The 'souls-very-like' Thymesia drops a demo on Steam

Thymesia was revealed last year as a competent-looking but not especially imaginative soulslike—a "souls-very-like," as Rich put it at the time. It was set to come out on December 31, 2021, a date often used as a placeholder until developers can nail down a real release date, and sure enough OverBorder Studio and publisher Team 17 announced today that the game will in fact be out on August 9.

Courtesy of IGN, we also have a new trailer showcasing Thymesia in action, and while I'm not an expert in the genre I have to agree with Rich's assessment that it does indeed look very much like its stylistic forebears. The Steam page works hard to set it apart, with a tale about shifting into a "raven form" during battle and wielding "plague weapons" in combat as you struggle to recover memories lost in the wake of some kind of alchemical catastrophe. 

In practical terms, though, it looks like you're going to block, dodge, roll, and drop the hammer on a bunch of warped weirdos infesting a grim fantasy world. Familiar stuff, definitely.

The good news for those who'd like a closer look is that a demo of Thymesia is also now available. It's a not-terribly-big (by today's standards) 6GB download, and promises access to "a small portion" of the game. Unfortunately, it's only available for a week for some reason—trying to stoke a sense of urgency, perhaps—so you've only got until May 9 to give it a run. 

If you run into any bugs in the demo you can report them in this Steam forum thread, and while you wait for it to set up you can get a closer look at Thymesia's combat and talent tree in the April video below.

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Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.