''Tears of Themis''); pronounced as ''Weiding shijian bu'' in Chinese and ''Mitei Jiken-bo'' in Japanese is a

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adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed and published by

miHoYo miHoYo Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese video game development and publishing company. In addition to games, the company has created various products such as animated series, novels, comics, music, and merchandise. The company is the creator of ''Gen ...

. The game was first released in

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with

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language in July 2020 for Android and

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. The worldwide version, which includes Simplified and

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Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, and

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language was released a year later.

Gameplay

''Tears of Themis'' has a number of different mechanics. The main story is delivered in a

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

format. Cases are analyzed through searching the crime scene for evidence, and interrogating

NPCs A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

who are involved. Each chapter ends with a trial in court, in which the player must present evidence which proves their defendant innocent. During each chapter, debates play out in a card battle format using cards collected from the

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system. Each card has an attribute which changes what cards it is effective against. The three attributes are Intuition, Logic, and Empathy. Cards can be leveled up to increase attribute stats, or have their skill proficiency increased. The cards also gain experience through being used in debates. The romance side of the gameplay is involved through side stories which explore the characterization of the four male leads. Similar to ''Mystic Messenger'', the player also receives voice and text messages from them (framed as if they were sent to the player character in-universe). Voice acting for the entire game is available in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Story

The story of ''Tears of Themis'' takes place in the year 2030, in a

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setting of the fictional city of Stellis. The player takes the role of an unnamed 24 year-old female

defense lawyer A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...

at Themis Legal Office (nicknamed "Rosa"), as she defends her clients in a criminal case. An overarching mystery plays out over the course of every main story chapter. Four different bachelors assist her with the cases, which is where the romantic elements of the story are introduced. The four male characters are Xiayan (Chinese: 夏彦; Japanese: 水無瀬夏彦; English: Luke Pearce; Korean: 강혁; Nickname: Raven), Zuoran (Chinese:左然; Japanese: 左京静真; English: Artem Wing; Korean: 백은후; Nickname: Libra), Lu Jinghe (Chinese: 陆景和; Japanese: 和泉景; English: Marius Von Hagen; Korean: 유신우; Nickname: Kings), Moyi (Chinese: 莫弈; Japanese: 森月黎; English: Vyn Richter; Korean: 윤노아; Nickname: Adjudicator).

Development

The worldwide version of the game was in a

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period from April to May 2021. A pre-registration period began in June 2021, which gave those who registered early free rewards in game. Over 650,000 players pre-registered. There was a second pre-release campaign counting the number of

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followers on the official account, which also gave in-game rewards. It has won the 2022 Pocket Gamer People’s Choice Award.

Notes

References

External links

*
Official Chinese website
{{Mihoyo 2020 video games Criminal law video games Free-to-play video games Gacha games Android (operating system) games IOS games Otome games MiHoYo games Video games developed in China