This review contains spoilers
Damn...
Tunic is the lovechild of games like Zelda and Dark Souls, with some interesting environment puzzles that reminded me of the mobile game, Monument Valley in some ways.
The incredible thing about this game is that it has a pretty standard gameplay loop on the surface level. You run around, swing your sword, roll away from enemies, and find the treasures that lead you through the story.
The magic of this game is the way you figure out how to play it. There are no directions in Tunic. You spawn into a beautiful low-poly environment with nothing but the bouncy tuft of fur on your head. The UI seems self-explanatory until you realize that pause is LB and Start brings up a book. You immediately get the feeling that this game is a little strange or that the devs don't know how to properly map buttons.
Within the first few feet of travel, you come across a page from a notebook, and that's when you realize the game is hiding a deep layer of introspection under its surface. You figure out everything about the game through these notebook pages. You learn how to navigate the menu, what the items you find do, how to attack, hell, even how to sprint. There are certain mechanics and solutions to puzzles contained in the pages as well. You're rewarded for exploration in the game with solutions or half-solutions, and a lot of the time, they lead to another layer that is more contemplative than the last. One page may contain a cypher that reveals a button pattern of the location of another page that give you more info on the lore of the story or the path your hero should take.
It's interesting how you can finish this game without ever looking deeper than the gameplay mechanics. There are myriad secrets in the pages of the instruction book.
I loved the music as well. It had no problem carrying the mood for each fight and overworld traversal. There's a wonderful sense of both urgency and fluidity in the tracks, depending on the area you're in. My favorite part was that there's almost always a piano present. Doesn't get better than some gorgeous keys. Whether the sounds were technical or natural, I always found myself noticing the sounds in the background helping me enjoy the environment.
Loved this game. It's one of those ones that I wish could be erased from my brain so I could experience it again.
Also, some of these puzzles and the secrets that I didn't even get to? What the fuck, man. I'll remember this humility the next time I think I'm decent at puzzles.
SPOILER ON THE STORY THEMES:
Something about the story that came to my mind were the themes of sacrifice and knowledge. You have this prison that your mother or caregiver is being held in throughout the game. If you defeat them, you take their place. They fight so hard against you in the final fight because they don't want you to sacrifice yourself. That relationship contends with your need to help those you love. We do this all the time in life. We're constantly making tradeoffs and end up in worse spots so others can live without worry. There's a sense of heroism in that, but I think the real gift is in the second ending: Knowledge.
We can also use our knowledge we gain in order to help both ourselves and others around us. Tradeoffs are a necessary piece of life, but they can always be minimized. When you are bound by your intellectual capabilities, you are bound physically while moving through the world with others. Sometimes, we get so caught up in forcing everything to its end, that we don't realize we could have taken more time to think about the situation and maybe ended up in a better place. The pursuit of knowledge is lifelong, but it leads to many more avenues than without it.
Tunic is the lovechild of games like Zelda and Dark Souls, with some interesting environment puzzles that reminded me of the mobile game, Monument Valley in some ways.
The incredible thing about this game is that it has a pretty standard gameplay loop on the surface level. You run around, swing your sword, roll away from enemies, and find the treasures that lead you through the story.
The magic of this game is the way you figure out how to play it. There are no directions in Tunic. You spawn into a beautiful low-poly environment with nothing but the bouncy tuft of fur on your head. The UI seems self-explanatory until you realize that pause is LB and Start brings up a book. You immediately get the feeling that this game is a little strange or that the devs don't know how to properly map buttons.
Within the first few feet of travel, you come across a page from a notebook, and that's when you realize the game is hiding a deep layer of introspection under its surface. You figure out everything about the game through these notebook pages. You learn how to navigate the menu, what the items you find do, how to attack, hell, even how to sprint. There are certain mechanics and solutions to puzzles contained in the pages as well. You're rewarded for exploration in the game with solutions or half-solutions, and a lot of the time, they lead to another layer that is more contemplative than the last. One page may contain a cypher that reveals a button pattern of the location of another page that give you more info on the lore of the story or the path your hero should take.
It's interesting how you can finish this game without ever looking deeper than the gameplay mechanics. There are myriad secrets in the pages of the instruction book.
I loved the music as well. It had no problem carrying the mood for each fight and overworld traversal. There's a wonderful sense of both urgency and fluidity in the tracks, depending on the area you're in. My favorite part was that there's almost always a piano present. Doesn't get better than some gorgeous keys. Whether the sounds were technical or natural, I always found myself noticing the sounds in the background helping me enjoy the environment.
Loved this game. It's one of those ones that I wish could be erased from my brain so I could experience it again.
Also, some of these puzzles and the secrets that I didn't even get to? What the fuck, man. I'll remember this humility the next time I think I'm decent at puzzles.
SPOILER ON THE STORY THEMES:
Something about the story that came to my mind were the themes of sacrifice and knowledge. You have this prison that your mother or caregiver is being held in throughout the game. If you defeat them, you take their place. They fight so hard against you in the final fight because they don't want you to sacrifice yourself. That relationship contends with your need to help those you love. We do this all the time in life. We're constantly making tradeoffs and end up in worse spots so others can live without worry. There's a sense of heroism in that, but I think the real gift is in the second ending: Knowledge.
We can also use our knowledge we gain in order to help both ourselves and others around us. Tradeoffs are a necessary piece of life, but they can always be minimized. When you are bound by your intellectual capabilities, you are bound physically while moving through the world with others. Sometimes, we get so caught up in forcing everything to its end, that we don't realize we could have taken more time to think about the situation and maybe ended up in a better place. The pursuit of knowledge is lifelong, but it leads to many more avenues than without it.