Overview
What is Tears of Themis?
Tears of Themis is a 2020 detective-romance otome game developed and published by HoYoverse (Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd, Zenless Zone Zero) that follows the female protagonist, codenamed Rosa, a defense attorney for the Themis Legal Office in the fictional city of Stellis. Together with Luke Pearce, Artem Wing, Vyn Richter, and Marius von Hagen as the NXX Investigation Team, she is roped into a series of cases that lead further and further into deep conspiracy surrounding the distribution of a mysterious drug called NXX.
While the main story is mainly focused on the detective-like mystery played out in a visual novel-like format, players can also delve into the romance aspect with any of the four love interests (LIs) through side content and limited-time events.
It was first released in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan in 2020, followed by a global release in 2021.
Tears of Themis features:
⚫︎ A Deep Detective Narrative With Mysteries
⚫︎ Four Dashing Love Interests
⚫︎ Visual Novel-like Presentation
⚫︎ A Cast of Interesting Characters
⚫︎ Heartwarming Romances
| Digital Storefronts | ||
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 Google Play |
 App Store |
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| Free-to-play | ||
Tears of Themis Review: A Timeless Detective Tale With Handsome Men
Five Years Down The Road
Before anything else—yes, HoYoverse has an otome. miHoYo, or as they’re known globally, HoYoverse, is a Chinese gaming company most well known for bringing the open-world adventure RPG Genshin Impact, a game now widely loved and received all over the world. Subsequently, they’ve also made hits such as Honkai: Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero, and are set to release even more games spanning different genres like tactical battler Honkai: Nexus Anima, cozy base-building and social simulator Petit Planet, and detective mystery Varsapura.
And much to the surprise of many, HoYoverse has also delved into the otome romance genre years ago—cue Tears of Themis, a 2020 detective romance title, usually shortened to just ToT. It’s been a running joke in the fandom and among HoYoverse fans that ToT is another forgotten child with Honkai Impact 3rd, but despite that, it’s still going strong and is now celebrating its 6th anniversary as a game since its first release, while the global server is on its 5th anniversary with wedding bells sounding.
I was lucky enough to play the game from its CBT and at launch, falling deep into its stories and characters for much longer than I anticipated. Unfortunately, life has wedged itself into my adventure with the NXX and my budding romance with Marius…until now. So, how is Tears of Themis now, five years after its initial launch? But first, what is it all about?
In the City of Stellis
Tears of Themis is set in the fictional city of Stellis in the year 2030, where there has been an increase of mental illness and missing persons cases and dangerous incidents that threaten the very lives of its citizens in the last three years. While most would shrug it off and find them as just mere crimes, certain observant individuals have seen the similarities in these anomalous cases and thus have compiled them into a case file called the X-NOTE.
With the incidents experiencing a sharp rise in occurrence rates, the NXX Investigation Team is now on the case to get to the bottom of it all. They believe that at the center of it all is a mysterious drug called NXX, short for Noxious X Xeno-Gene, that is said to have gene-repairing properties, but also causes sudden mental illness, development disabilities, and internal damage to the nervous system and organs.
You, the main character, is pulled into the NXX Investigation Team by Artem Wing, a fellow attorney and your senior at work, and Vyn Richter, a renowned professor and psychologist. Together, with your childhood friend, Luke Pearce, and Pax Group heir and artist, Marius von Hagen, the five of you hunt down and investigate the conspiracies surrounding the drug, delving into histories and secrets that may have been better tucked away into obscurity. These four also are the game’s love interests, who you can build a budding romance with through side stories.
Its story is heavily detective-themed, with a sprinkling of romance and giddy moments here and there for a poor maiden’s heart. The narrative is intriguing and well-written, and investigating a string of murder mysteries and missing persons is a classic plot that doesn’t get old. Characters aren’t flat and are both endearing and charismatic, and the twists and turns of the investigation aren’t just minor or toned down for the sake of romance—there are actual heart-stopping, thrilling parts of the story that get you on the edge of your seat. Rosa is also a lovely protagonist to watch and follow, with her own spunky edge and a strong sense of justice as an attorney. The bits of interactive gameplay make the experience much more immersive as well, with some nodes requiring investigation and combat.
The engaging storylines are not just limited to the main story—the love interests’ individual "romance" chapters, as well as event stories in both the canon timeline and the alternate universes (one of my favorites is the magical school-themed, ala Hogwarts, one), are immersive and interesting in their own right. It’s hard not to fall in love with them when they’re written well. Their personalities are vastly different, and their random banter with each other, whether it's fighting for Rosa’s attention or not, makes events with them all together much more fun.
What’s more is that several of these limited-time stories can be played at your leisure—though only a few and, of course, without the event bonuses you’d get if you participated at its launch—if you’re finding yourself needing more story to ruminate on. It’s a feature that isn’t popular within the live-service otome space—after an event ends, it’s gone. A pity, as it’s definitely a feature that should be more commonplace, especially for those who are not able to fully commit or would just want to look back at the memories themselves in the comfort of their phone.
A Detective-Romance Visual Novel
Tears of Themis’ main story gameplay revolves around a visual novel format, with a total of 17 main story chapters to go through as of writing on the global server. Each chapter is centered around a case to be investigated through a mix of interactive story nodes that have mini-games such as crime scene sweeps and suspect interrogations and turn-based combat in the form of a "debate." Then, the chapter is concluded (usually, in case of one chapter = one case; some cases are stretched into multiple parts) with a trial where the player, as Rosa, must present evidence to defend their client and prove their innocence ala a much calmer version of Ace Attorney’s courtroom wars.
But wait, where’s the romance aspect? It’s in…everything else, even if a little bit. Outside of the "neutral" main story, where it’s primarily focused on the cases and investigation work than the romance element—there are some in the form of small, touching moments, but the bulk of it is found in the form of individual side stories and the Cards, as well as different forms of interaction like calls, texts, video calls, and playing interactive games like Rock-Paper-Scissors and Old Maid to raise their affection. You can also purchase outfits and home screen invitations for real money or acquire them through events.
If you’ve long been into the otome genre, this all seems pretty familiar to you. Story and romance delivered through a visual novel format, with added bits and pieces of interactivity. Outside of the main story, you "choose" what is canon, depending on the LI you decide to pursue. There’s no right or wrong, nor are you entirely locked to one LI.
Resource Gathering Is A Bummer
Unfortunately, leveling up cards takes quite a bit of resources, both in Stellin (in-game currency) and in materials. And the farther you go into the story and higher levels of gameplay, the more you would need to reach at least 180k in total card power. Luckily, there’s not really a meta of what cards are the best besides the general rule of higher rarity = good (SSS > SSR > SR > MR > R), so you can just collect cards of your favorite man and go ham.
But getting cards to their max levels takes a while, and with the resource nodes, called Legal Studies (Stellin, and enhancement materials) and Anomalies (skill upgrade material), being limited to 2 attempts and 3 attempts a day, respectively, it does get a bit frustrating.
Now, I’ve been an on-and-off player of Tears of Themis since the beginning and thus have a stockpile of…nearly everything I need to level up my cards efficiently. But of course, those sources dwindled quite quickly, especially in leveling skills. How much more with other players, and especially those who have just started out? Stamina costs can also be pretty heavy, so there’s also the waiting time for replenishment.
A Few Odd Translations Here and There
As with any translated game, there can be a few things missing from context. Nuances are lost between translations, so there can be odd choices in wording and how things are described. Like specifically in Chapter 6: A Vicious Cycle, the victim, Naomi Anderson, is referred to in text as a club promoter, a rather odd job. However, if you’re able to understand some words in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, you’d realize that the characters actually directly call her a hostess. It makes much more sense that the people around her reacted that way, especially her boyfriend, who was vehemently against it.
The connotations of the words "club promoter" and "hostess" are largely different, and while you are able to get the gist of it the farther you go into the story, it’s a delayed reaction rather than getting to understand it outright, thus causing a bit of confusion. My brows were furrowed thinking about what a club promoter was at a bar (I played with the CN voices first)...like, what was so dangerous about holding up a sign or a bunch of fliers outside and inviting people to check out their bar? Then it all clicked when I switched to Japanese and they outright called her a hostess. Ah, I get it.
The Woes of a Missing JP Dub and Voice Quality
While not exactly an issue and having been communicated long ago to the players, the Japanese dub of the game is not complete in all aspects. There will be times where the audio just cuts off or is not there at all when playing with the Japanese dub, and event stories from October 2022 onwards do not have Japanese voices when playing through them, requiring either the Chinese or Korean dubs to have that full immersion.
Why does it matter? It’s a visual novel; just read it, right? Most, if not all, visual novel-type otome games, with the lack of deeper gameplay mechanics, do rely on the fully voiced aspect for an overall better gameplay experience. One of the first appeals of any otome game is its voice cast—and Tears of Themis surely made everyone have heart eyes the first time they were revealed. A star-studded cast of Yuki Kaji, Kaito Ishikawa, Junichi Suwabe, and Jun Fukuyama over on JP and prolific CN actors like Zhao Lu, Titus Jin, and Yang Tianxiang made fans swoon.
So while Tears of Themis does have mini-games and other interactive gameplay outside of the stories, the narrative—and by connection, the voices—are half, or more than half, of the whole package. Even though there are valid reasons for it, having an incomplete voice pack is still a bummer if you prefer the Japanese voices. The CN voices are definitely growing on me—Yang Tianxiang makes a really quirky Marius—but I can’t help but imagine how great certain lines would be if they were voiced by Kaito Ishikawa.
And while we’re on the topic of voice acting, there are a few instances where the recording quality of the lines feels different. This was most evident in the Simplified Chinese dub, where I noticed that there were instances where Luke’s voice was way too loud in volume, and Marius’ voice sometimes sounded like it came out of a tin can. Granted, this is more evident in the earlier main story chapters where the game was in its infancy, but for a game under HoYoverse, a company that’s definitely not indie or in any way small, it feels a bit disappointing.
Gacha Is A Hit Or A Miss
Tears of Themis is, at its heart, also a gacha game. Let’s be real, all modern live-service otomes are. So let’s take a look at its gacha system, which isn’t entirely bad but isn’t entirely great either.
Even though it’s a HoYoverse game, the same people behind Genshin Impact and the trendsetter for the 50/50 guaranteed, sub-1% pull rate…Tears of Themis does not have that and instead employs a no-50/50, 1%-1.60% pull rate for the featured card (2% for the permanent banner, but really, you don’t need to pull on that after the 30 free SSR draws). Hard pity is at a flat 100 pulls. So yes, you can lose twice, thrice, before you get the card you want. It took two other SSRs for my wedding-themed Marius, so…well. I still got married, but at what cost? We don’t talk about that. I also lost twice to two other Lukes, and I’m still trying, as we speak, to get his card. The life of a gacha player, indeed.
But in hindsight, you can kind of see why they took this route—you’re only pulling for four characters, and each of the boys has their own separate banner, even in a multi-banner. If you’re a one-man type of person, this is a godsend, as you would never be spooked by Luke, Artem, or Vyn on a Marius banner and vice versa. You’d only get spooked by cards that aren’t the limited featured card, but it would still be of your chosen LI. And, depending on the banner, the pity you have will carry on to similar banners of the same type, so there’s a bit of a bright side to it.
S-Chips, the game’s in-game premium currency, is also abundant in non-renewable ways. Every finished node in the main story nets you 40 S-Chips, and each chapter has at least 13-15 nodes—an easy 600. You also get one free pull currency (aptly called…Tears of Themis) after every finished chapter as well. Various events, achievements, side stories, and more also give S-Chips pretty freely.
Is Tears of Themis Worth It?
Worth Every Penny And Tear (of Themis)
Tears of Themis is, even five years later, worth a play if you’re into investigative crimes and conspiracies, made even better with a hearty dash of romance that is sure to put a smile on your face. While it’s not the most technologically innovative game out there, it doesn’t have to be—it’s got a solid visual novel format that’s easy to navigate and understand, well-written characters, four insanely handsome and talented men that make real men (sorry, but not sorry) run for their money, and a colorful cast of characters that support and build the world they live in.
It’s never too late to hop onto the Tears of Themis train and start a new life in Stellis. The NXX Investigation Team could always use a helping hand—in work and in romance. Work-life balance, am I right?
| Digital Storefronts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Google Play |
App Store |
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| Free-to-play | ||
FAQ
Who are the Tears of Themis characters?
Tears of Themis’ main characters are you, the protagonist codenamed Rosa, a junior attorney at Themis Law Firm; Luke Pearce, a national secret agent and your close childhood friend; Artem Wing, your senior partner at the law firm and a genius attorney; Vyn Richter, a renowned psychologist and professor; and Marius von Hagen, acting CEO of the Pax Group and a talented artist. Romantic routes can be explored with each of them.
Game8 Reviews
