90%PlayStation 5

9/10

100%Nintendo Switch

A masterpiece. One of the best I've seen. Work of art, even more considering it's been done with such a small team.

Going in blind is the best experience.

The mechanic of giving manual pages progressively is unique and brilliant on its own. Add to that a fun gameplay, great design and progression. A slowly revealing story. Giving just bits of information and letting the player figure things out, test and explore.

Once clearing a goal, expanding the world again. and when you think that's the limit, it goes further, and further, and further. It's a marvel.

When you clear the story and you think you're done, the game changes completely into a game of codes and cipher. You learn so many new things, and spot clues that were right in front of you the whole time. Over and over again. It's just incredible.

Please play.

95%PlayStation 5

Incredible game for those like myself who are nostalgic for game manuals and like to figure things out by themselves, sometimes after stumbling for a while. I would sometimes figure out some answers while I was away from the game, and could not wait to get back home to try them (which is an awesome feeling !).
This game also has great replayability value, since it shows you a ton of shorcuts for your next playthrough, which speedrunners will appreciate with no doubt.

50%PlayStation 5

Gave up on Siege Boss (grew tired on dieing constantly).
Great game though, but needs a bit more work for it to be a proper RPG (in my opinion).
It contained a lot that you had to figure out for yourself.

85%Nintendo Switch

Super jeux, la difficulté est élevées, j'ai fait le dernier boss en baissant la difficulté après beaucoup trop de tentative en difficulté normal, j'avais envie de voir le générique de fin. Bonne aventure, on se delecte de l'ambiance visuelle, le level design est satisfaisant. Gros points noir sur la fin ou l'on doit repasser toute la carte, c'est long et douloureux.

100%PC

Tunic, to me, is everything a video game should be, and it reignited my passion for this medium once again. At first glance, you might think it's a Zelda clone, but it's more than that. It’s a game that recaptures the feeling of playing a game like Zelda in your childhood; it evokes the nostalgia and wonder of childhood discovery without relying on any cheap tricks.

Tunic is a game that understands the transcendental power of video games, a game made with a lot of love and care.

SPOILER TIME!

The game is sort of divided into 3 layers, according to your knowledge of the world. The first layer is like a normal souls/Zelda-like game; the second layer is when your soul is taken from your body, and you have to recover your attributes; and the third layer is when the game lifts the veil from your eyes and you start to see EVERYTHING.

The idea of using the manual pages as tutorials and game secrets is brilliant, as is the fact that they are written in a different language. It evokes the feeling of playing a game in English (or Japanese) when you were a child, not understanding the language, making everything seem much more magical and mysterious.

Moreover, the notes in the manual also reflect the experience of someone who has already walked this path (rented game, older sibling, etc.) and left little pieces for you to uncover. At the beginning, you’re forced to discover things in a fragmented way, and through your curiosity and attention, more of the game is revealed: smaller secrets, fast travel, and shortcuts are things you start to notice and pay attention to right from the start.

In this way, you are slowly conditioning yourself to pay attention to details, as the game always rewards you for it. Then, once you gain the dash power and remember a place where you could use it, everything changes... You discover that the Holy Cross, a mystery to you, referenced numerous times in the manual... was in your hands all along.

And, man, everything in the game starts to take on new meaning. Paintings on the wall, doors that seemed like mere decorations, mysterious monoliths, spinning cubes... slowly and progressively, you have the revelation that many things you always saw had a different meaning behind them, and you feel your understanding expanding to the point of being literally big-brained.

But in the end, one thing still eludes you... A monumental door in the mountains. Even after mastering all the mysteries of this world, there’s still this giant unsolved puzzle. You look closely at the page in the manual detailing it, almost taunting you, until... wait, could it be?... and you start flipping through pages, you discover something, you have an epiphany. You start frantically flipping through all the pages, noting the new knowledge they always held, but that you could only now see. You exit the game and explore a mysterious save, and finally, you draw a map of astronomical, prophetic, apotheotic knowledge, you draw... the Golden Path.

Now armed with this elusive wisdom, you stand before the door. It’s no longer a mystery to you. You retrace all 100 steps of the Golden Path as if it were nothing, and the door acknowledges your wisdom. The door allows your passage, and on the other side, you finally find... the manual cover. Your knowledge is now, at last, complete.

You then face the final boss and hand him the book. Instead of confronting you, he hugs you. He feels nostalgic, relieved. The memory of the game he played so long ago, which meant so much to him... you share it too, and this experience unites you both stronger than anything.

Wow, speechless. This game made me feel emotions and create a narrative purely from those emotions. It’s brilliant, and I’ll never forget this little fox game.

(PS: looking closely at the last pages, you realize there’s still more to your journey...)

90%PC

Juegazo, es posible pasárselo en 8 horas la historia principal como es mi caso, pero para desbloquear el segundo final hace falta más tiempo, por lo que seguro que hay para muchas más horas si es que sientes que te has quedado superficial en la historia del juego. Puzles, aventuras, descubrimientos, todo esto y más te hará sentir de vuelta a cuando los secretos de los videojuegos se descubrían gracias al boca a boca de los jugadores.

95%PC

Best 3D zeldalike that isn't zelda itself that I've played so far. It was really easy to miss some things which would cause me to get stuck, but aside from that the game was great.

90%Nintendo Switch

Very good indie soulslike, I loved the whole manual concept. The secrets hunt a the end has been wonderful, and reminded me of Fez. Awesome artwork.

95%PC

There's a lot to be said about Tunic; calling it one of the best games of the 2020s is not an understatement. On the surface, Tunic is just another Zelda-like, with your standard indie art direction, serviceable combat, and some cryptic lore thrown into the mix. Reviewed as that Tunic is a competent game with an interesting enough world to explore and varied enough enemies and combat tools to be a solid game, yet not anything too special.
However, around halfway through the game Tunic shows its real self. The game reveals that you can use the d-pad to insert sequences with different effects in the right locations and a paradigm shift to a puzzle game happens. Suddenly all the strange symbols and objects that you have noticed around the world become paramount to progressing in the game. All the strange markings in the manual start to mean something.
Tunic becomes a game about finding and solving these puzzles, and it doesn't give the answers away for free. Tunic made me write down more notes than any of my exams has ever required. It made me actually think about things and solve problems on my own, without explicitly spelling out the answers for me. The final puzzle is probably the most excited I have been about any puzzle in a videogame and felt like the true culmination of all my efforts up to that point.
Tunic's world also starts to get progressively more strange the closer you get to the end. You end up traveling between different otherworldly pocket dimensions and even between life and death. The game has a specially weak fourth wall, with the main collectible being the game's manual pages, written mostly in a made-up language, and having things written on them with pencil by a previous "player". The true final puzzle would also require solving Tunic's language system, however, I'm not a great cryptographer, so that was where I decided to accept my defeat.
All of this strange lore and otherworldly events and happenings are accompanied by an excellent ethereal soundtrack which, while never really taking all of the attention, is paramount to building up the feeling of mystery that Tunic lives by.
In conclusion, Tunic is a one-of-a-kind game that everyone should play knowing as little as possible.

95%PC

An incredible experience rooted in classic Zelda with Souls-like design elements and a fantastically original mechanic that I won't spoil if you haven't already heard about it. It's the kind of game where the less you know going in, the better, so I'll just say that if you're the kind of player who loves solving mysteries, you should not miss this.

90%PlayStation 4

Very interesting Zelda-like game; I enjoyed the majority of it and wished there was a way to make notes on the maps, but needed to get a few hints to get the ending. I spent 99% of the game with no hints/tips/tricks so a lot of time was really wasted going back and forth trying to figure out what to do and where to go. Overall I thought it was worth it and if you like the "Link to the Past" style Zelda, you'll enjoy Tunic.

80%Nintendo Switch

Nice pussle game if you really want to dig in. Hard if not wanting to dig in. Hard boss fights.

85%PC

Милая и затягивающая игра с отличным саундреком. Прошёл на обе концовки, времени не пожалел. Для меня главный минус игры это слабые боссы, каждый проходится максимум за 5 попыток.

80%Xbox Series X/S

Fantastic level design with a suberb artstyle and soundtrack. Tunic is the first game I’ve played that really replicates the feel of A Link to the Past’s level design. Its intentionally obscure tutorials made me feel like a kid again in the sense that I had no idea what I was doing.

Digging for the story and making sense of it was fun. I was especially hit in the feels during the true end.

The combat is rough at first. It gets better after you collect some upgrades, but it feels brutally unfair in the beginning. I felt like I was using the speed of a Dark Souls 2 character while fighting enemies designed for Bloodborne.

85%PlayStation 5

I'll admit, Tunic didn't captivate me much in its first few hours. The visuals looked nice and the combat was fun, but I wasn't feeling enthusiastic enough to continue playing through to the end. It could've been the lack of guidance on what to do or where to go next, or the obtuse manner in which the story is told. Regardless of why I was hesitant to love this game initially, I'm grateful that I gave it a chance by pushing myself to play just a few more hours. Those few hours were crucial in allowing me to discover and fall in love with the game's irrefutable charm.

Having previously mentioned this aspect of the game, I'll start by touching on the graphics: they're beautiful. This game looks gorgeous, particularly in 4K when playing on my Playstation 5. The vibrant colours perfectly complement the game's simplistic artstyle, making everything look visually striking. The soundtrack, though not upbeat and catchy as I was expecting, perfectly matches the mood of each region you visit. To put it simply, the game is an audio-visual treat. I've also mentioned that the combat is another high point of the game. Though simple and easy to learn, the handful of bosses I encountered definitely forced me to evolve my combat strategy by swapping between different weapons and items. I wouldn't call this game difficult, but the boss fights were definitely a big challenge!

Storytelling is handled in an...interesting manner. By far the most creative idea the developers incorporated into the game is an in-game instruction book you collect pages for throughout your journey. It comprises of maps, guides on what your next objective is, and miscellaneous information on basics such as the game's controls and UI navigation (as instruction manuals do). It's adorable, nostalgic, and genius in concept. Except, the majority of the text in this manual is written in a fictional language. Of course, there are words in English thrown in here and there, but not enough to provide the full context of what the pages are conveying. This approach was likely chosen because the story is also written in the manual, and my guess is that the developers wanted to take the approach of telling a story by not directly telling the story. The "show don't tell" approach of storytelling is respectable, but my main criticism with this is that half the time, I'm not given enough information in the manual on what I should to do next to progress the story. Leaving the player to figure out the next step of the journey is fine, but I think that more context (even hints) should've been provided in English as a proper guide.

Despite my small issues with how the storytelling and the game's progression is handled, the end product is no doubt a charming, fun, and visually beautiful experience. I love that the developers took inspiration from the classic Zelda games, and I am grateful that I saw this game through to the end to discover how much it has to offer.

90%PC

Loved the visual style and the combat. The visual storytelling was also great. The puzzles were incredible, though I will admit that I used a guide at some points. Still, I regretted it.

85%PC

Very very good Zelda-inspired game, cool mechanics and power-ups!
Absolutely difficult end-game puzzles.
Very enjoyable game all in all.
85%

60%PC

Why is the combat at the end so unforgiving.
I learn after the point of no return, in an entire gauntlet, that I missed a gun pickup, and I physically (afaik) cannot go back to get it.
Thank god for accessibility options... otherwise I would not have finished the game.

Otherwise the game is good, but I can't help but feel a little sour. Sorry.

The few times I got out of a shortcut, only to find out it was simply obscured, and I could have taken them had I known, were very fun.

100%PC

Art

90%PlayStation 5

Great game. Incredibly hard but very satisfying once you beat an enemy or boss, or solve a certain puzzle. Very interesting mechanic of collecting pages one at a time to the in-game manual; never seen anything like that before. Final boss was probably the most difficult final boss I've played against, at least in a long time anyway. I don't want to admit how many tries it took me (at least 15-20 I'm sure). Also got the alternate ending, very satisfying ending.

95%PC

Has a magic to it that few games have anymore. Truly embraces not teaching the player and letting them learn things for themselves. Both to great effect and in certain circumstances, can be incredibly rewarding. An awesome time that I think anybody can enjoy.

90%PlayStation 5

[Spoiler-free review]

I played this on PS5 from the PlayStation Plus collection.

Gameplay: 9/10

Wow, I wasn't expecting this going in to the game at all.

On the surface it's like a love letter to the original Legend of Zelda, and it is. But it's also so much more.

It won't be for everyone but I loved that the game tells you nothing. The only guidance you get comes from obscure partial pages from an instruction booklet. It took me back to the 90s where I would sit in the car on the way home from buying a new game and read the instruction manual cover to cover. Except this time the manual is in Japanese, and most of the pages are missing.

It offers a significant amount of challenge without feeling unfair. The upgrades you can get are powerful but optional, so you can be as over or underlevelled for the plentiful and varied boss fights as you want. Even some of the overworld enemies offer a decent amount of resistance until you learn how to counter their unique movesets and abilities. I’m looking at you spear rat guy.

Story: 9/10

This game is a masterclass in showing not telling. You have to seek out all of the pages to understand what’s really going on in this strange world. It won’t be for everyone but I appreciated the developers’ dedication in keeping the overall story an enigma.

Sound & visuals: 9/10

The art style is gorgeous and the music is lush. I’ve downloaded the soundtrack to listen to while I’m out and about. I especially love Sunset Breakfast, which plays in the character’s house in the main overworld area.

Overall: 9/10

I am hoping to revisit for a new game plus sometime very soon!

90%PC

Very fun game. Appropriately difficult and fun.

90%PC

great artwork and lighting
ui and stuff is good
sound design is really great

90%PC

9.

80%Nintendo Switch

One of the lazier-and, by extension, one of the more prevalent-tropes in gaming journalism and criticism is the trait of comparing new games to older, more familiar ones. How many times have you heard, when being pitched a new game, that "it's like x meets Stardew Valley!" or "it's basically Dark Souls but x." This is fine in casual conversation, of course, because they're an easy way to communicate the vibe of the game to someone, or to generate interest. But beyond that, this type of comparison usually just ends up being, more than anything, reductive and harmful to the actual game in question, even if the comparison is supposed to be taken in a positive light. Take 2022's Tunic, an action-adventure title developed by Isometricorp Games. Look at the cover. You see it, right? Let's be honest; it looks like a Legend of Zelda title where Link is a Fox. You certainly would have a hard time finding commentary around the game that didn't say as much. And therein lies the problem; by judging Tunic by its cover, people are more likely to miss out on a really great game that has a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Okay, to be fair, it's not just the journalists and critics that over-rely on the "Zelda" theme. Tunic, of course, takes huge inspiration from early games in the series on a visual level, and sometimes to a fault. The triforce-esque design of the keys, the sword, shield, many of the enemies, right down to the eponymous tunic the fox dons. It's a bit heavy handed sometimes, and it's not surprising why people are automatically drawn to make that Zelda comparison. Which, again, is a comparison that's only really fair on a surface level. Because the best of what Tunic has to offer lies within its unique, cryptic riddles and its compact-yet-endlessly-explorable world.

Tunic is primarily a puzzle game, and while there's a decent amount of combat, it's the thought-provoking moments that tend to astound. You're dropped into the game with basically no information, and the only way of beginning to understand your goal is through the in-game instruction manual. It's a brilliant mechanic; each page collected gives just enough information in a language you can understand, prodding the player to reason out the rest. And may the player ignore it at their peril; unlike most titles which are extremely intuitive (to the point where instruction manuals have largely become redundant), Tunic will have to clinging to each newly found page like a message of salvation.

Especially in the early and mid game, Tunic nudges you on a path without ever forcing one, and you're free-encouraged, even-to explore at your leisure. And even before you know what you're supposed to be doing, there's lots to find. This game has more secret paths than you can shake a sword at, and even areas that seem progression-locked will have backdoors to find, if you're clever enough. (A lot of this is thanks to the game's simple graphical style and isometric view.) The way Tunic keeps you engaged throughout the larger part of the game where you have basically no idea what's going on is truly impressive, and it's thanks to its unique instruction manual mechanic that it can do so for so long.

As mentioned previously, the game's combat doesn't shine quite as brightly as its puzzles, but it's certainly serviceable enough, with enough tough-but-fair boss fights thrown in to keep players on their toes, and some helpful accessibility options for those who prefer them. (The comparisons to Dark Souls are even more reductive than the Zelda ones, in case you were wondering.) Just like with its puzzles, though, Tunic should be praised for its multiple avenues of approach-most combat encounters can be solved any number of ways, and it never feels like there's a "right" solution that the game is pushing you towards.

It's appropriate, then, that Tunic's two main endings are split between combat and puzzles as well. Unfortunately, neither ending is completely satisfying, and both feel like they're missing something from the other. The combat ending involves what is a decently challenging boss fight, but it doesn't really feel like a fulfilling battle. The puzzle ending's Golden Path involves one of the most rewarding "Aha!" moments you're likely to find, but actually getting all the pieces into place involves a lot of walking around. And while it's certainly the better of the two, it ends a bit anticlimactically.

But as they say, it's the journey, not the destination, and Tunic sets you on quite an impressive journey. In a time where many games are easy to pick up and simple to understand, its cryptic nature delivers a breath of fresh air to the action-adventure genre, and has riddles to solve and clues to crack for every skill and interest level. It's a delightful game that almost tricks your mind into working overtime, and it has a lot to offer to even the most staunch Zelda hater. You'll never be happier to flip the pages of a manual than you will with Tunic.

15%PC

Terrible ending

85%PC

This game is a wonderful homage to everything it takes inspiration from, the way that the game knowledge is presented gives an unorthodox twist to how you learn the gameplay and helps you uncover secrets in a world that is also so charming and reminiscent of a game like Link's Awakening. Definitely recommend.

90%PC

Cute fox meets dark souls and you can't comprehend the language. Also solving the final puzzle was the most satisfying moment in gaming i have ever had

100%Xbox One

This game was a very cool homage to The Legend of Zelda. The secrets and instruction booklet mechanic made the game enjoyable to complete. This was the case throughout the entire game.

100%PC

My first contact with Tunic was with its trailer at E3 2017, and I remember being so excited to play this then-apparent Zelda-like with a foxy protagonist.

On March 16, 2022, I finally began my journey, only to lose my save months later at the Cathedral. The disappointment was huge, but I was finally able to start all over again at the end of 2023. 55 manual pages and a Golden Path later, I can say without a doubt what I already suspected at that E3 2017: Tunic would become one of the best games I've ever played.

The way that not only the manual pages but the world tell their stories reinforces settings like those seen in Shadow of the Colossus, constantly remembering that you don't belong there, and that you're going to do something that you musn't do.

The lore of the game is amazing and learning Trunic not only to understand it, but to understand how to orient myself in that place makes Tunic's puzzles even more rewarding to solve.

It's definitely not a game for everyone, given the high complexity of its puzzles and its simple, but effective combat, which is often unfair.

Who would have thought that the fusion of Soulslike with classic Zeldas and some Team Ico games would come about so naturally that it would seem obvious, making you wonder how something of this simplicity had not been implemented before.

70%Xbox Series X/S

The game is charming and really fun to play. The instruction manual is an interesting feature and allows the player to discover the game’s mechanics in a unique way. However, the camera angle can make it difficult at times to find where you need to go next and the final boss becomes somewhat boring after a few attempts.

90%PlayStation 5

Picked this up on ps plus really not knowing what to expect and was sucked into a charming game full of exploration and mystery. Collecting the pages of the in-game manual and slowly piecing together both the gameplay and story was an absolute blast and had me flawed at how cleverly designed this game really is. The combat is borrowed from souls games and despite being the weakest part of this package, is serviceable, despite some late-game difficulty spikes (one enemy gauntlet towards the end of the game had me close to quitting!).
I urge potential players to go in completely blind and only look up information if they are completely stumped. The rewards for sleuthing and completing the games puzzles and mysteries are truly magical.
I'm off to watch some story/lore videos. 9/10.

90%PlayStation 5

Amazing game, really surpriesed my how good it is

75%PlayStation 5

Tunic is a fun, but sometimes frustrating and punishing game. Story is somewhat cryptic but understandable. I liked the mechanic of discovering and relying on the booklet for next steps. Overall, very average game. 7.5/10

Music: -
Visuals: 8
Gameplay: 8
Story: 6

70%PlayStation 4

Tunic
• First time playing
• A Souls-Like and a Zelda-Like? Are these two great tastes that go great together?
• I’m impressed; it’s like they found the perfect equilibrium between Souls-Like and Zelda-Like with quantum precision.
• Whether it be more overt things like ringing two bells and getting a sword in a cave, to more thematic elements like the sinister truth that makes you rethink the whole game.
• Tunic builds itself around obfuscation and perspective. Chests in plain view need to be reached by going around a hidden path behind level geometry.
• This feels like an evolution from the Zelda games, which do a similar thing but based around getting an item later to use to find the secret.
• This theme of hiding things even extend to an in game language that never gets fully translated.
• I found the difficult to be perfectly satisfactory for a Souls-like. There’s a bit of a change where you’ll take double damage if you are out of stamina, but it’s not that big a change. All that really means is that you should walk instead of roll when you can, which is a lesson I’ve learned from PvP in Dark Souls so it was easy to follow.
• While Tunic is one-part Souls and one-part Zelda, there’s a third part that’s wholly original; the instruction manual.
• The whole game is built around it, providing maps, gameplay info and most importantly, tips to lead you to solve the secrets.
• I have some nostalgia for game manuals, going back to the PS2, so I really liked this.
• Unfortunately, Tunic is not perfect. Combat is on the level of the Zelda Gameboy games, meaning it’s very simple. That makes sense for those games because there was limited space on the cartridge, and it was more important to have full dungeons instead of layered combat.
• Tunic shouldn’t have that excuse in this day in age. By the time you find a magic item, combat will never get any deeper, making any combat feel shallow.
• This is especially obvious when it comes to the boss fights, where it feels like you need to completely shove yourself into their character model just to get some actual hits off.
• I’ve said it many times before; if the things you’re going to be doing the most aren’t fun to play, it drags down the whole experience.
• Just saying that Tunic could’ve had less combat and it probably made for a better experience.
• Also, while it’s fun to hunt down secrets, there might be too many. At some point, you’ll either find all that you can find and stop or get sick of looking under every rock and give up.
• Doesn’t help that you must be partial in the made up language of the game in order to figure some of them out.
• Lastly, and perhaps a bit of a nitpick, but Tunic doesn’t pause the game when you go into the inventory, which I feel is a major oversite and inexcusable.
• Dark Souls gets away with it because it’s a multiplayer game, and even then, it still lets you move and attack while in the menu.
• Go into the inventory menu in Tunic and you’ll be standing still, waiting for death by random roaming blob. The option menu lets you pause the game, so it feels dumb to me.
• Regardless, Tunic looks great, sounds great and is a solid game overall.

90%PlayStation 5

This game made me feel so stupid yet so smart at the same time, I love the way it uses your videogame knowledge against you, if I was a little kid I'm pretty sure this game would be my obsession, it's such a nice chance of paste that a game most valuable resource is not something that you earn, but instead something that you learn, information is the currency of this game and God I love it, the manual is one the best pieces of game design ever conceive, it's easy to forget that games had manuals back in the day (I'm not that old but I still remember them), the way is so meticulously designed to not give you every piece of information at once is magnificent, and the manual itself just looks beautiful, go play it, the more you know about this game the less you are going to enjoy unraveling it's mysteries.

70%PlayStation 4

Cool game, artystlyle and screts and overally presentation of the game is sick. Some of the trophies were a lil annoying and the difficulty spike was insane. Wish it did explain more stuuf, im of the opinion that i like being told what to do

60%PC

This is objectively probably deserving of a higher rating than I'm giving it, but you've likely read reviews other than mine and/or played it yourself and loved it so this is lower based purely on my individual enjoyment. Tunic is a well-crafted and thought-out experience boasting great music (the music that plays whenever you're shopping is a personal favorite of mine!), beautiful art style, fantastic level design, and of course the best part was the instruction manual the game revolves around.

I played about two hours and initially felt incredibly overwhelmed. While this is more akin to a classic Zelda game, parts of it felt like a metroidvania to me which really is not my style of game. Eventually, I took to turning off and on some of the accessibility features as needed. This made the game much more enjoyable and digestible for me so kudos to the devs for including it. I'm not one to stray away from a challenge, but given that I probably would have quit without them due to my personal taste when it comes to certain mechanics it was a welcome addition and if you're in a similar position don't be afraid to use them!

The premise of Tunic appealed to me for many reasons and I've enjoyed games similar to it. This played like a love letter to many classic games and I can not stress how genius some of the level design is. If you love having A-ha! moments this is something you'll probably enjoy a lot. If I was able to beat the game (yes, both endings however I had to submit to a guide to get a few of the last pages) and enjoy my time with it despite not really vibing with bits of the genres it touches as a whole, I've gotta give it props.

60%PC

Great game, it's a shame combat isn't that good.

50%PC

While the game's world, mystery, and puzzles are excellent, the combat, unfortunately, is not. What's even more unfortunate, is the focus on combat throughout the entirety of the game, putting the worst part of the game at the forefront for a 10+ hour experience. I found myself avoiding combat, focusing on puzzles, and rushing through the game to get it over with .

Not a bad game by any means, and possibly geared toward other types of players, but this was a hard miss for me.

80%PlayStation 5

05/10 Story
09/10 Level Design
08/10 Gameplay
08/10 Graphics
08/10 Music/Sound

Difficulty HARD

Overall 86%

80%PC

one advice i'd give anyone thinking about playing this game is to get a notebook to mark things down, it will help you avoid pointless backtracking and keeping note of things, after finishing the game i really wish i did that, it would've been way more fun that way.

The game is mostly really good, the exploration and uncovering mysteries through the manual which is itself a puzzle/mysterie is a great idea that was really well done,
the combat while simple is still fun, especially when environmental objects are involved, really wish they did more of that, enemies are generally basic with simple repetitive patterns which works well when you have to fight a variety of different enemies but fails when it's just one type(birds were especially really boring to fight), my favorite fights were with the mage groups, the mix between long range and close range enemies was really fun and hectic, although the bosses were too easy to cheese, frankly i don't see why some people find the combat hard though, while the difficulty is inconsistent i found it to be generally decently challenging at best, especially after getting the upgrades(except the final boss).

my biggest gripe with this game is the last section as it introduces a really big difficulty spike in both puzzles and combat,
the combat wasn't too bad imo bc as hard as the final boss initially was, it, like darksouls bosses, get easier when you figure out the timing and pattern of attacks, it took me around 10 tries to beat it which isn't bad, the this bosse's difficulty i think mainly stems from the fact that it is hard to cheese it like the other ones, which has a sort of whiplash effect, if the other bosses weren't so easy to cheese there wouldn't be any problem with this one's diff tbh, the game would've been better for it even.

as for the spike in puzzle difficulty, that one i found to be way more jarring, for one, the game was already starting to overstay it's welcome by the time i got the first ending(really wish it was a bit shorter), the last thing i want at that point is tedious backtracking to areas around the whole map and having to do puzzles that greatly varied in their difficulty, some of them i found to be too hard, not bc figuring the way to figure them out is complicated and requires alot of thoughts but bc the asymmetric perspective made it seem like the right method doesn't work, i'd go over each puzzle i found to be frustrating for stupid reasons individually but that's spoiler territory.

and the final puzzle, although conceptually i think it's a great idea i just wasn't willing to bother with it, by the time i got to it i was too burned out with this game so i just looked up the solution, which is quitet sad, i honestly which they cutoff all the other puzzles(which seem to have mostly been there for time padding) and only left this one, then i wouldn't have been burned out by the time i got to it and would've actually attempted solving it.

another thing i think would've made this game better is the ability to mark things on the map to avoid pointless backtracking.

and although i might have criticized it alot, it is still a great game, sadly, it had potential to be a 10/10 but it fumbled it by the end.

60%PC

Tunic est à la fois un grand jeu et une grande déception. Grand jeu dans son idée et son concept, qui prend le manuel d'utilisation comme une mécanique à part entière. Le livret est magnifique, fourmille de détails et contient de nombreux secrets formidables à découvrir. L'envie de le tenir entre ses mains est très forte, et malheureusement le consulter en jeu est très frustrant. Le niveau de zoom n'est pas adaptable, c'est lent de trouver une page, ça fait mal aux yeux de le feuilleter, c'est un désastre.

Et finalement ce problème d'ergonomie, de gameplay, c'est le problème principal de Tunic. L'exécution de l'idée n'est pas au rendez vous, à mon plus grand désarroi. Il y a des problèmes d'inputs (combo baguette de feu et glace) qui semblent aléatoires, la visée est inconstante et rigide au possible, les combats sont en général lents et peu satisfaisants. Manier le petit renard n'est pas agréable, et c'est quand on a enfin récupéré quelques statistiques qu'on les enlève toutes. Alors on doit traverser cet horrible cimetière en étant aussi naze qu'au tout début, face à des ennemis late game. Le choix qui s'offre alors est soit de prendre 1 minute par trashmob pour le faire bien, soit de courir le plus vite possible jusqu'au prochain point de sauvegarde. Et cerise sur le gâteau, récupérer nos stats se fait en refaisant toute la map, dans une phase de gameplay qui crispe tant elle hurle "durée de vie artificielle". On passe déjà son temps à se perdre dans le jeu, alors pourquoi forcer le joueur à tout refaire (avec quelques passages bloqués en plus sinon c'est pas drôle) ? Cette prise d'otage du joueur, comme si le développeur voulait absolument qu'on y passe 10 heures de plus, me donne l'impression que tout a été pensé pour l'énigme, mais pas pour le joueur.

Tunic c'est aussi des références non stop, bien que ça ne soit pas étonnant vu le design du personnage. Cependant, tout ce que Tunic reprend d'autres jeux, il le fait mal, en ne comprenant pas pourquoi c'était bien à la base. Skyward Sword faisait bien la partie "perte d'inventaire", en changeant le gameplay pour de l'infiltration (et donc sans taper de mobs surpuissants sans stuff). The Witness faisait des puzzles environnementaux qui poussent à la parano, sans les rendre tatillons et pas clairs. Hollow Knight faisait de notre perso et son histoire une boucle que nous devions casser, en prenant soin d'expliquer comment ça marchait tout le long. Tunic reprend le nether de Minecraft et les boss à la défaite scriptée des Dark Souls sans rien ajouter. Il reprend même l'horrible quête de la triforce de Wind Waker, qui était le même aveu d'échec en tirant par le bras le joueur de peur qu'il ne parte trop vite.

La seule référence sympa c'est celle d'Inscryption, avec son ARG hors du jeu où on peut suivre sa résolution sur Reddit par des dizaines de passionnés. Car encore une fois, tout le sel de Tunic c'est son manuel, sa langue et ses énigmes, qui sont vraiment excellents. La direction artistique est sympa, les environnements variés et j'ai aimé le boss final qui montre qu'il faut plutôt réfléchir et chercher à comprendre que se battre tête baissée. Mais j'ai paradoxalement du mal à conseiller de jouer à ce jeu, alors que comprendre ses énigmes était incroyable.

85%PlayStation 5

Really interesting game, like how you just have to pick up and many times the controls / shortcuts were right in front of you! Story was bit too opaque and too much effort to finally decipher everything

90%PC

Que juegazo por dios. Las mecánicas, la manera de mostrártelas, que no entiendas nada del idioma en que está todo, la historia, los personajes, el mundo, las páginas del manual; cierto es que bastantes veces me encontré atascada en "¿Qué debo hacer ahora?" por lo ambiguo que resulta todo el juego, y un par de veces recurrí a un video para averiguar a dónde debía ir. El combate me hizo sudar (cabe recalcar que NO estoy acostumbrada a juegos con dificultades altas), pero tras cada boss que derrotaba me sentía realizada conmigo misma.

He leído reviews diciendo que el combate es malo y la verdad no tengo nada que aportar en ese aspecto, ya que, como he dicho, tengo cero experiencia en juegos complicados.

Si esperas un juego comfy y chill, como yo, este no es tu juego jajaja, pero si aún así le quieres dar una oportunidad está 100% recomendado.

70%PC

I'm never finishing this game, and that's what saddens me the most. And I'm at the finish line, I'm aware there's several ways to beat this game, and I could technically trigger the credits likely within 15 minutes.

The feeling of discovery this game can provide is masterful, it felt like becoming a kid again and being given a controller for the first time to fuck around and find out. But the requirements for reaching an ending, not 100% completion, just an ending, I believe are too much.

The entire premise of the game is that you are provided something that mechanically doesn't seem much different from other top down action games. But you quickly learn that you don't really know the mechanics, you literally have to learn how to play the game. You collect parts of a game manual for this game, for the the game you're currently playing, where little drawings and button prompts or other visual aid tells you new information you genuinely didn't know. It's such a genius idea and really the thing I give the developers kudos for creating.

But sadly, it's REALLY cryptic. And while that's the whole point, I think that the difficulty of deciphering what you should be doing ramps up dramatically by the final acts (if you didn't get stuck before somehow). And the problem is only amplified by the free roam you're given. "So, want to find that last crystal thing you're looking for? Have you tried going into this part of the map that's mildly labelled as a secret back door? Yea that place on the other edge of the world you thought you already did everything in." It really needed to be more handholdy at times, or provide the option to be so. Because holy shit, if it wasn't because I started looking at a guide and explanations for some of the later stuff, not only would I have never understood how was I meant to find out how to progress (I distinctly remember that I learned I had already seen all the clues I "needed" and still was incredibly lost), but neither would I have learned about the frankly ridiculous clear criteria for things like the discovery ending or however it was called.

Imagine playing Inscryption and being told on the final act "well you didn't solve the ARG and collected all hidden items throughout the different acts, for which there is no option to return to get them, so I'll be waiting until you complete those to give you your ending." it would've left a very different taste in your mouth... the one I'm feeling for this game.

I really tried to love it. But all the hours you spend making progress, enjoying the sense of discovery that you thought long gone, that doesn't really prepare you for what it wants out of you before you're able to see the end credits.

80%PC

Tunic is a fun game just as a Zelda-like reimagination with lackluster combat where you just cheese the bosses, and if this was all it would be a pretty forgettable game... BUT THEN, it pulls off some of my favorite moments in any video game, mostly the ones involving the "Holy Cross". The game certainly knows how to present something for maximum impact with zero words: discovering the library, the secrets of the Rooted Ziggurat, or deciphering the manual are things I'll never forget. Scrabbling down in a piece of paper the solution to the door of the mountain or the fairy puzzles is so incredibly satisfying, I can only imagine that's how it felt in the 80s when trying to decipher "There are secrets where fairies don't live" from Zelda I. Too bad I'm not the biggest fan of the rest of the game, although it's still pretty good.

75%PlayStation 5

Great nostalgia game. Wish the backtracking was more straight forward