izigame.me

As a massive fan of Souls-like/lite games, I had my eyes on Thymesia for a long time. I cannot for the life of me remember why I didn't buy it when it was announced. Maybe it was the developers? Maybe the publisher? Maybe the looks of the game? I just don't know, but anyway, I finally played it as of 31/12/24 and to 100%. Was I amazed? Did I have fun? was it worth the wait?
Well, below I will share my thoughts about the game but first a quick disclaimer!
This review is MY opinion, MY own personal experience and MY thoughts. I am brutally honest when it comes to reviewing games. If you do not like my opinion, my time or respect my personal experience, please move on.

Cons

⚫This one is not really a "major issue" or maybe not an "issue" at all. More of a personal opinion but I am going to share it anyway. There's no "create-a-character" like most souls-like games lets you make. Nor is there any customisation in any way, shape or form for corvus. You would think they would give you some colour schemes or something but sadly not.
⚫The combat get's really repetitive and dull once you learn what to do. (for me) Spam LB to parry, spam RB to "attack" and deal damage and then spam your "CLAW" attack to stop them healing, all of this while dodging also. You repeat this the entire game till completion.
⚫You are stuck with 2 weapons the entire game. A sabre and a dagger. So, you're basically a "rogue" the entire game. You don't get any other weapons like a greatsword, Sword and Shield, duel daggers e.t.c. albeit you can "steal" weapons and use them ONCE then have to repeat this to do it again with the "plague system".
⚫Boss fights were NOT interesting at all. Only 2 fights, in my opinion, were good. Urd and Corvus. The rest were "gimmiks". One you had to just destroy cysts and then you insta killed it. One you had to destroy points on it (the big worm) and then you insta killed it. The tutorial boss you fight twice... same moves.
⚫There are only 3 main areas in the game - Sea of Trees. Royal Garden. Hermes Fortress. Each of these areas are rather, small, compact if you will. Once you "complete" an area you can return to it via "sub missions" which just take you back to the same map. So instead of it being one bug open world map (think dark souls 1-3 or Elden ring) it opts for short, boring and repetitive missions.
⚫All the enemies in the game repeat the exact same attacks over and over again. Either this shows lack of development knowledge or this is just downright lazy developers failing to code "different attacks"
⚫When you die, if you have lots of "souls" and you go back to your grave to pick them up... say you have 6000 on you, you are only given like 58 back... is this a "ME" issue or is this a joke?
⚫The last update to the game, or the last thing about Thymesia was in 2022. No DLC, no news... nothing. Have a look yourself: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1343240/eventcomments/3493130872651131662
⚫The price of the game is £20 for about 5-9 hours of your time. This is not justified for what we get.
⚫The entire game basically enforces PARRY EVERYTHING to live. If you play the game "NOT PARRYING" you will be OVERPUNISHED by enemies because they more or less NEVER stagger. They also combo lock you over and over again UNLESS YOU PARRY. No other "souls-like/lite" game is like this.

Pros

⚫The plague system is really REALLY cool. How you can steal weapons from your enemies and use them, albeit only once then you have to re-steal them to use them again. This is a cool concept.
⚫The combat WAS really fun to learn at first. (please read cons about this)

My Verdict

All in all, I waited 2 (almost 3) years to play this game. It was NOT worth the wait. For the LACK of content, the complete ignorance from the developers and the price... this is not justified in the slightest. If I paid for this game - £20 - I regret it but if I got it in my humble bundle or bought it for £7.99 then I'm not to bothered.
I have heard that the developers are working on a Thymesia 2 and it will fix a LOT of the mistakes and issues that Thymesia has. My question is this - if you did not try to make changes to Thymesia, work on the game, add DLC e.t.c what makes you think people will come back and support Thymesia 2?
I really wish I didn't play this to 100% as it was boring, repetitive and made me "parry" for 6 hours straight. The only "saving grace" for Thymesia was the plague system.

2/10. A overpriced abandoned "rushed" project that takes all of the bad's (and no goods) from souls-like games at all