A World of Secrets: Why You Should Play ‘Tunic’
Ben recommends listening to Tunic’s excellent OST while reading the review. Should you prefer, a video review is available on Patreon for supporters $1 and up. The article below discusses Tunic from a post-play perspective, so do expect very light spoilers. Here’s why you should play Tunic.
Tunic is a difficult game to describe, and I’m unsure that its comparisons to Zelda or Dark Souls do it much justice. Yes, the game borrows a lot of inspiration from the past (particularly the original Legend of Zelda), but it seems equally insistent on carving out something new for itself. The score is elegant and new-age, featuring synths and a soft piano. The colors are bright and variegated, and the art design pulls from the adventure genre without sacrificing its new-age touch. Far more interesting, however, is that Tunic is designed around its own language and an accompanying in-game player manual.
In-keeping with many of the best games of the last several years, namely Outer Wilds, Death Loop, and Elden Ring, information serves as its own kind of reward in Tunic. It’s through this gameplay loop of finding new information and applying it that Tunic stands on its own as something fascinatingly unique. Here are some things I liked and didn’t like about my fifteen hours with Tunic.
Learning the Language
The first thing I noticed about Tunic was its desire to immerse me in its world. Not but a few minutes into the game, I picked up a page of an instruction booklet similar to what you used to find in the pocket of a video game case. It most closely resembles The Legend of Zelda’s player manual, and that isn’t a coincidence: much of Tunic does feel like a new-age homage to Link’s origins.
Interestingly, though, the instruction manual is written in its very own language – one that I was able to translate more of as the game went on. At least at the beginning, however, I mostly used the images to infer what information I was supposed to gather from the booklet. For instance, one of the first pages I found made it clear that the gold coins I had been collecting were meant to be flipped into nearby wells. Though, I wasn’t able to discern what the value of doing so was until much later in the game.
The Combat
Part of what makes the instruction manual so interesting is that it details combat tips, like the fact that I could stab out of a roll or that I’d take more damage whenever my stamina bar got low. The enemy design – which is also detailed in the booklet – forces a wide variety of play styles, like using a magic gun from afar or getting up close and personal for parries and quick rolls. All of it has the satisfying feedback of a game like Hollow Knight without ever needing to slow the pace down. There is also an array of consumables that can be found in chests or purchased in a merchant shop, which makes the difficult combat a little more manageable.
When it comes to boss fights, Tunic might just have the best one of the year – which is really saying something after releasing in the same window as Elden Ring. Tunic’s central boss fight is a build up to how much exploration and effort you’ve put into solidifying your character’s strength. By the time I reached it, there was such a tremendous weight on the fight that I was perfectly content spending almost an hour on it. With a dozen or so unique moves and a wild second phase, Tunic required me to have a grip of its combat systems if I wanted to finish it.
The Music
I won’t talk about it for too long, but Tunic’s OST from Lifeformed and Janice Kwan is one of the most melodic in the genre, and I think it’s something that really helps Tunic settle into its own identity. The score is intensely dreamlike and builds on itself as the game progresses. Exploring is a lot more rewarding when you have something so soothing to listen to.
At its best, Tunic instilled a curiosity in me that drove me toward its secrets, paving way to dozens of “ah ha” moments. Though, Tunic very much feels like a game that leans into its exploitative roots with such vigor that it often loses sight of what’s realistic to ask out of a player.
Losing the Line of Sight
In Tunic, many of the game’s most well-kept secrets are buried behind impossible-to-see crevices or fixtures in the pathing. Through my time with the game, I often found myself aimlessly sprinting around behind a wall (where you can only see the Fox’s shadow) in hopes of finding a hidden pathway or shortcut. It’s rewarding when it works out and frustrating when it doesn’t. Tunic never really strikes a meaningful differentiation between which areas I should explore and which ones I shouldn’t, which led to a lot of wasted time – especially from someone who likes to find every collectable a game has to offer.
In general, I think Tunic’s isometric camera angle doesn’t do it a lot of favors. The game was clearly designed in a way that was meant to be stage-y, similar to games like The Legend of Zelda where the only visual available is the 16:9 (or 4:3, in Zelda’s case) screen. It’s a shame, too, because the game is drop-dead gorgeous and its otherwise impressive lighting feels less dynamic than it would have had it allowed for a rotating camera.
A Miasmic Endgame
Tunic wraps itself up really well, but one of the biggest disappointments I have with the end game is that the central enemy is a miasmic plague that fills a lot of the otherwise really enjoyable world. One thing about games like Tunic is that it’s essential that exploration is not implicitly punished. As such, it was really disappointing to encounter so much miasma late in the game (including an entire area of it) that dwindled my health bar every time I got close to it. The game eventually offers a reprieve, but even then, it seemed like it didn’t always work.
Similarly, Tunic works really hard to emphasize upgrades (and the exploration that leads to them), but rips them away with a few hours left in the game. I was lucky enough to have collected the necessary pages of the booklet to understand how I could get my upgrades back, but I can easily envision a situation where I was left banging my head on the wall against an already very difficult final boss.
Is Tunic worth playing next?
Ultimately, I feel as if Tunic is going to have a difficult time finding an audience. It’s complicated, many of its (fantastic) puzzles are deeply difficult to uncork, and it requires a great deal of patience as the game, like its instruction manual, slowly unfurls over time.
Though, I can’t help but recommend Tunic in the fullest sense of the word. It oozes with confidence, dropping you into a world full of mystery and only promising answers with time. Its combat is difficult, and is sure to draw comparisons to the likes of Dark Souls with its use of bonfire checkpoints and long, dry stretches without safety. It’s a game that draws back to an era where the discovery of a new secret was a reward in itself. The moments when Tunic clicks are sure to be among my favorites of the year.
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