Tunic Xbox Review
Tunic Xbox Review
Being a highly anticipated indie title is like a double edged sword. On one side you have a game like No Man’s Sky or 12 Minutes that left many gamers feeling burned. On the other hand you have games like Breath of The Wild and Elden Ring that not only manage to meet the massive expectations but surpass them and become something special on the process. Fortunately, for the long awaited Tunic, it feels like something special.
It’s no secret what the main inspiration for Tunic is as this adventure feels like the best Legend of Zelda game not made by Nintendo. Even going a step farther and saying that it wouldn’t feel out of place nestled amongst some of Link’s greatest adventures.
Tunic is made with love and care by a very small team who are passionate about the genre. Tunic is much more than just a simple Zelda-Like as things aren’t always how they appear and just like the game everything is hidden in plain sight.
You awake on the shore of a land unknown and you quickly figure out that you need to find three stones. Thats all you need to know and that serves are more than enough to guide you on your way. Everything else gets filled in along the way as you find pages of an 8 bit instruction manual scattered across the world.
The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Log To Find A Page
Collecting the instruction manual is a great touch and pays tribute to some of the greatest games of all time that existed in when manuals that were just as much a part of the experience as playing the game was. Just like how liner notes, lyrics and art used to be part of buying an album.
In Tunic, it has been incorporated into the game and modernized rather than just being a forgotten relic of the past. The manual isn’t pristine either, it used just like you remember it with handwritten notes all over it just like you did. Even zooming in you can see the staples binding the manual together, or drinks stains on it. Closing your close your eyes you can feel that high gloss paper in your hands.
The instruction manual is much more than just an old keepsake thrown in to be retro hipster, it actually serves plenty of purpose and can help you get a handle on what certain items are or what you need to be doing. It doesn’t spell it out like some modern games but it points you in a direction.
I constantly felt lost and unsure where to go almost every hour, but looking at the instruction manual with new knowledge made something make sense that lacked clarity previously. The manual is so integral to the game that if you can manage to collect enough pages not only does it provide you with the option of two endings but with enough pages it gives you the secret needed to complete both.
Even if you don’t have the pages you need or the knowledge required to go in the correct direction there is no order in which the game needs to be completed for the most part. For the first half of the game this can drastically alter the difficulty depending on if you have what is required. It truly is a game that just sets you lose into the wild and begs you to explore.
The instruction manual actually serves a dual purpose that drives you to want to find more pages because not only does it provide insight for your journey but it’s also a collectible in game that you want to find all the pieces.
Smart Like a Fox
When you do feel lost, which will happen often, its not a complete waste of time because only lose a small portion of currency upon death which means that trying the same area over and over is worth it because not only are you refining your combat skills but you are also getting what you need for levelling up, which you need to discover and becoming familiar with the map which becomes key for endgame.
Everything in Tunic feels designed with purpose. Everything feels earned, nothing is given and when you finally figure something out, you get a feeling that is rarely achieved in gaming, you feel as if you have cracked a code. Something as simple as upgrading your character is constantly in front of you the whole time but rather than force it upon you, it allows you to figure out things on your own.
This design philosophy creates a magical world and this discoverability transfers to the whole game where there are constantly alternate paths and secret areas hidden in plain sight and when you stumble upon one or finally figure it out the feeling is much better than being told where to go.
Visuals
It’s not the most stunning game ever created but what it might lack in cutting edge visuals, it more than makes up for with a massive attention to detail and heart. The world is not only gorgeous but it’s a lot of little things that make it feel special.
From the way the light breaks in from the canopy above to the way your fox turns his head towards certain things of interest or how your lantern reflects in dark areas. Tunic is also much more than just the lush greenery that the previews have shown, as there are many different biomes, and all with their distinct look and feel.
Even when you go to the instruction manual screen, you can see a CRT behind with a pixelated version of the game you are playing and the audio changes to a cheap mono speaker sound that you remember from your basement.
Tunic has an ethereal soundtrack that feels as perfect for exploring the lands as much as it does put you in a state of relaxation and has plenty of variety the changes depending on your location in the world. Even when you’re lost you are having a good time cause the music is so great.
To empathize the quality , not only did I add the album by Lifeformed to my Apple Music Library but its something that I listen to frequently when doing things around the house. I can’t think of the last game that I went searching for the soundtrack after the game.
Combat and story
The constant questioning of what is going on in the world is an underlying theme throughout the whole game. Most of the story is fun to experience on your own but its like most fairy tales it becomes your job to save the world from evil.
Combat and difficulty doesn’t feel out of place amongst some of the greatest adventure games of yesteryear nor does it feel strange to compare it to the modern titles carrying the torch from how games used to be including FROMSOFTWARE games. Anything can kill your easily if you let you guard down, enemies can kill you from full health in one attack or you can be easily overwhelmed but most importantly, it’s fair and if you are patient and use your window of opportunity you can find success almost anytime.
Boss fights are tough as they require pattern recognition and proper timing like retro and souls titles but they also require a close monitoring of your stamina because timing your rolls provides you a moment of invulnerability and when your stamina is too low you can’t roll and even worse you receive 50 percent more damage.
Tunic’s difficulty was surprising as the expectations for a cute fox equates to something a little easier. Tunic does features plenty of accessibility options to make your life easier if you just want to enjoy the story and avoid the troubles of the combat like unlimited stamina and no fail mode. This a refreshing change that needs to be available in more games as it allows more people to complete the journey and not give up when it gets too difficult. Sure, the games creator probably wants you to play it on the standard difficulty but i’m sure they would rather you finish the game and have a better time.
Problems
Similar criticisms still exist form the demo. The button mapping can feel clunky at times but i’m not sure what the alternative would be and switching items during fights is next to impossible, unless the arena is big enough because the world keeps moving when you are in your inventory screen.
Sometimes the lock on icon catches people on a different plane than you when they are possibly beneath you or in the next room and while it might feel like using the prompt RT to lock on should help you it doesn’t.
Until you realize about half way through the game while trying to figure out another tool that the prompt has been wrong all along. Instead of RT the proper way to lock on is to click RS which made a world of difference.
It actually works as intended in the instruction manual but on top of that it also displays the enemies health bars which is something only seen on bosses without using lock on. This does seem like something that would be patched early on.
The isometric camera angle can sometimes lead to frustration and the inability to see an enemy but like the rest of the problems with the game they all feel insignificant when stacked against everything the game is doing right.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Great expectations often lead to disappointment but Tunic not only took what was excellent about the demo but over delivered with a lengthy adventure closer to 20 hours that will without a doubt be one of the greatest games that I experience this year.
9.5/10