It’s always a shame when a game does some things so well and others so wrong. High-energy combat immediately stands out as special, with patience and familiarity with the decidedly narrow progression system. At the same time, the twisted tale about a plague-torn kingdom and the secret agents who can save it, and the inconsistent quality of the exotic locations it’s set in, are largely half-baked and make the whole adventure a breeze. I will forget..
Timecia’s story follows Corvus, a common but well-dressed royal operative whose brains have been scrambled like breakfast eggs. It could possibly be the result of his direct involvement in the plague spreading across the country. It’s a disease that empowers some creatures and injures, kills, or mutates the rest. You’ll have to climb into a dark and eerie void, a memory to remember how you got here, in the hope that you can find clues on how to do it.
At first I really liked the setting of this story, but by the end of the roughly 8-hour journey, I couldn’t be more bothered about Corvus’ mysterious purpose. , because there are very few NPCs snooping for information. Most of the plot is delivered through notes dropped all over the map for you to spend time collecting and deciphering. A bit lost, and even ignoring that fatigue, Thymesia’s notes aren’t written in a particularly convincing way. Also, the story itself is tried-and-true territory past its opening – the fact that it’s based on a conspiracy swirling around magical blood that turns people into monsters helps Thymesia shake the “Bloodborne-clone” claim. does not become
Corvus’ memories occur in three places. Two of them, Jukai and Hermes’ Fortress, are mostly bland environments that you’ve probably seen (and maybe better) in other games before. The former misty Plague Marsh has many rope bridges and treehouses that look very similar under the decaying haze, making it difficult to navigate. The swamp had at least the occasional terrifying hammer-wielding mutant, which gave it an incentive to travel there, but the fortress It’s packed with generic knights of various stripes, with no real visual or thematic surprises.
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The mediocrity of these stages is much more deplorable when compared to the third area, the Royal Gardens, which is one of the most interesting environments I’ve seen in a game like this. It starts out as a sort of weird greenhouse set where big twisted flowers grow and descends into an ankle-deep, blood-soaked library. You can go even deeper on subsequent visits via subquests, eventually ending up in an entire Blood Cavern filled with creep elements that stand out among the genre it defines.
You can also revisit the other two locations with sidequests, but their creative flourishes are limited to just changing the paths you take and switching the doors you can access. There’s nothing dramatic about them when it comes to exploring.
These subquests are technically optional, but what you’ll find when you complete them is essential to understanding how to end the plague and fix the world. You can definitely beat Thymesia in , but the resulting story ending can be lackluster.) If you don’t have to repeat the final boss fight every time, there’s an incentive to watch them all. For real Besides having the right items and information, it’s how you use them after the final battle that determines your ending. And in fact, even the “good” ending is a bit disappointing, as it plays out with a simple slideshow of all-black images with a few sparse blocks of text.
lost nail
Despite its narrative shortcomings, Thymesia’s combat is its main highlight. Corvus moves quickly, smothering enemies with a barrage of blades and sinking them out of range just before they can counterattack cleanly. No stamina bar here. So the attack limiting factor is simply the length of the combo string, just like in fighting games. That said, your go-to defensive option is either a rather tricky-timed parry or a reliable dodge. In each small encounter, you can choose to passively wait for a series of enemy attacks and attack during downtime, or attack aggressively, absorbing and softening damage with well-placed parries. . Raise them before it’s your turn to strike.
Combat is mostly back and forth like this, as there is no reliable way to stagger the enemy.they can stagger or course, but most of the time how and when felt like a crap shoot – the unpredictability that also applies when bad guys decide to counter youApparently, there is a limit to the number of attacks you can freely land on an enemy before they counterattack, despite having access to skills that can affect this hidden function in various ways. However, most non-boss enemies become pretty trivial as they get stronger, so this makes little sense until halfway through the campaign.
When slicing and dicing, you should be aware of the duality of enemy life bars. Your normal sword attack damages the white part, exposing a bit of green underneath. White bars are refilled. Skillfully interweaving sword and claw attacks is key to taking down enemies efficiently, but these attacks don’t link directly in combos, which can make the dance feel awkward. For me, racing to effectively “fix” sword damage with well-placed claw attacks while fending off large enemy movements is a major part of the unique tension of this combat system. did.
Bosses come in two forms. A very big and gimmicky pushover and a nimble mudhole his stomper. The former has a more creative design, but a much easier pattern to learn and avoid, making it more of an “experience” than a real challenge. , was his one of the most memorable parts of Cymesia. I raced through a series of platforms bursting plague cysts and clearing fog while giants smashed the place around me. The latter fight is more like his one-on-one encounter. There, bosses have a big list of ways to kill you quickly and you have to sink, dodge and deflect. many to avoid mopping up. These get easier over time as you get stronger, but Carnie, especially the first card thrower, feels like a big, thick, frustrating wall of skill.
Getting stronger usually involves collecting currency from enemies and using it to increase stats such as health and damage, but also collects and enhances plague weapons. This is a secondary attack that mimics the weapon used by the enemy. These weapons offer powerful abilities that vary attacks, such as large heavy hammer strikes and quick and accurate bows. The most interesting thing is that you can steal a single-use version of the Plague Weapon from an enemy, providing yet another layer of attack on the spot. Especially good for Boss.
The talent tree can also be used to tweak or completely change Corvus’ movements. There is a cap on the number of talent points you can have. So you can’t simply maximize everything. So making the right choices is the key to becoming a true killing machine. The options to extend the deflection window or change the counter to block are interesting, but dodging attacks at the last second or giving offensive buffs when you extend your normal attack and claw attack combos We leaned more into abilities. Synergizing these with health gains and dodge expansion options allows you to fine-tune your playstyle, but most of the options are more passive rather than completely overhauling your interaction with combat. It modifies play with enhancements and additional utilities.
