Thymesia randomly popped up on my Steam discovery queue one day, and it caught my eye. Since I am a huge fan of both the idea of dressing up as a plague doctor and mentally flagellating myself with difficult games, I said, “Why not? Let's try it!” I did not have high expectations of the game originally, but it managed to surprise me in a good way.
Art Style
The best way to describe the visuals of this game is to compare it to a mosaic, a dark and gritty mosaic, to be precise. Now, you might think, “What do I mean by this?”. Well, the world is not interconnected, it is segmented into a few levels, each having a different style. The first stage, for example, is a creepy circus in the middle of a forest, and it looks excellent. You have these narrow bridges and platforms going from tree to tree that make everything feel very claustrophobic, even though you are technically in an open space.
Another mission has you in a cavern that I can only describe as being fleshy and grotesque, a byproduct of alchemical experiments gone wrong. Both areas look excellent on their own, but the difference of context is a bit staggering. I understand that this was probably a budget decision in order to create variety at a lower cost, but I feel like there could have been a bit less variety in the level design, and instead each one could have been more complex, as they are relatively short.
Otherwise, the game is quite stylish. You have animations for executing enemies and bosses, and every skill in and of itself looks very cool and flashy while still maintaining usefulness. I particularly liked all the bosses, although they are not many. And even though I said that the jump from one style to another was not to my particular taste, I still like the design of every level in its own way.
Plot
I did not expect a lot from a game that straight-up puts you in the shoes of a plague doctor during an epidemic, and I was right with this feeling. There is lore and a plot, but it can be summed up by the sentence: “The alchemists really messed up this time.”
You are playing as an alchemist who is trying to find a cure for a blood plague that turns people into monsters and maddens them. You do this by recalling your memories in order to find the alchemical formula for the cure. In typical Souls fashion, this is not communicated to you directly, but rather through some microinteractions with NPCs and very short notes scattered around. Interesting setting, but not interesting enough to be remembered in about two or three months' time.
Gameplay
I did mention earlier that this is a Souls-like, but it plays more like Sekiro than Dark Souls. Parrying is a core mechanic and will be your primary tool of defence and offence, so for anybody that particularly dislikes this mechanic, this is most likely a turn-off.
Pretty much like Sekiro, you will always use the same weapons and there is minimal character customization. You will always have a sword and your plague claws. You can also equip a third and fourth “plague weapon”, but those act more as abilities that use energy and have a cooldown, rather than actual weapons, so they are situational.
Now that I have presented your main toolkit, let me also explain the gimmick that this game has in particular: the wound system.
Every time you hit your enemy with your sword, you deal direct damage, which converts part of the current HP into wounds. Wounds are basically a temporary health bar that, if not drained, will regenerate back into full normal health. The most effective way to deal wound damage is to use your plague claw.
This forces the player into alternating from sword to claw based on what type of damage you need to be dishing out. It's a neat system that I kind of like, but what I dislike about it is the fact that I must keep my eyes on the enemy health bar to figure out what type of attack I should be using. This is especially problematic for bosses, because normally I want to look at them to see how cool they are and what they are doing. Instead, I am forced to constantly look at the health bar and distract myself with it because I don't know if I should be stabbing the guy or slashing him with the claws.
Personally, I think a green after-image or some other visual cue around the enemy would have been much more fitting, so you can still look at it instead of looking at a health bar constantly.
The game also features a skill tree, but I am honestly more disappointed by it than impressed, because basic abilities such as dodge attacks are locked behind the skill tree, rather than new or advanced abilities. So I feel like it's more of a barrier to the game rather than an addition.
Overall, I do find this game to be a fun and fluid experience, although a bit on the shorter side, as I finished it in about 10 hours with all the achievements. Still, it is one of the better Souls-likes in terms of gameplay and feel.
TL;DR
A solid yet short Sekiro-inspired Souls-like with visual inspiration taken from Bloodborne. An excellent mixture for a FromSoft fan. Recommended.
