Thymesia (2022)

This title is a compact Souls-like action RPG that emphasizes fast, aggressive combat with mechanics centered around dodges, deflects, and plague weapon abilities. Its combat system is tight and rewarding, encouraging people to master precision and timing in fights. Particularly speaking the style this game enforces on players is exactly the way I've forever played the Souls-like titles, so this was not a first for me, quite the opposite, this game felt natural to my way of approaching these titles.

But I can totally see somebody that plays a totally different way to dislike this one, since it doesn't really have the same amount of depth and complexity of a traditional Souls-like RPG, so not a big amount of builds and ways to play this. The dark, plague-ravaged world it presents is atmospheric, with strong art direction and some striking level and boss designs.

Despite its strengths in combat, the game struggles with repetition and limited variety. Enemy types and environments often feel recycled, and the story is vague and underdeveloped, leaving little narrative depth to explore. Technical roughness, from occasional performance issues to imprecise hit detection, can also dampen the experience, especially in a genre that relies heavily on precision.

Overall, this game offers a solid, fast-paced alternative for fans of Souls-likes who want a shorter and more focused challenge. While it lacks the polish and variety of its inspirations, it delivers enough intensity and atmosphere to make it a worthwhile experience for people who can overlook its shortcomings. I consider this a must-play if you enjoy Souls-likes, while at the same time, your playstyle is somewhat similar to what this videogame is trying to promote.

It should be obvious looking at Thymesia that it takes a lot of cues from Sekiro and Bloodborne. It's not easy inviting comparisons to such beloved titles, but for its lower price point, this game does its thing quite well. I'd like to see more polish, more areas, etc., but for me, this was easily one of the most fun Soulslikes not from... From.

The star of the show here is the combat system, which brings its own spin to the styles of the games that inspired it. I'll try to explain—you must use normal sword attacks and parries/deflections to take out what's basically "armor", and then a claw weapon to damage the actual health underneath. If you're not fast enough on the actual health, they'll recover those points of "armor" back up to however much actual health they have left.

The game definitely encourages a hyper-aggressive playstyle, and makes it fun to play in that way. The combat strikes a great balance, feeling super fast while also having a lot of power behind it. Finishing moves particularly give a real power trip feeling, punctuating each kill with a real punch.

No foe felt particularly monumental like some stuff in Souls games, but the bosses were enjoyable and varied in their style and behavior. Even basic enemies were usually pretty fun to dispatch, though most stuff including bosses does tend to be relatively easy. If there's a notable question mark with the combat system, it's that the overall easiness makes some parts of it feel superfluous. Side weapons you can unlock are nice, for example, but the game rarely demands you do more than parry well and stay aggressive with your main attacks.

This is part of a larger feeling I had with the game that it's just a taste of a broader hypothetical experience. It's like I just played the first chapter of a big RPG. I never felt the difficulty or complexity notably increase, and honestly there really isn't much time for that. The core path of the game is extremely short, extended by side quests that will push you along to the true ending and additional boss fights. But there are only a few areas, a few main bosses, simple character progression, etc. I wasn't really enjoying the side content's retreading of the main levels, so it definitely left me wanting a bit more on the main questline that would let me explore new places.

Levels are decent, occasionally memorable in their theme and look but overall a bit generic. They have quite a few invisible walls, which can break the immersion a bit, and are lacking a certain sense of pace and progression for sure. The camera in those levels can be a bit of a weird thing here as well. It tries to avoid getting caught behind stuff, but ends up just kinda jerking around out of your control at times. You can disable this, but it’s not clear if that’s much better.

This may not be an Elden Ring killer, certainly not the most ambitious or memorable game on earth. But if you can meet it where it's coming from, it's an enjoyable experience. I would like to see more Soulslike games at this level of budget that can bring their own flair to combat. If this game was able to deliver more content and polish at a higher price, that would be great, but as-is, I still definitely enjoyed it. Give it a shot, especially once it's on sale.