Much has been said about this game’s interpolation of Zelda and Dark Souls (and Fez), and like many I think the results are mixed when it comes to the extent to which Tunic hangs its hat on Souls-y attrition based exploration and combat, when the game’s combat is usually serviceable at best and downright dull at worst. However, like in my Scorn review a while back I want to look past the conversation about this game’s combat, sidestep the dodgy dodge-rolls, and just talk about the specific bits of design in Tunic that wowed me.
The reason I wanted to write something about Tunic is that its mystery and progression has a particular flavor to it that I found really unique. Whereas the original Zelda cultivated an air of exploration and intrigue by showing players a vast, untamed wilderness, and Dark Souls rewards exploration by unlocking interconnections throughout regions of a hostile gameworld, Tunic is all about the unfolding wonder of what was there all along. What looks mundane at first can actually house the key to huge mysteries.
The camera is used incredibly to this end. Its static isometric view combined with well-placed objects cleverly hide all the shortcuts in the game’s levels. Where in Zelda and Souls you often need a key to open up a connection between two places, in Tunic the shortcut was there the whole time under your nose, you just didn’t know where to look. In my playthrough I don't think I found a single major shortcut before the game wanted me to, but every time it felt like I could have, even should have seen it earlier. Out of all the things games can accomplish through their curation of digital space, Tunic's level design is finely tuned to produce delight. This is games doing the sort of things I want games to do. This is Charismatic Game Design.
Nowhere is Tunic’s approach to mystery more on display than in its manual. Information is your greatest asset in Tunic, and a new manual page is by far the most exciting treasure you can find in your journey. Essential pages are doled out throughout the game to tutorialize key concepts, but many pages are completely non-essential to the critical path and they’re all filled with references to other pages, oblique hints, and portentious markings. The game hides entire mechanics and systems behind the hints in manual pages, leaving much for the player to figure out through experience, and the confidence on display, knowing just what to tell the player and what to keep a secret, is wonderful. The final magic trick that Tunic locks its true ending behind, where the manual itself is radically recontextualized to reveal a bevy of secrets that were there the entire time, is a brilliant culmination and a massively satisfying puzzle to solve. That solving the puzzle lets you skip the final bossfight, using your wisdom to transcend the violent cycle at the heart of the game’s narrative, is the perfect icing on the cake.
Tunic is one of the most successful games I’ve played at unfolding, revealing, and recontextualizing, and the most impressive thing about it is that it plays fair. The secrets were always in front of your eyes, it lets you look inside the hat before it somehow pulls the rabbit out, and that's a special thing.
The reason I wanted to write something about Tunic is that its mystery and progression has a particular flavor to it that I found really unique. Whereas the original Zelda cultivated an air of exploration and intrigue by showing players a vast, untamed wilderness, and Dark Souls rewards exploration by unlocking interconnections throughout regions of a hostile gameworld, Tunic is all about the unfolding wonder of what was there all along. What looks mundane at first can actually house the key to huge mysteries.
The camera is used incredibly to this end. Its static isometric view combined with well-placed objects cleverly hide all the shortcuts in the game’s levels. Where in Zelda and Souls you often need a key to open up a connection between two places, in Tunic the shortcut was there the whole time under your nose, you just didn’t know where to look. In my playthrough I don't think I found a single major shortcut before the game wanted me to, but every time it felt like I could have, even should have seen it earlier. Out of all the things games can accomplish through their curation of digital space, Tunic's level design is finely tuned to produce delight. This is games doing the sort of things I want games to do. This is Charismatic Game Design.
Nowhere is Tunic’s approach to mystery more on display than in its manual. Information is your greatest asset in Tunic, and a new manual page is by far the most exciting treasure you can find in your journey. Essential pages are doled out throughout the game to tutorialize key concepts, but many pages are completely non-essential to the critical path and they’re all filled with references to other pages, oblique hints, and portentious markings. The game hides entire mechanics and systems behind the hints in manual pages, leaving much for the player to figure out through experience, and the confidence on display, knowing just what to tell the player and what to keep a secret, is wonderful. The final magic trick that Tunic locks its true ending behind, where the manual itself is radically recontextualized to reveal a bevy of secrets that were there the entire time, is a brilliant culmination and a massively satisfying puzzle to solve. That solving the puzzle lets you skip the final bossfight, using your wisdom to transcend the violent cycle at the heart of the game’s narrative, is the perfect icing on the cake.
Tunic is one of the most successful games I’ve played at unfolding, revealing, and recontextualizing, and the most impressive thing about it is that it plays fair. The secrets were always in front of your eyes, it lets you look inside the hat before it somehow pulls the rabbit out, and that's a special thing.