If you are excited about this game don't play the demo.
Is one of those demos that are hard just because so people will talk about it on the internet.
Your damage is very low and the one for enemies very high and I don't know why the roll is like 2cm when you are against enemies.
Just wait for the full release on august.
Is one of those demos that are hard just because so people will talk about it on the internet.
Your damage is very low and the one for enemies very high and I don't know why the roll is like 2cm when you are against enemies.
Just wait for the full release on august.
My Review: https://youtu.be/9wP6NDzcNYw
Going in I absolutely had 0 expectations, wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I was expecting to hate it given how much of a cheap bloodborne knock off the game looked at first glance but the game proved me wrong with its combat system, which is far closer to Sekiro (if you don't play like a braindead idiot, that is) than BB with a spin of their own on the posture system which is the green health bar, it adds a well needed layer of depth to the overall combat, keeping the player constantly switching between different attacks to dwindle down the enemy's health, while also demanding an aggressive playstyle since the enemies tend to regenerate if they aren't being pushed with the green health remaining. Basically it's the almost the exact same thing as the posture meter but it works on vitality damage as well since this game isn't streamlined for parrying which is a missed opportunity since I believe it'd have been better off if it discouraged dodging and focused more on parrying since the combat clearly built around the idea of parrying, the bosses make it obvious. The RPG elements were totally redundant and only exists for the sake of following age old souls tradition, that's also something the game would be better off without.
Thymesia is quite lacking in the level design and visuals department but the combat kept me hooked throughout its measly playtime of 6 hours with some very well-designed humanoid bosses, the non-humanoid ones are just tedium incarnate though
Thymesia is quite lacking in the level design and visuals department but the combat kept me hooked throughout its measly playtime of 6 hours with some very well-designed humanoid bosses, the non-humanoid ones are just tedium incarnate though
This is a solid game. I even think that the combat system is great, and I would definitely like to see it expanded upon in a future title with hopefully a bigger budget and scope, as this game is very short, with only 3 levels, 4 main missions and a few side missions that do include unique bosses, however other than the bosses these side quests go the Nioh route of making you traverse the level you already did, but backwards. The bosses themselves were overall very good, with large and varied movesets, but I wish that there was more options with how you can deal with these moves.
The game has an interesting twist on Sekiro's prosthetic tool mechanic, where you can rip a move out of the enemy and use it against them, this was fun and I found it to be very useful when clearing out large groups of enemies, and taking down some of the mini bosses. There is also a twist on the posture mechanic, where parrying dealt wound damage, whcih allowed you to use a special claw move that deals a large chunk of damage to the enemy. Finding ways to integrate these moves into my combos was one of the most satisfying parts of Thymesia.
The level design is fairly sprawling, although slightly subpar, as I never felt much incentive to explore too much due to the lack of meaningful items to find.
Overall this is a solid game, one of the better soulslike's, and this combat system is very fun and has a lot of potential. If your a Sekiro fan I would recommend when it goes on sale, as the current price is quite high for the small amount of content you get.
The game has an interesting twist on Sekiro's prosthetic tool mechanic, where you can rip a move out of the enemy and use it against them, this was fun and I found it to be very useful when clearing out large groups of enemies, and taking down some of the mini bosses. There is also a twist on the posture mechanic, where parrying dealt wound damage, whcih allowed you to use a special claw move that deals a large chunk of damage to the enemy. Finding ways to integrate these moves into my combos was one of the most satisfying parts of Thymesia.
The level design is fairly sprawling, although slightly subpar, as I never felt much incentive to explore too much due to the lack of meaningful items to find.
Overall this is a solid game, one of the better soulslike's, and this combat system is very fun and has a lot of potential. If your a Sekiro fan I would recommend when it goes on sale, as the current price is quite high for the small amount of content you get.
Even though I fairly enjoyed Sekiro, one thing Sekiro getting GOTY 2019 made me concerned the most is that a lot of future dev will think of it as the pinnacle of action game design method and will make a bunch of copycats.
To put my perspective, Sekiro's parry-oriented reaction-based combat system had its own limits. The fast movement options exist, but with the lack of long I-frames and uber-tracking enemies, the crowd controlling in group fights always felt atrocious and it always led me to play defensively. And in 1 vs 1 combat, the positioning options were borderline non-existent as the blocking and jab can deal almost all patterns in one single place while the dodging and zooming always felt risky as hell unless the patterns are deliberately designed to be dodged. There were some neat bosses that tried to shake things off in the game flow, but overall, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that it wasn’t as dynamic as I expected it to be. And the current red ocean of stagnating Souls-like trend tells me that this formula won’t likely be implemented and improved by other devs that easily unless that dev is already experienced like Team Ninja or Deck 13 (And Deck 13 took two atrocious projects to finally make The Surge 2).
I talked about Sekiro for a moment because Thymesia is seemingly a blatantly Sekiro-like game, and it is not possible to not compare it to that when you watch the gameplay footage. Enemies have a twin health system. The Player’s parry move can deal damage to enemies while negating the incoming dangers. Enemies track you like a teacup on a slippery coaster. Almost all enemies have off-beat attacks to make it hard to parry… and so on. However, I couldn’t resist playing it because the plague mask looks cool as hell, and the setting looked cool in the trailer. It had a flying zombie bat monstrosity and a fancy circus master that has some cool grab moves. Surely this game would be an unhinged theme park of Tim Burton-ish nightmare, right….?
Well, I got a completely different experience from what I expected. It showed me a promising twist of the Sekiro-combat system but a lackluster theming and content that couldn’t reach the hype that the trailer induced.
The baseline is similar, but as you learn the game, you will realize that the player’s arsenals are more varied than you initially saw and each of them has its own role in a combat cycle. The normal slash attacks deal heavy damage to the “first layer” of the health bar while the claw attacks deal heavy damage to the “second layer” of the health bar. The plague weapons have different damage values depending on your weapon choice. The interesting thing about the enemy health system is that if you deal damage to them and wait, the first layer of health will automatically regenerate to the amount of the second layer, and the first layer must be deflated to deal damage to the second layer. Unlike Sekiro where if you deflate the health a bit, the posture bar becomes no issue at all, you need to try your best to juggle your methods to deflate both bars and I really liked that idea. The swappable plague weapons are also the best contributors to the combat cycle as you can hold them up to three (one by stealing from the enemies) and quickly initiate them. And most plague weapons are designed to be combo-supplement rather than one-method to one-problem skills like Sekiro’s prosthetic tools, so there were enjoyments to find by pushing the enemies with consecutive plague weapon combos. By juggling the tools available, your combat cycle becomes like a mad doctor’s surgical procedure – skinning them with a saber, then slamming the cursed plague combination inside their body, and then brutally slashing them to finish off, which is pretty fitting to the main character of this game.
There’s a little bit of "but…" in the player arsenals though. And that is the plume throw attack. It’s like a magical dart that is specialized to neutralize the “special” attacks from the enemy, but if you learn the “mikiri counter” of this game, there’s seemingly no reason to use this tool to use as a counter maneuver at all. There’s an upgrade where you can auto-zoom-teleport to the opponent with the plume, but it felt like tacked on since gap-closing to an enemy is not a big issue in this game, but more on that later.
Another thing I liked about the game is that the “upgrade” system is really liberating and works satisfyingly in the early-mid game section. By making the upgrade points retractable, the game directly encourages you to try out different skill trees anytime. There are different types of dodges, blocking, saber attacks, claw attacks, and passive buffs that can be easily experimented with this liberty. However, the upgrade points aren’t available that many early on, so there’s also a trade-off you have to think about. The vanilla character setting can be clumsy, so you need to decide which tools to adapt with your sheer will and skill, and which tools to supplement. But as I said before, that doesn’t take away the chance to try out different tools. I was stuck at Odur boss fight for some time because he has some tricky melee patterns that cannot be “intuitively” parried and for an early boss, he clearly has some tricks in his sleeves. To supplement the “skill issue” I had, I swapped the skill trees that can pull out the big damage output while tanking some hits, and I enjoyed the procedure of finding the balance that suits my combat style. But as the game goes on, you will realize that once you reach the end of the skill trees, things go messy.
Now we are on the negative side - the contents.
The low-hanging fruit is that Thymesia is really short, and the enemy variety is lacking, even worse than Sekiro or Nioh 1. There were some interesting enemies with distinguishable features like a small jester miniboss, fat hammer wielder, and sword and shield guy, but most of them felt interchangeable with small timing and positioning differences. This is utterly disappointing because there’s an entire laboratory level that is themed around grotesque animal experiments, and what they could have done is to add more experimented-animal-type of enemies that don’t work like other humanoid enemies, and then mix them up in every level’s corner with the lore that “they escaped from the lab lol”. At the near end of the game, the only dynamic encounters left in the field are the handful of boss fights.
This feels sad because the moderately-upgraded Corvus can initiate the crowd control and positioning more liberally than Sekiro. At the late stage, I intentionally aggroed multiple enemies in one combat zone so that I can try out some multi-enemy fights as an experiment. By utilizing plague weapons (I used Katar and Scythe in that scenario), upgraded dash movement, claw attacks, and “mikiri counter”, dash movement could negate the tracking attack because the movement distance was wide enough, charged claw attacks were great as a gap closer, and the two Plague Weapons I wielded were so effective at managing Corvus’s health and positioning. I had an enjoyable crowd fight that felt FAIR, and it was way more dynamic than 70% of the normal encounters in the game. This also means that even if the enemy variety is lacking, just by adding more aggressive enemies in the combat situation, things could have been more interesting in the late game, but they didn’t. Most of the enemies are initially spawned as a passive “sitting” state so that unless you intentionally get near them, there’s no direct engagement you’ll face. Enemy sight detection is mind-numbingly dumb that it’s always easy to attack first when they are showing their back. Champion enemies ALWAYS initiate the fight as 1 vs 1 and I don’t know why the devs decide to go safe with the multi-hard-enemy idea, considering that the same “type” of champion enemies appears more than several times per the whole playthrough, and they are all spawned isolated.
The question of “Why didn’t they go more than this?” doesn’t end at the enemy encounters. It also spreads on the theming and the presentation that supports them.
- Why aren’t there any other survivors or any interesting NPC that can tell the lore or build up the stake for the main character who is a doctor/alchemist saving the world? Why are there only papers?
- Why the idol boss looks like the most boring-looking tree giant creature considering that they could have add the circus elements to give the consistency that it is an Odur’s creation.
- If this is all about memories, Couldn’t they add more surreal scenes or presentations that could establish the other-worldly elements? Arguably only the final boss stage has that element.
- Overall, how is this world distinguishable from other souls-like dark fantasy games that contain plague elements and crumbling down medieval fortress?
Even with some downfalls, I liked Sekiro’s experience because even if the message and the narrative is vanilla as hell, at least they were unhinged about the presentation, (especially with the Guardian Ape and the Divine Dragon), and thematically everything worked together to present a bloodshed-epic-journey of a-nobody-shinobi. I had fun with this game, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were holding back too many things that it led to a quite underwhelming experience. At least there’s a silver lining that they are eager to innovate and refine the game system that most other studios stagnate to dust, so I hope they make even more extreme works next time with that mindset. Maybe escaping from the FROM’s mold is one of the methods. I don’t know.
And where the hack are the voice actors? There aren’t many dialogues in the game, and freelancers are affordable for most studios. I just don’t get it…
To put my perspective, Sekiro's parry-oriented reaction-based combat system had its own limits. The fast movement options exist, but with the lack of long I-frames and uber-tracking enemies, the crowd controlling in group fights always felt atrocious and it always led me to play defensively. And in 1 vs 1 combat, the positioning options were borderline non-existent as the blocking and jab can deal almost all patterns in one single place while the dodging and zooming always felt risky as hell unless the patterns are deliberately designed to be dodged. There were some neat bosses that tried to shake things off in the game flow, but overall, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that it wasn’t as dynamic as I expected it to be. And the current red ocean of stagnating Souls-like trend tells me that this formula won’t likely be implemented and improved by other devs that easily unless that dev is already experienced like Team Ninja or Deck 13 (And Deck 13 took two atrocious projects to finally make The Surge 2).
I talked about Sekiro for a moment because Thymesia is seemingly a blatantly Sekiro-like game, and it is not possible to not compare it to that when you watch the gameplay footage. Enemies have a twin health system. The Player’s parry move can deal damage to enemies while negating the incoming dangers. Enemies track you like a teacup on a slippery coaster. Almost all enemies have off-beat attacks to make it hard to parry… and so on. However, I couldn’t resist playing it because the plague mask looks cool as hell, and the setting looked cool in the trailer. It had a flying zombie bat monstrosity and a fancy circus master that has some cool grab moves. Surely this game would be an unhinged theme park of Tim Burton-ish nightmare, right….?
Well, I got a completely different experience from what I expected. It showed me a promising twist of the Sekiro-combat system but a lackluster theming and content that couldn’t reach the hype that the trailer induced.
The baseline is similar, but as you learn the game, you will realize that the player’s arsenals are more varied than you initially saw and each of them has its own role in a combat cycle. The normal slash attacks deal heavy damage to the “first layer” of the health bar while the claw attacks deal heavy damage to the “second layer” of the health bar. The plague weapons have different damage values depending on your weapon choice. The interesting thing about the enemy health system is that if you deal damage to them and wait, the first layer of health will automatically regenerate to the amount of the second layer, and the first layer must be deflated to deal damage to the second layer. Unlike Sekiro where if you deflate the health a bit, the posture bar becomes no issue at all, you need to try your best to juggle your methods to deflate both bars and I really liked that idea. The swappable plague weapons are also the best contributors to the combat cycle as you can hold them up to three (one by stealing from the enemies) and quickly initiate them. And most plague weapons are designed to be combo-supplement rather than one-method to one-problem skills like Sekiro’s prosthetic tools, so there were enjoyments to find by pushing the enemies with consecutive plague weapon combos. By juggling the tools available, your combat cycle becomes like a mad doctor’s surgical procedure – skinning them with a saber, then slamming the cursed plague combination inside their body, and then brutally slashing them to finish off, which is pretty fitting to the main character of this game.
There’s a little bit of "but…" in the player arsenals though. And that is the plume throw attack. It’s like a magical dart that is specialized to neutralize the “special” attacks from the enemy, but if you learn the “mikiri counter” of this game, there’s seemingly no reason to use this tool to use as a counter maneuver at all. There’s an upgrade where you can auto-zoom-teleport to the opponent with the plume, but it felt like tacked on since gap-closing to an enemy is not a big issue in this game, but more on that later.
Another thing I liked about the game is that the “upgrade” system is really liberating and works satisfyingly in the early-mid game section. By making the upgrade points retractable, the game directly encourages you to try out different skill trees anytime. There are different types of dodges, blocking, saber attacks, claw attacks, and passive buffs that can be easily experimented with this liberty. However, the upgrade points aren’t available that many early on, so there’s also a trade-off you have to think about. The vanilla character setting can be clumsy, so you need to decide which tools to adapt with your sheer will and skill, and which tools to supplement. But as I said before, that doesn’t take away the chance to try out different tools. I was stuck at Odur boss fight for some time because he has some tricky melee patterns that cannot be “intuitively” parried and for an early boss, he clearly has some tricks in his sleeves. To supplement the “skill issue” I had, I swapped the skill trees that can pull out the big damage output while tanking some hits, and I enjoyed the procedure of finding the balance that suits my combat style. But as the game goes on, you will realize that once you reach the end of the skill trees, things go messy.
Now we are on the negative side - the contents.
The low-hanging fruit is that Thymesia is really short, and the enemy variety is lacking, even worse than Sekiro or Nioh 1. There were some interesting enemies with distinguishable features like a small jester miniboss, fat hammer wielder, and sword and shield guy, but most of them felt interchangeable with small timing and positioning differences. This is utterly disappointing because there’s an entire laboratory level that is themed around grotesque animal experiments, and what they could have done is to add more experimented-animal-type of enemies that don’t work like other humanoid enemies, and then mix them up in every level’s corner with the lore that “they escaped from the lab lol”. At the near end of the game, the only dynamic encounters left in the field are the handful of boss fights.
This feels sad because the moderately-upgraded Corvus can initiate the crowd control and positioning more liberally than Sekiro. At the late stage, I intentionally aggroed multiple enemies in one combat zone so that I can try out some multi-enemy fights as an experiment. By utilizing plague weapons (I used Katar and Scythe in that scenario), upgraded dash movement, claw attacks, and “mikiri counter”, dash movement could negate the tracking attack because the movement distance was wide enough, charged claw attacks were great as a gap closer, and the two Plague Weapons I wielded were so effective at managing Corvus’s health and positioning. I had an enjoyable crowd fight that felt FAIR, and it was way more dynamic than 70% of the normal encounters in the game. This also means that even if the enemy variety is lacking, just by adding more aggressive enemies in the combat situation, things could have been more interesting in the late game, but they didn’t. Most of the enemies are initially spawned as a passive “sitting” state so that unless you intentionally get near them, there’s no direct engagement you’ll face. Enemy sight detection is mind-numbingly dumb that it’s always easy to attack first when they are showing their back. Champion enemies ALWAYS initiate the fight as 1 vs 1 and I don’t know why the devs decide to go safe with the multi-hard-enemy idea, considering that the same “type” of champion enemies appears more than several times per the whole playthrough, and they are all spawned isolated.
The question of “Why didn’t they go more than this?” doesn’t end at the enemy encounters. It also spreads on the theming and the presentation that supports them.
- Why aren’t there any other survivors or any interesting NPC that can tell the lore or build up the stake for the main character who is a doctor/alchemist saving the world? Why are there only papers?
- Why the idol boss looks like the most boring-looking tree giant creature considering that they could have add the circus elements to give the consistency that it is an Odur’s creation.
- If this is all about memories, Couldn’t they add more surreal scenes or presentations that could establish the other-worldly elements? Arguably only the final boss stage has that element.
- Overall, how is this world distinguishable from other souls-like dark fantasy games that contain plague elements and crumbling down medieval fortress?
Even with some downfalls, I liked Sekiro’s experience because even if the message and the narrative is vanilla as hell, at least they were unhinged about the presentation, (especially with the Guardian Ape and the Divine Dragon), and thematically everything worked together to present a bloodshed-epic-journey of a-nobody-shinobi. I had fun with this game, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were holding back too many things that it led to a quite underwhelming experience. At least there’s a silver lining that they are eager to innovate and refine the game system that most other studios stagnate to dust, so I hope they make even more extreme works next time with that mindset. Maybe escaping from the FROM’s mold is one of the methods. I don’t know.
And where the hack are the voice actors? There aren’t many dialogues in the game, and freelancers are affordable for most studios. I just don’t get it…
El juego de OverBorder Studio nos pueden dar unas cuantas horas bastante interesantes, especialmente si superamos el pequeño muro que es su primer jefe. Después de esto, tendremos ante nosotros un rato bastante divertido en el que desentrañaremos una historia bastante típica pero disfrutable.
Una vez jugamos y comprobamos de qué es capaz, se notan sus costuras, estamos ante un indie que no cuenta con un gran presupuesto, y el poco que ha tenido lo ha invertido en el combate, el cual es increíblemente satisfactorio, complejo y gratificante.
Una vez jugamos y comprobamos de qué es capaz, se notan sus costuras, estamos ante un indie que no cuenta con un gran presupuesto, y el poco que ha tenido lo ha invertido en el combate, el cual es increíblemente satisfactorio, complejo y gratificante.
Pretty good; a bit on the short side, though.
Da quando Myazaki ha assemblato la formula dei soulslike sono stati in tanti a cavalcare l'onda del successo proponendo un proprio esponente. "As a souls veteran" (meme) ne ho provati diversi ma non c'era un singolo soulslike non from che mi avesse appagato e che non avessi reputato un noioso compitino.
Thymesia stravolge le cose proponendosi come l'unico titolo degno, almeno di quelli che ho giocato, di essere paragonato ai lavori from software ma ha un problema abnorme: dura uno sputo. Ora non voglio mettermi a valutare la longevità come parametro fondamentale, molto spesso ho droppato o non tenuto in considerazione titoli che erano fin troppo lunghi e asfissianti. Il problema è che appena si inizia a prendere la mano con lo splendido e tecnicissimo combat system, il gioco...finisce, dopo solo 3 stage e un boss finale.
Considerando il ben di dio messo a disposizione è davvero triste e svilente. Il combat system da molti è paragonato a Bloodborne, in parte a ragione ma più che Bloodborne lo definirei un ibrido riuscitissimo tra Bloodborne e Sekiro. È possibile sia deflettere sia schivare, il tutto necessita di una precisione chirurgica ed è compensato da nemici che fanno un sacco di tracking, ma in questo caso tracking più che corretto viste le molteplici possibilità di evasione.
Si hanno due armi: la sciabola con cui drenare la corazza e l'artiglio con cui drenare la vita; a ogni nemico andrà prima sottratta la corazza e poi la vita, se non ci si sbriga però si ha il regen della corazza e questo spinge ad essere molto aggressivi.
A queste due armi si affiancano le armi pestilenziali, delle armi speciali che ricordano un pò gli strumenti protesici di Sekiro ma che sono decisamente più utili e cambiano totalmente l'approccio al gameplay. Le armi pestilenziali si usano con una barra dell'energia, non la classica stamina convenzionale ma più una barra del mana che inizialmente non si ricarica ma che fin da subito sarà possibile rendere ricaricabile grazie ai talenti.
I talenti sono rami di una serie di una serie di skill tree che si ottengono spendendo un punto, un punto si ottiene progredendo di livello tramite le "anime" richieste. La progressione di livello oltre a dare un punto talento consente anche di migliorare uno tra tre parametri: vita, forza ed energia. I talenti così come le armi pestilenziali cambiano radicalmente l'approccio al gameplay e la combinazione perfetta renderà gli scontri molto più semplici ma in ogni caso diversi.
Bellissime le boss fight. Bellissimo il comparto estetico e la colonna sonora al netto di un comparto tecnico deludente. C'è anche tutta una lore che sinceramente non ho approfondito in prima run ma che pare interessante.
Thymesia poteva essere molto di più, il suo combat system tecnico, dinamico e riuscitissimo poteva elevarlo allo stesso livello delle opere di from software se non addirittura sopra ma purtroppo la durata estremamente scarna condanna un progetto che evidentemente non aveva fondi a sufficienza per brillare. Spero vivamente in un seguito all'altezza perché il gioco merita tanto ma allo stato attuale non posso promuoverlo a pieni voti.
Thymesia stravolge le cose proponendosi come l'unico titolo degno, almeno di quelli che ho giocato, di essere paragonato ai lavori from software ma ha un problema abnorme: dura uno sputo. Ora non voglio mettermi a valutare la longevità come parametro fondamentale, molto spesso ho droppato o non tenuto in considerazione titoli che erano fin troppo lunghi e asfissianti. Il problema è che appena si inizia a prendere la mano con lo splendido e tecnicissimo combat system, il gioco...finisce, dopo solo 3 stage e un boss finale.
Considerando il ben di dio messo a disposizione è davvero triste e svilente. Il combat system da molti è paragonato a Bloodborne, in parte a ragione ma più che Bloodborne lo definirei un ibrido riuscitissimo tra Bloodborne e Sekiro. È possibile sia deflettere sia schivare, il tutto necessita di una precisione chirurgica ed è compensato da nemici che fanno un sacco di tracking, ma in questo caso tracking più che corretto viste le molteplici possibilità di evasione.
Si hanno due armi: la sciabola con cui drenare la corazza e l'artiglio con cui drenare la vita; a ogni nemico andrà prima sottratta la corazza e poi la vita, se non ci si sbriga però si ha il regen della corazza e questo spinge ad essere molto aggressivi.
A queste due armi si affiancano le armi pestilenziali, delle armi speciali che ricordano un pò gli strumenti protesici di Sekiro ma che sono decisamente più utili e cambiano totalmente l'approccio al gameplay. Le armi pestilenziali si usano con una barra dell'energia, non la classica stamina convenzionale ma più una barra del mana che inizialmente non si ricarica ma che fin da subito sarà possibile rendere ricaricabile grazie ai talenti.
I talenti sono rami di una serie di una serie di skill tree che si ottengono spendendo un punto, un punto si ottiene progredendo di livello tramite le "anime" richieste. La progressione di livello oltre a dare un punto talento consente anche di migliorare uno tra tre parametri: vita, forza ed energia. I talenti così come le armi pestilenziali cambiano radicalmente l'approccio al gameplay e la combinazione perfetta renderà gli scontri molto più semplici ma in ogni caso diversi.
Bellissime le boss fight. Bellissimo il comparto estetico e la colonna sonora al netto di un comparto tecnico deludente. C'è anche tutta una lore che sinceramente non ho approfondito in prima run ma che pare interessante.
Thymesia poteva essere molto di più, il suo combat system tecnico, dinamico e riuscitissimo poteva elevarlo allo stesso livello delle opere di from software se non addirittura sopra ma purtroppo la durata estremamente scarna condanna un progetto che evidentemente non aveva fondi a sufficienza per brillare. Spero vivamente in un seguito all'altezza perché il gioco merita tanto ma allo stato attuale non posso promuoverlo a pieni voti.
I love Bloodborne and Sekiro, but if you're going to try and emulate those games, you absolutely need a better twist on it than just a different health bar mechanic. There's a decent amount of fun to be had here, but after obtaining the platinum trophy I haven't thought about this again, so take that for what you will.
BX#15
Gothic Action-RPG
- This game has one of the most satisfying combat system ever: it's extremely polished, fast and customizable. The skill tree reset has no cost: for example you can change from a parry focused combat (Sekiro) to a dodge one (Bloodborne) based on the boss you're facing;
- The unique mechanics are great: wound-health bar forces you to use "heavy attacks" and to make fast combat decisions, plague weapons are many and diversified;
- The optional missions let you explore the same area in different ways with different mini-bosses;
- The lore is rich and inspired: the multiple endings add replayability since the game is very short (you'll finish this in 8-12 hours);
- The human-sized bosses are incredibly fun to fight even if some of them are completely optional;
BUT
- The gimmick-y boss fights can be annoying;
- The camera is stiffy especially in closed/smaller areas;
- No NG+;
- Small enemy variety.
Gothic Action-RPG
- This game has one of the most satisfying combat system ever: it's extremely polished, fast and customizable. The skill tree reset has no cost: for example you can change from a parry focused combat (Sekiro) to a dodge one (Bloodborne) based on the boss you're facing;
- The unique mechanics are great: wound-health bar forces you to use "heavy attacks" and to make fast combat decisions, plague weapons are many and diversified;
- The optional missions let you explore the same area in different ways with different mini-bosses;
- The lore is rich and inspired: the multiple endings add replayability since the game is very short (you'll finish this in 8-12 hours);
- The human-sized bosses are incredibly fun to fight even if some of them are completely optional;
BUT
- The gimmick-y boss fights can be annoying;
- The camera is stiffy especially in closed/smaller areas;
- No NG+;
- Small enemy variety.
As someone who is not typically a fan of souls-likes, I found this game quite fun. It's a simplified version of the genre which probably helped me, but that simplicity does have its flaws, especially for those who do enjoy the genre.
The combat is nice though repetitive over time, yet it feels tight and responsive. I found the sub quests being different routes through the same map to be entertaining and a good use of the budget, finding doors that were sealed before opening to a new area and having that, "Oh, this is where I am" moments.
Bosses, save maybe 2, are quite easy and uninteresting themselves. Wihtout voice acting, it was hard to read whatever they were saying during their fights. Story is pretty much entirely text through documents because of this.
The world itself is... I'm not sure, empty yet stylish. I was looking forward to seeing the next maps aesthetic and environment.
Overall, I can recommend this for the 20$ price tag, especially since you don't have to replay through the whole game for different endings, assuming you've fought every boss.
The combat is nice though repetitive over time, yet it feels tight and responsive. I found the sub quests being different routes through the same map to be entertaining and a good use of the budget, finding doors that were sealed before opening to a new area and having that, "Oh, this is where I am" moments.
Bosses, save maybe 2, are quite easy and uninteresting themselves. Wihtout voice acting, it was hard to read whatever they were saying during their fights. Story is pretty much entirely text through documents because of this.
The world itself is... I'm not sure, empty yet stylish. I was looking forward to seeing the next maps aesthetic and environment.
Overall, I can recommend this for the 20$ price tag, especially since you don't have to replay through the whole game for different endings, assuming you've fought every boss.
Schönes Konzept, aber leider nicht ganz ausgereift. Trotzdem macht es Spaß und trägt sich gut über die relativ kurze Spielzeit.
Leider gibt es nicht so viele Bosse und die Variation der Gegner ist auch sehr gering.
Leider gibt es nicht so viele Bosse und die Variation der Gegner ist auch sehr gering.
Gameplay and mechanics are very fun but the enemy diversity and level design are not great.
Feels stiff for a souls-like, may return after minor patches. Has potential
legitimately a better game than Sekiro.
-EDIT- i was a stinky smelly wrong boi. i'm sorry.
this game is still great. in fact, beating this game is the reason that sekiro finally clicked with me going back to it. if you don't like Sekiro, honestly give this game a go. it's worth it. it's a better tutorial than the tutorial for Sekiro. great shit. the devs should be proud.
-EDIT- i was a stinky smelly wrong boi. i'm sorry.
this game is still great. in fact, beating this game is the reason that sekiro finally clicked with me going back to it. if you don't like Sekiro, honestly give this game a go. it's worth it. it's a better tutorial than the tutorial for Sekiro. great shit. the devs should be proud.
For starters, this a Sekiro-like. Do not come into this expecting Blooborne or Souls-like combat. That being said, this is a really great execution of that gameplay, and carries what would have been another failed "souls inspired" bargain bin game to something I recommend.
The combat focuses primarily on physical attacks and parrying to briefly expose an enemy's true health bar, which can then permanently be reduced using special attacks. It forces you to constantly switch between all your character's moves naturally over the course of an encounter, and definitely the game's strongest innovation and success. Standard enemies play well and while I wish there was more of them, ultimately there are enough to carry you through a complete play though. Non gimmick bosses are the highlight, which are all mostly challenging and unique.
The level design is the biggest let down. While it does mostly get the job done, you will rarely be surprised or impressed. They generally have very blocky and repetitive layouts, and do not use the limited enemy pool in interesting ways. The exception to this is the second level, which shows the true potential that this game had, and also the weakness of its level based structure. You are never really exploring in this game, you are mostly following a path while fighting (or running) through a gauntlet of enemies.
The game is not very long, probably around 6-10 hours to complete all the missions depending on how thoroughly you search the environment and your skill level. This also includes going through the same level multiple times for the side quest. That fact, along with the lack of build diversity, and lack of enemy diversity, really kill any replay value for this game. There is enough there to warrant a complete play though, but probably not much more.
If this was a 20 point scale I would have easily given it a 7.5. I wavered quite a bit between 3.5 and 4 stars here, but I do think the lack of variety that is felt by the end is enough to keep it down. I will reiterate however, if you are a fan of Sekiro combat and bosses, then I strongly recommend playing this game. You will really enjoy the combat and have a great time with the bosses.
The combat focuses primarily on physical attacks and parrying to briefly expose an enemy's true health bar, which can then permanently be reduced using special attacks. It forces you to constantly switch between all your character's moves naturally over the course of an encounter, and definitely the game's strongest innovation and success. Standard enemies play well and while I wish there was more of them, ultimately there are enough to carry you through a complete play though. Non gimmick bosses are the highlight, which are all mostly challenging and unique.
The level design is the biggest let down. While it does mostly get the job done, you will rarely be surprised or impressed. They generally have very blocky and repetitive layouts, and do not use the limited enemy pool in interesting ways. The exception to this is the second level, which shows the true potential that this game had, and also the weakness of its level based structure. You are never really exploring in this game, you are mostly following a path while fighting (or running) through a gauntlet of enemies.
The game is not very long, probably around 6-10 hours to complete all the missions depending on how thoroughly you search the environment and your skill level. This also includes going through the same level multiple times for the side quest. That fact, along with the lack of build diversity, and lack of enemy diversity, really kill any replay value for this game. There is enough there to warrant a complete play though, but probably not much more.
If this was a 20 point scale I would have easily given it a 7.5. I wavered quite a bit between 3.5 and 4 stars here, but I do think the lack of variety that is felt by the end is enough to keep it down. I will reiterate however, if you are a fan of Sekiro combat and bosses, then I strongly recommend playing this game. You will really enjoy the combat and have a great time with the bosses.
Me ha dado lo que esperaba de él por el precio al que sale (29,99 €).
Es un tanto corto (10h), y la mitad te las pasas farmeando porque los jefes son injustos de narices. Mezcla un poco de Bloodborne y Sekiro, que no está mal.
Aún con todo, es mejor que la mayoría de Soulslike pochísimos que nos intentan colar a 59 €
Es un tanto corto (10h), y la mitad te las pasas farmeando porque los jefes son injustos de narices. Mezcla un poco de Bloodborne y Sekiro, que no está mal.
Aún con todo, es mejor que la mayoría de Soulslike pochísimos que nos intentan colar a 59 €
Wearing the influences of some of FROM Software's most popular titles, Bloodborne and Sekiro, on its sleeve, Thymesia serves as a good alternative for those desperately waiting for a sequel to either of those games. But because of those influences, because it exists specifically to be another avenue for the same style of gameplay, it makes it hard to recommend on its own merit. It barely has its own identity other than slight variations on aesthetics and a few minor new mechanics.
But none of those things can really change what the game is. This is still a fast-paced, aggressive, and punishing action game where healing is limited and difficult and death can cause you to lose all of your experience points. It's fun, and it executes these things well, but having just finished it mere minutes ago I can tell you I'm probably not going to think about this game ever again after today.
This isn't really some kind of warning against buying the game. I feel like if you've heard of this game and my description of its influences, you've probably already made up your mind. But just bear in mind that it only bears resemblance to Bloodborne and Sekiro in the superficial sense.
The style of storytelling and the overall flow of combat are executed faithfully. The problem is it's missing the same level of depth, nuance, and intrigue that keep you guessing and wanting to know more about this world. It's a testament to just how hard it is to truly replicate the FROM Software experience, and I don't begrudge this game for its failures to do so. But I'll probably go back to replaying Elden Ring before I ever think about touching this game again.
But none of those things can really change what the game is. This is still a fast-paced, aggressive, and punishing action game where healing is limited and difficult and death can cause you to lose all of your experience points. It's fun, and it executes these things well, but having just finished it mere minutes ago I can tell you I'm probably not going to think about this game ever again after today.
This isn't really some kind of warning against buying the game. I feel like if you've heard of this game and my description of its influences, you've probably already made up your mind. But just bear in mind that it only bears resemblance to Bloodborne and Sekiro in the superficial sense.
The style of storytelling and the overall flow of combat are executed faithfully. The problem is it's missing the same level of depth, nuance, and intrigue that keep you guessing and wanting to know more about this world. It's a testament to just how hard it is to truly replicate the FROM Software experience, and I don't begrudge this game for its failures to do so. But I'll probably go back to replaying Elden Ring before I ever think about touching this game again.
Thymesia is a fairly clear meeting of Bloodborne and Sekiro. It's fast and aggressive, and encourages constant engagement rather than hiding behind a shield. Its parry mechanics and summoned weapons are familiar as well, and anyone who's played the samurai souls game will be instantly familiar. But there is a lot of downsides to this otherwise solid journey.
First things first, reading any review on here as well, it's quite obvious the level design is probably the biggest letdown of this game. There are 3 levels you explore total, with varying side missions within. Each of them feel sort of..unrealized, and maze-like. The starting forest is a sprawling tree house structure, with sprawling ramps and bridges, and the occasional big top. A lot of it looks the same, and the added N64/PS1 era fog doesn't help navigation any. The browns and yellows mush into something that's supposed to feel like a creepy funhouse among the trees, but ultimately fails to have any memorable landmarks or staying power in the mind.
The second level is easily the best of the 3 in the game, but that isn't exactly for the best reason. It is by far the most linear, and therefore easiest to navigate. The design itself is the easiest to remember and recognize for the most part, with each section of the level looking fairly unique, enough to recall where you've already been. The worst part of this stage would have to be the endlessly respawning blood enemies. They aren't particularly hard or anything, but how often they show up becomes more annoying that engaging. The only way to be rid of them constantly chasing you down is to find and kill the mini-boss controlling them.
The third level is what I would consider the most confusing to navigate. Being that its your basic castle and village setting, a lot of it inherently looks the same. But the real issue here, is the verticality. There are several places you have to climb up and down towers, with each floor having multiple doors and paths outward. Trying to keep straight which paths you've taken already and which floor leads to progression is actively frustrating.
As far as the actual gameplay goes, there are a few innovations to set it aside from the other 100 soulslike games that have dropped recently. If you've played any of these games, you know the drill. Hyper difficult action RPG with a punishing xp system that demands perfection, or your xp is forfeit. Like Sekiro, there is no stamina meter. Aside from the norms of this genre, the Wound system is the main gameplay gimmick. Basically, when damage is done to an enemy with your basic weapon, they don't lose health, per se. Their health bar will have sections of it turn green, indicating the wounds they have. When wounded, enemies are vulnerable to Claw attacks, which chip away at the green health, to truly do damage. Enemies will have their green health return to normal health over time, so they can no longer be Claw attacked, if left alone for too long. This encourages constant aggression and attacking. When the enemy is out of health, you can perform a finisher on them. The strangest part of this system is that, unlike most souls games, it works against the player. The player takes damage as usual, no green bar, no Claw attacks. In a game like Bloodborne, it's unique gimmick is regaining recently lost health by attacking, encouraging aggression that way. But only the player has that ability in Bloodborne. It feels unusual that the player in an already punishing genre, has to take down what is essentially 2 different health bars to win, when they can be defeated in a few hits. It isn't as hard or relentless as it sounds in the long run, it was just a strange choice to only make it work against you.
Other gimmicks of Thymesia combat include a parry system, which if you've played Sekiro it works mostly the same here. Press guard at the same time as an enemy attacks you, and you do green damage to them. There are some key differences though. For one, there is no blocking in this game. If you miss a parry, you cannot hold down the button and take some chip damage, you simply get hit. Another strange difference, is that small enemies to not enter any kind of a vulnerable state when being parried. They will continue to attack until the animation is done, so parrying only one attack won't cut it. Both of these differences play a key role in why most players tend to ignore parrying altogether. It's much more punishing and difficult than Sekiro, an already very difficult system in that game. Dodging is simply easier and more reliable in the long run, but there is a definite downside to relying on it alone. The games enemies are built around parrying, there is no way around it. Every enemy right down to the bosses, have a very rhythmic way of attacking you, and a very limited moveset. It's never unreasonable to pay attention enough to these enemies and memorize their patterns, especially since there are so few enemy types in the game, you'll be seeing the same exact sword and shield weilding footsoldiers the entire game. On top of that, parrying is downright better to do, since it does damage to the enemies, opening them up for Claw attacks. You can interrupt your own attacks with parries, as well. Staying very close to your enemies and wailing on them, getting rid of their green health, whilst also parrying their attacks is the key to Thymesia.
The last combat mechanic to note is the other large draw to the game, Plague Weapons. Every single enemy in the game, including every boss, drops a Plague Weapon gem. The more gems you have, the more you can unlock/upgrade each Plague Weapon. These weapons come in all shapes and sizes. From buffs, to shields, to a health sapping scythe. They're all flashy, and probably the coolest looking part of Thymesia. Your second meter, below your health, is your energy. These weapons are what use that energy. For the most part, they are used like a skill. When you unlock a Plague Weapon, you can equip it to one of 2 slots, and by pressing a button, you can then use that weapon, spending energy. It will have a short cooldown, and can be used again. There is however, another mechanic with these weapons. If you hold down the Claw attack, and hit an enemy, you can steal their Plague Weapon. This is a one time use weapon that uses no energy, and is scaled to whatever level you have that particular Plague Weapon upgraded to. These weapons are, to simplify, horribly unbalanced. Some of them are borderline useless, and some of them (the bow) are gamebreakingly good. They do massive damage, both normal and Claw, to anything they hit. It won't be too long before you rely on them above most things.
Like most souls games, Thymesia uses xp to level up a few stats in order to grow stronger. Strength (sword damage), Vitality (health), and Plague. Plague is the most interesting of the 3, upgrading Plague Weapon and Claw damage both, and the one I would suggest upgrading for an easy time. Unlike most souls games however, this game has a proper skill tree. Every time you level up, you get a skill point to use on whatever skill you wish, limited to ones further down a specific tree. Much like some of the Plague Weapons, some of these are very unbalanced. A longer dodge is nice, but gaining health every time you hit enemies with Claw attacks, or kill them, will keep you alive seemingly forever. Several levels can be basically sprinted through without using a single health recovery item by simply killing everyone and keeping your health at max. Pair this with the Scythe Plague Weapon that steals massive amounts of health, and outside of bosses, you'll start ignoring your health items altogether.
Speaking of health items, the last major mechanic of Thymesia is the potion crafting and upgrading. Using items received from mini-bosses and bosses, you can upgrade how many uses a potion has, or how much health it restores. It also can be upgraded to increase the amount of ingredients you can use in a potion, which are used in Alchemy, the main draw of potion crafting. Using ingredients found on certain enemies, you will be able to buff your potions with unique effects and healing boosts. These last forever and do not consume your ingredients even when swapped out for another ingredient. When a combination of 3 specific ingredients are used, you can end up with a secret recipe. These recipes add yet another buff to your character every time a potion is used. One in particular is incredibly broken, and can boost you to max level in no time at all. The recipe you get when combining Thyme, Rosemary, and Mint boosts your xp gained by 10%, or so it says. There is at the time of this writing, a very bad bug with this 10% boost. Say you have 9000 souls at one time, and you kill and enemy that gives you 100 souls. The buff is supposed to give you a 10% boost, so 110 souls. Instead, it gives you 100 souls, plus 10% of whatever souls you currently have, which would be 900, therefore a single enemy giving you 1000 souls total. The more souls you currently have, the more broken this buff gets. Using lots of items that give you souls automatically will shoot your soul count up to the millions easily. I ended the game with 204,000,000 souls, and you only need 350,000 to reach max level.
The last thing I want to talk about are the enemies and bosses themselves. Most are your generic villagers and soldiers, easy to dodge, parry, and kill. There are harder variants around, that have a bit more health and a few more attacks. Every level has a few mini bosses, generally an even stronger version of a basic enemy, with even more health and even more moves. There isn't much to say about them beyond what I've already said. Fairly basic, mini-bosses being the most notable of any of them, which are heavily recycled through every level. Bosses are what shine in Thymesia, aside from a few gimmick fights that aren't really fights. (Dragon God from Demon's Souls is a good example of these fights) The actual bosses are otherwise fantastic, and easily my favorite part of the game. They may not have any groundbreaking designs, but they're fast paced, threatening, and challenging, without being too demanding. And I think that leads me to my absolute favorite part of Thymesia. It's the only soulslike that gets the weight of animations anywhere close to FromSoft levels of quality. Something every other soulslike struggles with, has to be animations. They try to mimic that very specific weight and rhythm every FromSoft game has, making their enemies intuitive to fight, being able to parry and dodge their attacks despite seeing them for the first time. Thymesia mimics this feeling better than any non FromSoft souls game. That being said, the balance of the game, or lack thereof, is obvious when completing a playthrough. The first boss of the first level, is probably the hardest time you'll have here. He is relentless, and has a second even harder phase, it feels like a very uphill battle, since you won't have access to any good Plague Weapons, and your potions will be base level. But the longer the game goes on, the easier it gets. Enemies become jokes, and bosses become minor step stones. And I think that sums up my feelings of Thymesia in general.
Thymesia is a fun romp through some less than amazing levels, not very memorable enemies, and great bosses. Ultimately, the lack of any balance the has game dominates how the second half plays out. Some potions and Plague Weapons absolutely trivialize the game, making it so you don't really rely on any high skill or carefully thought strategies. It feels much more soulslike at first, but the longer it goes on, the less threatened you'll be by everything that dares stand against the Plague Bow. For a $25 dollar price tag, I would probably suggest it to any Sekiro fans, given how similar the gameplay is, but if you're looking for a serious challenge, it just isn't here. With some unique gimmicks and fast paced combat, there are some cool moments with it, but I just don't see myself revisiting this game every year like I do with something as magical and memorable as Bloodborne. If you've got $25 to throw around and are just looking for a new game to blow 6 hours on, you could do a lot worse.
First things first, reading any review on here as well, it's quite obvious the level design is probably the biggest letdown of this game. There are 3 levels you explore total, with varying side missions within. Each of them feel sort of..unrealized, and maze-like. The starting forest is a sprawling tree house structure, with sprawling ramps and bridges, and the occasional big top. A lot of it looks the same, and the added N64/PS1 era fog doesn't help navigation any. The browns and yellows mush into something that's supposed to feel like a creepy funhouse among the trees, but ultimately fails to have any memorable landmarks or staying power in the mind.
The second level is easily the best of the 3 in the game, but that isn't exactly for the best reason. It is by far the most linear, and therefore easiest to navigate. The design itself is the easiest to remember and recognize for the most part, with each section of the level looking fairly unique, enough to recall where you've already been. The worst part of this stage would have to be the endlessly respawning blood enemies. They aren't particularly hard or anything, but how often they show up becomes more annoying that engaging. The only way to be rid of them constantly chasing you down is to find and kill the mini-boss controlling them.
The third level is what I would consider the most confusing to navigate. Being that its your basic castle and village setting, a lot of it inherently looks the same. But the real issue here, is the verticality. There are several places you have to climb up and down towers, with each floor having multiple doors and paths outward. Trying to keep straight which paths you've taken already and which floor leads to progression is actively frustrating.
As far as the actual gameplay goes, there are a few innovations to set it aside from the other 100 soulslike games that have dropped recently. If you've played any of these games, you know the drill. Hyper difficult action RPG with a punishing xp system that demands perfection, or your xp is forfeit. Like Sekiro, there is no stamina meter. Aside from the norms of this genre, the Wound system is the main gameplay gimmick. Basically, when damage is done to an enemy with your basic weapon, they don't lose health, per se. Their health bar will have sections of it turn green, indicating the wounds they have. When wounded, enemies are vulnerable to Claw attacks, which chip away at the green health, to truly do damage. Enemies will have their green health return to normal health over time, so they can no longer be Claw attacked, if left alone for too long. This encourages constant aggression and attacking. When the enemy is out of health, you can perform a finisher on them. The strangest part of this system is that, unlike most souls games, it works against the player. The player takes damage as usual, no green bar, no Claw attacks. In a game like Bloodborne, it's unique gimmick is regaining recently lost health by attacking, encouraging aggression that way. But only the player has that ability in Bloodborne. It feels unusual that the player in an already punishing genre, has to take down what is essentially 2 different health bars to win, when they can be defeated in a few hits. It isn't as hard or relentless as it sounds in the long run, it was just a strange choice to only make it work against you.
Other gimmicks of Thymesia combat include a parry system, which if you've played Sekiro it works mostly the same here. Press guard at the same time as an enemy attacks you, and you do green damage to them. There are some key differences though. For one, there is no blocking in this game. If you miss a parry, you cannot hold down the button and take some chip damage, you simply get hit. Another strange difference, is that small enemies to not enter any kind of a vulnerable state when being parried. They will continue to attack until the animation is done, so parrying only one attack won't cut it. Both of these differences play a key role in why most players tend to ignore parrying altogether. It's much more punishing and difficult than Sekiro, an already very difficult system in that game. Dodging is simply easier and more reliable in the long run, but there is a definite downside to relying on it alone. The games enemies are built around parrying, there is no way around it. Every enemy right down to the bosses, have a very rhythmic way of attacking you, and a very limited moveset. It's never unreasonable to pay attention enough to these enemies and memorize their patterns, especially since there are so few enemy types in the game, you'll be seeing the same exact sword and shield weilding footsoldiers the entire game. On top of that, parrying is downright better to do, since it does damage to the enemies, opening them up for Claw attacks. You can interrupt your own attacks with parries, as well. Staying very close to your enemies and wailing on them, getting rid of their green health, whilst also parrying their attacks is the key to Thymesia.
The last combat mechanic to note is the other large draw to the game, Plague Weapons. Every single enemy in the game, including every boss, drops a Plague Weapon gem. The more gems you have, the more you can unlock/upgrade each Plague Weapon. These weapons come in all shapes and sizes. From buffs, to shields, to a health sapping scythe. They're all flashy, and probably the coolest looking part of Thymesia. Your second meter, below your health, is your energy. These weapons are what use that energy. For the most part, they are used like a skill. When you unlock a Plague Weapon, you can equip it to one of 2 slots, and by pressing a button, you can then use that weapon, spending energy. It will have a short cooldown, and can be used again. There is however, another mechanic with these weapons. If you hold down the Claw attack, and hit an enemy, you can steal their Plague Weapon. This is a one time use weapon that uses no energy, and is scaled to whatever level you have that particular Plague Weapon upgraded to. These weapons are, to simplify, horribly unbalanced. Some of them are borderline useless, and some of them (the bow) are gamebreakingly good. They do massive damage, both normal and Claw, to anything they hit. It won't be too long before you rely on them above most things.
Like most souls games, Thymesia uses xp to level up a few stats in order to grow stronger. Strength (sword damage), Vitality (health), and Plague. Plague is the most interesting of the 3, upgrading Plague Weapon and Claw damage both, and the one I would suggest upgrading for an easy time. Unlike most souls games however, this game has a proper skill tree. Every time you level up, you get a skill point to use on whatever skill you wish, limited to ones further down a specific tree. Much like some of the Plague Weapons, some of these are very unbalanced. A longer dodge is nice, but gaining health every time you hit enemies with Claw attacks, or kill them, will keep you alive seemingly forever. Several levels can be basically sprinted through without using a single health recovery item by simply killing everyone and keeping your health at max. Pair this with the Scythe Plague Weapon that steals massive amounts of health, and outside of bosses, you'll start ignoring your health items altogether.
Speaking of health items, the last major mechanic of Thymesia is the potion crafting and upgrading. Using items received from mini-bosses and bosses, you can upgrade how many uses a potion has, or how much health it restores. It also can be upgraded to increase the amount of ingredients you can use in a potion, which are used in Alchemy, the main draw of potion crafting. Using ingredients found on certain enemies, you will be able to buff your potions with unique effects and healing boosts. These last forever and do not consume your ingredients even when swapped out for another ingredient. When a combination of 3 specific ingredients are used, you can end up with a secret recipe. These recipes add yet another buff to your character every time a potion is used. One in particular is incredibly broken, and can boost you to max level in no time at all. The recipe you get when combining Thyme, Rosemary, and Mint boosts your xp gained by 10%, or so it says. There is at the time of this writing, a very bad bug with this 10% boost. Say you have 9000 souls at one time, and you kill and enemy that gives you 100 souls. The buff is supposed to give you a 10% boost, so 110 souls. Instead, it gives you 100 souls, plus 10% of whatever souls you currently have, which would be 900, therefore a single enemy giving you 1000 souls total. The more souls you currently have, the more broken this buff gets. Using lots of items that give you souls automatically will shoot your soul count up to the millions easily. I ended the game with 204,000,000 souls, and you only need 350,000 to reach max level.
The last thing I want to talk about are the enemies and bosses themselves. Most are your generic villagers and soldiers, easy to dodge, parry, and kill. There are harder variants around, that have a bit more health and a few more attacks. Every level has a few mini bosses, generally an even stronger version of a basic enemy, with even more health and even more moves. There isn't much to say about them beyond what I've already said. Fairly basic, mini-bosses being the most notable of any of them, which are heavily recycled through every level. Bosses are what shine in Thymesia, aside from a few gimmick fights that aren't really fights. (Dragon God from Demon's Souls is a good example of these fights) The actual bosses are otherwise fantastic, and easily my favorite part of the game. They may not have any groundbreaking designs, but they're fast paced, threatening, and challenging, without being too demanding. And I think that leads me to my absolute favorite part of Thymesia. It's the only soulslike that gets the weight of animations anywhere close to FromSoft levels of quality. Something every other soulslike struggles with, has to be animations. They try to mimic that very specific weight and rhythm every FromSoft game has, making their enemies intuitive to fight, being able to parry and dodge their attacks despite seeing them for the first time. Thymesia mimics this feeling better than any non FromSoft souls game. That being said, the balance of the game, or lack thereof, is obvious when completing a playthrough. The first boss of the first level, is probably the hardest time you'll have here. He is relentless, and has a second even harder phase, it feels like a very uphill battle, since you won't have access to any good Plague Weapons, and your potions will be base level. But the longer the game goes on, the easier it gets. Enemies become jokes, and bosses become minor step stones. And I think that sums up my feelings of Thymesia in general.
Thymesia is a fun romp through some less than amazing levels, not very memorable enemies, and great bosses. Ultimately, the lack of any balance the has game dominates how the second half plays out. Some potions and Plague Weapons absolutely trivialize the game, making it so you don't really rely on any high skill or carefully thought strategies. It feels much more soulslike at first, but the longer it goes on, the less threatened you'll be by everything that dares stand against the Plague Bow. For a $25 dollar price tag, I would probably suggest it to any Sekiro fans, given how similar the gameplay is, but if you're looking for a serious challenge, it just isn't here. With some unique gimmicks and fast paced combat, there are some cool moments with it, but I just don't see myself revisiting this game every year like I do with something as magical and memorable as Bloodborne. If you've got $25 to throw around and are just looking for a new game to blow 6 hours on, you could do a lot worse.
Soulslike com bastante inspiração no combate de Sekiro e Bloodborne, incentivando bastante o uso de parry e agressividade. Eu particularmente gosto muito desse tipo de combate, ele é bem curto, em questão de 6 horas você consegue fechar. A história é meio qualquer coisa, tá ali, mas nem precisava. Dá pra passar um tempo.
combatı fena olmayan kibrit kutusunda bir indie souls-like asla 200 tl etmez
This game is a good indie souls-like but it could be better.
I've played the demo and they for sure fixed the dodge system, now it is how it should be.
The bosses that are humanoid are good, the rest are very boring. Basically you do the exact same all the fight until you get them done.
I didn't like enemy placing, it is all over the place without any sense and you can easily skip them (they cannot climb ladders for example).
Parries are wierd, maybe is me but I felt like hitting the same parry with diffrent timing or not hitting at all with that same timing.
It has good replay value for the ending so that's something positive to make the money worth.
If you like souls-like you should try this one yourself. It is hard (some times doesn't feel fair tbh) but it has fun new mechanics such as the stealing weapons from certain enemies and the claw mechanic which I enjoyed.
I've played the demo and they for sure fixed the dodge system, now it is how it should be.
The bosses that are humanoid are good, the rest are very boring. Basically you do the exact same all the fight until you get them done.
I didn't like enemy placing, it is all over the place without any sense and you can easily skip them (they cannot climb ladders for example).
Parries are wierd, maybe is me but I felt like hitting the same parry with diffrent timing or not hitting at all with that same timing.
It has good replay value for the ending so that's something positive to make the money worth.
If you like souls-like you should try this one yourself. It is hard (some times doesn't feel fair tbh) but it has fun new mechanics such as the stealing weapons from certain enemies and the claw mechanic which I enjoyed.
A mix of sekiro and bloodborne, really fun combat mechanics but way too short.
Unfortunately might be the quickest I've ever figured out I was just not going to like a game. Feels somehow stiff AND floaty, just feels really unpleasant to play, and apparently this is a marked improvement over the demo.
Pretty amazed with how this game turned out. Went into it purely with the expectation of this being a small scale, indie Bloodborne (which I still would've liked) and ended up finding something that had a ton of unique, creative ideas added to the mix to truly make it stand out in a number of ways. You've got your standard Souls feel all over the place of course, with how the combat roughly feels along with its narrative presentation mostly being kept in the background and explained through notes strewn about etc. but it still feels clear that the people involved were massive fans who wanted to put a real spin on things. This is mainly showcased through the variety of distinct combat systems that work together to inform the gameplay in a very nuanced, effective manner that makes for something that feels incredible once you get the basics down.
A significant way in which this is explored is through the way enemy health is handled, with the combination of wounds and proper damage making for a very dynamic and engaging experience. Rather than dealing straight damage to an enemy, hitting them with a basic attack will deplete one bar a certain amount with a 2nd bar underneath it being revealed in the process that can only be reduced with certain other attacks. This needs to be done within a few seconds otherwise the first bar will begin to fill and cover the 2nd one again, functionally causing you to have dealt no damage. This ultimately encourages an experience where the player is forced to carefully pick their moments in order to succeed, with an entirely offensive playstyle being required to actually get any damage in, but a defensive mindset also needing to be constantly considered to make sure you properly pick your moments and create openings to be able to actually succeed at doing this without taking hits in the process. The game also feels insanely fast paced for the most part, making a lot of these decisions increasingly intense considering you won't really have much time to properly consider things in the moment and just need to learn how to more intuitively alter your playstyle on the fly.
This is all further aided by the talent system in the game and the way it manages to be one of the only times where a skill tree has actually been interesting to mess around with. A huge reason for this is the way it affects so many fundamental aspects of the combat system to the point where even a couple of slight retoolings could completely change your optimal playstyle in the situation, but you're actually able to re-allocate these points at any time. This circumvents my biggest issue with a lot of of similar systems where it feels largely arbitrary to make the player have to commit to unlocking only part of their gear without really being able to properly contextualise what they could do with it, and instead it adds some nice extra depth to the game as you're now able to pick your compromises at almost any point while actually being informed about what you need (and if you end up being wrong it's no problem either because you can just move things around again and try out something entirely different). This also helps encourage the player to properly explore their entire moveset and just immediately fall into a reliance towards only an aspect or two of it, since they can mess around and test out these options at a high power to understand the potential they have rather than attempt to start using a new tool from absolute base level and inevitably dropping it.
This sense of versatility also carries over to the awesome plague weapon mechanic where players are able to steal weapons from the enemy and use it as a one-time effect, and eventually being able to have it as a permanent ability on your character, adding a sense of additional power and spontaneity to a lot of encounters. This wonderfully robust customisation allows the encounters to also be more specialised around specific playstyles without feeling downright unbalanced towards a certain crows, as players are given the option to essentially adapt their character to better fit the situation. This makes for a lot of situations that feel very focused as a result, since they don't all strictly have to cater for every possibility of the player. This especially plays a role in the varied and consistently excellent boss fights, where certain mobility options or methods of attack feel prioritised against certain other attackers, some being far more effective to parry, but some others having attacks that are much more suited to being dodged, as an example. There's some pretty great variety to the boss fights as well, some being your typical, fast paced humanoid encounters, but there also being enough more unconventional ones to keep things interesting, with almost all of them being really engaging fights in one way or another, especially with the final 3 being outright incredible.
The game's not all perfect of course, and there are definitely a few issues that stop it from being even more incredible in my eyes. The biggest complain of these is the enemy variety being pretty lacking even for a game as short as this, with the 3rd area having no enemy types that weren't just direct reskins of previous ones. This isn't as massive a deal as you might expect thanks to the short runtime of the game lessening grievances related to repetition and most enemy types still being great to fight, but it definitely hurts things nonetheless and makes it all feel a bit more homogenous than I'd like. Certain mechanics just didn't feel like they reliably worked, the feather counters being especially rough to the point of feeling more like a liability to use them due to inconsistent functionality and ended up taking me out of things a bit even though they ended up getting circumvented by just using one of the other many options at my disposal. I feel like the number of sidequests that just made you go back through the levels were also really lame, and while the atmosphere of them tended to be pretty spot on, it still felt pretty tedious and a bit pointless too.
A lot of other little issues such as the stiff camera controls, the lack of voice acting relegating every cutscene to having to read subtitles even during combat itself, the bit of a drop in quality of the 2nd main area and some janky animation work all made the experience feel a bit less polished in ways that it would've benefited from as well. That said, this game still feels remarkably impressive for something developed by such a small indie team, with it having so much going on that I'd usually only expect to see in a far bigger game with the budget to match. In the end, despite some shortcomings, Thymesia is a deeply engaging, short Souls-like that far exceeded my expectations and gives me incredibly high hopes for what Overborder studio will be able to do next.
A significant way in which this is explored is through the way enemy health is handled, with the combination of wounds and proper damage making for a very dynamic and engaging experience. Rather than dealing straight damage to an enemy, hitting them with a basic attack will deplete one bar a certain amount with a 2nd bar underneath it being revealed in the process that can only be reduced with certain other attacks. This needs to be done within a few seconds otherwise the first bar will begin to fill and cover the 2nd one again, functionally causing you to have dealt no damage. This ultimately encourages an experience where the player is forced to carefully pick their moments in order to succeed, with an entirely offensive playstyle being required to actually get any damage in, but a defensive mindset also needing to be constantly considered to make sure you properly pick your moments and create openings to be able to actually succeed at doing this without taking hits in the process. The game also feels insanely fast paced for the most part, making a lot of these decisions increasingly intense considering you won't really have much time to properly consider things in the moment and just need to learn how to more intuitively alter your playstyle on the fly.
This is all further aided by the talent system in the game and the way it manages to be one of the only times where a skill tree has actually been interesting to mess around with. A huge reason for this is the way it affects so many fundamental aspects of the combat system to the point where even a couple of slight retoolings could completely change your optimal playstyle in the situation, but you're actually able to re-allocate these points at any time. This circumvents my biggest issue with a lot of of similar systems where it feels largely arbitrary to make the player have to commit to unlocking only part of their gear without really being able to properly contextualise what they could do with it, and instead it adds some nice extra depth to the game as you're now able to pick your compromises at almost any point while actually being informed about what you need (and if you end up being wrong it's no problem either because you can just move things around again and try out something entirely different). This also helps encourage the player to properly explore their entire moveset and just immediately fall into a reliance towards only an aspect or two of it, since they can mess around and test out these options at a high power to understand the potential they have rather than attempt to start using a new tool from absolute base level and inevitably dropping it.
This sense of versatility also carries over to the awesome plague weapon mechanic where players are able to steal weapons from the enemy and use it as a one-time effect, and eventually being able to have it as a permanent ability on your character, adding a sense of additional power and spontaneity to a lot of encounters. This wonderfully robust customisation allows the encounters to also be more specialised around specific playstyles without feeling downright unbalanced towards a certain crows, as players are given the option to essentially adapt their character to better fit the situation. This makes for a lot of situations that feel very focused as a result, since they don't all strictly have to cater for every possibility of the player. This especially plays a role in the varied and consistently excellent boss fights, where certain mobility options or methods of attack feel prioritised against certain other attackers, some being far more effective to parry, but some others having attacks that are much more suited to being dodged, as an example. There's some pretty great variety to the boss fights as well, some being your typical, fast paced humanoid encounters, but there also being enough more unconventional ones to keep things interesting, with almost all of them being really engaging fights in one way or another, especially with the final 3 being outright incredible.
The game's not all perfect of course, and there are definitely a few issues that stop it from being even more incredible in my eyes. The biggest complain of these is the enemy variety being pretty lacking even for a game as short as this, with the 3rd area having no enemy types that weren't just direct reskins of previous ones. This isn't as massive a deal as you might expect thanks to the short runtime of the game lessening grievances related to repetition and most enemy types still being great to fight, but it definitely hurts things nonetheless and makes it all feel a bit more homogenous than I'd like. Certain mechanics just didn't feel like they reliably worked, the feather counters being especially rough to the point of feeling more like a liability to use them due to inconsistent functionality and ended up taking me out of things a bit even though they ended up getting circumvented by just using one of the other many options at my disposal. I feel like the number of sidequests that just made you go back through the levels were also really lame, and while the atmosphere of them tended to be pretty spot on, it still felt pretty tedious and a bit pointless too.
A lot of other little issues such as the stiff camera controls, the lack of voice acting relegating every cutscene to having to read subtitles even during combat itself, the bit of a drop in quality of the 2nd main area and some janky animation work all made the experience feel a bit less polished in ways that it would've benefited from as well. That said, this game still feels remarkably impressive for something developed by such a small indie team, with it having so much going on that I'd usually only expect to see in a far bigger game with the budget to match. In the end, despite some shortcomings, Thymesia is a deeply engaging, short Souls-like that far exceeded my expectations and gives me incredibly high hopes for what Overborder studio will be able to do next.
My experience with Thymesia was not up and down, but down-up-down.
When I first started it I thought it felt maybe a bit off, as these non-FromSoft souls games often do. But after playing it for a bit I got used to the mechanics and started being able to customize the playstyle a little bit, which I thought was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the intro section and the first area. Considering it's a very vertical area, it doesn't feel cumbersome. The level design is good and shortcuts back to the chairs (bonfires) are well-placed and feel like they come just frequently enough. Unfortunately, when I got to the first boss, the cracks really started to show. The low- and mid-tier enemies I could adapt to, but the boss clearly showed the game's flaws. If a game is going to have a boss that kills you in 2 hits, it needs to have extremely precise controls so that you can face that challenge with as much fairness as possible and overcome it through your skill, without the controls getting in the way.
I think that they had some great ideas, pulling all the good mechanics from multiple FromSoft games. It's a Seikiro-like more than anything. Combat requires parries, dodges, and dealing with certain undodgeable attacks which can be dealt with by throwing a feather dart (kind of a combo of Seikiro's undodgeable attacks and Bloodborne's gun counter. All these actions (except the dodge) inflict "wounds" which knock off a white bar which sits on top of their actual green HP bar. In other words, in order to actually hurt the enemy you have to cause wounds to reveal their HP and then actually damage the HP. If you leave the enemy without taking damage for a time, their wounds will heal up to their current HP again. So it is a two-part process of causing wounds and then solidifying that progress with HP damage.
Wounds are dealt through any of the above methods plus just regular attacks. Regular attacks to a small amount of HP damage but the primary method of HP damage is the claw. This is one of the parts I really liked in theory but not in practice. I feel like it should have been the opposite. That regular attacks do minimal wound damage but high HP damage, so you have to do parries, counters, and heavy attacks to inflict wounds and then use regular attacks to knock out their HP. Having to use the claw for a good chunk of the HP damage felt very restrictive.
I really loved the skill tree system that was surprisingly robust and really allowed you to customize your playstyle in a lot of ways. Some skills added more regular attacks to your standard combo, some changed your claw from a slow, lumbering attack to a quick, weaker one instead. Another skill made counters easier, and another one gave you the ability to do a spear-step counter to the unblockable attacks if you really want to pretend you're playing Seikiro, or you could get a skill that allows you to hold the button down to guard if you want to pretend you're playing Dark Souls.
Lastly, the game just felt unfinished. The music and sound effects are very minimalistic but don't feel like they're a stylistic choice so much as they just didn't get around to them. The cutscene for the first boss has no sound effects and there is subtitled dialogue but no voice acting. This isn't enough to ruin it for me, but it does threaten to knock the rating down. That being said, I'm keeping the rating at 2.5 because I really wanted to like this game. So sad.
Overall, I feel like Thymesia has a lot of really cool ideas and level design could have been top-notch
Played on Amazon Luna streaming service (November monthly free access to this game for Prime members)
When I first started it I thought it felt maybe a bit off, as these non-FromSoft souls games often do. But after playing it for a bit I got used to the mechanics and started being able to customize the playstyle a little bit, which I thought was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the intro section and the first area. Considering it's a very vertical area, it doesn't feel cumbersome. The level design is good and shortcuts back to the chairs (bonfires) are well-placed and feel like they come just frequently enough. Unfortunately, when I got to the first boss, the cracks really started to show. The low- and mid-tier enemies I could adapt to, but the boss clearly showed the game's flaws. If a game is going to have a boss that kills you in 2 hits, it needs to have extremely precise controls so that you can face that challenge with as much fairness as possible and overcome it through your skill, without the controls getting in the way.
I think that they had some great ideas, pulling all the good mechanics from multiple FromSoft games. It's a Seikiro-like more than anything. Combat requires parries, dodges, and dealing with certain undodgeable attacks which can be dealt with by throwing a feather dart (kind of a combo of Seikiro's undodgeable attacks and Bloodborne's gun counter. All these actions (except the dodge) inflict "wounds" which knock off a white bar which sits on top of their actual green HP bar. In other words, in order to actually hurt the enemy you have to cause wounds to reveal their HP and then actually damage the HP. If you leave the enemy without taking damage for a time, their wounds will heal up to their current HP again. So it is a two-part process of causing wounds and then solidifying that progress with HP damage.
Wounds are dealt through any of the above methods plus just regular attacks. Regular attacks to a small amount of HP damage but the primary method of HP damage is the claw. This is one of the parts I really liked in theory but not in practice. I feel like it should have been the opposite. That regular attacks do minimal wound damage but high HP damage, so you have to do parries, counters, and heavy attacks to inflict wounds and then use regular attacks to knock out their HP. Having to use the claw for a good chunk of the HP damage felt very restrictive.
I really loved the skill tree system that was surprisingly robust and really allowed you to customize your playstyle in a lot of ways. Some skills added more regular attacks to your standard combo, some changed your claw from a slow, lumbering attack to a quick, weaker one instead. Another skill made counters easier, and another one gave you the ability to do a spear-step counter to the unblockable attacks if you really want to pretend you're playing Seikiro, or you could get a skill that allows you to hold the button down to guard if you want to pretend you're playing Dark Souls.
Lastly, the game just felt unfinished. The music and sound effects are very minimalistic but don't feel like they're a stylistic choice so much as they just didn't get around to them. The cutscene for the first boss has no sound effects and there is subtitled dialogue but no voice acting. This isn't enough to ruin it for me, but it does threaten to knock the rating down. That being said, I'm keeping the rating at 2.5 because I really wanted to like this game. So sad.
Overall, I feel like Thymesia has a lot of really cool ideas and level design could have been top-notch
Played on Amazon Luna streaming service (November monthly free access to this game for Prime members)
It's OK. Actually it could be a nice soulslike but it is too short. You'll have max. upgraded flasks in under 6 hours and you saw almost the complete game in under 10 hours.
For every other genre that's fine... But soulslikes should at least have the 2-3x lengh.
Thymesia always feels like it COULD be great but it does not try to be great. Therefor it is only OK.
For every other genre that's fine... But soulslikes should at least have the 2-3x lengh.
Thymesia always feels like it COULD be great but it does not try to be great. Therefor it is only OK.
PLAY NOW
One of the better souls-likes out there. fun combat, decent level design, and hits the right tone. Just wish the world was connected instead of separated into individual levels.
Não tenho parâmetro pra falar de soulslike pq esse aqui é o primeiro que eu consigo terminar, mas eu curti bem. Os bosses são desafiadores mas conseguiram me deixar motivado a entender o moveset e analisar a melhor estratégia para atacá-los, a história me parece qualquer coisa mas o combate é bem gostoso de se jogar. O jogo bugou no final e eu não vou conseguir ir atrás da minha platina, por isso e pela falta de no mínimo uma legenda PT-BR e alguns bugs aqui e ali, a nota ficou menor do que poderia ser