Tunic (2022)

Tunic is a cute game in the style of a top-down Zelda game. Maybe a small pinch of the souls formula with bonfires checkpoints that heal you but also revive the enemies.

The combat consists of a sword, shield, dodge roll and some magic items with different powers. Appears simple at first, but it soon gets more interesting and fun.

The world, although a bit small, is pretty and fun to traverse. There is a plethora of secrets to discover, some of which are locked behind later acquired power-ups.

Tunic isn't as easy as it looks. Some encounters, areas and bosses really put me on my toes. Be prepared to die and retry many times.

That overall sounds good, but let me share some of the design choices I didn't appreciate:

• The game uses a made-up language with a made-up writing system. That itself isn't a bad design choice, I actually enjoyed it. But the descriptions of everything are written like that too, with a few English words thrown around. I couldn't decipher what a power-up does and I had to guess.
• The way forward is a bit vague. At one point, you have to use the newly unlocked fast travel method to reach the next area. That's probably noted somewhere in the "how to play" notes you find around the world, but those are also written in the aforementioned made-up language.

The listed negatives aren't necessarily bad. In fact, on paper, it's a really cool thing. But it depends on how much the game captivates you. I honestly wasn't captivated enough to spend time analyzing the notes, the drawings and the "dialogues" with various NPCs. And I do not have a lot of time for games these days, unfortunately. So take my listed issues with a grain of salt.

Overall, enjoyable. If you like atmospheric, vague, a bit hard and cute games, this one is definitely for you!

I was drawn in by the artwork and promise of good puzzles. The game surprised me by borrowing a lot of combat and some gameplay elements from the Souls series. Namely dodging with i-frame, re-usable flasks, consumables that can greatly help fights but are also difficult to come by, losing currency through death with a possibility of retrieval, a couple difficult boss fights, some areas with punishing enemy placements, and statues that act as a place to replenish flasks and checkpoint, but also resets all enemies. The combat is definitely souls-lite, though, as the difficulty just isn't quite there, which I don't mind anyway as you don't really play a game like this for a souls level of difficulty.

The puzzles in this game are mostly deciphering very cryptic clues in the manual pages. This game was recommended quite a bit by the Outer Wilds community, and I see why due to the very rewarding feeling of solving some of the more difficult puzzles. But unlike Outer Wilds, the puzzles are not intuitive, they're purely arbitrary in how they work and often times their clues/solutions are hidden in the manual so you're limited in when you can solve them by whether or not you've gotten that page (though I guess they are knowledge-based, similar to OW). Needless to say, I much prefer the puzzles that fit within a well-defined and intuitive engine.

The big puzzle, the "golden path" one, was very frustrating because you're piecing together a very precise solution that you have to learn the intricacies of through trial and error. Granted they give you some opportunities to learn it on a smaller scale so you can come into that part fairly certain of yourself, but even with that, every time I attempted it and failed, I had no idea which of a dozen different "rules" within its interpretation I may have gotten wrong as there's a lot of vaguery in the information you use to piece it all together. I wasted way too much time running around seeing if I was still missing critical information when my solution was correct but I had just missed one single, easy-to-overlook movement. I found out right at the end that there's an accessibility option that helps quite a bit that should really just be built-in to the way those sections are handled, and not an opt-in.

I do applaud the game for the unique premise: piecing together the manual and the implications of that was an interesting mechanic to base the game around. While I did enjoy the game, I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. And I personally have no desire to continue to solve some other puzzles the game is hinting at, nor do I want to attempt an NG+ though I'm not sure what that would even entail.

I'm not really sure what to think about Tunic. I definitely had fun playing this. The world is vibrant and colorful, and the art in general is very appealing. On the other hand, I got an achievement at one point called "What Now?" and if that doesn't just sum up the whole experience, I don't know what will.

Tunic is the unholy lovechild of Zelda, Dark Souls and Hyper Light Drifter. You go around through dungeons finding things and using those things to find more things. Occasionally you fight bosses that are so disproportionately hard they seem like parodies of FromSoft bosses.

I was fairly engrossed in the world, despite the game's best efforts to make everything as obtuse as possible, but the real failing for me, I think, is the general art design. I quite like the cutesy fox character we play as in this game, as well as the little orc guys you fight in the first area. Those kind of give way to big, busy robots which, while threatening, just aren't as interesting.

I might be a little sick of the kinds of stories where it seems cute and cuddly on the surface, but it's actually super dark and creepy underneath. Zelda managed to have legit horrifying sequences in some of the game without needing to resort to very out of place artistic decisions.

Also, is it too much to just get an ending when you beat a game nowadays? This game apparently requires decoding of its made up language, and using this to open secret doors to get some secret items. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel like doing homework when this game is hard enough.

I did enjoy this game, it feels very shallow to me, though. What story there is seems pretty well trodden by the likes of Dark Souls especially considering it seems like there's some kind of cycle going on, and that the first task you have is to ring two bells.

I just found Tunic a bit more frustrating than fun.

Tunic is easily my game of the year for 2022. A transcendent game that brought me back to that formative time as a young kid, falling in love with games as I sat in front of a CRT and tried to figure out how the new game I got worked.

Tunic is one of those rare games that is genuinely about exploration and discovery. I don't just mean that there is a world map to run around in with some secrets. I mean that the game and its mechanics all revolve around exploration, that is why this game exists. Unfortunately, it also means I can't talk in depth about all the cool things this game has in store for you -- that would defeat the purpose!

Also, it is a game that you have to want to play. It expects you to pay attention. And your rewards for doing so are very special.

getting back to grouvee and cleaning up my collections. limited review.

My only regret with this game is that I won't be able to go back and expience it again without knowing what I know

You should go in knowing next to nothing except that this is exceptional and rewarding in so many ways.

If you're a fan of old style Zelda and NES-era games, please shortlist and play this game. You'll be happy you did.

~David.

This game is amazing. Tunic is deceptively cute with amazing art, but hidden behind the adorable little fox is difficult enemies and a gigantic puzzle that had me feeling like i was going crazy as i pieced it together.

Combat wise I'm not a huge fan of how the fox controls, it feels slow and clunky, barely feel like my dodge is worth it and my three combo swing is annoying. Your swing knocks enemies back so sometimes you end up missing a swing because of it. The magic items are fun but the consumable weapons are all throwables that are hard to time and aim making them hard to use at least for me. So combat wasn't really that impressed with even with some of the cool items you get later on.

Which is why I'm happy that the game offers to way to reach the end. One is brute force and the other is to solve the big riddle that you slowly unlock through it's game manual.

The game manual is the best thing about this game and what sets it apart. Essential your collecting pages from the Tunic game manual and with it you uncover the world secrets. This game does not hold your hand, but it gives you everything you need to figure it out on your own. Even my monkey brain got pretty far into the puzzle, I'll admit that two things stumped me that i need help with (overworld line puzzles and page twelve stumped me for what ever reason). But the fact that I was able to piece 90% of it on my own shows how well the game designers contracted this games big riddle. The end solution was the coolest part and felt extremely satisfying.

Love the fact that you can choose how to end it, exploring this world was fantastic and while sometimes frustrating i kept on playing. Music was great as well. My only nitpicks are that as cool as it felt to pull out paper and pencil to help me figure out the puzzle i do wish the game had a marker function for the in game manual. It sucks that I couldn't write or mark the manual myself to leave notes for anything I may want to remember. Otherwise I highly recommend this game for anyone looking for a challenge.

Tunic is a straightforward, beautiful, and cute little action-adventure at first, but through its obtuse language and heavy focus on intuiting gameplay elements it finds ways to both satisfy and frustrate in equal measure.

The game is intentionally vague at the start - a fox is on an adventure, gathering keys, fighting bosses, exploring the world, etc - most of the game's mechanics are hidden behind a VERY difficult to understand language, but available in collectible manual pages that by design should contain everything the player needs. Without much in the way of guidance though, players can miss out on fundamental game mechanics (leveling up?? What's that) and may fall back on the accessibility settings meant to help players who are having trouble. Still, the player's handy use of sword, shield, and special items can lead to some interesting discoveries and epiphanies that can be addicting if you know where to look.

While the game has a fairly obvious structure, collecting enough of the manual starts to reveal some secrets. Much like other indie games that rely on heavily cryptic post-games (Fez, Environmental Station Alpha, etc) Tunic's action gameplay gives way to puzzles and pattern recognition that at times are more satisfying than the basic mechanics before it. Whether people will be fully satisfied or not from this experience may rely on translating a fiendish language, parsing through a story that is pretty confusing to fully understand, and segments that would fit right into an ARG. Whether you want to be the biggest badass who figures out everything by themselves or need some help from friends, the game seems to encourage both approaches.

As for the visuals and audio, the game's cutesy diorama look and rich colors make for a pleasant world to take in. The music's ambience is excellent, with gentle overworld themes, exciting tunes for battle, and some sinister undertones.

Tunic is a great and fun game to play on the surface if you can stand getting stuck from time to time, and an engaging game if you can REALLY stand getting stuck all of the time.

Please note! I’ve used spoiler tags in a few places in this review, but it you’re interested in playing Tunic I would strongly recommend going in totally blind.

What a delightfully layered game. Every aspect is both deeper than you would expect and perfectly engineered to playfully trick you in a way that never stops paying off. This game has elicited more “oh my god”s from me than anything in years.

Starting with the gameplay: from the art and early moments you would expect a love letter to 2D Zelda (or shameless rip-off, depending on your outlook). While it certainly wears its Zelda influence on its sleeve, the game soon reveals itself to be more of an isometric Souls-lite, with a simple but engaging combat model that is challenging without being too frustrating (helped a lot by generous checkpoints). As the game progresses to the later stages, things take a sharp turn towards puzzles and the environment reveals itself as part of the game mechanics in a way that rivals the infamous “holy shit” moment in The Witness.

The plot is fairly light, following a completely silent “show don’t tell” approach, but it’s ultimately a bittersweet story with some unexpectedly dark reveals that will change your opinion of things you’ll no doubt be curious about but won’t have thought too much into.

That brings me onto the manual. This is one of the most clever things I’ve seen in a game in a long time. Not only is it a delightful bit of art in and of itself (I would love a physical copy!), but it’s the centre point of the game’s many surprises and reveals. It perfectly captures the feeling of playing an imported game where you can’t read anything and are trying to piece together what’s going on, while also acting as a self-motivating collectible. You always want to find more pages, because each one reveals something new, which in turn opens up new ways to interact with the game and collect more pages. This never really gets stale, culminating in a sprawling puzzle that had me grinning like a fool.

This is also a game that will reward however much effort you want to put into it. I spent a decent amount of time collecting upgrades and secret items, but there was still a ton of stuff I didn’t get to. Starting a new game with the knowledge of a full manual no doubt unlocks all sorts of sequence breaks that are sure to be rewarding to speedrunners and those otherwise interested in pushing the boundaries of games. The soundtrack is also fantastic, which doesn’t really fit into this paragraph but I’m bad at writing and wanted to mention it anyways.

It’s not perfect—towards the end there’s something of a puzzle-driven fetch quest that, while not particularly taxing, still breaks the flow and had me worried it might outstay its welcome. The difficulty is also a bit uneven—one boss took me a dozen or so attempts, the next only two, with the final fight taking a solid two and a half hours of repeated attempts. That may be a reflection of my (lack of) skills than any flaw with the game, though.

Ultimately, this is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time, and certainly the best game I’ve played this year. While it might be a bit too challenging for the more casual-oriented player (it was close to the edge for me), the deeply nested layers of pure smart game design makes it well worth a play for anyone who’s even slightly interested.