Thyria Review (Early Access) | Clunky, "Flash-y", and Dated

Thyria, the turn-based dungeon crawler hybrid made by Twokats, is finally out in Early Access! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Thyria Review Overview

What is Thyria?

Thyria is a turn-based RPG with dynamic exploration and a robust crafting system. You play as Thyria, an immortal witch, who is tasked with curing the curse of the villagers by peering into their minds and vanquishing their nightmares. The core gameplay will revolve around exploring the patient’s mind in a procedurally generated, isometric map, a turn-based grid combat system where you will fight nightmares with your three chosen Guardians, and finally a base of operations where you upgrade your equipment and your Guardians.

Thyria features:
 ⚫︎  Dynamic isometric dungeon crawler with turn-based grid combat
 ⚫︎  Robust crafting system where you can create equipment, trinkets, and even Guardians
 ⚫︎  14 different Guardians to create and upgrade
 ⚫︎  Two acts (Three in final release) featuring different monsters and bosses with the inclusion of hidden bosses
 ⚫︎  Day-and-night system where your Guardians skills and the monsters you fight change in accordance with the time.

Thyria
Steam

Thyria Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Robust Crafting System Good Amount of Guardian Variety and Customization	Messy UI Exploration is Pretty Lackluster Dated Animated Graphics Progression is Unclear and Slow

Thyria Overall - 62/100

Thyria is an interesting game, but it does too much without banking on its best aspects. The game’s progression revolves around exploring through procedurally generated maps, getting experience points from combat and completing missions, crafting Guardians and equipment, then finally repeating the process altogether. It’s a fairly simple gameplay loop supplemented with a lot of visual clutter, graphics, and an underdeveloped storyline that won’t win everyone’s hearts.

Thyria Story - 5/10

You play as the titular character, Thyria, who is a witch who decided to help the villagers who are afflicted with a certain curse. As such, you will be jumping into the patients’ minds and eliminating the nightmares from within. The story isn’t very engaging or appealing as the dialogue between the nightmares and Thyria herself isn’t all that interesting. It’s a simple plot that doesn’t really go anywhere out of going into people’s minds and curing them from nightmares.

Thyria Gameplay - 7/10

The game is a dungeon crawling game with turn-based grid combat mechanics. To paint a picture of the gameplay loop, there’s an exploration phase, two different combat phases (one during exploration and the other being the turn-based gameplay), and finally the hub where you upgrade your characters. It’s nothing too special other than having unique elements with its exploration and more on the crafting side of things.

Thyria Visuals - 6/10

This may be the controversial part of the review as I wasn’t that impressed by the art style, but I could see why people would like this kind of animated style. To be more specific, it kind of looks like an indie comic book series with visuals reminiscent of the older browser flash games that I played back in the day. It’s not gonna be everyone's favorite cup of tea, but there will be others that like this sort of style.

Thyria Audio - 6/10

The music is very repetitive, but it’s not half bad. It’s decent enough to put me in the mood to slay some nightmares, but not great enough to keep me interested for long. Sound design wise, it’s fairly generic and like the visuals, feels like the older browser flash games.

Thyria Value for Money - 7/10

Priced at $15.99, the game has a lot of variety with its party compositions and robust crafting system. However, you may find the gameplay repetitive as even if you take on different missions the goal doesn’t feel all that different other than exploring a map full of monsters and interacting with the different doodads in the patient’s mind. It offers a respectable 15 hour long experience with options for you to be creative with the game’s combat.

Thyria Review: Clunky, "Flash-y", and Dated

I’ll be completely honest, my first impression of the game’s graphics was not exactly what you’d call great. I was very confused about the game’s mechanics since it seemed to have a sort of bullet hell aspect and turn-based gameplay which I thought didn’t fit when it came together. After playing the game, I think that both of these genres were thought of separately and don't influence each other at all.

Graphics-wise, I’m not a big fan of the game’s aesthetic. This is primarily subjective, but the comic-like art looks dated to me. The UI in the game is cluttered and unclear for the most part, which led to difficulty in understanding what I’m supposed to be looking at when it comes to the different aspects of the game. My main complaints about the game is more on the non-clarity of details that need to be conveyed to the player, which even in combat is an issue especially regarding clicking enemies and the appearance of the turn order.

In terms of gameplay, the bullet-hell lite exploration is severely lacking and feels tacked on just for the sake of being different from the rest. It doesn’t offer much other than just being there as another game mechanic. In my playthrough, I had enough energy regeneration to bypass it altogether by just staying in the ethereal form. It’s an uninteresting aspect of the game and it feels like this was an original idea that they had or something they just added after the fact.

The turn-based combat is simple, but it does the heavy lifting for making the experience interesting. It’s similar to Darkest Dungeon with the tug-of-war combat design, but it has grid movement that makes certain attacks better than others. I would say that the game is still fairly unbalanced, since if you have enough energy you can buff yourself to an unimaginable level and attack on the same turn.

The customization aspect of the Guardians’ skills is what makes this game’s combat shine, as you could create more possibilities with the Guardians that you have and make different compositions shine. Being able to configure specific day and night skills on a single skill slot is a game changer and I think that other games should take notice of this level of customization.

Crafting is another huge part of the game and is the key to the game’s progression. It’s interesting at the start of your playthrough, but quickly loses its luster after a few runs. The reason being that your equipment, charms, and components are the same crafting recipe. This makes it so that you’re constantly creating the same recipe, but getting a different result every time. I would suggest separating the crafting recipes for these things mainly because RNG can screw you over big time.

While there are a few varieties of missions in the game, it doesn’t really amount to much difference as the end goal ends up being roughly the same as the rest. After each mission, the amount of XP you get varies from the different things you get and do in the mission and each loop that you do doesn’t really change your power level by a lot.

In summary, Thyria has some good points, sure. But it has things that made me dislike the experience quickly. The cluttered UI, dated graphics, repetitive music, and RNG-based progression isn’t for me and while it could prove to have its good moments especially with creating that perfect debuff party, the problems outweigh the positives.

Pros of Thyria

Things Thyria Got Right
Robust Crafting System Good Amount of Guardian Variety and Customization

Robust Crafting System

The crafting system in the game is the main draw of this game. The different treasures and "trinkets" that they call in the game are used to create equipment, charms, and even new Guardians. There’s a lot to explore in the crafting aspect, and since it's RNG-based, it’ll take a while for you to get the absolute best type of gear and charms that you’re looking for.

Good Amount of Guardian Variety and Customization

The best part about assigning and creating Guardians is that while they do have similar skills with each other, you can customize your day-and-night skills completely. You have complete control over which day or night skill to slot in. This is a unique way of customizing your units’ abilities so that you can mold the perfect composition around the abilities you want.

Cons of Thyria

Things That Thyria Can Improve
Messy UI Exploration is Pretty Lackluster Dated Animated Graphics Progression is Unclear and Slow

Messy UI

Over half the time I was playing Thyria, I was constantly confused on what to click for certain menus, where to go for certain maps, and lastly and most importantly, who’s turn it is during combat. I struggled to find my bearings most of the time and this was a problem throughout the experience, I don’t think this will be an easy fix, as even the "tutorial" was very confusing to both read, understand, and go through.

Exploration is Pretty Lackluster

Simply put, I’m not a fan of exploration in the game. Mostly because the items that you pick up during exploration are useless and only some are worth anything to pick up in your inventory. It feels like they wanted a different direction when making this aspect, and then put it in alongside the combat where both aspects don’t really fit each other well because each combat scenario (either in exploration or the turn-based combat) doesn’t directly influence each other.

Dated Animated Graphics

I said earlier that the game looks reminiscent of older browser flash games back in the day. There’s a certain charm to the game’s aesthetic, but it’s definitely not for me. I could see why people would like this sort of style, but everything looks stiff, dated, and frankly not that interesting to me.

Progression is Unclear and Slow

Progression in the game is fairly straightforward with you using the resources that you earned from the treasures around the map as well as the rewards from completing quests and missions. This ties to the game’s crafting system where each result is more RNG-based especially since charms, trinkets, and equipment are literally the same recipe.

Is Thyria Worth It?

Better Alternatives Elsewhere at the Moment, But Give the Devs Time to Cook

There’s a lot to like and dislike about the game, from its aesthetic, gameplay, progression systems, etc. In my case, I’m not a huge fan of the graphics as it looks cluttered and dated, but I do quite like the crafting and customization that’s offered in the game since they’ve thought about player expression when it comes to team composition.

It’s been a work in progress since the devs have released the game in Early Access and they’ve proven that they are committed to changing stuff up based on community feedback. For the price, there are some cheaper alternatives out there, but give this game some time and it may be one to talk about in the near future.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$15.99

Thyria FAQ

What are the System Requirements to play Thyria?

The System Requirements are as follows:

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Thyria Product Information

Title	THYRIA
Release Date	February 29, 2024
Developer	Twokats
Publisher	GrabTheGames
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam)
Genre	Turn-Based RPG, Dungeon Crawler
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	N/A
Official Website	Thyria Website

Michael Gerra-Clarin

Fighting game nerd and avid FFXIV fan. He is currently retired from FFXIV until Dawntrail. He is actively playing anything he can get his hands on while having a massive backlog.