Thymesia

A welcome change of scenery to the faster strain of Soulslikes, Thymesia gets straight to the point of sword and claw without lasting any longer than necessary.

It is a little rough around the edges, which is to be expected from a small team and backed by an indie publisher. Stick with Thymesia however and you’ll make some good memories with it, hopefully with some care down the line to refine the experience.

Thymesia does more than enough to make its way out of the shadow of Bloodborne. It offers some fun levels to go around killing enemies in, and the combat is fast-paced, responsive, and most importantly, a lot of fun. Even its skill tree has some great ideas. This might not be the game for those who don’t like a challenge, but for those who do, Thymesia is excellent.

If you can handle the corners that were cut due to the budget, then Thymasia’s combat system is worth it all on its own. The game’s intriguingly dark setting and the exquisitely dark theme are more than good enough to pay attention to as well. There are certainly things that the development team could do with a sequel if this generates enough revenue to build on the foundations that they’ve created, but the earnestness that went into making this one distinctive from the other “Souls clones” is worthwhile either way.

The fact that Thymesia is developed by a very small group of people with a very limited budget and in a very challenging genre, earns them enough credit to give their game a try and set them up for their future projects.

Thymesia is a humble indie soulsborne that, despite its marked inspirations and forced comparisons with giants like Bloodborne, manages to bring some other details to the genre. It lags behind in many aspects, but it also manages to attract attention through frenetic and fun combat.

Thymesia is a game with beautiful graphics and good gameplay, however, what it offers in exchange for exploration is not enough to keep the game alive for long. If the title had a multiplayer mode, it would probably earn some more points, but this is unfortunately not present.

A brutal challenge for melee fans that shines on bosses and the combat system but falls short on the areas in the game.

Pleasant Soulslike with a well thought-out, fast combat system and a crisp level of difficulty, which often goes too far.

Thymesia has copied a little too much from 'big brother' Bloodborne. The game has more than enough due to the phenomenal combat system. In this respect it is perhaps better than its two biggest sources of inspiration and such an achievement cannot but be rewarded. Even if it involves unabashed stealing.

Despite being a solid Bloodborne imitation, Thymesia carries over common issues in other Soulslikes. It's a great challenge for Bloodborne fans and offers the potential for exciting gameplay, but it weighs itself down with complicated and poorly implemented mechanics.

Even though the setting and many gameplay elements in Thymesia aren’t new for Soulslike-enthusiasts, the game’s enjoyable combat and progression show that the developers understand the genre. The versatile plague weapons are fun to collect and use, while the compact skill system allows for useful fine-tuning when bosses get difficult. And while they rarely do that, most of them offer unique and varied encounters. But the particularly hard bosses do exhibit some of the game’s wonky difficulty balancing and sometimes imprecise gameplay mechanics. Also, Thymesia isn’t a very big or replayable game, though the fair asking price somewhat alleviates that.

Thymesia is quite a good Soulslike. Aside from some attacks homing in on you a little too well, only things like a lack of voice acting and uneven boss difficulty truly let it down. It’s not as polished or as epic as any of FromSoftware’s releases, but that’s to be expected given the budget price and the fact that this is the first title from developer Over Border Studio. So, keep your expectations in check, and you’re bound to have a good time.

Thymesia isn't shy about its influences, an admittance that helps and harms the title when inevitably compared to its legendary brethren.

Despite some repetition, then, the full game doesn’t feel miserly, and can easily last 15-20 hours — comparable at least to other character action games such as “Devil May Cry.” Also, in the wake of the gargantuan “Elden Ring” this year, it’s quite comforting to see this kind of challenge return to more finite space. Ultimately, you may have walked grimy paths like these many times, but if the Soulslike virus remains lodged in your core as it does in Thymesia’s, you should easily become absorbed into its diseased world, never once hoping to be cured.

Thymesia is one of those games that you should take its reviews with a grain of salt because it's an obviously clunky game yet its combat can be super-satisfying for the very specific kinds of gamers that it's targeting. Everyone else will probably find it too irritating to play.

Thymesia is a game that show’s the developer’s potential, but doesn’t reach the heights of its opening promise. While the combat is fast paced and fun, it is marred by hitbox and timing issues, and the story and lore lack depth to draw you into the mystery of Thymesia.

Thymesia is just another Bloodborne + Sekiro wannabe with small budget and big ambitions. On the other hand, it has something special inside it that keeps you playing on and on. And that's a great result for the small team.

Thymesia makes us feel like the soulslike genre is completely played out already. A poor and needless Bloodborne substitute. No substance, little style. [Issue#19, p.81]