Parents' Guide to Thymesia

This short adventure takes its influences from dark, difficult games, but its combat is the star of the tale. In Thymesia, players fight their way through a medieval kingdom with a sword and dagger in hand, along with a slew of ghostly "plague weapons." These can be temporarily summoned to not only do damage from near or far, but also add to or enhance existing abilities like healing and dodging. Players are even incentivized to single out foes who will drop items that upgrade particular weapons' capabilities. Character stats, potions, abilities -- all of these can be enhanced as well, sometimes without penalty for experimentation when a certain ability isn't cutting it. For example, you can choose to have your dagger deflect or block attacks. There's more risk and reward with the former, but the latter is the easier option without timing required. There's flexibility and permutation with core abilities that makes feeling out what works for you fun, even if it would've been nice to have one or two more main weapons instead of a single sword.

Thymesia is a beautifully animated and fluid game. Some enemies can be a drag to fight with moves that are hard to read, but with some patience, figuring out and memorizing their attacks is thrilling as you dodge and parry blows. Normal enemies and bosses vary greatly in their moves, which makes each new encounter fresh. Players are encouraged to revisit locations with entirely new bosses, and while this shows the game's depth and breadth, the same isn't true with exploration. There are only three major areas that take a couple hours each to complete. New quests are largely the same main levels starting from different locations that lead to small new areas. Some levels are unusually lacking of enemies or small in scope as well. There's no voice acting, and the story isn't that compelling or essential because, where it counts, Thymesia is a reasonably priced experience for what it does offer with exciting and polished combat.