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Tunic Review Thread

Roberts

Member
Absolutely no direction? Pass! Does the little fox have amnesia? Is that part of the story. This is so dumb. I have little time to game and can't be bothered with "just figure it out". I hope this does not become a trend.
You collect a manual as you go along and everything is there (all the directions/hints/objectives), but it is cryptic and asks you to REALLY look at the content of the pages. I love it.
 

Tg89

Member
Absolutely no direction? Pass! Does the little fox have amnesia? Is that part of the story. This is so dumb. I have little time to game and can't be bothered with "just figure it out". I hope this does not become a trend.
Did reviews say that?

I'd disagree, it provides the level of direction I'd expect from a Zelda/Souls like hybrid.
 

FritzJ92

Member
Cloud enabled device is an LCD display, with an external controller needed, with the latency issues that come with Ethernetless streaming.

I’d rather just play a downloaded copy on an Oled screen with physical controls.
Internet isn’t up to the task?

I like local but cloud has been pretty good when I wanted it to play something.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Internet isn’t up to the task?

I like local but cloud has been pretty good when I wanted it to play something.
Maybe, but I get 350mbps down and 30+mbps up though a coaxial cable with Virgin. Ethernet is just the only way to guarantee a good experience with streaming.
 

StormCell

Member
Game actually looks kinda fun. Might pick it up on Steam in the summer.
It was fun enough for about 10 minutes. In that span of time, I found a stick and managed to accidentally get into a place I couldn't return from. I think I made it close to where the sword is, but the foes in this area lead me to believe that I need a shield if I'm to survive long enough to reach the sword. I think I missed an opportunity to go up when I went down...

It's a solid little game. The visuals don't inspire. The overworld is also fairly simple and doesn't inspire much. This would seem closer to Zelda NES than SNES if I were to draw a Zelda comparison, which this obviously strives to do.
 

FritzJ92

Member
Maybe, but I get 350mbps down and 30+mbps up though a coaxial cable with Virgin. Ethernet is just the only way to guarantee a good experience with streaming.
I’m not disagreeing with that. Ethernet is the best way to pretty much internet lol. But my 5G mesh network gets 450 down and 30 up and it handled some games just fine.

I’m not playing gears on it but Ori and smaller games like Tunic and Minecraft are a joy!
 

Nico_D

Member
Started well, got annoying and frustrating later.

At the quarry. There are a lot of design decisions I'm not a big fan of. The longer I play, the longer are the distances between save points. Die, go down the same stairs, walk, walk, walk, stairs, stairs, die. Redo.
Snipers basically one-shotting you while bigger enemy mass make locking onto the snipers impossible. Where to go? Hidden stairs and walkways on main quest. Just plain annoying which have slowly started to outweigh all the good.
I think the reviewers played this on no fail mode.

Which I have done for the last two bosses too. The first one was the siege engine: weak spot was under the robot so the fox vanished under the boss and I had no clue where he is and where I should be hitting, while the robot kept spinning around. Really got on my nerves. And the Librarian... basic "let's make this hard" boss design: keeping it a distance away and the player waiting for that one opportunity hit the boss and if they miss, let's make the player wait for the whole cycle. Granted, you could use the grappling hook but that was somewhat buggy as it didn't pull the boss all the way to the fox and sometimes didn't even work.

I might be done, not having fun anymore. If I finished it, I'd be doing it just to not quit.
 
Finished it last night with the "A" ending. Apparently, if you collect all the pages there is a different one. I need 6 more pages for that.
Final boss is tough. I make it tougher on myself because I don't like to use items, but did on that one to replenish my magic :)

I thought it was ok and definitely worth a play. I may try to go back and get those missing pages and other collecting following a guide, but will likely not do a new game +
I didn't use a guide for my initial playthrough so it probably took me waaaay longer to finish it than some others due to a lot of backtracking
 

ByWatterson

Member
Barring some 11th-hour disaster (I'm in the last 20% of the game), I'm going to say this is the best game I've played since Returnal, which was the best game I'd played since The Last of Us Part II, which was the best game since Death Stranding.

Meaning it's a top-five game from the last three years. The level design is TOP TIER, the combat deceptively complex (Souls-like here is accurate - it's about patience, item use, and spacing), and the feel of being in the world is transporting and magical.

How did ONE person make this?!?!
 

sinnergy

Member
Barring some 11th-hour disaster (I'm in the last 20% of the game), I'm going to say this is the best game I've played since Returnal, which was the best game I'd played since The Last of Us Part II, which was the best game since Death Stranding.

Meaning it's a top-five game from the last three years. The level design is TOP TIER, the combat deceptively complex (Souls-like here is accurate - it's about patience, item use, and spacing), and the feel of being in the world is transporting and magical.

How did ONE person make this?!?!
Pure will
 
Barring some 11th-hour disaster (I'm in the last 20% of the game), I'm going to say this is the best game I've played since Returnal, which was the best game I'd played since The Last of Us Part II, which was the best game since Death Stranding.

Meaning it's a top-five game from the last three years. The level design is TOP TIER, the combat deceptively complex (Souls-like here is accurate - it's about patience, item use, and spacing), and the feel of being in the world is transporting and magical.

How did ONE person make this?!?!

Talent and determination
 
Absolutely no direction? Pass! Does the little fox have amnesia? Is that part of the story. This is so dumb. I have little time to game and can't be bothered with "just figure it out". I hope this does not become a trend.

There is plenty of direction and the world itself is pretty small so even if you do get "stuck" you're looking at 10 minutes before you figure it out max in most cases. Everything you need is provided through the game's instruction manual pages you collect as you progress. All you have to is actually pay attention to what's on each page and you can figure out every puzzle in the game. I 100%ed this game without any outside help (kind of, the PC Gamepass version has a bug that prevents a puzzle solution from working on the page 9 tile of the Mountain Door puzzle, I had to find that out after 3 hours of trying to solve it)

It was a decent game and worth giving a shot. You know pretty fast if you don't like it. It's on Gamepass if you have that and if you use Steam you'll have decided if you like it or not before the 2-hour refund time is up.
 

Xenon

Member
Playing this game reminds me of the first time I played Zelda. The casual pace and having to figure out the world makes the game a treat. Reminds me of Ori but the core mechanics are more my speed.

Another have I world have skipped if it weren't for gamepass.

Edit: Swap the Fox for Link and I could see people gushing over this.
 
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T-Cake

Member
Finished it last night with the "A" ending. Apparently, if you collect all the pages there is a different one. I need 6 more pages for that.

Same here, 6 pages missing. Overall, I thought it was decent. Not as good as Hollow Knight. But I have no incentive to play again, not on console at least.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
This game is going to be near if not the top of some game of the year awards this year. Sure, Elden ring will probably beat it out in most places but damn….this game is good. I planned to have a blast before I went balls deep into Kirby but I’m just completely sucked in. Games amazing. I’m hoping it doesn’t over stay it’s welcome but I’m totally hooked at the minute.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Finished it today and I loved it, the manual pages are such a simple but amazing concept to add to the exploration.

It felt extra special to me because as a kid I would play NES games in English (no French localization back then) and not understand it at all, only the game manual had translations of some of the key dialogue. So I played games like Zelda 1/2, Battle of Olympus, Simon’s quest etc by piecing out how to translate the game from the manual. I actually wondered if it’s something that inspired the creator of Tunic.

Anyway, loved it. Only flaws are it gets too easy once you get the wand and the game relies too much on the forced perspective to hide things. So once you play around it becomes a bit too simple. Still a solid 9/10.
 

Bridges

Member
It felt extra special to me because as a kid I would play NES games in English (no French localization back then) and not understand it at all, only the game manual had translations of some of the key dialogue. So I played games like Zelda 1/2, Battle of Olympus, Simon’s quest etc by piecing out how to translate the game from the manual. I actually wondered if it’s something that inspired the creator of Tunic.
Years ago in an interview, the creator stated that his goal was to replicate the feeling of importing a Japanese game and trying to complete it by piecing together what you can from the instruction manual, so for sure your experience is exactly what he was aiming for.
 

T-Cake

Member
Finished it today and I loved it, the manual pages are such a simple but amazing concept to add to the exploration.

It felt extra special to me because as a kid I would play NES games in English (no French localization back then) and not understand it at all, only the game manual had translations of some of the key dialogue. So I played games like Zelda 1/2, Battle of Olympus, Simon’s quest etc by piecing out how to translate the game from the manual. I actually wondered if it’s something that inspired the creator of Tunic.

Anyway, loved it. Only flaws are it gets too easy once you get the wand and the game relies too much on the forced perspective to hide things. So once you play around it becomes a bit too simple. Still a solid 9/10.

And it’s served you very well. Your English is excellent! I need to start playing more games in Spanish as I hope to achieve some degree of fluency before I get too old to use it.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I started this recently and I'm loving it. Some things I dislike, like having to find pieces of manuals around the world just to know wtf is the purpose of certain items.

But the gameplay is fun, challenging, and the soundtrack is amazing. I find it hard to believe any soundtrack in 2022 will top this one. It's beautiful.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I was loving this game until... I couldn't fight the final fucking boss because I completed the manual. Are you absolutely fucking kidding me? There's no way to fight the final boss apparently unless you start a brand new game.

Fuck this. What a load of fucking bullshit. Absolutely unacceptable for that to be the case in 2022 for a video game where you can be locked out of the toughest challenge because you did your due diligence and explored. Instantly removed from the running for GOTY for me just because of this alone.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I was loving this game until... I couldn't fight the final fucking boss because I completed the manual. Are you absolutely fucking kidding me? There's no way to fight the final boss apparently unless you start a brand new game.

Fuck this. What a load of fucking bullshit. Absolutely unacceptable for that to be the case in 2022 for a video game where you can be locked out of the toughest challenge because you did your due diligence and explored. Instantly removed from the running for GOTY for me just because of this alone.

Realistically the game doesn't expect you to do that until at least beating the game once before collecting all the manual pages, but like with so many other things in the game, there's always another way and you did that other way first.
 

Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Well, my expectations for Tunic were high, but somehow the game overmatched them by a country mile. The best game I've played this year so far, no question. Outstanding art and level design, music is god-like and gets better the more you play the game.
 
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RavenSan

Off-Site Inflammatory Member
I beat it (then went on to complete the manual, and see the 'true' ending) -- It was a charming game -- but probably not for me. If this is a souls/zelda hybrid; I don't like Souls games, I do love Zelda games. The Zelda parts were great. But yeah, as some have said here, the complete lack of direction bothered me. I get some people like to have to take notes / study the glyphs in the manual / really go deep into a game, but that's just not me anymore.

I'm not saying I want games that tell you every single thing to do, but I like a bit more direction than what was given in Tunic. Perhaps even a way to translate the manual / language more than what was given would have made the difference.

As it stands, I'd (personally) put it at about a 7/10
 

AJUMP23

Member
Finally beat the heir last night. I did the good ending before the bad ending. Fun game. I need to get all the secret treasures now.
 
I really feel thry missed an opportunity to differentiate the versions. Tunic should be wearing blue in the PS5 version and red in the Switch version.
 
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