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.
No link to said game?
It’s also one of the best sonic youth songs
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.
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 have heard them called “knowledge-based games”. While not catchy, I think it’s accurate.
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.
Tunic is a great little game. I can’t think of any other game that captures that feeling of playing a game for the first time and slowly testing the boundaries of what you can and cannot do. Definitely one of the better love letters to the old Zelda games out there. My main issue with it was the fact that the end-game is mostly just puzzle-solving. It kind of felt like the game had changed genres on me, especially since I had seen it recommended so many times as “Zelda meets Dark Souls”.
FWIW the game came out over 3 years ago, made a shit ton, was incredibly well received across the board, and was everywhere online. It was talked about incredibly extensively and beloved, even with the pretty high difficulty ceiling (especially if you want to actually complete the game). So be thrilled to know that your concern about its reception/discussion is misplaced!
For those of you curious about it, trust me. This is no simple Zelda like. There is a lot beneath the surface…
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
This is my first time hearing about it personally. But I don’t watch streamers personally. Sounds just like my kind of game, honestly, so thanks for mentioning it. I’ll definitely check it out.
I don’t watch streamers either but have known about it since before it released. I suggest finding places that recommend indie games, and just looking at steam to see what’s new and popular. There are lots of websites, youtube channels etc. that make stuff like most exciting upcoming, best of (year/month), best (category) indie games of (year/decade) and so on. I can add some later when I have time, if I remember.
Just give it a search. You’ll find thousands of posts, articles, blogs, etc. It made quite a splash and rightfully so. Not my kind of game but mad respect for what they did.
It was (maybe still is) on Game Pass which gave it a ton of exposure.
If you liked this game or miss it, there’s another really great game with some similarities out there: Death’s Door
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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 loved this game too! I haven’t finished it yet. I get distracted sometimes but I really do love it. It’s so unique but also kept the right tropes in the genre. Plus it’s cute.
Loved it, but absolutely hit a wall with it until they released the “take half damage” difficulty patch. Then I found it fun again. I love a challenging video game, but the “slightly loose dodging controls” and the requirement for basically perfect execution to defeat the bosses didn’t sit well with me. The Garden Knight was bad enough, the ones that come after it were just silly.
I have it on humble, is there a way to know if they’ve updated my copy to the latest version?
Think there should be an ‘accessibility’ option in the settings menu? I remember it being pretty decent - god mode, slow down, item highlighting, and the ‘half damage’ option were in there.
Spent a lot of time with this game on the steam deck traveling. Great game.
i’ve said it before but i don’t think i’ve ever bounced so hard off of something i thought i would love.
i love cryptic, deep worlds, deciphering languages, discovery and exploration. but the combat blocked me from doing any of it.
i died to the first larger enemy (a white blob thing) like five times. i switched the combat to easy mode, and subsequently died five more times, just slower. then i looked up if here was something obvious that i was missing, but no. people were basically describing what i was already doing. dodging, rolling, watching for tells. only there are no tells on those first blob enemies. they just attack. later enemies, like the big spiders, have tells, and those i can sort of do. but the first guys just maul you.
the combat is honestly ass, at least as far as i got. its difficulty is not in line with the theme of the game, and it adds very little to it other than being a roadblock for the puzzles.
It now has two options that make it a lot easier (at least on Steam)
- infinite stamina (Dodge all you want)
- infinite life (just enjoy the world and puzzles)
yeah but i’m no longer interested. the mismatch between the world and the combat made me feel like the game was built as a trap, the cute visuals luring people in to punish them. it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Fair.
I would love to have a game like it but without the ‘git gud’ combat.
Yeah, combat is it’s weakest point. I’m sorry that held the game back from you, because the overall “puzzle” of the world/game is very rewarding.
Hmmm, something isn’t adding up here. While there are a couple places where the combat is annoying, it’s really only the bosses and maybe a few enemies in the endgame.
The blobs absolutely have tells, I can’t remember what they are but they exist. If you’ve played literally any action game before you should be able to beat that enemy pretty easily, it sounds like you were pressing the wrong button to dodge or something.
so i got past them by ignoring them, got to the little village of orc-things and while it was a struggle i managed to clear it, so i thought “okay i think i get how this works now”, went back to the blob things and got wiped out.
i was obviously doing something wrong because the feel of the combat was just absolutely awful. sluggish and spongy and takes way too much time.
once i got to the graveyard i just said “fuck it” and gave up. it was only frustration.
