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.

Tunic is the game that bridges the gap between Zelda and Dark Souls. In terms of vibes, it's all Zelda -- just look at that little fox's outfit! -- but the gameplay borrows from both influences evenly. I see it as a spiritual brother to Death's Door. Death's Door leans a bit more Souls, Tunic leans a bit more Zelda.

The real star here is the world design. Every area is well considered, neither too big nor too small, and they all feel like part of one big place. It's true that the map itself is a clear riff off classic Zelda, complete with a mountain to the north, but hey, if a developer can take a good design and make it feel fresh, who am I to complain? I also love how the isometric design is used intentionally to hide shortcuts in plain sight. If you like Dark Souls-style shortcuts, you're gonna love some of these.

Much hullabaloo has been made about the in-game manual, and I must agree that it's an awesome addition, especially to gamers like me who used to flip through NES manuals like they were sacred texts. In a lesser game it could come off as a gimmick, but in Tunic it feels like icing on top of an already delectable experience.

Why only four stars, then? Well, combat is serviceable rather than great. The lock-on system feels a slightly at odds with the isometric POV -- it's a bit too easy to get locked onto a distant enemy when there's one right in your face. Given that the player can have both melee and projectile weapons equipped at the same time, I can see why it works this way, but that hardly makes me feel less annoyed when my sword swings in the wrong direction.

The other issue for me has to do with pacing and the true ending. Simply put, the basic ending is unsatisfying, while getting the real ending involves solving an intricate puzzle that delves too far into Fez territory for my liking. I can't knock the game too much for this, though, because the puzzles are well designed and I respect the amount of thought the development team put into them.

Though it wears its influence on its sleeve, Tunic still manages to feel unique, like more than just a tribute. It strikes a perfect balance between nostalgia and modern game design. Don't miss it.

So I needed something to cleanse the palate after 100,000 hands of Balatro and this did the trick nicely. Beat the game in 10 hours-ish and now going back to find all manual pages.

Stuff I really liked: The manual of course. Its so goddam cute, and a nice way to give hints and maps to the player. The music is superb, with some absolutely gorgeous tracks (between this and Cocoon, we're in a great era for indie soundtracks). I like how it rewards the player for exploring every inch of the maps, as secret rooms are often out of sight and obscured.

Stuff that was ok: graphics are nice, but not jaw dropping. Combat is basically Dark Souls-Lite, you got attack, dodge and then items and magic to use. Pretty basic, but serviceable. The game is pretty hard, and you will get more than a few very cheap deaths because the combat is not refined enough, and also the camera is too pulled back for really precise combat. Level design is ok, and the way the maps all connect is cool (and once again very Souls).

Stuff that got old, fast: cheap combat deaths, annoying enemies. Bosses are pretty hard, but mostly because of how spongy they are and how easy it is to get hit because of the imprecise controls and camera not being close enough to the action. Backtracking and not knowing where to go next. The manual gives you just enough hints, but man there is so much random wandering around and backtracking through areas, over and over again. Constantly pulling up the manual to check the maps to see where to go, just to get to the fast travel nexus area, to get to another area, just on the off chance there is some treasure or some room that wasn't accessible the first time through, but now with new abilities might be.....yeah that aspect of the game is tedious and boring.

With its Zelda inspired aesthetic and Dark Souls mechanics, this was a lot of fun. I like how getting the manual pages are so important, because without them you are basically wandering blindly through this world. Cute graphics, great music. Really good game, and with a few tweaks could have been a classic.

Edit: an extra 5 or so hours to get the Plat. The puzzles you need to decipher to get the secret treasures and fairies, not to mention getting all the manual pages and opening that friggin' mountain door tho.....ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. Took me about 5 hours using online guides, without those it would have been about 50 hours, if I could have done it at all. Really obscure crazy "how the fuck did anyone work this out?" kind of logic. That input to open the mountain door is just bananas on its own. I kinda respect it, but at the same time, I don't wanna have to use guides to work this shit out. If anyone got the Plat without using a guide or getting any help, I call bullshit.

A lot of very cute tricks and brain teasers assembled around a novel gimmick, but the game itself is middling and the interplay between those two halves is not very well-constructed much of the time.

At some point after you hit the big "ah ha" moments (which, it must be said, are quite good - especially if you figure them out before the manual just force-feeds them to you), you realize that the secrets mop-up you've been looking forward to after you've gotten all the items and the knowledge necessary to really do it is going to be a nightmare because of the asinine worldmap and the fact that, for a game that has an in-game instruction book that comes with pre-written notes on it, you actually need to be taking a SHITLOAD of notes SEPARATELY yourself to even begin to remember all the stuff you need to go back to or even where shortcuts are. I love a good Figure-It-Out-'Em-Up and especially one that wants me to write things down, but I didn't realize that to be successful with this one, I essentially needed to be drawing another set of maps on top of the ones the game gives you as like, it's whole thing, and by the time I realized it, it was a bit too late.

But anyway, some fairly big points for effort. Especially the language - although I am conflicted with how that whole thing is integrated, too.

CARA! QUE OBRA DE ARTE GENIAL ESSE JOGO É!!!

Tunic conseguiu construir uma forma única de progressão de jogo, misturando aspectos de descoberta e aprendizagem de gameplay de diferentes eras, que deu MUITO CERTO. Isso sem falar de toda a parte artística do jogo. Tudo é perfeito: a ambientação, o clima enigmático, os visuais, os designs, as artes e, em especial, a soundtrack. Cara, as músicas desse jogo são belíssimas!

No entanto, é necessário dizer que Tunic não é um jogo para qualquer um. Ele é um SoulsLite cujo nível de exploração e dificuldade (principalmente da metade do jogo para frente) estão bem além de um nível casual. Então, se for jogar, já se prepare para vasculhar cada cantinho dos mapas e lidar com algumas batalhas bem complicadas.

Mas, ainda assim, eu recomendo fortemente dar uma chance ao Tunic (e insistir nele, mesmo que pareça complicado) porque, pra mim, ele foi de longe uma das melhores experiência de jogo que eu já tive!

I am NOT kidding in the slightest when I argue that this is the most creative game I've EVER played in my life. It starts out as a little Zelda Dark Souls thing, but you don't know how to play? It just drops you in? What? And you can't understand the language? huh?? And then slowly but surely, Tunic reveals its hand to you, leading you inch by inch deeper into its secrets.

Every level and dungeon is so intricately designed. THE GAME MANUAL that you slowly find page-by-page is SOOO MIND-BLOWINGLY COOL. The fact that the developers created an ENTIRE FICTIONAL LANGUAGE just to recreate the feeling of playing NES Zelda as a child and not knowing how to read is INSANE. Slowly learning about features or mechanics that have been available the entire time genuinely made me FLIP OUT AT THE SCREEN.

And that's not even mentioning the crazy difficult but immensely satisfying bosses, the mind-boggling meta endgame puzzles, the LUDICROUS puzzles and hints and secrets that the community took years to track down, the GORGEOUS soundtrack I'm going to constantly be playing on loop, the (i am being fully serious right now) disturbing and shocking story revelations, the WILD speedrunning skips, or how even things like the CAMERA PERSPECTIVE get turned into a puzzle. THE CAMERA. THE. CAMERA.

I adore Zelda, but this game single-handedly goes out of its way to push more creative boundaries than Zelda has done in its ENTIRE existence. The only thing holding it back for me are a few stupidly hard puzzles and basically everything in the "true ending" path being obtuse as hell...I felt so guilty using a guide for some of that. BUT DESPITE THAT! It's so endlessly imaginative and EXACTLY the kind of thing I want developers to make. I'm probably gonna be thinking about this title for the rest of my life! And I played this for free?? FOR FREE? ON GAME PASS???

PLEASE PLAY THIS GAME. IT'S SO GOOD. I AM NOT THE SAME PERSON I WAS BEFORE TUNIC.

Pros:
+ the art style, visual direction, blur, and lightning effects are outstanding
+ the cutesy look serves as a perfect counterpoint to the complexity of the design
+ overworld and dungeons are smartly and efficiently designed
+ the camera is intelligently used to emphasize and hide elements in the world
+ short cuts at every corner lead to frequent moments of surprise
+ most of the game is designed around invisible systems of interlocking puzzle systems
+ a wide range of puzzles can be solved solely by observation and deduction
+ the in-game manual simultaneously serves as a guide, hint, reward, and storytelling device
+ the retro screen in the background when opening the manual is a really nice touch
+ combat and controls are simple but effective and fit the look and general design
+ enemy attacks are telegraphed well and failure is usually one's own fault
+ bomb reward and piggy bank system minimize grinding for resources
+ the checkpoint system is always fair and restarts are quick and easy
+ every area offers new enemies and requires new combat tactics
+ an integrated hint system helps to find the most obscure collectables
+ sequence breaking is very much possible and encouraged
+ the bosses are actual tests of skill but never unfair and fun to fight
+ the final boss is available very early on and not gated off behind progress
+ accessability options are plentiful and include anti-frustration features
+ the soundtrack is mysteriously introspective and part of the puzzle design
+ so many caves behind waterfalls

Cons:
- the game not pausing in the item menu is unnecessary and makes some tactics unviable
- combat options are basic and lack the freshness of the puzzles
- some puzzles are so obscure that most playery will never see or solve them
- important elements such as the items and cards are never explained
- card effects are mostly useless and their pictures seem random (tincture?)
- invisible enemies and permanently limited health points are frustrating
- the dash mechanic is buggy and can lead to a lot of cheap deaths
- manual pickups do not indicate their respective numbers in the manual
- the final boss cannot be easily restarted and takes some time to reach
- the final boss will test your patience and requires rote memorization
- story beats are barebones and the endings feel abridged

Magic Moments: Too many to count. Finding a treasure room by observing the dungeon architecture and hitting a wall for a real "eureka" moment. Going underground for the last key and wondering how much backstory is never made explicit. Finding a key item twice?!

Best Manual page: The story reveal on pages 7 and 8 is absolutely perfectly executed.


Verdict:
Let me come right out and say it: Tunic is a masterpiece. It's no surprise that Andrew Shuldice and his team had to delay the game various times, even after working on it for over seven years, as the sheer work required to create a game at this level of quality is felt from the very first, somber moments. The creators proudely wear the influence of modern classics such as Fez, The Witness, and the Zelda series on their sleeves, while producing a game that easily stands proudly among them. Behind the perfectly executed facade of cutesy characters, a simple but intricately designed audio-visual presentation, and familiar combat options lies a complex, interlocking grid of secret mechanics that require intelligence, patience, spatial awareness, and willingness to experiment to fully uncover - even the "load game" screen will take you by surprise. At the same time, players who just want to cut some shrubs, collect some loot or grind their teeth on the difficult but fair bosses will find plenty to enjoy here, although not giving explanations for even the most basic items or combat mechanics may be considered a step to far into obscurity. But for everyone willing to really invest time and effort in the world of Tunic, this is one of those gems that will keep you up all night, trying to see where it takes you while hoping the rabbit hole would never end.

Buy it, play it, uncover the manual, read the margins, wonder how they ever came up with those puzzles, play it some more and be glad you got to experience this. Andrew Shuldice's next game cannot come some enough.

Time Played: 24h 51m

The early stages of gaming is one I like to refer to as the era of “notebooks & secrets”. A time where people would get together and share tidbits of information with one another. Information that came in the forms of either a cool easter egg, an exploit of some kind or general tips. It was this sense of community that has unfortunately been lost with the rise of the internet. Long gone are the days of getting the latest issue of a game magazine to read on a game’s secrets, or sneaking a pen & paper into a book fair to quickly note some cheats codes from strategy guides. No more were people naive enough to take rumors at face value and attempt out ordinary secrets like the likes of unlocking Luigi in Super Mario 64 by running around a statue several hundreds of times. In the past, a game’s secrets could be kept hidden for years, only for those willing to go the extra mile to uncover them.

Nowadays, with the internet and the rise of data miners. Game secrets are often revealed within days, sometimes even hours, after being released, leaving no room for long-lasting mysteries to discover. This has made it increasingly harder for developers to include cool secrets or easter eggs that are reminiscent of old school games. This is particularly frustrating for developers who put a lot of effort into creating secret content, only to have it immediately revealed to the public. Many developers have given up on hiding secrets altogether, instead opting to sell extra content as DLC. Stuff like additional characters, alternative outfits and even entire modes have been repackaged just to get some quick extra bucks, selling content that at one point was simply a neat little bonus for anyone spending time playing the game. A practice that has unfortunately plagued the industry with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Despite this, there are still developers who strive to create games with a sense of mystery and discovery. Where triple A companies have lost touch with their roots, indie devs are there to pick up the slack, taking up the mantle of preserving the integrity of what it meant to create a video game back in the day. As one of the lead developers of “Binding of Isaac” states, “I’ve learned there is no point in doing that stuff. And the best way to hide a secret is to just lock it in a challenging area”. And that’s exactly what many modern indie games ended up doing. Celeste, Hades, and Hollow Knight being some prime examples. While it doesn’t completely repel data miners to go digging around, it’s by far a much better solution than selling it additionally while maintaining its roots to past games. However, in the case of Tunic, instead of hiding its secrets behind a challenging area, it decides to hide behind a set of difficult puzzles.

At a glance, Tunic looks like another Zelda clone, and while it wears its influence on its sleeve, it’s anything but that. Sure, the early hours may follow familiar traditional Zelda beats, with players navigating dungeons, collecting items and finding the magical macguffins to progress through the story. However, it’s in the second act of the game where Tunic really starts to set its own unique identity.

Throughout the game, players come across scattered pages that form a manual for the game, gradually providing hints to some of its hidden mechanics. Using illustration and cryptic hieroglyphics, the manual teaches players about the game’s world and its inner workings. What was once a jumble of nonsensical symbols progressively starts to make sense as the player uncovers the truth one page at a time. And that’s the beauty of this game, its secrets aren’t locked behind challenging obstacles, but rather hidden within an encrypted fictional language that is spread across the entire map.

As players learn more about its language, symbols and its meaning, they begin to realize just how cleverly the game’s secrets are hidden in plain sight. The world itself becomes one massive puzzle that the player must piece together through their own knowledge and exploration. No amount of data mining will be able to reveal Tunic’s secrets by digging around. The only way to uncover its mysteries is to simply sit down, grab a controller and play the game the good old fashioned way.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt such a great sense of mystery in a game. Tunic successfully captures that nostalgic feeling of being completely immersed in a game where you feel utterly completely lost, something that many modern games fail to deliver. I often found myself reaching for a pen and paper to decipher its secrets. While I managed to figure out some of its puzzles on my own, it was the endgame puzzles that really left a lasting impression on me. The complexity of the final puzzles pushed the limits of one’s knowledge and understanding of the game’s mechanics, to the point that the fanbase had to come together as a collective force to share information in order to fully unravel the final puzzles that no one sane person could ever do on their own. Seeing the collaborative efforts of the community reminded me of the days of “notebook & secrets”, where people would get together, driven by their passion for discovery, to complete a game. It reminded me of the joy and euphoria that came from solving a mystery either alone or as a group, and the craziest part is that after everyone’s efforts to solve the final puzzles, we’re not entirely sure if we’ve even discovered everything the game has to offer. There’s still countless unanswered questions that continue to drive the community to this day

Tunic is a one of a kind experience, a rare gem that is hard to come by within modern gaming. It stands out as a shining example of what games can achieve, and I can only hope that future devs take note and learn from its uniqueness. Tunic pushes the boundaries of what a game can truly offer and that there is so much untapped potential waiting to be explored and expanded on.

What first appears to be a zeldalike or soulslike, turns into something completely unique that you have never played before; because there simply isn't any other game like Tunic. The selling point of the game isn't the difficulty or the puzzles, its the way you traverse them. In any other game you might get stuck in some part and so you would get a better item that would make it easier to complete, but in tunic that item is knowledge. Have you had known that knowledge from the beginning of the game, everything would have been a breeze. Say you restart the game from the start after completing it. You still have that item because that item is something Tunic cannot take away from you, which is knowledge. And when I say knowledge it isn't just some "most optimal path", it is a literal tool. And thats what makes Tunic different from any other game.

"Ohhhh woooow, that really is a puzzle huh? Hidden in plain sight. That's neat."

"..."

"Yeah. No way in hell I'm doing all that."

The presentation of Tunic is unassuming, initially looking like yet another flat-stylized medium-sized indie game (see: VR games), but slowly I realized that it's not "just another", but is extremely intricately designed where every little detail that does exist does matter. It's masterful in art direction and sound design, quickly rolling its way into my favorite soundtracks as well.

I'll split gameplay up into two distinct sections here as many do, but I want to clarify now that this is as deliberate from me as it is from the game.

Combat-wise it's somewhere between any Zelda or Souls, feeling more like the former with some mechanics of the latter (stamina management etc.); actual encounter design is pretty firmly in the middle, at first feeling very much akin to something like Link's Awakening but evolving into something a bit meaner and a lot more thoughtful like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. (further elaboration in log notes, those will contain outright spoilers for mechanics just forewarning) This is one thing I've seen begroaned fairly often and I just don't get why? It's honestly pretty solid and opens up a lot as the game keeps going, though by the back half it then becomes kind of irrelevant; which, not to sound all "just trust me" but it becoming basically irrelevant is not at all a bad thing, it's just not the focus anymore, and I'd be willing to bet it was a deliberate metanarrative decision to reinforce this next segment. Before that though, worth noting that somewhat recently(?) they added better accessibility options in regards to difficulty; before it was basically default or god mode, but I think 2D Zelda fans refusing to level with Tunic will be happy they got their wish with the infinite stamina option. (In all seriousness, settings like these are great)

If you look at my log dates, you'll see I started Tunic over a year prior to what I'd consider my actual playthrough from Nov. 12th-16th, because frankly I find most puzzle games to be daunting. Not because I think I'm incapable of solving them, I eventually will for most things aimed at general audiences, but because I can never really escape feeling anxious around them. Tunic was different though, its navigational puzzles were always welcoming to get into and felt like natural evolutions. But I knew there was more, the entire language (which is no mere alphabet swap), the drip feeding of some key word info. Truthfully, I had hints at about 4 points, but like 3 of those were me somehow missing a manual page in plain sight like 10 hours ago and a friend chiming in where it was. I felt very out of my depth at the beginning, but once things started to click, it kept rolling and was exciting; frustrating at times, but nothing some deep breaths and short breaks didn't bring me back around to fixing.

My favorite part of the game though, enough to make stingy ol' me want to break a habit or beg for a bday present, is the in-game manual. The manual is an absolute masterstroke of game design and I refuse to elaborate further. I cannot stress how utterly incredible it is, made with such care by itself that most games blush at the task of detailing something so much while also giving it so much purpose. I wish I had a physical copy of the manual.

And now we reach the point where I feel talking about things much further would be too spoilery, and I had to keep things vague in other areas I normally wouldn't like doing in so as not to ruin the mystique entirely. Maybe just an excuse, I don't know; I feel Tunic deserves more words, though. It has this absolutely unparalleled sense of exploration and discovery, which will likely take even the most experienced puzzle game enjoyers by surprise. Barring only a couple puzzles that lack even a clue to their solution aside from "that one thing you forgot you could try 10 hours ago", the rest of them hit it out of the park and the game punched surprisingly well thematically for me.

One last thing, HLTB clocking in "12 hours" makes me mad and people who've completed the game will know why... They will never experience transcendence...

In one word: Knowledge.

Favorite tracks (3 hour long album btw, awesome.)
Redwood Colonnade
This Is The Wrong Way
Crouch Walker
Snowmelt
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<major spoiler>

In some ways, Tunic is one of the smartest and most beautiful experiences i've had in a game in a long time, but the reality of actually playing it leaves something to be desired for me, but never enough to outright diminish just how exquisitely crafted the world and the game 'experience' feels. The atmosphere of this game is outstanding and though a tiring comparison, does feel reminiscent of dark souls with how you venture out as a lost and lowly 'face' without much purpose only to discover your grand purpose and fulfil your destiny. Also the vibe of the world, the isolated feeling and looming ambience are spot on and the ultimate goal of the game is not unlike dark souls or hollow knight, but similarly you have control over how things play out.

Fundamentally, the game's runaway success is the instruction booklet both as a feature and as a piece of art in itself. The art inside of this little booklet is stunning, evoking a feeling of old school game manuals, text guides and retro game magazines like nintendo power. The delicately handcrafted nature of the art combined with the cryptic application of the information it divulges into tunic's own game systems is ingenious and a masterpiece by itself. Its rare to see an idea so original and so well designed and applied to the game experience, from finding your place in the world with its intricate maps and diagrams, to uncovering uses for items and upgrades as you have to decipher this kind of alien language and make pictures make sense. This is best done in the first half of the game where I felt particularly isolated and confused, as the way the manual intricately teaches you the game and helps you along as a constant companion allowed me to develop an attachment to the game and its mechanics in a way I had never seen before, its just so smart.

I don't have many problems with the cryptic nature of the game or how it seeks for the player to uncover things for themselves, I think I just find it more difficult than a lot of people and it doesn't come naturally to me. Also, once you put the guide down and start actually interacting with the game after you understand its basic mechanics, I find that the game is an actively lesser experience. This is why I find the 'idea' of the game better than the game itself, as once that guide is down and you're set off on your adventure, I realised how little depth there actually is in the gameplay. Now, this is an indie game developed largely by one guy and I need to give credit to that because that's incredible, what an amazing achievement. However, I do find playing this a bit of a chore, most secrets are found by lazily walking against walls in an isometric perspective once you realise how many hidden paths there are. In the beginning, this is dope, when you find out how the world interconnects through its hidden bridges and shortcuts, again not unlike the first half of DS1, but eventually it became tragically tedious as I constantly found myself circling the edges of an area to try and find my way to a chest or secret - usually successfully, but not in a way that felt all that fulfilling.

I also take some issue with the game's combat, which feels somewhat stale and derivative and less interesting than some of its counterparts, there's also such a short range on attacks meaning you need to be right up against an enemy to hit them and a general 'heaviness' to the overall feel of combat, with almost every action in combat feeling slow and clunky. The depth of field is a cool cinema effect that adds to the games' aesthetic and adds layering to the world, but in combat i'd rather it were toned down since I just find it overwhelming and frustrating since it blurs everything including enemies, attacks and projectiles, making translating what is on screen tricky at times - its particularly noticeable during the siege engine boss fight. I also find dodge rolling quite sluggish and ineffective a lot of the time since the long animation means you're vulnerable for a lot of it and enemies will lock onto you mid-roll and hit you with an attack even after you roll behind them - you will dodge through an enemies' first attack perfectly only for their entire body to turn 180 degrees instantly and hit you again, its not heinous or anything but it makes dodging feel worse than just putting your shield up and makes combat feel less dynamic and engaging as a result.

Stylistically I think this is awesome, evoking the wonder of old school exploration games and top down zelda games while also putting its own spin on things. I think I preferred death's door for the most part but tunic's general atmosphere is unmatched, with a beautifully calm and delicately ambient soundtrack and a cute and charming low-poly artstyle. The cover of this game doesn't do it justice at all I don't think, they should have used the type of art taken from the game manual, its not what I expected at all. I didn't know much about this game going in but I was positively surprised by how it turned out, since I was expecting something more akin to ocarina of time but instead it takes more influences from zelda games pre-ocarina. I understood the developer's intentions a lot I think, since I felt the need for the player to uncover things for themselves and experience a feeling of wonder, it just doesn't always work for me since I value really strong, faster-paced gameplay (DS1 being an exception) and an engaging narrative told through gameplay and cutscenes - instead, tunic favours a slower-paced feeling of patient discovery and a story that encourages putting the pieces together and then interpretation, but instead of the souls' approach of finding things out largely through visual storytelling and lore-soaked environments, tunic leaves a lot of it to pages in a manual and an indecipherable language that is cool, it just doesn't do much for me. That said, exploring the inside of the ziggurat and seeing the foxes trapped inside obelisks and deciphering what might have happened to this fox 'civilisation' is intriguing enough by itself.

I do find the game falls off pretty hard in the last third for me, I genuinely would have preferred if it just ended after you got the keys since by that point I was ready for it to be done and I don't think the last third adds all that much since you're kind of just retracing steps, but in terms of pure 'vibes' its definitely a really humbling moment and meaningfully changes how you see the world. In terms of what it sets out to achieve I do think its successful and a great achievement as an indie game, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the gameplay for me personally, I think there's lots of games that have done this kind of stuff better but the art, soundtrack and that manual system invigorated me, that stuff is worthy of the highest praise on its own.

I enjoyed this game in the first few hours as a simple Zelda clone and if that's all it was it would have stood its own against Nintendo's flagship series. But after the meta game puzzles begin revealing themselves to you it becomes so much more.

It's a love letter to not only 2D Zelda, but to retro game nostalgia itself. If you grew up in the 90s and have fond memories of sitting in the back seat flipping through the game manual of the game you just bought with your allowance money on the ride home from the mall video game shop, this game is for you.

Make sure you grab a pen and paper, you will be taking notes.

Tunic prepared me for a lot of things by wearing its influences really, REALLY prominently on its sleeve. The internet helped by preparing me for the kind of fiendish, higher-level puzzles that I associate with like, Fez and shit. What I did not expect was the degree to which they just put Dark Souls in here too. Like the first thing that happens is you find a big closed door and get told to ring two bells on opposite sides of the map to open it. Combat has the same weight. Boss fights are the same ur-DS boss that you circle strafe and block. This taught me a very important thing: that I'm still so fuckin sick of Dark Souls you have no goddamn idea. Holy shit I was so annoyed with every time I had to fight a boss. They aren't too tough it's just the cadence is grating to me.

Luckily, it's not just Dark Souls. It's also a bunch of other games I've already played. Primed for that kind of heavily referenced gameplay, I thought of Zelda 1 specifically. I thought of The Witness. I thought of Hydlide for a bit. The Fez comparison ultimately didn't bare out, and it's not really trying to be that. There's a language here, and I am pretty sure you can figure it out, but I don't care about that. The plot is clearly not intended to be interesting in any way that I care to learn and I got the good ending without needing to intuit a single word. I'm more interested in the text as a recreation of being a child with low/no reading ability, only able to slightly comprehend these simple video game worlds through context. Because that's what it is! Even without being able to read it, the manual clearly lays out the games big secrets for you directly. Tunic is pretending to be a simpler game than it is, kept from you by factors inherent to your outside-the-game existence. That's like the whole entire gimmick.

And god, it works. Manual pages are like, top-tier video game pickup to me. Each one is a little treasure trove of cute art and gameplay tips, and even the occasional little cheat of functionality that makes no sense, like the map pages actually showing your current location. Yeah a hookshot is cool but have you considered: a picture of a little fox doing a roll? I highly recco

So, while Tunic was all very nice and good, I do think it lacks that final oomph of real personality to be truely one of the greats. It's ultimately just a nostalgia piece, trying to recreate a feeling that never quite existed, at least for me. The time before I could read good was certainly not a time where I'd have had the level of patience needed for this. It's a charming puzzle box. I enjoyed the hell out of it while it was in front of me and now it's over and I'm not going to think super hard about it from here. Great gamepass game though I'll say that. Damn I love having a machine that can play real ass games.

Tunic is a mess. It's an extreme puzzle soulslike zelda 1 mix that uses an antiquated gimmick, an in-game manual, as the main progression mechanic.

Tunic is too hard of a puzzle game if you want to play a soulslike, and too hard of a soulslike if you want to play a puzzle game. The Zelda comparison is fair, but only if you're talking about The Legends of Zelda, first of its name. I spent hours being lost not having a single clue where to go only to find out that I was simply walking past a door or a turn I was supposed to take.

The puzzle design in Tunic is frustrating, because the entire game is based on purposfully obscuring or not giving crucial information to the player. If you were to beat the game legitemately, you'd have to go through a lot of trial and error, not only on the soulslike part, but also on the puzzles. The game has 0 feedback for most puzzles you do, only vaguely indicating what you're supposed to be doing in the manual. The true ending, without a guide, is IMPOSSIBLE. There is no way someone can possibly find everything needed for the true ending without spending endless hours looking through every nook and crany of the map. Some people are into that, and it's their type of game, but I'm definitely not.

There's a crucial difference between Tunic and games like Outer Wilds. Outer Wilds guides the player via a command board that recaps not only what you already know in clear english, but also indicates connections between things you know in case you've missed them, while also guiding the player where to go explore next. You can look at the board, and figure out a destination. Tunic doesn't tell you where to go, only giving you slight hints, in a cryptic language in the manual. At some point, this becomes very discouraging, and I personally just used a guide. I'm very happy that I did so, because I would not be able to figure out what I'm supposed to do without a guide. To add insult to injury, after getting everything required for the true ending, the game bugged out and gave me the regular ending.

The soulslike elements of the game are lackluster as well. There is no variety of weapons, equips or items. There are a few useful items, and a few spells, and one sword. The equips you get are either gimmicky, either completely useless, either so good that you'll only be using a few given equips the entire game. Without the damage up defence down equip, I wouldn't have beaten the game in the time I did. The equips don't have a description, to fit the gimmick of the game, and are only vaguely described in the manual. This is a very bad thing, as most of the time you're unsure whether an equipment is even working properly. The bosses are all uninspired, the only boss I found enjoyable was the final boss. There are 0 humanoid fights, meaning that most of the time you'll be running around dodge rolling until the boss eventually lets you attack it. Only on the final boss do you get the chance to weave in attacks and dash out mid-combo when needed.

Overall, the game is just frustrating. It feels like it wasn't playtested enough, and has rough difficulty spikes and confusing puzzles all over. It felt more like I was fighting against the game the entire time, rather than playing it.

Esse jogo me pegou de surpresa, Não o conhecia, porém vi algumas pessoas falando muito bem sobre ele, então fui pesquisar para ver como era, percebi que ele não era muito conhecido, mas oque tinha sobre ele era sempre positivo. Isso me despertou uma vontade enorme de jogar e mergulhar de cabeça nessa experiência totalmente nova. E realmente esse jogo é encantador. Fui jogando e percebendo que ele era completamente divertido e difícil. Após um tempo jogando me senti totalmente preso, quando eu zerei fiquei ao mesmo tempo feliz por conhecer e poder jogar esse jogo incrível, porém ao mesmo tempo triste por ter acabado. Até que tive a ideia de pesquisar sobre sua platina e depois de um tempo pensando resolvi platina-lo. E dito e feito platinei ele com muito orgulho, assim podendo aproveitar mais e me divertir novamente. Eu sei que parece uma cópia de Zelda, porém mesmo que seja você não se arrependera de joga-lo. Super recomendo!

My friend said he was going to buy me Balan Wonderworld but hit me with this instead, so if it's a trick or a pleasant surprise that's for you to decide.

Tunic has some really interesting ideas that, should you dare go for completion, will really demand you work your brain for it. I think the Instruction Manual is a brilliant concept that cutely made and several times as I flipped through it I thought "damn, they're probably selling this for money they'd make a killing". I got the standard ending because eventually the demand for guessing what you input at the secret input spots for so many puzzles got too much for me (I likely would have been more interested had I known earlier, but I only found out near the end of the game). Mid-Late game collecting the keys and the dungeon after was where it peaked for me, unraveling more of the world as I explore and clear dungeons, now that's my kinda game.

I also think the bosses are pretty fun, the Librarian getting a special shoutout. Some bosses like the final boss and Scavanger Boss can get stuck in a loop trying to dodge as they're against the wall which lets you combo a good amount before they get unstuck. Combat is all around solid although not knowing what items did kept me from experimenting with a few of them.

If you have a giga brain (or a cheater but that goes against the spirit of the game) you'll enjoy the puzzles, if you have an average brain like me I think going for the standard ending is sufficient enough, even if the endings felt a little simple. Better than Balan most likely as I can see me genuinely recommending this to some people.