A wonderfully charming game that takes a basic Legend of Zelda-esque foundation and twists it in a meta, but quite engaging manner.

The best thing Tunic does is how it mixes the typical Zelda / Metroid-vania style of progression, almost exclusively locking you out of areas due to the lack of the right item, and enhances it with knowledge-based progression.

Tunic isn't exclusively based on locking you because of something you don't have, and instead by things you don't know. And this is done through great map design and an ingeniously cute Game Manual collectible, with plenty inside ready for you to decipher it

A love letter to the 8-bit era action-adventure games of our youth.

Okay, everyone's comparing this game to the NES Zeldas, which makes total sense after you find the cover of the in-game manual or notice that our main character has a Zelda costume on. However, I think it is more a tribute to the whole experience of NES action-adventure games rather than a close comparison to the early Zelda offerings. Modern techniques and style are used to capture the same spirit of exploration and growth as you hack and slash and magic your way through a slew of enemies. With the addition of the cryptic language and the pieces of the manual that "tell" you about the secrets of the world, the whole game becomes a nostalgic dream of those bygone days of sitting in a basement room decorated in too many shades of brown but living in pixelated 8-bit lands of pure imagination. Probably even more so if you imported a Japanese-language game and tried to read the manual even though you did not read Japanese.

It truly is a wonderful experience for those of us of the golden (well, maybe greying) 8-bit generation. Mostly. I found myself either too impatient or too uncoordinated to bump this up to legendary status. For example, I would constantly underestimate the reach of my sword or stick. I also spent a number of minutes just wandering, looking for what I was supposed to be doing. My -- potentially self-inflicted -- frustrations led me to get to that place in game where you "just want to finish" which takes the experience down a bit.

To avoid frustration, I started turning to the internet's collective resources instead of flipping through the in-game booklet after I had retrieved a crystal (or maybe two). Perhaps this wasn't the intended way to play this puzzler but it does kind of fit into the experience, right? Some of the ways to find treasures or unlock secrets were so obscure or complex that it would take the collective work of a number of folks to discover the solutions to them all. Maybe this is the game's multiplayer mode? Whatever the intent, if you 100% this game without looking anything up... kudos to you.

In the end, Tunic is a stellar game that's just a bit too frustrating for me to cherish forever like some of those old NES games.

Review from thedonproject.com

Man, I love indie games. Only an indie game would be as unapologetically bold as Tunic. Tunic starts out as a cute topdown adventure game, with a neat manual and foreign language mechanic, but gets absolutely fucking insane as the game progress.

However, that boldness also means it won't be for everyone. I was just a bit too impatient for some of the later puzzles, so I got some hints from a guide. I wish it wasn't necessary, but I probably would have been to frustrated to continue otherwise. That's just the price you have to pay for being as unique as Tunic. Still worth it.

Embora seja um ótimo jogo, com design inteligente e gráficos charmosos, Tunic pode decepcionar quem chega nele esperando um "Zelda-like".

Embora o visual lembre um pouco a franquia da Nintendo (incluindo a túnica verde do personagem), Tunic possui sensibilidades que remetem mais a um Souls-like... chefes difíceis, enigmas crípticos, linguagem confusa e pouquíssima informação de mão beijada para o jogador.

Mas, para quem está aberto a viver a aventura e a exploração, absorver o enigma de usar o manual digital do jogo para resolver enigmas e avançar no jogo, Tunic oferece um experiência bacana e recompensadora.

Being a kid was pretty rad, huh?

This game portrays the feeling of navigating a new world with the language barrier inherent to being a child.

It almost perfectly replicated the feeling I had of playing Ocarina of Time for the first time before I knew how to read, forcing me to use other clues, means of progression, and sometimes just fucking around until something works.

But with Tunic, this is by design.

This was a fantastic game, but what really pushed it into masterpiece territory was the final puzzle, which really brings the game's intentions full circle and is one of the most impressive and creative puzzles I have ever seen in a game.

It's a magical little experience, the likes of which I have never encountered in my adult life. If you’re looking for a game that can recapture that feeling of childlike wonder, this is your jam.

Yeah, I'm sad to say I'm not finishing this one.

The game, in most aspects, is pure genius. The booklet aspect of it is just an incredible experience to get through. Finding answers to questions you thought the game wouldn't bother to ask, and seeing them work. Recontextualizing the scenarios you've already visited several times with new knowledge. That feeling of "hey, this might work over there!". Often, without the use of any words.

This, however, is one of many games in recent times which have adopted the soulslike trend of revolving around struggle. Your struggle. In this case, I'm referring to its combat. It never felt good for me. Not because it is too difficult, but because it never feels satisfying. Your sword is too short, your dodge not long enough, your enemies' skin is too tough, yours is too feeble. I understand they want to give you a challenge, but I can't agree with the way they doing it. I understand the feeling of overcoming a challenge that other games, namely From Software games, give you. I beat every enemy in this game, except for the last phase of the last enemy, and not once did I find that here.

It just feels like everything the game can throw at you is a notch higher than it should be. I'm stopping at the final boss, I've made improvement and I'm almost there. I simply don't have much interest in replaying this fight until I learn how to defeat this enemy, because the only part that's left of this game for me, is the part I don't want to play.

Add to that a problem with its pacing, giving you a climax far too early in the game. The rest of my playthrough felt like crawling through the desert, hoping it would end soon.

I think most people will still enjoy this game. I enjoyed most of it myself.

A visually appealing, somewhat barebones Zelda-like relying entirely on it's single fun gimmick. Excellent soundtrack combining modern electronic production with more classic-sounding staccato trap percussion. After a while the experience of wandering around and finding pages of the manual grows a bit tiresome, especially because the gameplay outside of the 'uncover the game manual' conceit, namely the combat, is a bit of a chore. This falls around the same quality as Death's Door to me: mostly okay modern indie Zelda-like that leaves me wanting more and will keep me chasing the Hyper Light Drifter dragon.

I thought Tunic was a huge disappointment. I love Zelda games. I loved the remake of Link's Awakening. This took the Zelda formula, scrambled it up and confused "fun challenge" for "bad game design frustrating." The central gimmick of recovering instruction book pages is fine, but putting everything in a nonsense language is a ridiculous extra step that only makes things frustrating. I missed out on core mechanics of the game until late game because I didn't decipher things correctly. This is akin to putting together a shelf wrong because you only speak English and the instructions were in Chinese. Is that fun? No. Also, the game looks cool in that isometric view, but since you can't move the camera around corners (unless the game does it automatically), it would be silly to make so much of the game's main paths take you through areas the camera doesn't see. Yet this is exactly what the game frequently does! Lastly, the leveling system made sections of the game manageable, yet the final section of the game (about 20% of it) takes those leveled stats away from you, makes you go through an insane enemy gauntlet, THEN makes you reclaim the leveled stats one by one by revisiting most of the map of the full game. Oh, and the enemy AI is a hoot as well. So many enemies strike you and then run away, making you have to chase them around to get a hit in. Also, they follow you forever, so if you need to get through a section for the Xth time and want to just run through it - you'll have like 20 enemies on your tail by the time they finally chase you to a dead end and kill you. I'm surprised this game is so well-received. It's not souls-like hard. It's just bad. The fox is cute though.

At first you're like this is a spin on Zelda 1, it has the same mystery feel to it, it has a little Dark Souls, the difficulty, the slow fight animations, the fires and the way you discover the lore.
That constant mystery, knowing it's not hollow, there's actually something to discover, understand is just a drug.
When you discover the holy cross, Tunic shows what it's truly about.
I even decrypted the tunic alphabet, I'm just missing two vowels, just reading the manual become a task, your brain is constantly working so it gets a little tiresome, but that feel when you try to read a secret, don't know a character so you just go read some lore to try and find it is thrilling. You're just there with tens of pieces of paper of notes with arrows, lines, characters, it's crazy.

I had to look online for barely 5 secrets but it doesn't take out much of the joy.

I love the eyes the far shore.

I had to take a pause cause of life while playing the game, I had most treasures and just needed to find the golden path at that point, if I could've finished it at that time, I'm sure I would've had more to say.

(If you like this game watch the movie Trenque Lauquen, the same sort of getting high on mystery)