Thymesia is an action RPG from developer OverBorder Studio and publisher Team17 that’s slated to come out on PC later this year. We recently got the chance to interview Ross Huang, Lead Game Designer at OverBorder Studio, and ask some questions about their upcoming game. Here is what they had to say.
Where did the name Thymesia come from and how does it play into the plot of the game?
Huang: The title “Thymesia” is a Greek word for memory or remembering, which we found from a medical condition called “Hyperthymesia”. Hyperthymesia leads people to be able to vividly remember everything in detail.
The story of Thymesia revolves around memory. Our protagonist, Corvus, suffered terrible injuries during a mission, causing his memory to be wiped, so throughout the game, the things you do and items you collect all help towards putting together his forgotten memories. And similar to the way human memory is unreliable, only you can decide which truth to believe.
What were some of the influences or references that you had while developing the game?
Huang: We are big fans of FromSoftware’s games, we won’t deny that. We love the idea of learning through practicing and mastering, and the sense of achievement after finally beating a boss you’ve struggled on for a while. But that’s not all, we also take inspiration from most modern action games, such as God of War, Monster Hunter, Demon May Cry, etc.
Being a 3rd person action RPG, it is likely that the game will be compared to the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne. What makes Thymesia stand out from those games?
Huang: Thymesia plays more like Sekiro than it does Dark Souls and Bloodborne, our protagonist is very fast and agile, and we encourage players to attack as much as possible. Combined with the talent tree and plague weapon system, we’ve made it so that players can really build their own playstyle.
Where did the idea of controlling and manipulating diseases come from?
Huang: We had the character design of Corvus from the very beginning of this project and we’ve always wanted to incorporate a fast-paced combat system with depth for the player to master. In other words, we wanted it to be something a plague doctor/assassin could do, and then have it double as a skill system. During the development, we tried so many ways to achieve both, and the Plague Weapon system was the final winner, and not only is it the perfect mixture of the two, but it also looks very cool on the screen.
How hard was it developing this game through the struggles of COVID-19?
Huang: To be honest, the pandemic didn’t really affect the development until this May. We live in a city that didn’t have that many cases until recent months, so we were lucky that we maintained a somewhat normal life throughout the entire 2020.
The biggest impact on us was in the search for a publisher. We started looking for a publisher around March 2020, and the second we got some emails back from publishers, the pandemic happened. Many publishers said they had to postpone the reviewing process infinitely, and we almost ran out of development funds during that time, but fortunately, we survived and signed a deal with Team17 around February 2021. The whole process took us almost a year.
The trailers and gameplay that have been shared with the public so far have looked amazing, but the game is currently only going to be available on Steam. Is there any chance of us seeing a console release?
Huang: Thank you that means a lot! Since we’re a 7 people team, we’re currently focused on making the PC version of Thymesia the best possible experience, and we’re excited to see what people think of the game. As for consoles, of course, we’d love to bring Thymesia to as many gamers around the world as possible – but we don’t have any news to share about any platforms beyond PC at the moment.
Finally, is there anything else you want to share about Thymesia?
Huang: Thymesia is a project we have been working really hard on for so many years and it’s been through a lot of changes. It’s really flattered seeing so much positive feedback toward it. If you want to see more updates on Thymesia, please follow us on our social media. You can also find how Thymesia has grown over time.
And there you have it. I am sure we all wish we could manipulate diseases too, specifically COVID-19, and bring the world back to some sort of normalcy, but since we can’t do that, we might as well weaponize them against enemies in Thymesia when it releases on PC via Steam in December. Click here to read more about the game, and to stay up to date with Thymesia, you can follow OverBorder Studio on Twitter.
