Detective love story from the creators of Genshin Impact. Review of the mobile game Tears of Themis
The skillful combination of well-known components and the quality of the project once again allowed the Chinese studio F95Zone to release a worthy product. Tears of Themis will surely succeed, albeit not as overwhelming as it did with Genshin Impact.
Introduction:
In the niche genre of visual novels, the creation of Chinese developers could become a trendsetter. And even if miHoYo doesn’t get billions of installs and billions of dollars, a loyal audience will surely pay for this inexpensive project.
The authors draw their inspiration from the Ace Attorney series, published by Capcom since 2001. But external visual similarities are deceiving. The plot presentation, graphic style, gameplay are designed for a different audience.
The plot is presented in the form of episodes. Each episode is a new case. As a pretty girl, junior partner of a law firm, we solve crimes to save innocent people from prison, punish criminals and move a little further in a global investigation that ties disparate cases into a single one. Along the way, the heroine makes new acquaintances, recalls old connections and spins in the company of handsome and rich men.
Do not be afraid to lose in court or miss important evidence, you will not succeed. The game is very friendly even to inexperienced players. Thanks to the system of hints, it is impossible to miss anything, and the search for discrepancies in the readings is solved by a simple enumeration of options, even if you did not understand something during the dialogues.
For those accustomed to action movies, the inability to lose emasculates the gameplay, makes it insipid and boring. If you are not interested in the plot of Tears of Themis, then the whole game for you will be reduced to endless taps on the smartphone screen to flip through pages of text in English. But for those who prefer a quiet pastime, the miHoYo project will give many pleasant moments.
To understand the plot, deep knowledge in a foreign language is not required, a good basic level is enough. But taking on the narrative is still difficult, especially if there is no habit. Screen translators come to the rescue. It’s a pity miHoYo missed the opportunity to build this functionality into their project. So, additional costs will be required to purchase it. The question is, is it worth it.
The writers try to create intrigue, but Tears of Themis does not have mysteries of the level of a classic detective in the spirit of Agatha Christie. The drama is on about the same level as in glamorous lawyer series like the last seasons of Force Majeure, or modern female detective fiction. So, if you are not a fan of such entertainment, then in the new project from miHoYo you will have nothing to do.
But the script for Tears of Themis cannot be called helpless. It is competently built, exciting. It is quite possible to pass the time after him. You just need to play with your eyes and ears, the audio-visual component prevails here over all other content.
A fraction of the gameplay appears only on the levels with debates, which are built on the principles of CCG – collectible card games. The player’s task is to break the opponent’s arguments with his argument cards. The arguments of the parties in the game are represented by three types – logic, empathy, intuition. They work on the principle of stone-paper-scissors. Logic(Dispel magic 5e) is effective against empathy, empathy is against intuition, and intuition is against logic.
Around this uncomplicated and simple CCI with pumping cards, a monetization system is built. Cards are common, rare, and ultra-rare. To get them, you need to get their fragments in episodes of the campaign and pump over resources, which are also mined in trials and chapters of the story campaign. Free leveling is limited to “stamina”.
And, of course, where without a gacha casino. Tears of Themis will allow you to collect cards without annoying “raids” in the previously passed chapters.
In order to encourage players to invest numerous types of resources in pumping cards, as well as in collecting these cards, the developers have inserted artificial barriers in the level chapters (paywalls or grind walls, depending on what you prefer, grind for a long time or quickly donate).
In addition, the descriptions of the cards contain fragments of stories that will be of interest to enthusiastic players, as some fans of the game say, they are “all the pulp”. No strawberries, after all, the game is being developed by a Chinese studio, and the age rating of Tears of Themis is 3+. Just amusing touches to the portraits of heroes.
At the time of this writing, monetization cannot be called aggressive, but, as usual, we repeat that people who cannot restrain their spontaneous desires to acquire some rarity in their collection should stay away from such games as far as possible. Patient players will be able to master all the available content without a significant investment. The grind walls in the game are not very high.
However, manipulative methods of monetization in any case deserve condemnation. You should not entertain yourself with illusions. A “guaranteed” rare card after a certain number of roulette spins does not guarantee the rare card you need.
Diagnosis
Tears of Themis is a worthy project from the creators of Genshin Impact and Guiding bolt 5e. But in order to enjoy it, you need to be in the target audience of this game and know English. So, if you are not a girl, do not know English, are not a fan of anime in general and visual novels in particular, you can pass by. But if anything on this list is about you, Tears of Themis is worth a try.
Pro
- A charmingly beautiful game
- Good background music
- Riddles, if you don’t overuse hints
- In some places interesting story
- No aggressive monetization
Contra
- Gacha casinos and other manipulative methods of pumping money
- Lack of Russian language