Fast forward a few years and we now have yet another small studio throwing its hat in the ring of trying to make a competent Souls-styled game in Thymesia. Where Thymesia differs from the others is that, rather than drawing inspiration from something like Dark Souls, it instead draws inspiration from Bloodborne.

"Rather than drawing inspiration from something like Dark Souls, it instead draws inspiration from Bloodborne. And this is really one of the first hints that OverBorder Studio—the team behind Thymesia—actually somewhat gets it."

And this is really one of the first hints that OverBorder Studio—the team behind Thymesia—actually somewhat gets it. Where most games inspired by Souls titles tend to fade into obscurity shortly after release, Thymesia is likely going to be one of the rare games in the genre not made by FromSoftware to actually get somewhat embraced by the community. And that’s mostly because of how well the team that made it actually understands its influences.

Now first things first, right from the get go, Thymesia is wearing its influences on its sleeve. It shares so much in terms of aesthetics with Bloodborne that those unfamiliar with both games could be forgiven for confusing the two. Even its combat is at a faster pace than what we see from typical Souls-likes, quite reminiscent of Bloodborne. It’s borderline impossible to not think of Bloodborne while playing Thymesia, which puts it in a difficult position—it really has to be an exceptional game to get out of the shadow of the game that it is quite obviously influenced by.

The combat maintains a delicate balance of simplicity along with a few interesting mechanics. You’ll typically have access to a quick attack button, but interestingly, enemies can recover their health automatically over time, and this is where the game’s wound system kicks in. Staying on the offensive or using a few heavy attacks is almost always necessary to make sure that the enemy doesn’t recover their health. Not only does this effectively double the HP some enemies could have, it also has another add-on mechanic, simply called Reaving.

Players can use a charged-up heavy attack to ‘Reave’ an ability off the enemy. Since this charging up time is not insignificant and will leave you open to other attacks, even the game’s tutorial recommends doing it closer to the end of a fight rather than attempting it while also juggling other enemies nearby. Doing so on specific enemies—those afflicted by a plague—gives you a Reave ability. You can now, for a single attack, use that enemy’s weapon for some extra damage.

"The combat maintains a delicate balance of simplicity along with a few interesting mechanics."

While far from game-changing, the Reave ability actually helps freshen up combat quite a bit. Not only are you now not stuck spamming the same quick attack with the default weapon, but you now also have a quick option to deal a considerable amount of damage to thin out groups of enemies.

In terms of defensive options, Thymesia gives you three: dodging, parrying, and feather attacks. That last one might sound weird, but it works quite well in this rock-paper-scissors game of trying to stay alive. Dodging can be used just about any time, and when facing multiple enemies, is the preferred way of not getting hit. Parrying lets you quickly parry an attack and deal a little bit of damage in the process. But then enemies might use a charged-up attack that can’t really be parried. That’s when you use your feather attacks.

Feather attacks will quickly interrupt your enemy’s charged up attacks and deal quite a bit of damage to them. Thymesia’s combat system is all about dealing damage, to the extent that two out of your three defensive options also deal damage. This seems like a great segue into upgrades and the skill system. Along with a Souls-styled method of leveling your stats, Thymesia also gives you a number of skill trees, all focusing on various aspects of your character. There are skill trees for your regular attacks, your heavy attacks, dodging, parrying, feather attacks, everything. And in an interesting twist, Thymesia also lets you freely re-spec your skill trees, encouraging experimentation to a certain extent.

I say “to a certain extent” because a few skills seem downright mandatory to get as soon as you possibly can. Of course, this could just be a testament to how well the skill trees have been generally designed, but I couldn’t imagine ever playing a build without a certain skill that upgrades your dodge to also be effective against charged attacks. But the true customizability of a skill build will only become evident as time goes on.

Thymesia’s storytelling is as minimalistic as you’d expect from a game of that genre. However, it is much more explicit in your more immediate goals than Bloodborne, which gives you little more than “go kill some fools” as an objective. Thymesia, on the other hand, lets you know that you’re looking for the memories of your amnesiac protagonist.

"Thymesia gives you just enough information to at least give you a vague idea of what you’re supposed to be doing, but never enough information to let you get too comfortable with your situation."

Let’s talk about difficulty. Games by FromSoftware have a reputation for being quite difficult, thanks in no small part to the marketing campaign behind the first Dark Souls’ Prepare to Die edition. We’re just over a decade removed from that point and we still have some developers misunderstanding the point of the Souls games’ difficulty. The Souls games don’t just have slow, deliberate combat because “it’d be difficult”, nor does it have harsh punishments for death as a source of its difficulty. Rather, the difficulty in these games comes from the lack of information the player has when they start playing. The further they get into the game, the more they know not only about its mechanics and the world, the less difficult these games seem. And this is an aspect Thymesia seems to understand quite well. It gives you just enough information to at least give you a vague idea of what you’re supposed to be doing, but never enough information to let you get too comfortable with your situation.

Ultimately, Thymesia is far from yet another indie studio trying its hand at imitating FromSoftware’s work. While it undoubtedly borrows a lot from the game that influenced it the most—Bloodborne—Thymesia does more than enough to end up being little more than a pale imitation. It has quite a few great ideas that turn combat into a fun, fast-paced affair, and the story premise is quite clever. Even its story trappings of a plague in a medieval city play quite well into the core gameplay, with the Reave ability being especially fun to play with.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

"Thymesia is all about build variety, we want the player to have extra tools to play around with on top of their basic movements, so they can better prepare themselves for the challenges that await."

Stealing diseases from enemies and using those as weapons is an intriguing premise. Can you tell us more about how that will work in terms of gameplay? Additionally, how will the raven form factor into the combat? Is it something that will also come into play with exploration and traversal?

Both the enemy health system and Corvus’ ability to steal diseases from enemies are inspired by the macabre medieval act of bloodletting practiced by plague doctors. In the past, people believe when the blood flows out, so does the virus.

Hence, whenever Corvus deals damage to an enemy, he leaves wounds on them, and the enemy emits some of their plague energy into the air. The raven form represents the plague energy part of combat in Thymesia. You can either hit the enemy with claws to absorb the energy or charge up your claws to reave enemy plague weapons. Corvus shifts into raven form automatically when he taps into the raven power inside of him.

The plague weapons reaved from enemies can only be used once, however you can collect plague weapon shards to unlock or even upgrade plague weapons permanently.

Thymesia is all about build variety, we want the player to have extra tools to play around with on top of their basic movements, so they can better prepare themselves for the challenges that await.

Audiences often have very specific expectations from Souslike titles where storytelling is concerned, especially in terms of lore and world-building. What can we expect from Thymesia in those areas and from its style of storytelling?

We’re a big fan of fragmented storytelling. We tried our best to bring all the key storytelling devices we think are essential to a good narrative to Thymesia: dialogue, item descriptions, notes, books, etc. The story of Thymesia is not as simple as it appears on the surface. We wanted players to discover the story on their own and stitch together their own version of events as they play through the game.

How much of an emphasis does Thymesia place on exploration?

We love the intertwined level design in Souls games, and within the parameters that having a small team allowed, we tried our best to make the maps that we built interesting to explore and with lots of items, story bits, and secrets for players to find.

"We love the intertwined level design in Souls games, and within the parameters that having a small team allowed, we tried our best to make the maps that we built interesting to explore and with lots of items, story bits, and secrets for players to find."

What should players expect from Thymesia in terms of its boss fights and enemy variety? Additionally, how large is the game’s world? How is it structured?

The world is separated into different levels, each has its own unique visual style, bosses, elite enemies, and some shared common enemies. Each boss has its own movement sets that bring a series of challenges to the player.

How much experimentation will Thymesia encourage where its build variety is concerned? Additionally, what’s your approach to things such as difficulty been in Thymesia?

There’s no difficulty setting in Thymesia; however, we provide players with a variety of tools to help them progress through the game. We want every player to take on the enemies and challenges in a way that best suits them.

There are different stats in the game you can increase as you level up that affect basic values like health points, attack power, plague energy, etc.

As Corvus’ levels up, players get talent points to spend, and they can learn or unlearn any chosen talents at checkpoints throughout the game. Talents can greatly affect Corvus’ basic movements and playstyle. You can choose to be very aggressive and up close, or you can do a hit-and-run kind of style, or you can maximize your energy recovery and cast plague weapons all day.

The plague weapons Corvus reaves from enemies are not all just for dealing damage, they have different effects too – some of them provide you with shields and superarmor, others can help by stunning enemies.

Potions are the final ingredient players can use to help them overcome enemies in Thymesia. You can choose from a basic potion, which heals instantly but takes time to drink, a long-lasting potion which heals overtime but heals more, or a fast-acting potion, which heals less but shortens the drinking time and increases the use amount. Potions can also be upgraded using ingredients found throughout the world, giving them extra effects on top of their base healing.

"There’s no difficulty setting in Thymesia; however, we provide players with a variety of tools to help them progress through the game. We want every player to take on the enemies and challenges in a way that best suits them."

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Thymesia be?

For this kind of genre, it really depends on the skill of the player. For example, how deep they dig into the lore, the optional elites they take on, hidden secrets they uncover, and how they choose to fight the bosses. As with all Soulslikes, playthroughs can vary quite a lot depending on if players are new to the genre or if they’re veterans who’ve played every one out there!

What frame rate and resolution will the game target on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S?

We’re targeting 4k on both PS5 and XSX with dynamic resolution hitting 60fps. The XSS runs off a very similar profile to XSX just with some changes to anti-aliasing.

Publisher Team17 has announced with a brief new trailer that Thymesia will also be available for the Nintendo Switch upon launch in a few days’ time, having previously been announced just for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. There is a catch though- as is the case with most multiplatform releases on the Switch these days, it’ll be a cloud-exclusive version of the game, and it doesn’t seem like there are any plans for a native launch. You can check out a brief announcement trailer for the Switch version below.

Thymesia will launch on August 18 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

SETTING

One of the main drivers behind Thymesia’s comparisons to Bloodborne is its setting and the gothic horror vibe. The game is set in the Kingdom of Hermes, which was once thriving due to its advancements in alchemy, but the practice came at a catastrophic chaos, swallowing the kingdom in chaos. The realm is now crawling with hellish beasts and nightmarish creatures, disease and decay, and the few who survive have locked themselves in. It’s all very Yharnam, and if it can make good on its exciting promise, it’s going to be a solid setting for the game.

PROTAGONIST

You play Thymesia as Corvus, a mysterious man with a past shrouded in mystery, though he’s supposedly the only one who can now pull the kingdom back from the state it finds itself in. Appropriately enough for the kind of game its trying to be, it’s clear that Thymesia’s story is going to rely heavily on mystery and revealing bits and pieces through lore drops. It remains to be seen how Corvus’ own story intertwines with that, though- or how much it intertwines with that.

MEMORIES

Corvus’ past is being used in Thymesia as an interesting gameplay mechanic as well. His memories are splintered, and they’re scattered all throughout the kingdom. That, of course, means that exploring environments and finding those memories becomes key, because only with those can you understand what’s going on and unlock every mystery in the story. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did something similar, but it remains to be seen if the idea’s execution is going to be different in Thymesia.

ENDINGS

Soulslikes are known for having multiple endings more often than not, and given that (and the fact that it seems to be evoking Bloodborne so heavily), it’s no surprise that Thymesia is going to feature multiple endings as well. Developer OverBorder Studio hasn’t talked about exactly how many endings the game will have, but we do know that which ending you get will depend on several factors, such as whether or not you’ve been able to acquire specific items, and how many of Corvus’ memories you were able to find and witness throughout your playthrough. Hopefully there will be enough variation across those endings to make them feel meaningfully different, because that can be a bit of a hard balance to strike.

COMBAT

Enough about the game’s world and story though. Let’s get down to the meat and potatoes of the experience, which, like any other Soulslike, is the combat. While Thymesia is very heavily reminiscent of Bloodborne in terms of its setting and tone, when it comes to the combat, it’s much more similar to something like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice- in style, at the very least. Encounters rely largely on fast and frantic melee and ranged attacks, with quite a bit of emphasis placed on dodges and parries. Essentially, it looks significantly faster than the typical Soulslike. Whether or not it’s actually fun to play once you get your hands on the controller remains to be seen, though we’re certainly keeping our fingers crossed.

PLAGUES

Here’s the central mechanic in Thymesia– or at least the central mechanic in the game’s combat system, at any rate. The Kingdom of Hermes is ridden with diseases and pestilence, but Corvus has the unique ability to turn them to his advantage and use them as very literal weapons against his foes. Bosses and special enemies will carry different plagues that you’ll be able to take for yourself after defeating them, and then use in the form of different weapons, like claws, scythes, and more. It sounds like a novel concept, so hopefully Thymesia will be able to execute it well.

RAVEN

Another unique ability that Thymesia will feature in combat is being able to shift your form. Corvus can turn into a raven during combat, and in this form, he has access to several useful abilities, like performing executions, interrupting enemy attacks, throwing dagger-like feathers at foes, and more. There are some important things that haven’t been mentioned yet- like whether or not the game will place any kind of a limit on how frequently and freely players will be able to use this ability, or if it’s going to be used for exploration and traversal purposes as well. If the game gets those details right though, it could be an interesting mechanic.

ENEMIES

Enemy design and variety is crucial in any combat-focused game, but that’s doubly true for Soulslikes. Boss battles are the bread and butter of this genre, and Thymesia seems promising on that front in particular, given its bosses and special foes who carry diseases and use them as weapons. From what we’ve seen of the game so far, the more regular enemies are going to put up plenty of challenge as well- which, of course, should work well with the more fast-paced nature of the game’s combat.

PROGRESSION AND BUILD VARIETY

This is another area where Thymesia distances itself from Bloodborne. While the latter was famously much less focused on build variety than FromSoftware’s previous games had been, Thymesia is promising much greater flexibility. According to the developers, players will be able to play in a variety of different ways by being able to upgrade and modify Corvus’ movement and abilities in different ways, and having multiple plague weapons to use and upgrade. On paper, it sounds like Thymesia will allow a much greater degree of freedom in building your character in a variety of different ways, so hopefully, there will be enough depth to the progression systems to make good on that promise.

PC REQUIREMENTS

When Thymesia launches a few days from now, it will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S as well, but many in the PC audience will be glad to know that the game isn’t going to be a very demanding one on their platform of choice, from a specs point of view. On minimum requirements, Thymesia will need either an Intel Core i5 or an AMD Ryzen 5, along with either a GeForce GTX 950 or a Radeon HD 7970, and 8 GB of RAM. On recommended settings, meanwhile, the game requires either an Intel Core i7 or an AMD Ryzen 7, along with either a GeForce GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX 580, and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll need about 16 GB of free storage space.

Announced in a statement on Steam, the reason given for Thymesia‘s delay is to ensure a better player experience after getting feedback from a recent demo that was released on Steam.

“After listening to the community feedback from the recent Steam demo, we’ve made the difficult decision to push the launch date for Thymesia back by a few days to the 18th August,” says the statement.

“We are 100% committed to making Thymesia the best experience possible, and those few extra days allow us to do this by implementing changes and fixes that were asked for across all platforms.”

Thymesia will be coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Set in a plague-infested fantasy kingdom, Thymesia has players take on the role of Corvus, embarking on a journey to recover your lost memories.

Even a glimpse will make the Bloodborne inspiration in Thymesia quite apparent. For more details on that, here are 9 reasons why Bloodborne fans should keep an eye on it.

THE SETTING

Bloodborne’s setting, the city of Yharnam, is a massive part of what makes the game as unforgettable of an experience as it is, and similarly, it looks like Thymesia’s own setting is also going to be a crucial part of the experience. The Kingdom of Hermes not only looks a great deal like Yharnam (more on that in a bit), it even has a similar story, where advancements in a certain field saw the kingdom flourishing for a period of time, only for those very advancements to turn out to be the cause of a sudden and catastrophic downfall. Alchemy was once Hermes’ greatest tool and seen as an answer to most (if not all) ailments, but the price, as it turned out, was too steep, and now deadly plagues sweep the land. The once-great kingdom is seeing its streets stalked by deadly monsters, and the few that have survived have locked themselves in.

SIMILAR AESTHETIC

Bloodborne’s gothic horror aesthetic is another big part of its identity, and that, too, seems to be an area where Thymesia is taking cues from FromSoftware’s masterpiece. We’ve already spoken about the similarities between the two games where the backstories of their settings are concerned, and that is, of course, going to result in very similar environments with some frequency. Thymesia’s gothic vibe of a once-great kingdom that’s now crumbling because of its own miscalculated advancements has a great deal in common with Yharnam. Of course, we’re not expecting a hundred percent overlap, but the similarities are undeniable nonetheless.

SIMILAR STORYTELLING STYLE

This, of course, can be said about pretty much every Soulslike game (or close enough, at least). Since its inception with Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, thanks to FromSoftware’s pioneering work, this is a genre that has adopted a very specific style of storytelling, one that is more passive than direct, one that encourages players to dig into their environments, tidbits of lore, and other similar things rather than simply providing all the answers upfront. As a Bloodborne-inspired Soulslike game, it’s not surprising in the least that Thymesia also seems to be adopting that style. Implementing that style is easier said than done, of course, so here’s hoping OverBorder Studio has a good grasp on the concept. Speaking of which…

LORE

This might not necessarily be similar to Bloodborne, but it’s quite relevant to our previous point. Thymesia will see players stepping into the shoes of an amnesiac protagonist, and piecing together the past by finding more of your memories will be how you unlock the mysteries of the past. An amnesiac protagonist isn’t exactly the most original, nor is the idea of finding bits and pieces of your memories throughout the game, but when pulled off correctly, it can be a powerful storytelling tool. If it encourages players to dig into the game deeply and engage with its world and lore in a more direct fashion, it should prove to be a solid and well realized concept.

MULTIPLE ENDINGS

Here’s another area where Thymesia seems to be taking a leaf out of Bloodborne’s book- or really, most of FromSoftware’s Soulslike games. Based on how you play, explore, and engage with the game, you’ll end up with one of several endings in the game. How many endings the game has exactly remains to be seen, but we do know that which one you get will be based on whether or not you acquire specific items throughout your playthrough and which of protagonist Corvus’ memories you unlock and witness. Again, that sounds like a great way of encourage players to engage with the game on a deeper level and explore more thoroughly, so we’re optimistic about how the whole memories thing is being handled.

PLAGUE SYSTEM

This is one of the biggest things that seems to be setting Thymesia apart from others in the Soulslike genre, or Bloodborne, which very much seems like its direct inspiration. The whole premise and setting revolve around the concept of plagues and diseases in this game, and as it turns out, that’s going to bleed into the gameplay as well. Players will be able to beat special enemies and bosses and steal the plagues infesting their bodies and use them against them in the form of weapons, like scythes and claws and what have you. That sounds like an incredibly novel concept, and we’re more than a little curious to see how it plays out.

FAST-PACED COMBAT

One of the biggest things that sets Bloodborne apart from the Souls games is how faster its combat is compared to those games, and how it encourages its players to be much more aggressive and demands that you remain on the front foot. Thymesia looks like it’s going to take things even further. From what we’ve seen, it actually looks closer to Sekiro than Bloodborne in this area. With a combination of frantic ranged and melee attacks, dodges, parries, and what have you, it certainly seems like Thymesia is going to ramp up the intensity with the pace of its combat.

CHALLENGING FOES

This is another area where Thymesia is looking like a mouthwatering prospect. What we’ve seen of the game so far certainly seems to suggest that enemy variety is going to be one of its strengths. From the grunts to the more special foes and bosses that use diseases as weapons against you, it looks like OverBorder Studio’s upcoming action RPG will throw more than a few challenging foes your way and demand that you emerge victorious against them. The way these enemies move and behave is also likely going to be another factor contributing to the fast-paced nature of the combat. Of course, maintaining impressive variety and quality for enemies throughout the entirety of the experience is easier said than done, and especially in a game such as this one, it can be a significant factor, so we’re hoping Thymesia won’t disappoint here.

FOCUSED ON BUILD VARIETY

Fans of the Dark Souls games will often tell you that for all of its many strengths, the one aspect of Bloodborne that’s a little disappointing is how it forces players to play in a very significant way. While the Souls games are focused on build variety and letting players make the kind of character they want to make, Bloodborne is a much more focused experience. If you want a Bloodborne-esque experience that embraces build variety though, you’re in luck, because that’s exactly the sort of game Thymesia looks like it’s going to be. OverBorder Studio has, on multiple occasions, driven home the fact that its game is going to let players play the way they want to play and build the kind of character they want to build, and the idea of having that sort of flexibility is exciting as always.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Thymesia will be releasing on August 9th, 2022 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. Set against the backdrop of a plague-infested fantasy kingdom, Thymesia sees players assuming the role of a mysterious character by the name of Corvus. You embark on a journey to recover your memories, and possibly, find an end to the calamity rocking the city.

Thymesia‘s combat takes heavy inspiration from Bloodborne, both with its fast-paced dance of careful slashes and in its transforming Plague Weapons. Thymesia also allows players to morph into a Raven and deal damage to their enemies. Check out the trailer down below to get a glimpse of what it’ll have on offer.