

A few of the easier bosses are nothing more than damage sponges with limited attacks and uninteresting mechanics. There is some heavy - and visible - input reading from the more humanoid opponents, a problematic trait Thymesia shares with Elden Ring. The final boss, in particular, is a Testament to the skill of Thymesia's designers because what they pull off is devilishly difficult and is worth the 10 to 15 hours you'll spend reaching it. The changes you can make to his kit do not significantly alter how he functions at his core, so the designers could create boss encounters with much more precision.Īre any of Thymesia's bosses as good as Sword Saint Isshin or Owl (Father)? No, but a couple of them get within spitting distance of that bar. His core abilities will always be attack, deflect, and Plague weapons. Corvus, the character you control, has no equipment or weapon customization available. The quality on display is thanks to the same constraints Thymesia puts on its design. The few truly outstanding examples do both, with set-piece moments that necessitate improvisation and creative thinking to survive. Others are more for the spectacle and require puzzle-solving skills.
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A few are fast and force you to learn on the fly. I cannot think of a single boss I didn't like in Thymesia, as they're all different. I'm happy to say Thymesia comes out swinging, with the first boss acting as a high-quality introduction to the game's ultimate challenges and a proper skill check. Souls-likes live and die by two factors: their combat and the quality of their bosses. This game will quickly teach you how punishing it can be, and unless you learn to play it how it wants to be played, don't expect to get very far. If you're a Souls fan and think you can come into Thymesia without much adapting, think again. Thymesia does an admirable job of translating the deflect system into its own mechanics. Also like in Sekiro, most boss fights boil down to staying in the boss' face, deflecting when possible, and then Claw attacking during recovery.īorrowing from a game as tightly built as Sekiro is not something to be done lightly. Bosses demand special attention at their most aggressive, you'll be deflecting more often than you can get a single Claw attack in. The system is different enough from its inspiration to remain fresh, and I found myself constantly engaged with the best ways to approach every new enemy.Īggression is usually the key to success in Thymesia, with defense and caution used as learning tools more than survival. Wounds are essentially Posture from Sekiro, but Thymesia adds the extra step of needing to deplete the Posture bar with Claw attacks rather than building with just weapon strikes. If you don't clear the Wounds bar, the enemy will eventually heal back all the green to white, and your work is wasted. Beneath it is their green Wounds bar.ĭepleting the white bar reveals the Wounds bar, which you can then deplete using Claw attacks. In brief, every enemy has two health bars, white and green.
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Each Plague weapon has an upgrade tree and unique effects, each useful in specific situations.Īttacking, deflecting, and using Plague weapons all serve a single function: to apply Wounds to your target, a unique mechanic in Thymesia. In short, every enemy uses one weapon, and you can gather Skill Shards from slaying them to unlock the ability to use their armaments against them. Plague weapons are equipable energy versions of every weapon your enemies use, including bosses. Deflecting is similarly concise, especially if you're familiar with Sekiro: hit the deflect button just as an enemy's attack hits to negate the damage and return it to them. Press the attack button and unleash one of three unlockable combos. Thymesia's gameplay revolves around three core mechanics: attacking, deflecting, and using Plague weapons. You'll find, however, that Thymesia is very much its own game, and though it wears its inspirations on its sleeve, everything from the combat to the customization to the all-important boss fights is top class. It's a potent mix that, in hands less experienced, could easily become just another entry in a long line of average but uninteresting genre titles.
