Tunic comes at a perfect time; in the middle of a packed release schedule dripping with titles that delight in killing you, it’s a calmer, more mild-mannered take on the adventure game that wants to engage in a friendly dialogue. It doesn't want to yell at you – it wants to encourage you. To explore, engage, and experiment. It’s the perfect palate cleanser, taking anywhere between six and 20 hours, and absolutely essential if you’ve got a fondness for adventure games with a potion in their pocket, a cape around their neck, and a twinkle in their eye.
I’ve likened TUNIC to Fez, a similarly brilliant game that also shattered expectations, hid riddles in a new alphabet, and had an entire community rally around some of the larger secrets. I believe we’ll see the exact same here. The difference, however, is that TUNIC seems to be available to everyone, not just puzzle-minded nerds like me. As already mentioned, it’s a game of two halves. How deep the fox hole goes entirely depends on what the player wants to extract from the experience and I think that is just excellent. Not only is it one of the biggest surprises you can expect this year but it sets a new bar for design and minimalist storytelling, allowing players to slowly pick away at the world as new manual pages slowly drip-feed enticing clues about the true nature that lies beneath the cutesy surface. Like Pony Island, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Frog Fractions before it, TUNIC is going to be opening many people’s eyes to what a video game can do.
At first glance, Tunic might look like your typical breezy indie adventure. How wrong you’d be to think that. Underneath its cute exterior lies a tough-as-nails experience, designed to truly test your mettle. But here’s a game that also sports some of the most thoughtful, wonderful design elements you’ll ever find, all laid out in an interconnected, sprawling world that begs to be explored. Better yet, a range of accessibility options mean that absolutely anyone can experience Tunic, regardless of their skill level. And by god, they should. It really is something special.
Tunic is an isometric action game where players take on the role of a small fox on a big adventure in an unforgiving world. It might look cute, but it is far from soft, presenting a unique, cleverly mixed fusion of Souls-like combat and Zelda-like exploration and puzzles.
Tunic desperately tries to recreate the magic of classic Legend of Zelda games, all too often doing so to a fault. It tries to be hands-off and instead leaves the player with no idea of where to go. It wants to have simple combat, akin to something like the Zelda Oracle games, but that approach gets stale incredibly fast here. More than anything though, Tunic left me feeling lost in its mysteries, which I didn’t want to solve out of need or drive, but because I couldn’t bear them anymore.
SummaryTunic is an isometric action adventure about a tiny fox in a big world. Embark on an adventuresome questabout set in that place just beyond the farthest you’ve ever been. Explore ancient ruins, fight monsters and uncover mysterious secrets. The world is big and scary — so be brave, little one.