TUNIC

An excellent game that looks and sounds amazing. It's filled with puzzles and combat that seem perfectly designed to make you feel smart and skilled... Right before it spanks your bottom like you're a naughty boy. =(

Tunic is a game about some little fox in a big world.
Tunic is a game about exploration.
Tunic is a game about collecting every page.
Tunic is a game about reading like a grade schooler again.
Tunic is a game about enduring and overcoming adversity.
Tunic is a game about the secrets you've uncovered along the way.
Tunic is a game about learning things aren't quite what they seem.
Tunic is a game about emerging stronger and remembering who you are.
Tunic is a game about going the extra mile to find them all.
Tunic is a game about ending the cycle.
Tunic is a game about not being meant for the world you find yourself in.
Tunic is a game about designing something purely for the love of it.

A masterpiece of a game that expands as you experience and discover

Whatever you do, do not spoil yourself, and go in as blind as possible

I’ve wanted to try Tunic since the first day I heard about it, around the time it launched. I was scared by claims saying it was a difficult game. Last winter sale I decided to give it a try for myself, and I’m glad I did. Tunic is a pretty great game, but it is not a difficult game. I never got stuck both in figuring out what to do or in fighting a boss. That does not mean I never lost to a boss fight, but I don’t think I ever took more than 3 or 4 tries to beat a boss, which really is not that much.

The game is essentially a really charming 2D style Zelda game but without the puzzle dungeons. There are locations that feel sort of like dungeons, but they don’t really have puzzles. The games gimmick is as you progress you unlock pages to the games manual, except they are mostly not in English. The pages include some hints, maps of various areas, basic game mechanics, and I have to imagine some secrets. To be fully honest, I found myself almost never looking at this in game manual. I looked over every page when I first unlocked it and occasionally looked at the map pages, but for the most part I navigated the game just fine on my own.

Without spoiling too much, when I beat the game and saw the credits roll, it did tell me I was missing 5 pages of the manual and offered to let me “try again”, so I do imagine there may be some secret ending hidden in the manual, but as much as I enjoyed this game, I feel I have had enough of it, at least for now and do not care enough to try and do this. Maybe one day.

In terms of performance, the game runs fine. I played the entire game on my Steam Deck on what I am pretty sure was medium settings. The game mostly hit the 90hz refresh rate of my Deck, but It was not at all locked. There were many locations where the frame rate would dip to 60 or even lower, including most boss fights.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Tunic. It’s filled with charm, has a really neat map to explore, and a very nice combat difficulty that I did not find too easy or too hard. It’s not the longest game, taking me only 11 hours to beat, but as I mentioned, I think there may be more to the game if I take the time to go back and finish the in game manual.

A delight, just an absolute delight. I loved the nostalgic play on the instruction booklet, I loved the top down playstyle reminiscent of the old Zelda games, I loved how surprising the game is in revealing its secrets. Go in blind, it’s great discovering all the hidden twists and turns this game has to offer.

That being said, I am a little frustrated with the post-game. There are a number of secrets that depend on game mechanics that were never introduced and never used outside of the context of the puzzle, really toeing the line between sufficiently advanced puzzles and gibberish. It’s not enough to dim my endorsement of the game, just be aware that it isn’t without *some* frustration.

Very obvious old school Zelda inspiration but it comes into something of its own and it's a good time, if you like Zelda you'll probably like this.

It isn't a Zelda game officially but it's one of if not the best Zelda game ever made. I cannot recommend this beautiful game enough. My only complaint is I wish there was more. By far one of my new favorites

I loved pretty much every aspect of this game. Whether it was the satisfying souls-like combat, the treasure trove of puzzles and secrets, the evocative art style and music, or the gradual piecing-together of the story, the design and quality always remained top-notch and kept me firmly hooked. Aside from the occasional difficulty spike or confusing roadblock, my only issue with the game is that it wasn't longer. I became so invested in the game that by the time the ending came about, I was moved to tears. Lots of love and thanks to the devs for making such a wonderful game! <3

What an awesome game!! The atmosphere is great with music that fits the vibe of each area you're in. Your little fox is so cute and controls great, and the levels are super fun to explore. The mysteries of the land just keep you coming back to play it again and again. Highly recommend!!

Tunic is a great game. It has an adventurous and nostalgic atmosphere like the best Zelda games. It has fairly fast paced Soulslike combat. Exploring is fun. There's tons of secrets, and tons of speedrunning potential just in exploiting knowledge of map shortcuts and game mechanics learned in another playthrough. It's worth a second or third play just to approach things from different directions. Going into this game completely blind is an important part of the experience of playing for the first time. Finding out something new, either from exploring and messing around, or finding a new manual page, is always fun.

I'd love to talk specifics about what I liked about the story or mechanics, but I can't say too much at risk of spoiling it for someone trawling the reviews to determine if they want to play Tunic. The answer is "Yes, you do." Only look up a guide after you see two endings or if you're hopelessly stuck.

While this cute Zelda-like game has some very Souls-like difficulty to the boss fights, in the end I was quite happy to have been The Witness to this gem.

A sadly negative review

Tunic's art design, world-building, and yet simple concept immediately draw you in. You feel compelled to explore, uncover secrets, and piece everything together.

For all its beauty and charm though, the combat undermines the experience. Focusing on a single target feels clunky, making it hard to know when to dodge or attack. It lacks the fluidity to back up the difficulty. If you look at Death's Door, for instance, it nails that balance, with fluid combat that makes every mechanic feel just right. In contrast, Tunic’s combat feels punishing in a way that just doesn't feel right.

Tunic has all the ingredients of a masterpiece, and every now and then I give it another chance only to be let down by the combat.

Although quite cryptic, this game is a wonderful time! With a good mix of Zelda and Dark Souls, it really teases your brain and makes you feel like a genius when you figure out the puzzles on your own. The music is also very good, and the game has absolutely beautiful lighting that makes it look super vibrant. Overall, I'd say give this game a shot whenever you can!

Much like another review mentioned, this game was definitely hoping to invoke the feelings of confusion and discovery when first starting a new game in the days of paper user manuals, with the twist being that the user manual is not in your native language and is a vital collectible item instead of a game box additive!

If you are more interested in solving puzzles and exploring than fighting, then most of the game is your cup of tea, as there are several challenges you consistently have to overcome while exploring:

- Figuring out the full range of controls. The most basic to get around are given in a user manual page you find early on, so don't worry about not being able to move or anything fundamental like that. However, a few of the tools have things called "secret techniques" that can be useful in certain situations, but you the player wouldn't think of using without playing around with the controls.

- Reading the manual. Even lategame, much of the manual is in a pictogram language that, while common in the game, can make anything without pictures or famaliar words a complete mystery. This is especially true of the backstory of the game, which will be pieced together only through exploring the different areas for context and reading the few parts of the backstory pages that do have famaliar words.

- Solving overworld puzzles is pretty self explanatory and plays into the previous 2 things I"ve mentioned, but a special shoutout to the ones that require a shift in perspective (using focus) or trying to find openings that aren't immeditaely visible.

The music is also very ambient in that it can go from catchy adventure tune, to whimsical, to omnious depending on the location. That said, only 2 particular themes have stuck in my head, neither of which are the Overworld (despite listening to it sometimes for hours navigating back and forth between the different areas).

Overall, Tunic is a fun game that has far more exploration and puzzle solving than I was expecting just off the figurative box art. Highly recommend if you love solving mysteries and exploring in your games.

I was led to believe this is the second coming of Christ, in game-form. Or at least that it's a bastion of the blossoming Metroidbrania genre that I so enjoy.

Now, don't get me wrong, It's a great game, but I don't think it lives up to the hype. It's a pretty stock, albeit very engaging, Zelda clone with a punishing combat system. Most of the areas are still mostly gated by actual equipment you pick up and stats you have to advance, (though the speedrunners can get around it all, of course) rather than player-held knowledge, as a true Metroidbrania has (c.f. Toki Tori 2). The main thing it has is a sort of meta-progression in the form of the missing manual pages and then eventually the late game environmental puzzles. In theory you can do those from the start, which I guess brania's it's metroid, but even so they're pretty weaksauce puzzles that almost all get resolved by : go to place, look at manual/environment, do the correct sequence. Well, except for the one that wants you to decode the text.


Sure, it looks cure, plays well, sounds great, engages the player, but I was expecting a game with more easter eggs and secrets than Fez and a beautiful, environmentally-told Outer Wilds style story that can theoretically be completed in the first 5 minutes. It's not like that at all. So it's a bit of a victim of it's own fate. Had I originally played it simply due to being a cutey Foxy Zelda-em-up on the PC then I would love it, but I've been undersold! I guess that's not that game's fault.

Downsides: In general the combat is pretty lame. For the first half of the game it wants you to learn all of the monster timings like some kind of monster nerd, but eventually you upgrade and it drops all of that an you can just whack everyone with a few combos. The boss cameras suck. The parry is _awful_, even with the upgrade (I don't know if it's my controller or what, but getting it to reliable fire, let along parry, was impossible). The stamina system isn't the best. The lock on is tedious at times.

🦊 ፈቹርዑጤቺ ኦ legend
📒 ጆቺሄሁገራፀ ኦ ነኦሮጆቺፀ book
➕ ሄቺ courageous, ረገፓፐሪቹ ዐᎆቺ!

Masterfully crafted world building (they even made their own language!)
Really cute and unique aesthetic
Full of fun discoveries
Brilliant puzzles
Clean and Amazing level design
Mesmerizing music and sound effects
Awesome boss fights and the overall combat mechanic is very satisfying

and the game also has this mechanic that I really like where there's this sort of very in-depth guide book/manual/compendium in-game. Not many games have or implement this mechanic. But when they do, It is always amazing for me. And so far, I think Tunic does this best.

Tunic is a Masterpiece.
You should play the game, and I highly recommend playing it blind.

I enjoy how the game lets you learn how to play it + recaps with pages found throughout the game; I like the fox!

- Jogo legal, estilo zelda antigo, mas com algo especial: você vai achando páginas do manual do jogo conforme joga (poderiam ter aproveitado um pouco mais essa ideia, mas é legal)
- Os puzzles no final do jogo são bem divertidos de descobrir por conta própria, ou tendo poucas dicas de alguém que já jogou.
- Não tente decifrar a escrita do jogo sozinho, se não gostar muito desse tipo de "puzzle". É possível, mas é meio coisa de maluco. Eu platinei o jogo em umas 20h, e fiquei mais 5 só decifrando a escrita.
- Tenho a impressão de que os chefões são mais difíceis do que deveriam ser, e que o tema do jogo também é mais sombrio do que aparenta. Leve isso em consideração antes de comprar o jogo pra si ou pra outros. Bem, dá pra farmar itens e usar eles pra deixar qualquer combate do jogo bem mais simples, de toda forma.

Some of the most fun I've had playing a puzzle game ever. Expertly crafted riddles paired with a gorgeous visual style and the feeling that you are uncovering it all yourself. The Golden Path may be my favorite puzzle I've ever gotten to solve in a game, ever. If you love zelda then this game is right up your alley.

Didn't like the combat as I don't like iframe based fighting. Always seems fundamentally stupid to roll towards an attacking enemy. Luckily, you can switch on invincibility and enjoy the exploring. And it really was a joy at first, as discovering all the tucked away chests and little paths was so fun.

Unfortunately, I hit a point where I started finding shortcuts in reverse (presumably for sequence breaking/speedrunning, since more obvious paths back have a bridge/rope you first must fix from the other side), and finding them easier than I was finding the critical path. Other times I'm rushing around the map to do [redacted] on all the [redacted] and... not finding much other than the contents page.

I like the general idea of puzzling to figure out how to proceed, but I don't like wasting a bunch of time somewhere that I can't actually solve yet because I can't tell if I'm meant to have found this path or not. Contrast to Toki Tori 2, where you can absolutely sequence break but it requires more complex knowledge than walking around a small corner.

Maybe there's a fast travel system and I haven't found it yet, would be nice to have right now...

I love this game. Is an indie game that blends the nostalgia of classic adventure titles with a modern twist full of creativity. At first glance, its colorful world and fox protagonist wielding a sword might evoke memories of The Legend of Zelda, but it quickly establishes itself as something entirely unique.
The charm of TUNIC lies in both its vibrant art style and its ability to surprise players. The world is brimming with secrets, hidden paths, and clever puzzles that invite exploration and experimentation. One of its most fascinating features is the "instruction manual" you uncover throughout the game, presenting mechanics and hints in a way that feels like unearthing a treasure.
Combat is challenging but fair, requiring a tactical approach that rewards patience and mastery of the mechanics. Facing enemies and bosses demands precision and strategy, adding depth to the seemingly simple presentation.
What truly sets his apart is its open-world design and how it lets players solve its mysteries on their own. It doesn’t hold your hand, fostering a genuine sense of discovery and satisfaction as you uncover the game’s secrets.
The atmospheric soundtrack perfectly complements the journey, adding emotion and wonder to every corner of the world.
TUNIC is more than just a homage to classic adventure games—it’s a fresh and innovative take on the genre. Whether you’re a fan of nostalgic experiences or seeking something entirely new, this game offers charm, challenge, and mystery in equal measure. It’s an adventure you’ll remember long after you’ve put down the controller.

I'm very mixed about this game...

On one side, the experience it provides is a breath of fresh air and something very unique, the world is very cute and interesting, and the puzzles were original and very satisfying to solve.

On the other hand, the controls sometimes feel slow and clunky (dodge timing against bosses felt awful for me), consumables are not given back if you die and respawn, heavily discouraging from using them against bosses, and some achievements as well as 1 of the final treasures are incredibly frustrating and unfun to solve.

It was a very fun and unique experience that I definitely recommend, but I never have been more happy to uninstall this game after getting 100% achievements.

It's pretty difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite fun. There is a no fail mode in the accessibilities settings.

A real love letter to the OG Zelda titles, plus a lot more. DO NOT LOOK ANYTHING UP.

I had this game in the library for a long time. When I started playing I thought I was not understanding where I had to go, it seems that the most important thing is the manual. You have to know how to read and translate what it says which was a disadvantage against me :)

Souls-Like totally recommended and cool to learn the game. One of the best games I've finished this year, 100% recommended.

Every now and then a game comes along which completely shatters your idea of what a game can be; a game that brings you the same joy of discovery you felt the first time you played a game. Tunic was that game for me.

If you are considering buying this game, and haven't decided yet, here's my advice:
1. Absolutely pick up this game.
2. Do not read anything more, do not look anything up.

My only regret in playing this game is that I will never be able to experience it for the first time again. Seriously, don't look anything up - you owe it to yourself to experience this game 100% blind.

It's really hard for me to review this game without going into any spoilers but it's easily my favourite game of all time and there's simply nothing else quite like it.

You really need to go into it blind without researching anything about TUNIC prior as there will be massive spoilers but treat the game like it appears to be at face value, a nod to the old Legend of Zelda games but with a cute fox as the main protagonist, if you enjoyed those games you will love this one.

Tunic is an absolute gem of a game and I found my appreciation of it grew the deeper I got into it. At first appearances it looks like a cute classic Zelda type game. You play on and encounter a fight a few enemies and die at some point and find it also has some Souls like elements. Push on even further, collect a few pages of the manual and you find that it is a much deeper game with loads of puzzles and secrets to uncover.

Despite initial appearances it actually reminded me a lot of Fez in how it encourages the player to be inquisitive in order to slowy reveal its secrets. The manual that you collect pages from is designed in a similar style to the ones you would have gotten with games back in the 80's and 90's, even with little notes scribbled in. Its a mix of an in game language and English so you kind of have to try and decipher out the information as you collect more pages. Study the manual a bit closer and you may be able to uncover further secrets. The manual is essentially your bible in this game and very little information is spoon fed to the player. When you start uncovering the secrets this game has it becomes even more rewarding.

As mentioned earlier the combat is similar to Souls games. You make use of your shield and dodge roll and figure out enemy attack patterns to get the better of them. If you die you respawn at the last shrine you visited and you can recharge your health flasks at these shrines at the cost of respawning all enemies. The combat is fairly challenging though I found it harder early on in the game before you find out how to upgrade your stats, with most of the challenge later in the game coming from bosses. The game does allow you to make combat easier or turn damage of altogether if you are really stuggling, but I think its definitely worth trying to playthrough on the standard difficulty as overcoming a difficult boss in this game is a pretty satisfying experience.

Aside from the gameplay the visual style is a bit simplistic at first glance, but is utilised really well and it has some really nice looking environments. The soundtrack is also great.

Overall I'd really recommend this game. I found the beginning to be a bit of a slog but was really glad I stuck with it as it ended up being a really rewarding experience.

On the surface level, it does a good job mixing the core zelda experience (both the very first one and the classical titles) with modern ideas, mostly taken straight out of the souls games. Far from perfect, it works as something that is a little bit more than the sum of its parts.

Where this game truly shines though is the whole manual idea and the puzzles. While, yes, aesthetically nostalgic, it ends up being an incredible return to form for pen and paper sessions.

Play taking notes, and you'll make the best out of this hard to find elsewhere experience.

I've seen some negative reviews, and it seems people are comparing this game to Animal Well and Hollow Knight for some odd reason? I hate to say it, but this game closer to classic Zelda-like experience. If you enjoy Zelda games from the late '80s and early '90s, like Link's Awakening or A Link to the Past, you'll probably like this one too.

This is the dream game you would think up as a kid imagining a perfect game. It's as if taking how Legend of Zelda feels and making it a full game with only the good of it.

I can only think of 2 other games(and if you don't already know which, you probably don't want to read that spoiler) that managed to pull off the recontextualisation in such a mindblowing way, FEZ and The Witness. And because of how TUNIC was designed, there is but a single moon logic awaiting you because it doesn't expect you to understand the language, all of it* was doable through experimentation and piecing the clues, and you have clues for all of it.

*With one exception:The infamous That One Puzzle that honestly felt a bit unfair after all that we went through. And this is coming from a very subjective view, I honestly didn't like the language translation much, I started trying to piece out how words were used to find what some meant, but the puzzle is just impossible to solve when trying to translate through inference since it mainly uses never seen before words, in fact I was even disappointed to realize while reading a guide that it was just phonetic english. Instead of trying to translate a language and understand what it means, you were supposed to decode how it sounded as an english word, which if you're not a native english speaker, might be near impossible.

The combat was also nicely balanced to make you think a bit on how to use your tools and not just slash away. Though I think my only other blemish would be that with so many consumable types, the very limited action slots made it almost never worth using beyond some reliable tools as switching in combat is hazardous. I wouldn't have been sad to have a bigger action wheel/bar, but I can understand it wouldn't fit the heavy retro homage.

I tried to elaborate on the only two negative points I had with the whole game, because otherwise the review would've just been 20 lines of gushing about how it's perfect over and over. While perfection is an ideal, this game is some of the closest I've seen to it, it easily shot up to my highest tier of favorite games.

You can only experience it once, so don't miss it.

I sadly needed to enable the music tonedeaf mode or whatever to find one platinum chest, and I definitely did not translate the manual's custom language, but everything else I solved without any hints. This game was really something. A solid 30hr with maybe 2hr of frustration learning the Heir's attack patterns. Highly recommend to be played on Steam Deck!

This is a hard thumbs down to make. On the one hand, it is a well crafted game, the devs obviously thought about a lot for how the game should work and how they wanted the world to design.

On the other hand, I found it very frustrating to play. Some puzzle games / metroidbrainias are super fun - so fun that you don't know you're being taught things. (portal doesn't need you to sleeo on mechanics and come back to them). This game basically requires you to take notes and pour over the rulebook and think really hard.

But, the problem with this game is 4 fold. I know devs won't fix it for this game, obviously, but I hope they consider for the next one:

1. The major mechanic of the rulebook is interesting, but not much is done with it. It's actually quite difficult to interact with. It's impossible to know if you can currently access a page to move forward, or if you need to figure out the puzzle with the things you have at your disposal. SOLVES: Allow a "PEN" tool to mark or take notes in the rulebook. Allow binding of a button, or a hotkey, to pull up "THE MAP OF WHERE I'M STANDING".

2. The mechanics of fighting, which is important in this game, lack the tightness and fluidity of similar isometric adventure games. There are just too many Animation Lock issues with your normal swinging of the sword, and every other action. I know you unlock things that allow you to break animation lock later in the game, but if you could interrupt your sword with your roll, or if the sword had less animation lock frames, it would have made the combat so much more fun. And, other aspects of fighting (parry) are unnecessary to the game and don't have tutorial. I don't think I ever parried an attack even though I knew it was possible. SOLVE: Remove dead animation lock frames - make fighting fun. Create mini tutorials for bosses or fights so that you can have more hints on how to be successful at them. They can be natural - like shield enemies (that don't do damage) you have to use grab on, that teach you to grab away the bosses shield.

3. MOST secrets and paths forward of this game are finding hidden areas behind corners. This is a bit of an antithesis of most games, where they have a light for the way you are supposed to go. I remember at a specific part of the game where I was moving quickly across pillars, and I got completely stuck because there was a random rope I was supposed to climb up that blended with the environment. Or another time where the MAIN, ONLY (unless you sequence break) path forward was taking a ladder down the back of a wall, only indicated by two little nubs that you could barely see. I'm an experienced puzzle gamer and enjoy many similar games, I've played every zelda game to completion, but I had to look up "how to leave this room" 3 times. SOLVE: Maybe add a sound to hidden spots or chests like islands of insight do with their puzzle cubes? Or like highlight the floor really bright around the character? Or the camera turns if there's something around the corner?

4. There's a lot of backtracking in this game without much clue of where to go next. That's relatively typical of metroidvania games, so I understand the idea. You get a new power, time to backtrack, but the way you do it with secret hunting is pretty frustrating, since some of that paths change throughout the game. I know it's like the point of the game to scurry through the rulebook, but for most of the game, the GOAL of the game is super unclear. And there's very few pages that clear that up. SOLVE: A page of the rulebook should be "POINT OF THE GAME" and show things you have gotten, with checkboxes next to each thing if you've done it. That was great to have for the first half of the game, and maybe I never got the page for the second half, but would have been helpful for the second half. Missing pages (because they're around a corner or whatever) is SO PUNISHING! 2nd solve: Have a button or resource you can spend that puts a GO HERE NEXT icon on the rulebook. Or make the rulebook an item that hums for other rulebook pieces or something.

While not my personal cup of tea (there are a few decisions I find a bit grating, I definitely appreciate Dark Souls' Homeward Bone a hell of a lot more now), this game gets a LARGE recommendation from me to anyone interested in playing it. I have played few games with as much love and thought put into them as this, and to those who love to dig their teeth into a game and it's mysteries, I think you would be hard-pressed to find a better game. This game rocks.

A game with whimsical art, charming characters, and a beautiful soundtrack. But lets not forget the HORRIFICALLY difficult puzzles and combat. Best of luck to all players on the Mountain Door puzzle.
P.S Download a PDF version of the manual. You will need it.

Holy Crap

Totally an epic game. 10/10. There is no other game that made me want to grind and solve the problem alone. Challenging but not a burden and also the difficulty can be changed. Mysterious but fun. Unique with it's puzzle. Absolute Must Try!!

Really enjoyable game, surprisingly challenging as well don't let its "cute" appearance fool you. Lots of secrets and hidden items. Make sure to examine the instruction booklet!

This game is beautiful and rich in lore and puzzles. I had a blast playing through it and figuring it all out. Would recommend playing completely blind for your first time.

Great Game, don't let the images make you think this isn't worth your time. Tunic has a ton to offer and rewards you with exploration and wonder!

A beautiful game deep with lore and secrets you'll feel smart figuring them out on your own and cool and challenging bosses. It starts slow where the game tells you nothing of the world you find yourself in, and if it does, the text usually will be written in a made up language, and it has a lot of backtracking but it goes hard when you know your goal, you will not be able to stop playing and if you do manage that, you'll not be able not to wonder throughout the day of things you could do or paths you could take.
TL;DR It's a brilliant and beautiful game beyond measure. 🦊

I recently reached an ending in the game, and this game has great puzzles and story. Unfortunately, the combat is extremely tight to the point of not being fun at certain points; in particular the (mid-game spoiler) 3 bosses to retrieve the keys and the (end game spoiler) Heir were tedious. It's like Metroid (NES/ZM and Super) bosses, where you have to throw yourself at them, and once you beat them once you can generally do it again.

Colour me impressed.

The simplified soulslike gameplay isn't anything revolutionary, but it just werks. You roll around, block attacks, find items that increase your stats, rest to respawn enemies, the usual -- but all without having to worry about grinding for XP or min-maxing stats. There's even a parry mechanic that's unfortunately bound to right trigger by default, making it easily missable -- bind it to RB instead, and tap the button to get some satisfying parries. Combat difficulty is pretty easy for a soulslike game, still keeping you engaged without getting trivial, at least not your first playthrough. You can make it even easier with a plethora of accessibility options, if you need to. The visuals are pretty even if there are some minor tearing, but what I'm most impressed by is the manual that you get to collect and assemble in-game, gradually revealing game mechanics in a cool and satisfying way, and the language that it uses, which is head and shoulders above the usual Caesar cypher used in action-puzzle games. I spotted one or two mistakes while translating it, but those are easily forgivable considering the effort the developers must have put in to make the thing.

The puzzles really start to shine in the second half of the game, but then the game gives you some tools that make some (but not all) of the puzzles trivial, which I thought was a shame. On the other hand, I never managed to figure out the puzzle for Secret Treasure #4 -- the solution is ambiguous and requires some language interpretation, but that might be just me being a little salty about not being able to solve it. Took me about 40 hours to almost-100% the game according to Steam, but only 14 hours according to the in-game timer -- I must have spent that many hours translating the manual and learning the language, with my desk completely covered in notes. And I had a blast doing it.

New Game+ is barely an afterthought. The only difference is it puts some rare "strong" enemies here and there, but they're not really a challenge to you at that point, and all the bosses turn into complete pushovers, making the game trivial. Got bored while playing it, and I'm pretty sure nothing special happens in it anyway.

A really good game with great puzzles and discoveries. Go in with no spoilers and have tons of fun. :)

The best puzzle game I have ever played. If you decide to get it, do yourself a favor and don't look anything up - not before, not during. You CAN do it. You CAN get 100%. Trust.

Absolutely recommended if you ever yearned to have a cork board of pictures and notes, all connected with a web of red string. Some stuff is insanely cryptic and unless you're Sherlock level brilliant there's gonna be a lot left, even after your brain boils and you've had enough. And after finishing it i still suck as dodging.

Very nice indie game, beautiful and big - but not empty - world, playable in any nowadays computer and practically bug-free (just one enemy glitch in 20 hours). Amazing artistic sections (both visual and sound), good control, a lot of nice mechanics (the pages of the manual and the runic language are both quite original). A lot of room for improvement regarding the combat though (I didn't like the focus mechanic, which is not well implemented either - the focus may jump to a different enemy after performing an attack to the one you really want to keep it on). The worst part is on some final bosses, which are way too hard, way too unfair and way too frustrating, their difficulty is completely unbalanced from the rest of the game (luckily you can leave them for later at any moment and go for some exploration as a way of taking a break).
I'd have preferred being able to rotate the camera, but I understand that this would've made finding some hidden areas too easy and less reward-feeling.
I bought it at a 50% discount (~15€) and despite its flaws it's worth every cent.

Wants to be a souls-like but the combat is too primitive for it. Standard enemies are fine; it’s the boss fights that are wildly out of place. Thankfully there are settings to remove stamina and reduce damage taken, bringing it closer to what you would expect from a Zelda clone.

There’s a manual page collecting gimmick which is mostly written in a made up language so you’ll find yourself googling half of it anyway. Some awkward backtracking towards the end followed by A LOT of backtracking if you want the good ending.

Imagine we lived in an alternate timeline where 1986's The Legend of Zelda was never released outside of Japan. Imagine also if you came across a rare copy as well as well as its original Japanese instruction booklet. You switch on the game and wander around a bit with no idea what you're supposed to be doing.

You get frustrated after a while and put the game down. Some time later, you open up the instruction booklet out of curiosity. Obviously, you can't decipher any of the Japanese text (minus the occasional English word sprinkled here and there, as often happens in Japanese media), but you find yourself enjoying the beautiful hand-drawn illustrations that adorn many of the pages. Most of then are promotional; Link fingting monsters, traveling across mountains, scenes from before the game's beginning, etc.

Soon, you find one of the illustrations depict Link placing a bomb against a wall, revealing a hidden cave entrance, something you didn't even know was a mechanic before now. You even recognize some of the features in the background as being from a screen in the game's overworld. You boot the game up again, go back to that screen, and sure enough, the bomb you place opens up a cave that leads to one of the dungeons.

As you continue playing, you notice other hints in the booklet that help you progress. You begin to realize that this game was made back in an age where instruction booklets weren't obligatory accessories, but meant to be your indispensable guide through the game. The language barrier puts you at a disadvantage, so you must use your deductive reasoning to try and figure out what you're supposed to be doing.

The result is a wonderful, immersive experience that challenges your mind as much as your skills. The dungeons and difficult bosses are rewarding on their own, but decyphering the booklet's cryptic hints make you feel like Indiana Jones uncovering the forgotten secrets of an ancient civilization.

This is the experience Tunic sets out to create. It can be thought of as a metroidvania, except it is knowledge that unlocks the way forward instead of just powerups. Sadly, this means the game is really only playable once, as the experience is lost if the player isn't completely blind and uninformed.

Is that worth $30 to you? As I write, I cannot think of any other game that correctly re-reates the experience Tunic does. Plenty of games use classic art styles, or revive older genres, but none of them so accurately simulate the sense of wonder and mystery that was only possible back in the pre-gamefaqs age of gaming.

I do highly recommend Tunic for those who are open to a mental challenge. However, maybe wait for a sale to make up for the game's un-replayability