When the first official trailer for Thymesia came out in March 2021, many were head-over-heels about a new Souls-like featuring a plague doctor protagonist. The history surrounding plague doctors is often explored in video games, and Thymesia does this in an interesting way, applying the concept of bloodletting to how players can regain their resources. Another interesting aspect is how players can change their playstyle by manifesting plague weapons, including a huge scythe, claws, and more.
Game Rant spoke to OverBorder Studio about the upcoming release of Thymesia, and what its sources of inspiration were. Furthermore, because Thymesia is designed to be a PC game, OverBorder Studio also shared its thoughts on controller support and future plans regarding console ports. Interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What is the story behind how Thymesia came to be?
A: Before the studio was established, our game director, Mu-En, and our animator, Hu-Syuan, had been working on an action game prototype for more than two years. It started as a passion project until a video blew up (sadly, the video got deleted) and we realized it could be something real. From there, we started gathering talented developers and turned the prototype into our first demo. After that, we received funding and started OverBorder Studio.
Q: Who is Corvus, and what is happening within the world of Thymesia?
A: The story takes place in a once-thriving kingdom, formerly sustained by the power of alchemy. Someone taught the king how to use alchemy who then set up a research center to ward off diseases and monsters. After an accident, the whole kingdom was thrown into chaos and monsters started prowling the streets. Corvus is entrusted to find a solution and save the kingdom. That’s all we can say for now, but you’ll learn more about the kingdom and Corvus throughout the game.
Q: Which were your sources of inspiration in terms of games and other media?
A: We love FromSoftware’s games, some of us have even logged more than 1,000 hours into Dark Souls on Steam. We really enjoy the sense of achievement you get after finally beating a boss you’ve been struggling with for a while, and the process of learning through trial and error. We’re also big fans of action games like God of War and Monster Hunter, as well as plenty of TV shows and movies, so Thymesia takes inspiration from a lot of different places.
Here's a picture of us getting together to watch The Witcher on Netflix:
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Q: Was there any other project you worked on prior to Thymesia?
A: Thymesia is our first project as a team, but we have all individually worked on other games before from all over the industry. On average, we each have about three years of experience in games.
Q: Was the game always meant to be played without a stamina bar? How do you think this choice affects gameplay?
A: Yes, we have always loved the idea of a Souls-like game with fluid combat, so at the beginning of development, we knew we didn’t want to use a stamina bar to limit or dictate what the player can or should do. That decision made it much more challenging for us to design combat, since the player can do whatever they want, and we needed to come up with a way to allow players to plan their moves strategically instead of just spamming attacks. From here, we came up with the enemy counter and special attacks – attacks the player cannot stop and will need to dodge or use a feather attack to interrupt.
Q: What do you think are the most Souls-like features in the game? Which ones are the least?
A: There’s an in-game currency called ‘memory shards’ which you collect throughout the game and use to level up Corvus. You also drop them when you die and can recover them if you manage to make it back to the same spot you perished. We wanted the combat experience to feel different from typical Souls-like games, more fluid and flexible than the slower, deliberate combat the sub-genre is known for.
You can approach each enemy differently and wait to react to their attacks, or you can attack first, forcing them to counterattack and opening them up for a parry. Corvus’ build can be customized in order to suit different playstyles or to prepare for the enemies and bosses the player encounters throughout their journey.
Q: How does build customization work? What options do players have?
A: There are many systems that can affect the builds in Thymesia. One of these is the different stats that can be increased as you level up. These affect values such as health points, attack power, energy, etc. There are also different talents, for example, you can chain together longer combos to deal more damage, regenerate feathers faster, use ranged projectiles that can interrupt enemies and keep them at bay, or even replace your parry with a defense buff so that you don't need to worry about timing.
Potions also play a large part in combat and using one at the right time can really turn the tide of battle. The final part of the combat in Thymesia is the plague weapons – which Corvus can take from fallen enemies to use temporarily or unlock permanent versions at checkpoints throughout the game.
Q: What sorts of abilities can players use with their mana reserve, and how do players regenerate mana and health?
A: In Thymesia, we call mana ‘plague energy’ and it’s used exclusively for casting plague weapons. The system for plague energy regeneration is inspired by the medieval act of bloodletting – a practice used by plague doctors involving the removal of blood to prevent or cure illness. When Corvus deals damage to an enemy, they let out some of their plague energy, which Corvus can then absorb using his claws. Health and plague energy can also be regenerated by drinking potions or performing certain actions unlocked via talents.
Q: Is there crafting in the game? If so, do players have a degree of freedom on how it works?
A: Players can craft potions in-game with varying effects that can help turn the tide of a battle. A fight that was almost impossible before can be much more manageable with the right potion.
Q: Let's say a player wants to use a specific weapon category or ability throughout the whole game. Is that possible in Thymesia, or are there enemies that require you to change your playstyle for you to defeat them?
A: You cannot change weapons in Thymesia but you can cast and use different plague weapon abilities throughout the entire game. We don’t want to force players to use any specific weapon. Our goal was the make sure it was possible (albeit, very difficult) to complete the game with a naked, level one Corvus. The other systems in the game just make this easier.
Q: How does death work in Thymesia? Does Corvus lose progress, currency, or anything else?
A: Thymesia is a very traditional Souls-like in this sense. When you die, you leave behind ‘memories’ and you will have to try to retrieve these in your next life or risk losing them forever.
Q: Are there different levels of difficulty to choose from when starting the game? Can they be changed at any given time?
A: Not at the moment. We believe the difficulty is part of the experience. However, we think Thymesia won’t be quite as difficult as some other Souls-like titles since there are so many different ways to grow and customize the main character.
Q: More and more developers are adding several accessibility options to their games. Is this something you did for Thymesia? Are there options to play the game differently?
A: Our current goal is to make sure the core game is in the best possible place before launch. We’re a small team of seven and development takes time. We are listening to the community though and after launch, we’ll definitely take more things into consideration.
Q: Does Thymesia support controllers?
A: Yes, Thymesia will have full support on PC for both Xbox and PlayStation controllers.
Q: What was it like for you to be featured at Gamescom 2021?
A: The team was very excited! Some of us even stayed up until 4:00 a.m. just to see people's live reactions and we were totally blown away by how positive they were. Thanks, everyone!
Q: Will Thymesia come out on consoles as well, later on?
A: We’re currently focused on making the PC version of Thymesia the best possible experience for players ahead of launch this year. We would love to bring the game to more platforms but for now, we don’t have anything to share about additional platforms.
Q: What are your plans for the future, after the game releases on December 7?
A: We’re currently focused on launching the game and don’t currently have anything to share post-launch just yet. We want to see what players think of the game first and then, potentially move focus to what comes next.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add that I didn't ask?
A: That was a great set of questions! The only thing would be that we’re really excited for players to get their hands on Thymesia. We’ve been blown away by all of the support so far, and we have our incredible community to thank for that!
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Thymesia releases December 7 on PC.