Stone The Crows, It's The Thymesia Demo

Well, Thymesia is a no-brainer. There haven’t been that many demos I’ve played of late where I immediately wanted to play the entire game as much as I did with OverBorder Studio’s title. Hipster Café was another one of those games, and I highly recommend it.

In the case of Thymesia, it’s another Dark Souls… clone? Clone is a negative word in this context as it seems like it’s a copy, and perhaps a lesser one. Nope. Your character, Corvus, moves with such grace that controlling a From Software protagonist feels like pushing a fridge.

Ok, I’m exaggerating, and for the record, the Dark Souls/Bloodborne series are on my gaming pedestal. Like its peers, you’ll be mixing up various builds, hit and run tactics and locating items to build a better warrior. The layout, UI – even the ambience screams its predecessors, including the death scenes, but it’s somewhat unique.

That bespoke gameplay comes from plague weapons and evasive finesse. You’ll encounter an enemy, use an oversized claw (heavy attack) to take them out, and once you’ve executed them, devour their weapon to yield as your own. Really, Thymesia flows and in – what, the first two minutes? I was in love. It’s sleek, moody, and familiar for all the right reasons.

Instead of souls, you’ll have memory shards to collect upon your death, and in turn, they’ll level you up. Like most Soulsborne games, you can grind areas if required and farm memories so that you can improve as enemies will respawn on death. It’s not an easy run as while your stamina initially feels very generous, mashing away won’t help as it doesn’t interrupt attacks – you have to pace yourself. Great design, in my opinion.

The bonfire alternative in Thymesia is the beacon. Once you light it, you can level up… oh wait: you can’t in the demo! Bugger. Ok, moving on, we’re introduced to another technique, and this one is the feather attack. Critical attacks can’t be deflected, but you can make a feather attack that wounds an enemy if you get your timing right. Wounds are like a bleed effect, but it wears off after a while. And this is where the challenge sets in.

It’s not necessarily the movement, as Corvus is incredibly agile out of the box. They’ll weave in and out of enemies with seemingly endless stamina but lacking a little in the power department. No doubt that will unlock in the game. The best comparison I can give is donning the Blade of Mercy and Eileen the Crow’s garb. I’m not a dex player, but here it’s wicked.

Though I’m a Soulsborne veteran, I’m no way on par with someone like Let Me Solo Her. Thymesia is tough, but doable. To put it into context, Dark Souls and Bloodborne were manageable for me (eventually); Sekiro was not. The latter was harder, in my opinion, hence I bailed. With Team17‘s game it’s achievable – you just have to master the two evasive options; the parry and the feather attack.

I was close to concluding my write-up and moving on as I couldn’t get past the first enemy where the feather counter was introduced. The timing is punishing, but having a beacon nearby and quick loading screens, I was happy(ish) to stick it out without any upgrades until I beat it. And that I did. If you’re stuck on it yourself, the key thing is distance: lure the enemy. As soon as they go green, run back and feather attack. Don’t go back too far as they’ll recover when you hit them.

If that victory built my confidence, it was soon squashed as another enemy around the corner took a few too many hits before death, and then I met a rather large, ominous knight. Sod it; I’m here now – let’s give it a go. And… end scene – it’s the last part of the demo.

So, what can you take away from the Thymesia demo? It’s fantastic. If you haven’t played it already, download it and give it a go. Make sure to wishlist it, too, this will be a highlight for 2022.