THYSIASTERY is an old-school dungeon crawler in the lineage of the great Wizardry franchise.

Note: We received a review-code for this game.

Callum Berry.

THYSIASTERY blends pixel-art with first-person dungeon crawling, giving the player the experience of moving through an anime-inspired retro dungeon, you play a character that is generated at random – the bearer of the Brand, the dungeon has called you into it, and you have to descend the floors of the dangerous maze-like labyrinth and defeat the evils that lurk within.

I’ll be honest, I had trouble getting through the first two floors, but that’s on me. I’m a bit of a scrub at heart. THYSIASTERY does not hold your hand, and doesn’t need to. You will die, a lot. But that’s kind of the point. Starting with a new party is actually kind of fun; you get new classes, new equipment, new spells. The levels are the same but the feel of the run can be dramatically different to the last attempt. Different party configurations mean you have to strategize differently, approach enemies differently. Sometimes you’ll get a bum party, no great equipment etc, it happens. And then you’ll get a party that legends are made of! Until you wipe…

The narrative isn’t great, it’s a standard ‘dungeon crawler’ narrative, but if you’ve played enough of these types of games you’re well aware that narrative has never been the selling point for a dungeon crawler, with that said — THYSIASTERY oozes mystery, and the world-building the developers have implemented is world-class; mystery around every corner, fascinating artefacts to find and use, and a kind of ’emergent’ story-telling that comes from the characters you have, the items they find and the monsters they fight. It has a lot in common with tabletop role-playing where I remember my characters and their battles fondly, regardless of the weakness or the strength of the underlying narrative.

The graphics are amazing; retro-style pixel art, with limited colour-palettes giving each area a distinct feel and texture, coupled with the very effective and well-made soundtrack, each area feels full of tension and adventure at the same time. The levels are crawling with deeply detailed pixel-art enemies who are intelligently programmed to chase but also only detect you in certain circumstances (i.e. some enemies seem to hear you, others can’t see you from the side and so on).

When you get into combat with enemies, the combat-system engages the player in a turn-based battle, with each character in your party having a turn to use items/spells or just attack (the usual RPG stuff). THYSIASTERY’s developers didn’t just implement the stock standard systems though, when you get a bit deeper into the game’s mechanics you find a rich and layered progression system that lets players grow their characters in multiple directions including upgrading their class, as well as having characters teach their skills to other characters in your party — giving a great deal of flexibility to your team, as class choice has no impact on teachable/learnable skills!

The developers also implemented some really interesting pre/post-game features, such as the option to include modifiers for any given run (unlocked through play), that change the way the game will behave, and these can make things harder or easier depending on what you choose.

THYSIASTERY has just released it’s 1.1 patch, introducing a whole swathe of new items and spells for players to find and enjoy. I’m really glad I played this one, because it’s great for a deep-play, spending a while on it trying to actually get to the bottom of the labyrinth but it’s also great if you just have thirty minutes and blast through a quick run. Even if development stops at 1.1 (unlikely!), DIRGA have made a timeless little RPG.

10/10.