❖ TEARS of THEMIS ❖
Genre: Romance Detective Game
Developer: miHoyo
Website: Tears of Themis
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsH_thMW9_3rau-K8v4yAxw
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TearsofThemisEN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tearsofthemis.glb
Official release has not been announced yet!
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❖ Myxprint’s Thoughts ❖
Stepping into the heroine’s world in Stellis, we are quickly thrown into a dream state where we meet four handsome men: Luke Pierce, Marius von Hagan, Artem Wing, and Vyn Ritcher. The opening sequence gives us plenty of suspense as we try to figure out what influenced the heroine’s dream and what she is expected to go through later on in the story.
What really left an impression on my initial experience was the interactive portions of the game, you are able to literally “walk” into the world and “look” around for evidence while reading the story. I think being able to actually interact with the environment when looking for evidence and interrogating characters makes the Tears of Themis experience that much better. In similar games, they tend to focus too much on stat building for cards or avatars when needing to progress in the story; however, I feel like there is a healthy balance of stat building cards, evidence search, and trial stages to go with each story piece - so I don’t find the mechanics here annoying in the least. Players do need to understand they will need to build their stats to get further in the story, but if you keep your pace balanced and don’t rush the story, you will do just fine.
Outside the story, the general mechanics of the app are easy to follow and you are offered in-game tutorials to explain different game areas (Visions, Visits, Menu, etc) to better understand the mechanics in each section. It is also pretty easy to navigate the app, it just takes a little investigating, at times, if you skip through tutorial sections (if you’re someone like me to sometimes skips tutorials, haha).
❖ Artwork, Voices, and Audio
Those familiar with miHoyo and their collection of games already know their selection of artists are amazing and their choices for Tears of Themis definitely does not disappoint.
Combining gorgeous, interactive character models and an interactive environment, the player has the opportunity to really put themselves into Stellis and feel like they are the heroine. The colors in the game are extremely vibrant and you can see the time and effort put into each character design along with the world of Stellis, not to mention Tears of Themis’ over UI.
The chosen voice cast is superb and while I have a suspicion many chose the Japanese audio for voice talents such as Junichi Suwabe and Yuki Kaiji, I did take the chance to listen to pieces of the story using the different languages and hear all the wonderful voice talents. What I thoroughly enjoyed was having the story fully voiced, which makes reading the scenarios depth as you hear the emotions in the characters voice. The only areas not fully voiced are the character and card stories, some lines do have voices, but not all.
❖ Overall Thoughts
Overall, I truly enjoyed the Closed Beta run of Tears of Themis and am looking forward to the official release in the future. miHoyo always does a wonderful job when it comes to storytelling and they have not disappointed me in ToT. Really the only downfall was the space the game requires and having my phone overheat at times (even at lower settings), but that is something I don’t mind working around if the game continues to be as wonderful as it is.
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❖ Mechanics ❖
❖ Debates
As you progress in the story (main story, character story, etc), you will find times where you must “debate” with your opponent (usually a character connected to the current story).
In Debates you will need to use Visions, or cards, in order to win the debate.
❖ Gacha :: Tears of Themis
In order to earn Visions, cards of the different characters, you will have to visit Lady Themis.
There will be a permanent banner and limited banner available to earn Visions from.
There is also a pity system when it comes to earning new Visions, every 10 draws you are guaranteed to earn an SR card and every 90 draws you are guaranteed an SSR card.
❖ Visions / Cards
Visions are gifts from the Lady Themis. In realistic terms, these are the cards you draw from the gacha. You can earn limited and standard cards from their respective gacha banners, plus most have stories attached to the card that you can unlock. The four characters you can earn Visions for are Artem Wing, Vyn Ritcher, Marius von Hagan, and Luke Pierce.
You will also need to upgrade your cards in order to defeat stronger opponents later on. Enhance cards by earning or purchasing items to raise the card’s level. Evolve cards by pulling duplicates from the gacha.
❖ Looking, Finding, & Connecting Evidence
Look for Evidence: Continuing the idea behind looking for key evidence, you will be able to move the screen and search the area. As you find evidence, information and dialogue between the characters will pop up. If you find yourself stuck, the looking glass will also assist your journey looking for evidence.
Key Evidence: In the story, you'll have to find key evidence to help you progress and learn how to move forward. Read through each clue to acquire more detail for your case.
Connecting Evidence: During your investigation, you will reach a point where you need to connect the clues.
Select CLUES from your evidence to "Find Connections" to and from there you will continue to build your case file to find the answer/culprit.
❖ Visiting Characters
After EP1.1-13 you'll unlock the "Visits" section. This is where you can interact and read the character stories. You'll find the Visit button on your main screen in the bottom right corner. From there select the character you wish to visit.
When visiting characters, you can interact with them to raise their affection meter (playing mini games or petting him) and read their personal story.
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