I’m going to finish off the enemy, but luckily it’s only happened to me once. But we got the heads of the enemies through plenty of walls.

I did not experience major performance problems in the game, there were some drops in the frame rate, but there was no decrease that affected the gameplay. In some cutscenes (not too many), the sounds came before the scene, but since I don’t experience this all the time, I think it might be a special problem for me. It doesn’t offer a perfect performance, but it’s not at a level that can’t be played.

I can say that the game does a good job in terms of music. While doing some boss fights over and over, I managed to be patient thanks to the music. In terms of sound, gunshots and creature moans are nice, but there is no voice-over. The game shows that it is low-budget in most places, but although there is no voice-over, the talking bosses are a bit disturbing.

I wish they had agreed with local theater actors or something, but we wouldn’t have been sticking around because we would read what the bosses say sometimes interesting things. There isn’t much dialogue either, and I’m not sure why they skipped this part.

Conclusion

I have come to the end of Thymesia review. I may have said a lot about Thymesia throughout the review, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the game. A bit of work has been done on the game, nice ideas have been put forward, but it is a poorly processed production due to both inexperience and lack of budget during the application.

Episode designs are not very good, storytelling is poor, and there is a problematic combat mechanics for technical reasons. There are boss fights that you will enjoy when you customize your character’s fighting style, but due to some unacceptable shortcomings, it is difficult to get the same enjoyment from the entire game. However, if you like the souls-like genre and want to try games in this genre, you can take a look. A game long enough for an experienced player to complete between 7 and 10 hours.

Thymesia, which we play on PlayStation 5, is on sale on PSN Store, Xbox store and Steam.

As you can see it in our Thymesia review, buying the game requires some thought.