Thy Sword

Thy Sword is one of the best retro games I've ever played. It's one of those games where screenshots, videos, and descriptions don't do it justice. Only actually playing it can make you truly appreciate it.

There was clearly a lot of love and design skill that went into this game, which is why its a shame the game hasn't received as much attention as it deserves. It should have hundreds of reviews, not the mere 49 it has now (50 once mine is posted)!

I actually played this years ago and thought I had reviewed it back then, but when I wandered to the Thy Sword store page randomly today by chance I realized I never left a review back then even though I intended to. So, that's why I'm writing it now, for the sake of doing more justice to this great game.

The game is a procedurally generated platforming game with all single-screen (not scrolling) levels and a fun little card mini-game. It also has a local multiplayer mode that lets you duel your character against another player which is fun to play too.

Thy Sword is what is often called a "roguelite" or "action roguelite" or (less precisely) "roguelike". That means the levels are randomly generated and so are fresh each time you play, which helps the fun to last a lot longer, though some elements are not procedurally generated (such as boss fights and special rooms). The procedural content generation also is finely crafted and flows well and naturally, unlike many other PCG games of lesser quality than this one.

The moment to moment gameplay just feels right and strikes a perfect balance for what the game is intended to be.

Thy Sword is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it. It really deserves far more attention than it got.

Sometimes life isn't fair, but nonetheless I sincerely hope that the creator of this game realizes what a wonderful retro masterpiece this game truly is even despite the relatively low review count.

I really hope to play another game by this creator some day!

PS: You should manually back up your saved game files for the game before you ever uninstall it though, because Steam's cloud sync seems to fail to regenerate old save files when Thy Sword is uninstalled.

Great li'l game, reminds me a bit of Shaolin's Road.

Great game!

This retro-style game hits all the nostalgia notes from 1980s videogames. This game mixes the feel of amiga computer games, atari's 'Pitfall', nintendo's 'Castlevania', & even 'Dungeons & Dragons' into one perfect melting pot.

It has a generic 'sword & sorcery' feel but in a good way because it allows the player to interpret which tropes & elements from old games that it reminds them of.

Now that technology is more capable than ever of meeting the expectations of our imagination, retro-style games like this can allow us to have smooth gameplay that we wished the games of our childhood could possess.

I like how you need to use the special attack to fully defeat certain bad guys that keep regenerating because most games require a particular weapon to defeat a bad guy instead of a skill you need to practice with.

It would be fun for a sequel to add additional elements such as an open world, rpg elements (like leveling up), a side-scrolling screen, old school cutscenes, platforming, more locales (like a waterfall stage or ice cave), & sidequests that you can get from the townsfolk. Also, additional characters (like a wizard) & weapons (like spears) would be fun to add to the mix.

Hope to see more games like this! Thanks for making a classic based off of the classics!

The game is charming, the bosses are fair, the combat is good but tight and hard, i have some problems with the stairs, the music is mediocre and i don't care for the sid chip. Overall, i recommend it.

Nice little game. Combat is old school but fun. The bosses are well designed. It is a bit short, but if you get it on sale, the price is right.

Remember pulling off a decapitation in Barbarian?
Now you can do it loads but with tiny dudes!

Awesome game! Very entertaining with an old school touch

Smooth and fun hack-and-slash game with retro graphics. Take thy sword, now is the time to fight!

I first watched this game get mentioned by a streamer by the name of Ezekiel the Third.

I'm a huge sucker for any game that has sprites as its aesthetic so that was definitely a plus for me. As far as gameplay goes though it's fairly simple straightforward. Kill all the baddies in the level, go to next level. Buy stuff, gamble, get tough, and kill bosses!

It's a level-by-level hack'n slash. It's simple, charming, and not afraid to show a little blood. I've never regretted picking it up!

Game is good, but if you lose the battle with the Spider Queen then you are forced again start the game from the beginning and repeat gameplay (again around one hour). It's boring.

I bought this game as a "thank you" to the author, but I'll be damned if I remember why. Still, it took me like a year to get around to playing it. It reminds me a little of Broforce or Tiny Barbarian, in good and bad ways, and thirty years ago it would have blown people's minds. It easily could have been a classic game. But how does it fare in the modern day?

First off, it's a single-screen platformer where the goal is to defeat all the enemies to open the exit. There are around twelve levels usually consisting of five areas to clear, and around seven bosses to top off half of them. It has a nice, tight game loop, simple controls, and all of its pieces are nestled neatly into the type of game it wants to be. So far so good. My only complaint is those pieces are being stretched a bit too far. Clearing the rooms is fun enough, but the novelty wears a bit thin after the 63rd time. The pieces are all fine, it just could use some more enemy or obstacle variety to break up the areas, or remove a few from each level. There's plenty of content here, and the challenge is just right, but it's just a bit too long for the pieces it has.

Ultimately it's an enjoyably simple game that pads out it's content a bit, but I would recommend it. It rewards precision and observation. It is challenging without being obnoxious. It has that rare quality where if you got good at it you could easily beat every area and boss without taking damage. I would recommend it for anyone that wants to unwind with a game, but still wants enough challenge to feel invested.

Thy sword is a game that is perfection in a confined space. Retro to the bone and great fun to play. Highly recommended

• Fun and compelling gameplay
  
• Satisfying action/combat
  
• Well designed pixel art visuals
  
• Awesome music
  
• Rogue lite elements
  
• Random and unexpected events
  
[*]Unlockable playable characters

I got a surprising amount of fun out of this for the limited amount I paid.

There does not seem to be a lot to the game but what is there is done really well.

I grew bored of it after 2 hours and I think most players will however I don't think it should stop you from buying this on sale and giving it a try.

Thy Sword is a true love letter to old school games. It finds this perfect spot between arcade style and RPG style. Gameplay is tense, there is good feedback, the graphics are gorgeous (a least for retro lovers) and the music is a perfect fit.

Combat is twitchy and arcade oriented. Every enemy has it's own attack/defense pattern that must be mastered in order to excel at the game. The bosses are well designed and quite central to the game. Between each level the village area allows to buy potions and/or new equipmements. Also it's possible to play 21 horsemen, a gambling game inspired by blackjack. A nice way to make quick money... or loose everything.

The default game mode is inspired by arcade game, you basically have 3 credits to win the game, after that you have to start over. But there are also an easy mode (unlimited credit) and an hardcore mode (1 credit I guess). There are two playable classes: one melee oriented and one ranged oriented. One of my only complaint about the game is that we cannot choose a magic user and the two existing classes are quite similar.

So far I'm half way through the game (at least through the map). From what I have seen so far I can only recommend the game for anyone loving good old arcade with light RPG elements that takes true mastery to finish.

Really cool single-screen platform game, with an Amiga-era aesthetic and the option to play with unlimited, 3 or no continues. The latter is much appreciated compared to most rogue-likes. Also, the flying neck-chop decapitation is a fun mechanic.

Video review: https://youtu.be/2lnk6L1gvtQ

Basically a nostalgia trip but does it quite well. It's all about the strong attack. Which is incredibly satisfying to pull off since it decapitates enemies! There's a risk to performing the attack since you slide across the screen and it leaves you exposed. However, there is also a reward since the enemies drop more money.

You can play this game with unlimited continues but the real game starts when you go all out on a run with permadeath. So it's a tough little game that does exactly what it set out to do.

Thy Sword is a nostalgic nod toward classic arcade gaming. The retro vibes are all there, and the CRT emulation is a particularly wonderful touch. Random level generation helps to mitigate the stagnant designs of old, and the ability to block, shoot arrows, and use abilities shakes up the combat nicely.

It's just a really fun little game, perfect for the aging nostalgics of a bygone time.

This was awesome. Never before have I felt such rush whilst chopping someones head off.

If you like Conan barbarian you'll love this.

So, first off, to get it out of the way - for the price point this is a pretty short one all in all. If it were a little closer to $5 I think it'd be more fitting what most people expect..

Despite that I'm gonna give it a thumbs up, with a few caveats, but an overall positive expression.

The aesthetic is pretty solid - they have a solid and consistent pixel style, it's a pretty extra-old grungy early PC-era days look, but it works, and they run with it. The controls cooperated pretty well - the only issue was a little bit of sluggish response time when too much is on screen at once - oddly this didn't seem to affect frames, just movement/input, so may be a weird engine/code thing.

I didn't really experience any major bugs - one of the boss fights was a bit weird and I posted in the discussions to which the devs responded, acknowledged, and adjusted a bit, so that's always nice to see.

I could see it being beatable in a couple hours or taking a bit more if you especially want to unlock the couple different characters - which ultimately play pretty similarly but seem to have different starting loadouts more than anything - or do the more challenging no-credits/continues mode.

All in all it's a relatively simple and straightforward single-screen-per-level-based slasher. The thing that stood out most was the variety of enemies through the levels, they kept adding a new enemy every couple levels pretty consistently throughout, which does a good job keeping you on your toes.

I try to review this without spoilers (edited).

Thy Sword is very well thought out, good tutorial, great feeling of progression, the villages / stores are supporting the game nicely, there's even a little Blackjack minigame, where I keep losing my hard earned coins. The levels are one screeners, but those are randomly generated to a degree so there is not much repetition. Also new enemies are presented often, and unique boss fights too.

The game is very hard, as it should be. At least for me the retry button is becoming familiar. It's borderline too unforgiving time to time, but I haven't been too frustrated just yet.

Soundtrack is great, love the coin-op nuances and gotta say I don't believe it's possible to create better pixel gfx. The atmosphere is pretty much perfect and the level of detail is ridiculous! Controls are very responsive, which is super important in a game like this.

One improvement idea: For kb players like me the jumping control could be in the up arrow. I understand the need for separate jump button, but I believe it could be done and it would be more intuitive. This is absolutely not a big deal, but took some time to get used to the jumping while playing with kb.

So yeah, that's about it from me. Great game, easy to recommend.

Ps. Special mention to the CRT emulator, made me laugh out loud.