Review: Tunic
I’m of the opinion that no era of video games is really better than the rest. You’ll find some argue that it peaked around the 16-bit era and others who insist that video games get better and better. My thoughts on this are that certain aspects of design have fallen out of fashion as the market has diversified. However, that only makes them different; not worse.
One such aspect of design that has changed is leaving it up to the player to plumb a game for its secrets. Think The Legend of Zelda, which was packed with secrets both optional and required for you to complete the game. The sub-genre that sprung up around Metroid was very much about chipping away through exploration, and not all of it was communicated in an obvious manner. Sometimes, sometimes you had to crack open the instruction manual to discover information that the game itself wasn’t going to tell you. Castlevania never told you that you have to hold Up and press the B button to throw your secondary weapon.
Tunic doesn’t just include this antiquated slice of design, it’s actually about it. Forget that it looks like Zelda and plays like Dark Souls, what it really is underneath is a celebration of long-forgotten design practices.
Tunic (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S) Developer: Andrew Shouldice Publisher: Finji Released: March 16, 2022 MSRP: $29.99
You wake up on the beach as an unnamed fox wearing, appropriately, a tunic. Not much of anything is given to you at the offset. Who you are, what your goal is, even what you should be doing at that moment is a mystery. Left to wander, you start accumulating gear and, appropriately, pages of an instruction manual.
The instruction manual is essential for more than just learning the controls. The game’s text is almost
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