Tunic game review – Fox’s Awakening

metro.co.uk:

The Legend Of Zelda meets Dark Souls in this action adventure where deciphering a manual unlocks a world of secrets.

Now that online guides are always just a click away, it’s never been more difficult to build a game on mystery. Being stumped by a puzzle in 2022 isn’t the progress killer it once was – rectified pre-internet only by browsing physical guides or listening to smarter kids in the playground – since now you’re challenged not just by the puzzle itself but the temptation of looking up answers online.

There are still games where using a guide misses the point. The Witness and Return Of The Obra Dinn are both reliant on the satisfaction of understanding and solving the puzzle of the world you’re thrown into. Looking up the answers transforms them into empty experiences without the personal triumph of bringing the clues together yourself. For Tunic, there’s a similar design sensibility which can easily be ruined by spoilers, since accumulating knowledge to figure out the path forward is instrumental to the thrill.

Like those other indie games, Tunic’s world is introduced with little context. You’re a fox who wakes up on the shore of an island with, dodge roll aside, no abilities to speak of. As you venture towards the centre, you’ll discover a stick to hit enemies with, objects inscribed with an unknown language, and a mysterious, older fox trapped inside a glowing orb. Your mission isn’t explicitly stated but, as is the law, given its Zelda inspiration, you’re directed to finding three triangles scattered across the land to, presumably, free the trapped animal.

In a callback to physical games of yesteryear, your understanding of the world is coloured by collecting pages of a manual. These aren’t filled with