Tunic is a charming and challenging adventure with a deep well of secrets to plumb – Review

gamepur.com:

One of the first games I ever owned was The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, on the original Game Boy. It looks laughably dated now — it did come out in 1993, to be fair — but it’s got a special spot in my heart to this day. I still get that rush of nostalgic exhilaration when I think about the exploration and mystery baked into that game, and the hours I poured into my Game Boy Pocket over the Christmas of 1996.

Tunic, from developer Andrew Shouldice and publishers Finji, wears its influences plainly on its sleeve. It’s easy to see the inspiration it’s taken from the Zelda series, particularly Link’s Awakening. The main character, an adorable little fox, wears a green tunic and wields a sword in one hand, a blue-and-red-patterned shield in the other. You even start off by waking up on a beach and must piece together the mystery of the island on which you’re stranded as you progress through the game. The art style, too, is reminiscent of Nintendo’s remake of Link’s Awakening from a few years ago, with its simple but lovingly-crafted visuals.

This is no mere copy of a more established game series, though. Tunic has an astonishing amount of depth to it, and the elements it borrows from other games, whether aesthetic, narrative, or mechanical, all serve the game’s own unique identity.

At first glance, Tunic is a fairly straightforward adventure game. You wake up on a beach, find a weapon, bash some monsters, and just have a good old explore. There’s a lot of Zelda DNA in there, but there’s also a significant amount of Dark Souls as well. Perhaps it’s considered gauche to compare things to Dark Souls these days, but the parallels are undeniable. From the dramatic and tough-as-nails bosses, to the