Review: Thymesia
In my four decades of gaming, there have been very few ‘new’ genres, and even fewer that have proven to have lasting staying power. Aside from the phenomenon that is Battle Royale, there is probably only one 21st-century-birthed genre that has proven itself with consistent and cemented success with developers, player communities, and cash registers: The Soulslike.
A sub-genre of RPGs, Soulslikes generally feature grim, deep lore, an emphasis on exploration, build-heavy protagonists, and a typically gloomy, gothic aesthetic. Oh, and they’re also hard as nails. And yet, despite their punishing difficulty, steep learning curve, and joyless demeanor, the Soulslike genre has enraptured a huge community of devotees, won over by FromSoftware epics such as Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and one of the finest releases of the year to date, Elden Ring.
Capitalizing on the current craze from hard ‘n’ heavy hack ‘n’ slashers, indie out OverBorder Studio and British publisher Team 17 have tossed their own night-black cape into the gloom, with the arrival of their own take on the Soulslike, Thymesia. With a dark, nightmarish aesthetic, a despondently topical tale of an unstoppable pandemic, and teeth-clenching, merciless difficulty, Thymesia makes no bones about its desire to be the next challenge for sadistic fans of the genre mercy forgot.
Thymesia (PS5 [reviewed], PC, Xbox Series X/S)Developer: OverBorder StudioPublisher: Team17Released: August 18, 2022MSRP: $29.99
Thymesia, (a Greek derivative for “Memory”), is set in the despairing Kingdom of Hermes, a once thriving community now awash with plague, calamity, and death. Into this sorrowful city strides Corvus, a mysterious young stranger suffering his own affliction, that of total
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