TUNIC Reviews

love the progression in this game. slowly revealing secrets and cryptic guides make this game one of a kind

Interesting game with this little wobbly creature running around everywhere. I never could figure out where he should go or what he should do, but otherwise it's a good game where you ring bells and such.

highly recommend this game if you are able to think out of the box, really cool soundtrack and combat system.

Phenomenal action-adventure game with some wildly in-depth puzzles if you're interested in trying to 100% it.

I love this game so much. Tunic has Zelda-like experience, has the best puzzle mechanic. Parrying is soooo hard but satisfying after few hours I mastered it . I recommend this game 10/10

The combat is sh*t in this game, specially then you compare it with games like Death's Door. I want to play Zelda style game, but this games also clones mechanics from Souls games without even clue why they are there in the first place.

A fascinating labor of love that unfolds like a beautiful flower filled with thought, care, and consideration. What first appears as simplistic "souls-like" top-down game reveals itself to be a complex puzzle game that requires the player to think beyond what the game conveys to the player on the surface. I'll avoid delving deeper into the design of the game as it would take away from what you, the reader, may get to experience if you decide to give the title a try. Another great aspect of the game is the exquisitely composed soundtrack (which also holds secrets within the notes and melodies of the different tracks) that I still listen to months after completing the game.

Tunic is a good game! To be more nuanced, it's a very good game, but definitely something you appreciate more as a retrospective than in the moment; a game that's more fun to tell someone about than to play for yourself. Tunic is a beautiful, ([i]nearly[/i]) one-of-a-kind puzzle game with some incredibly frustrating lows, followed by a cathartic showing of genius. At first, it's nothing special. A beautiful overworld with a cute, carefree protagonist roaming its realms. Some surface puzzles that appease your System 1 for a short while. All the while, the gnawing feeling that something bigger than you is happening behind the screen... At one point the game changes. When exactly it happens will depend on the player, but that point will always exist. From here the puzzles become so much better and so much worse. Some are beautiful creations of artistry and ingenuity, and others are overly cryptic bullshit that make you bemoan your wasted time when you look them up online and realize you were nowhere close to the solution ([spoiler]That one puzzle where you need to know the runes for some reason? Why does this exist???[/spoiler]). Less common but worse are the puzzles where you know exactly what to do, but the solution is taxing and stupidly time-consuming ([spoiler]The reflecting path puzzle and the one with pieces scattered all across the world[/spoiler]) Ultimately though, it all converges on the legendary mountain door. If you do play this game... please open the mountain door, it is one of gaming's most well-designed challenges and a truly beautiful mixing pot of all the best the game has to offer. I cannot stress this enough: the game is not over until you've [b]opened the mountain door[/b]. Combat in Tunic is bad. It's not really satisfying to fight normal enemies - rolling is broken, enemy AI is overly predictable, and all the fun weapons have pitifully little ammunition or do pitifully little damage. Boss fights are especially cringe and unfun. They run away from you and shoot projectiles like a zoner in the body of a gargantuan beast. Just when you think you've gotten in on them, they leap across the arena and you have to close the distance all over again. Interestingly the final boss is the one exception here - the only fight where it actually feels fun to interact with their attacks. Confusingly, there are some mechanics borrowed from Zelda as a homage (?) that serve only to bloat the game. They'd be nice easter eggs, but the fact that bombing walls and a day/night cycle are an integral part of the game feels unnecessary. These are not huge sins for everything great that Tunic brings to the table. The highs are high enough to carry it to peak status; it sits far above a mountain of mediocre puzzle games, sealed off by a locked door where it sits alone.... .... next to Fez, which is better :)

TUNIC is one of the biggest gems in independent gaming. The gameplay is simplistic but complex enough to keep its mysterious side, in fact the mysterious side of the game is very much inspired by FEZ, which is perfect for those who like to break their heads to solve certain puzzles, some of which are quite perplexing, which created a lot of brain explosions. I really like the symbolism that the game gives with the manual, which is in fact designed in such an old-fashioned way that the developer has reproduced the printing errors while retaining a personal touch with pen-and-ink writing that gives the impression that the game has already been played by another player. The game's graphics are sublime, the rendering techniques perfectly adapted to the graphic style, the fluffy feel and the light create a nostalgic charm. This game is a love letter to video games of the NES/SNES era and to all video game enthusiasts. As a gamer, this game left a lasting impression on me, and I have fond memories of it. As a developer, this game taught me that creating a good game is all about the passion you put into it. Thank you Andrew Shouldice, thank you to the developers at TUNIC, thank you Funji and thank you to everyone who helped develop and finance this game.

TUNIC was a pleasantly surprising and ambitious lil' guy. TL,DR: I most strongly recommend this to someone most drawn to its Zelda influences, as its Souls-y flourishes and puzzle elements are great but somewhat simple. This game is trying a lot of things, and blends them in a deeply strange but overall unique and memorable way. What starts as a mix between Souls combat with old-school Zelda button-swapping tools and magic eventually transforms into a modern indie puzzle game, think The Witness, Fez, or The Talos Principle. Upfront, probably one of the biggest turn-offs for a lot of people is the specific way these concepts are strung together. Specifically, the puzzle elements start SLOW. Any review that has less than 5-6 hours in the game has not experienced when the game essentially unlocks/opens up. In the meantime, the combat and exploration is the focus and I agree with the general sentiment that it is simple. Appropriately simple for me even as someone who's played most of the FromSoft catalouge, I'd generously call it Zelda+ rather than Dark Souls-. The "cerebral puzzle" elements of the game are strong, probably especially so if you haven't played many games like this as they are, again, a bit simple. As someone who's played everything from The Witness to Return of the Obra Dinn to Void Stranger, TUNIC's puzzle elements are unique, fun, and most importantly feel accessible and "natural. Many games struggle to do this, even more so to Steam 100%, where I feel TUNIC nails having challenge vs leaving a few details behind. Finally, as its perhaps the most niche appeal to me, the soundtrack was done in part by Lifeformed (Dustforce) and is just wonderful. Similar to his previous work, the music really elevates the simpler look and lighting to give the game a much more unique aesthetic in practice. TUNIC blends many unique influences together in a way that's just exciting, engaging, and unique. No single element truly blew me away but its a stocking full of just good times. A common point of criticism is that the difficulty being a touch swingy and I can't comment on that. I felt it was nice and overall chill/easy but that is coming from someone well versed on both sides of this game's influences.