Thymesia

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.