Imagine Sekiro but with Dark Souls II hitboxes and every time you parry you're off by 2 seconds because the animations are so low budget, janky, slow and simply not fluid enough for the combat. That's basically the Thymesia experience summed up.

I could go on to explain more of the mechanics and intricacies of the combat, but what's the point when it's not even enjoyable? That opening statement alone describes the experience pretty well and despite there being some cool ideas here and there and great design aesthetic (Though the level design itself leaves a bit to be desired), the gameplay mechanics just don't feel good and if the game wasn't so short (I beat it in 10 hours) I would've just dropped it all together so that should tell you all you really need to know about whether it's worth playing or not. It certainly doesn't help that the world and lore is so generic and boring and just feels like every other Souls-style game. The OST and art design are easily the two best things about this game and both are pretty solid, but too bad everything else is just a mess.

There's simply nothing in this game that you probably haven't seen done before and most things are just done much better elsewhere, so there's nothing here worth suffering through the janky combat even if the game is super short.

A very short and not very pleasant soulslike game, that has an atmosphere, but not much else.

The combat system is flashy, but not very good, the bosses are cheap, and the hitboxes, yet again, are not very good.

A meh experience.

thymesia, um irmão perdido de bloodborne (ou talvez só da eileen), que trouxe uma proposta muito interessante aos olhos do pessoal que curte jogos soulsbornelike.

a questão é, ele é muito divertido e traz o melhor das mecânicas dos souls para dentro do jogo e ainda inova com algumas mecânicas novas, que transformam completamente o combate. porém, ele é muito curto e as suas "fases" são meio genéricas...

ainda assim, é possível se divertir por algumas horinhas dentro desse mundo. e a platina não é nível souls de dificuldade (talvez só um troféu... aí realmente, boa sorte).

the level design in this game is not good, everything feels like it loops around on itself for no reason and everything kind of looks the same so i found it hard to navigate my way around.

that said, aesthetically it's super cool and while i was ready to drop the game, something clicked after i beat the first boss and i got super hooked. some of the smoothest souls-like combat i have experienced so far, the parrying felt super responsive and it's just fast-paced and fun. honestly very worth going through just for the combat, some really good bosses in there too. i'd love to see more from this dev team

At the beginning, this game felt extremely rough in its fundamental mechanics. It felt like it wasn't at all good enough for the ridiculous precision some enemies require you to have with your parry timing.

I've now beaten all the levels, bosses and did all the endings. Now I'm definitely more positive on it: about 3-4 of the 8 bosses are actually quite fun to fight. Once you get into the flow of things with those bosses and get used to the mechanics, it can feel as satisfying as Sekiro. For a debut game from an indie studio, that is impressive!

Otherwise this game is just meh. The art direction is great but the level design is mediocre. The plague weapons are a cool idea but I never felt compelled to use even half of them for some useless bonuses. Also the claw mechanic, where every enemy has two health bars - and you have to first wound them with regular attacks and then use claw attacks - is a neat idea but ends up being tedious.


For huge fans of Sekiro, who simply want anything remotely like it, this might scratch that itch - slightly at least.

On the surface level, Thymesia seems reliant on its obvious influences pulling in interested parties. But the game has enough interesting ideas, and executes the most important elements well enough, to make it a gratifying and worthwhile game to check out.

It is fundamentally in line with other Souls-likes, but the main twist is that enemies have two health bars overlapping with each other, and you need to deplete them both in order to kill them. You have regular sword attacks that will mainly deal damage against the main health bar, and claw attacks that will only deplete the secondary bar. There's also plague weapons, which are secondary weapons that has different damage properties depending on the weapon. This system is the very basis of the game's aggressive and ferocious feel, since the main health bar can regenerate according to the secondary bar if you don't damage the enemy for too long. Most of your moves are also not limited by a stamina/energy bar (only plague weapons), which only supports that feeling.

The game has limited character customization, in exchange for progression systems that feel closer to hack and slash games like Devil May Cry. There are skill trees that provide ways to tailor your abilities to your sensibilities. For example, widening your deflect/parry timing period in exchange for lower damage against enemies, or choosing to double down on your deflect damage instead. You have many plague weapons to choose from, like a scythe that can heal you when you hit enemies with it, or a whip that can help you close the gap against enemies. Even the Estus Flask equivalents here are customizable, being able to switch different potion types and add ingredients to introduce extra effects. In my experience, these systems are quite flexible in letting me play how I wanted to play, and making the game bend to my will is very satisfying. It helps that you can freely unlearn skills, which lets you experiment to find your favorite way to play the game.

Unfortunately the levels and environment designs are not as well done. The level design is just mediocre, nothing really sticks out in my mind right now. There's some atmospheric environments that are quite nice to look at, but most of the time it fits the bill of a "generic dark fantasy world on a low budget" world too well. Same goes for the enemy designs (although mechanically they're varied enough for a game of this length, about 10 hours for me, I got all the endings) and soundtrack. At least the bosses are pretty damn good overall, especially the optional bosses, with the exception of one terrible gimmick boss.

The story here is pretty decent, it definitely won't be the main driving force of your experience. It's mostly told through text logs without any voice acting, which isn't very exciting, but I do appreciate its relatively straightforward nature. Find enough of these logs and you should have a good grasp of the story, the game isn't very vague about this.

Overall, Thymesia delivers on its intent of an approachable and reasonably sized Souls clone, while still managing to provide a challenging and aggressive combat experience. But it is let down by visibly middling budget, low production values, and a general lack of memorablity.

A short fun indie experience that has fast paced combat and very few glitches. The experience is fulfilling and the story is...mediocre. It has to be said that for a gae that follows the bloodborne/sekiro version of combat, the fights get quite easy towards the end and some of the bosses are laughably weak. But the overall experience is very enjoyable and the movement and attacks are satisfying es[pecially the clinking parry.
The story though is nothing to write home about and can make you feel like "let us just get this over with already " at times, which is a weird feeling to have a game worth less than 10 hours.
Still a good game and the combat is worthy enough to carry the game.

Overall, it's a commendable effort with ample room for improvement in a potential sequel. What I highly commend is its Bloodborne-esque gameplay, which is more aggressive. The bosses are well-thought-out and fairly challenging. The levels are a bit matchbox-sized; however, they have enough complexity to capture that essential soulslike feeling where roaming around and pathfinding is a significant part of the game. It could benefit from more uniqueness, and the parry mechanic needs to be reworked for better effectiveness when granted.