Tunic has one of the best video game puzzles ever
Tunic launched this month after almost eight years in development. The cute-looking action-adventure game shares a lot with the The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls, but it has quickly become apparent that those influences are merely the surface layer of a deceptively deep game. The world of Tunic is steeped in mystery, and your heroic little fox will need to solve a bevy of puzzles to get to the heart of its secrets.
[Editor’s note: Spoilers follow for Tunic]
One of the game’s biggest mysteries is the Golden Path. This game-spanning puzzle is frequently alluded to in the pages of the in-game manual, but its meaning always seems tantalizingly out of reach. As its nature gradually becomes clear, though, it proves to be one of the most creative and satisfying puzzles in gaming history.
The route to understanding the Golden Path is not an easy one, but the seeds are laid early on, whether it’s by discovering the enormous stone door at the top of the Overworld’s mountain or by picking up some intriguing manual pages in the Library. The first real breakthrough, though, comes upon collection of page 49, which provides a golden grid with 25 numbers in it. With a little savvy, it’s possible to connect the dots on previous pages (especially the hints on pages 21 and 22), noting a few golden-colored clues (even if you can’t decipher the language).
Each square references a specific manual page, and on closer inspection, you can find a hidden golden line pattern on each one, all of which eventually fits together into a grand and complex route that traverses the entire grid before arriving at the center. The hunt is on.
By tracing said line, you’ll eventually have the code to unlock Tunic’s mountain door. There’s a pleasing
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