I recently finished the game Tunic, which is sort of like A Link to the Past + Fez + Dark Souls… And it’s amazing!
I actually owned the game soon after release but bounced off of it due to being busy with work, picked it back up the past few weeks and finally sat down and enjoyed it. Despite looking like a straightforward and cute adventure game, it gets REALLY deep the further you go in. There’s so much to discover and the game gives you just enough hints on what to do and where to go.
Tunic ticks all the boxes for me. The graphics are gorgeous, the combat is fun, the world is fun to explore and rich with secrets, and progression was very satisfying.
The most unique part of the game is that you slowly find pages of an instruction manual containing maps of areas and secrets, explanation of mechanics, and guides on how to play… except it’s all written in an alien language, so you have to figure out what it’s telling you by paying attention to all the pictures and context clues.
Understanding the manual is a bit rough at first but lead to so many “A-ha!” moments when you try something and it actually works. It even foreshadows future bosses and things you’ll encounter before they happen which is brilliant. My best advice to someone just trying the game: Pay attention to the manual, seriously!
I won’t spoil any more than that, but I really wish more people talked about this game. It’s not for everybody, the game is intentionally vague and needs some critical thinking if you’re not following a guide, but I think it’s absolutely brilliant if you’re into exploration and discovery. One of the most unique games I’ve played in ages.
I’ve heard people describe games like this as “Metroidbrainias”, which is the dumbest name ever, but the point is that it’s a game where progress is blocked not just by obtaining in-game power-ups, but by learning how to use abilities that you already possess at the beginning of the game. The player is the one who levels up. I love that.
I will point out that (IIRC) Tunic does have significantly more mechanical progression than some other examples, like Outer Wilds or Toki Tori 2, but they’re all lovely games
It’s more of a “souls-lite” meets Outer Wilds for sure. You gotta be relatively on top of things mechanically to beat it, and on top of that in the second half of the game it switches to puzzles that are (IMO) infuriatingly grindy and will take hours to complete after you’ve figured out the mechanic.
Which is perfectly fine for those who like that, but I was sold “knowledge base game like Outer Wilds” which doesn’t accurately capture how disgustingly grindy Tunic really is IMO. That’s like saying Elden Ring is an “open world walking simulator with gorgeous graphics and compelling combat”. I mean, yeah, it’s all that and it’s a great game. But that’s kind of underselling the fact that if it’s your first Souls you’ll probably break a couple keyboards after meeting Margit.
I’m not sure which puzzles you’re referring to - do you mean stuff to reach an ending, or the obscure, very much optional, deep secrets?
It’s been a while since I played it, but I don’t remember grindy puzzles in the main content, bar the big one, but that one felt exhilarating to figure out and solve.
As for combat, it is difficult, but I remember beating the whole game without turning down the difficulty (which I remember being a thing), so it seemed fine to me… But yeah, people misrepresenting a game is always a risk.
I looked it up because I already forgot, but you need to do half of the puzzle I’m talking about to do the big one. And that one is annoying as fuck to do because even if you immediately understand how it works (it is very neat) you’ll be looking at it for literal hours getting tiny details right with zero feedback from the game, and the “this is neat” feeling quickly turned into intense frustration for me. Doubly frustrating because I was not in the right headspace after being forced to do a bunch of content filler puzzles to even get there. I just can’t find any joy in the tedium of figuring out a bazillion very similar puzzles over and over again to solve a bigger puzzle I already know how to solve. I figured out your trick, game, where is my damn reward? I guess that’s why I could never get into Rubik’s Cube…
Outer Wilds approaches this very differently, I definitely spent hours wandering because I misunderstood one very specific thing. But once I did understand that thing, everything clicked into place and the game revealed itself to me. Late-game Tunic instead punishes discovery with more grind.
The combat was fine, I never touched the difficulty either. Though I will say the difficulty scaling was a bit all over the place, most of the regular enemies were barely a threat, while the bosses were pretty all over the place in terms of difficulty. But overall the combat progression was quite enjoyable.
I have heard them called “knowledge-based games”. While not catchy, I think it’s accurate.
Knowledge-gated progression perhaps.
I kind of enjoy the abstruse, tortured jargon of “metroidbrainia”, but I would never use it in a respectable conversation.
To me, the unspoken premise of the game is that you’re a kid in 1986 with a parent or cool uncle who went on a business trip to Japan and brought you home a Famicom and a copy of the original Zelda - months before the console even launched outside Japan.
The whole game is about replicating that sense of childish fascination and wonder.
The ‘Alien Language’ game manual is supposed to mimic the feeling of trying to read the Japanese manual that came with the game, muddling through as best you can with the pictures, and a few random English words they included just because English is ‘cool’ in a gaming context.
It’s a very fun mechanic, and my favourite thing about the game.
That’s the feeling it evoked in me: a childlike sense of wonder and discovery.
That was me playing Pokemon red. Got it without knowing a bit of English, took me a lot to realize that dialog was important sometimes and it took me several days to figure out how to teach and use the HMs. Later my dad got me the official guide so I could follow the pictures and use a dictionary to figure out some words
Eh that was me playing games in English before understanding a single word. Sooo many Amiga games where I went forward just by choosing stuff at random.
Tunic is one of my absolute favorite games. An absolute joy to play and the sheer whimsy that the game exudes is refreshing.
I got stuck at either a boss or miniboss. Game’s a lot of fun and has good spirit but I didn’t have enough mana to fight a flying wizard. I don’t think that’s too much of a spoiler. This Zelda-like game has flying wizards and you can cast magic spells.
I either couldn’t backtrack or didnt trust my ability to return to that arena to advance the game. Whatever the case was after stalling out and putting it down I have found it difficult to get my head back in the game. At this point I’m waiting until I forget more of the game so I can start fresh again one day.
There’s a LOT of toggles for difficulty/accessibility in there in case you get stuck and don’t wanna grind, just fyi
Thanks. I’ll have to try my hand at it with cakewalk settings and see if I can make any progress. Now I’m hoping my game saved before that fight and I don’t have to find my way back to where it is. No difficulty slider can make that easier.
Also consider trying it again, but use items. The items completely break most of the fights if you just use them.
I know that sounds like obvious advice, but my personal inclination is to never use items, and usually items aren’t that great, so it was novel to me that when I got stuck, the answer was just: use items.
There are accessibility options now because the flights can be really hard.
You can have infinite stamina or infinite life if you just want to figure out the manual.
It’s an absolutely beautiful love letter to Zelda, and I wish I finished it while it was still free on PSN. So much thought and attention went into every little detail you see and hear. Tunic teaches so many lessons about game design that I wish AAA studios would hear.
I hope your post inspires more people to play the game. It is absolutely fantastic!
Thank you for sharing!
This game is on my list but i already have plenty of other games to play, so i can wait for a super sale lol
Have you “finished it” or finished it ?
I’ve gotten as far as I could, but didn’t do everything.
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I did most of the fairy puzzles but didn’t do the golden path; I ended up looking up how it’s done on Youtube since it sounds like a huge investment. As much as I liked the puzzles, I’m good with the regular ending.
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I guess it just wasn’t in my circle because I haven’t heard much about it since release, but good to know it’s more popular than I thought
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I might have been too autistic for it, cuz I 100%d the game in
518 hours total without using any guides. Absolutely loved those518 hours tho.That’s pretty impressive, since HLTB puts it at more than twice that to roll credits.
No you’re right. Tunic took me 18h. It was Lil’ Gator Game that only took 5. 🤣
Added it to my todo list!
The soundtrack is also amazing. Lifeformed did a great job with it, just as they did with Dustforce.
Oh, an absolute all time great. Fantastic background music when you’re focused on homework or something, but equally enjoyable to sit and focus on all the nuance and details.
But the best part is how perfectly the music aligns to the overall tone and atmosphere of the game. Hell, it even does a tremendous amount of storytelling itself!
I emailed Lifeformed back in 2020 to ask permission to use their music in a video and they were so nice.
The Dustforce soundtrack is so good, and the Tunic soundtrack does such an amazing job at elevating the game.
I really liked the puzzle elements, but the combat was way too hard in places. I didn’t feel bad about turning that down.
You should never feel bad for turning difficulty down.
It’s also one of the best sonic youth songs
