Tunic

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, there are sort of mechanical spoilers, but I tried to be vague, it's more spoilery after the instructions screenshot.
• Time Played: ~25 hours
• Too Short/Long: Probably about right. Mileage may vary, depending on how well certain puzzles click and how much effort you wanna put forth.
• Soundtrack: Decent, mostly mood setting ethereal stuff that's not going to get annoying if you hear it a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Very pleased.
• Why I played: I got this back when it first released on Switch, excited to have a good looking Zelda-like, but didn't really delve into it until now.
• Did I cry: Not much reason to cry in this one.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend it to people who really like to delve into their games. Early on my recommendation would have been much more general, but the more I played the more I realized exactly how much it asks of the player.

Tunic is a bit more than I expected it to be. At first, I figured it just a straight forward Zelda-like. You're a little fox wearing a tunic and you start off on a shore, exploring an island of sorts, fighting some little slime-like monsters, some goblins with swords, and some other usual fare. You get a stick first, eventually you get a sword and can cut grass, a shield, so on and so on.

It doesn't take too long for the game to hint that it's going to take some outside of the box thinking to play. Rather, you're at least going to have to be willing to explore every possible crevice, with a lot of the official paths hidden by the perspective of the game. You may even have to wander around blindly a bit to get where you're going. That's where I was when I started the game when it originally came out on Switch.

I played about an hour or so at the time, maybe a little disappointed by the pacing, hoping it was gonna have a little more action to offer. Which there was, and it was quite difficult early into the game, but it felt a little sluggish and it was so hard to get from point a to point b. Or figure out where point b even was, so I put it down, distracted by other things. Since I keep track of what/when I beat games, I'm going to say it was Elden Ring, and equally - if not more difficult game, in very different ways, but something that may have offered a little more of what I was looking for at the time.

So finally I get back into Tunic just a few days ago, and gave it a solid hour or two of play to make sure I figured out what I was supposed to be doing, and while it was a little rough at first, eventually I got to a point of constant discovery "Oh I found this, I found this, how did I even get 'stuck' before?". I would eventually realize that, multiple times, as I proceeded to hit walls where I had to figure things out in order to proceed, but time marches on and as you unlock more equipment you unlock new ways to access things and even beyond your equipment there are things you can do that you only learn of once you unlock more of the instruction booklet, which is without question your most important piece of equipment.

Some way through the game, after facing some pretty difficult boss battles and grueling challenges, the game shifts in style almost completely. Combat is almost arbitrary and you're no longer on an island, but rather swimming an ocean of esoteric and obtuse puzzles layered one upon another. Few times have I ever felt more like the Charlie Day meme.

It was fun, but also adrenaline pumping in a frustrating way, with the mind racing, considering every possibility, analyzing every aspect of the game under a microscope every step of the way. It can almost be a bit too much. Going back to look at the "instruction booklet", back to the overworld, back to the booklet, back to the overworld. I've never made so many notes for a video game. Most games I don't make notes at all, but this requires it.

It's not quite as Zelda-like as it presents itself. I mean it's a clear design and theming inspiration in nearly every way, but even the most grueling of Zelda puzzles are pretty clear cut, and more "fun environmental puzzles" than layered analytical puzzles. It was fulfilling at least, and I'm glad I experienced it, but now I just need something to turn my mind off to.