Debated putting this on my website, but decided to just make a post for now as it’s just Closed Beta and I don’t feel I have enough to say for my site but I’ve essentially been playing Tears of Themis since the Closed Beta started and I finished Chapter 4 yesterday evening.
I already spoke a bit on my Twitter about it, so a summary and expansion of that as it all still holds true:
I love the cases. The investigating is so fun and I really enjoy nearly everything about it. Every time we enter the Court Room, I feel like I’m playing Ace Attorney. My only nitpick is sometimes you just aren’t allowed to find certain pieces of evidence yet and by that I mean that you may SEE something that looks suspicious, but aren’t allowed to interact with it until the next investigation prompt. It’s really strange and while I get it from a story perspective, it’s hard to tell if it’s because you can’t look at something yet or you’re just not tapping it right (which is the other issue-- I do my best to tap everything, but it’s really finnicky on what you’ve “already checked” and what may actually be new)
I’m actually really invested in the characters! I like all of them. While Luke and Marius are my favorites (I would say overall, I’m leaning towards Luke, but there’s a small few traits for him I’m not too fond of that Marius has in full force and it’s what makes it so hard), I’m already looking forward to the next bit of story for every single character. I have not read any spoilers so I do not know which is to come and we’re not really allowed to say story spoilers for the NDA, but I am concerned for Luke.
Similarly, every case has made me emotional at one point or another and again, just really makes me think of Ace Attorney, but with fancier graphics.
Speaking of the graphics, they’re STUNNING. The MC is really pretty, all the art is gorgeous, the animations are really nice... I actually enjoy just listening to the music. The fact that a minigame mode even has a 8-bit version of one of the songs is super cute and a nice touch they didn’t even need to do. The only issue that comes with such nice graphics is my phone overheats at times and it’s draining on the battery. Putting on the “Low-Temp” setting helped a lot with this at least, but wow do I wish I could play on PC (I know there’s mirroring apps, but I genuinely mean I wish it was a PC game I could play)
They say it’s a WIP, but honestly, it really looks good to go? The only art that looked even slightly off to me, and even then there’s enough great about it that I don’t care, is Luke’s visiting background. Text-wise, I’ve seen some typos/grammatical errors or missing words, but it’s few and far between. The most errors I’ve seen are some translation choices with the texting feature.
Finally, the Card system genuinely is kind of pointless and it exists only to give the game a gachapon system which is kind of disappointing, but I suppose isn’t uncommon for free to play games (That said, I would pay for this game if it had a price and I didn’t have to deal with any gachapon features). The Card mechanic is easily my least favorite part of the game because the debates are meaningless 99% of the time. I wish they were actual debate puzzles, but they’re not. They use a silly battle triangle and having to level up cards and things is my least favorite part of the game and it’s something I’m worried for outside of Closed Beta when we won’t be given as much from the get-go.
Chapter 4 was where my lack of Cards/low levels really became issues and I struggled with a 3 or 4 stages due to that, usually winning just barely and actually having an easier time with the final debate than one of the earlier ones.
I think the Cards are really pretty. I LOVE reading the Stories for the SR and SSR versions. But I don’t think they should be part of the main story walls. I think they should be solely side content and minigames like one of the current modes that is just debates. I still want to earn and level up regardless, but having to pause in the middle of main story for a debate that has barely anything to do with said case is really annoying.
One thing that’s nice though is if you fail a debate, you actually don’t lose the energy you used to try. You can try over and over again and you’ll only lose that energy when you succeed.
Similarly, you can use the Hint System as much as you want. You lose nothing for using it, there’s no limit or anything, so if you’re struggling or unsure, you can just tap it with no problems.
Writing-wise, I would say the only thing unneeded is how often the MC says she wants to lose weight? It feels like it’s meant as a joke anyway and just let her love her dessert, god.
Anyway, the special event starts sometime this week and I just really hope I manage to finish all the CB goals.
I genuinely can’t wait for more of the character stories and future cases. I’m going to be sad having to redo so much when the Beta is over and the game officially opens up...
I do hope maybe we’ll eventually have English voices though. I have no issue with any of the current languages available, but they used different names for the characters in EVERY language which, at least for me, is kind of confusing. I’ll pick up words from hearing or look at certain things and be like “wait that name is not the one written here” and it always takes me a bit. I wonder if the names have similar meanings in each language or not.
Anyway, miHoYo, please make the Bunny/Puppy plushie, thank you.
If anyone wants to be friends on the game, feel free to message me with your friend code! :)
I can’t wait until the game releases and I can record it T~T <3
