Luxia Le

HoyoVerse’s Tears of Themis (CN: 未定事件簿) is often forgotten about when discussing the company’s exploits. Most people focus on more well-known titles like Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero. However, Tears of Themis is another excellent game in their library that caters specifically to women, making it unique among HoyoVerse’s portfolio. So, what is it? Is it worth playing?

Genre

Tears of Themis falls into the visual novel and gacha genres. Players will be treated to an in-depth story about the main character, Rosa, as she navigates her new life as a lawyer in the Themis Law Firm. She is aided by four handsome men who are all in love with her, of course.

The game is also a mystery game as the players will work to solve mysteries alongside the male cast. Those mysteries lead into the court cases that Rosa and the other characters take on throughout the story.

Finally, this game falls into the otome genre, which is one where the player character is presented with a selection of male characters that they can date in the story mode.

Payment Model

The game is free-to-play, just like all of HoyoVerse’s games. It is funded by microtransactions which come in the form of buying in-game currency, packs, and skins for the male characters. Players can buy packs of currency which periodically give double currency when purchased.

The game’s gacha system uses Tears of Themis to pull for new cards, which players can purchase with the in-game currency. Both paid and free currency can be used to buy Tears of Themis.

Every so often, the game will run an event that uses event-limited Tears of Themis that must be purchased using either the free or premium currency. In some of these events, HoyoVerse will give away free limited-time Tears of Themis that can be used with the limited gacha. If not used, these Tears will convert to standard Tears at the end of the banner.

When buying Tears, players have two choices on how to spend their money. They can spend in-game currencies or they can buy packs of Tears without using the in-game money. In these cases, the packs will be listed for a dollar amount and will grant a number of Tears based on the price. These packs typically offer Tears at a discounted overall price compared to spending in-game currency.

Consumer Friendliness

Tears of Themis is not the most consumer friendly gacha out there. The problem lies not in the system itself but the fact that there are only four characters in the draw. With so few characters, the characters get more cards, closer together than in a game with more characters. Thus, players who want to get all the cards for even one character will be pulling more often than players of games where characters only get a few cards per year due to the large roster.

Events

Tears of Themis has multiple types of events that switch up every other week or so. Events in Tears of Themis have one downside, which is that they’re relatively short. Most events last a little over a week, if they last a whole week. Thus, players need to stay on top of the events and participate every day to get all the rewards since the window of opportunity is much shorter than most other gachas, which have events that last anywhere from 14 to 30 days on average.

Gameplay

The game’s combat is in the form of “debates” where the player goes back and forth trading verbal blows with the enemy characters in the game. In debates, the player uses cards featuring the male characters in the game to produce canned argument lines that whittle away their opponent’s HP until they’ve won the debate.

Outside of combat, players will mostly interact with the game through a visual novel interface. Character portraits will be displayed where available with a text box that provides both dialogue and scene context. Branching choices will be made available, but unless they have a specific right answer, they do not affect the outcome of the story.

In some cases, the player may need to do visual inspections of items and environments. They will need to tap on the screen to select objects and search for clues. Some items may be inspectable in a separate interface where the player can rotate the object in a 360-degree, 3D view to find clues hidden on specific objects or distinguish between two items that look the same.

Is the Story Any Good?

The story of Tears of Themis has only one real downfall and that’s the fact that it’s completely unrealistic. It’s a bit like Phoenix Wright, in that you know for a fact that lawyers don’t do this at all, ever. In fact, even the characters who aren’t lawyers are often doing things that just don’t make sense for their professions.

Aside from being unrealistic, the story is really fun. If you can suspend your disbelief and imagine that lawyers are also detectives, then there’s hope for you to enjoy the story of the game.

However, those who are fiercely loyal to their otome game husbands, might find this game hard to excel in. Events between Rosa and the characters are pretty explicitly romantic and there’s no way around that. One might automatically assume that the events are going to be explicitly romantic because the game is an otome game. However, other gacha otome games have managed to strike a balance between forcing romance on a player and sterility. In Obey Me! there is typically a non-romantic choice in every scenario, allowing you to choose whether you want to kiss the character or give them a fist bump or whatever the writers put in. The characters won’t be offended either, even if they initiated the romance in the story. It takes the guilt out of cheating on your husbandos for in-game resources.

Are the Events Worth It?

Events in Tears of Themis give excellent rewards. They are quite generous. There is a constantly running battle pass that gives in-game currencies, Tears, and evolution materials among other things on every refresh. Additionally, there are many types of events. Some that give cards and other that give materials and currencies.

Is the Game Worth Playing?

The issue with recommending Tears of Themis is that it caters to a very small audience. I happen to be in that designated audience, so it’s good for me, but here are some ways to know if Tears of Themis is for you:

• You liked Phoenix Wright
• You like gachas with primarily male casts
• You like men
• You enjoy story-focused games with investigative gameplay
• You don’t mind suspending your disbelief about what lawyers, psychiatrists, detectives, or CEOs do
• You don’t mind being polyamorous with your husbando and his friends