Tunic Is A Refreshing Lesson In Hands-Off Game Design
I haven't played very much of Tunic yet, but I've already been taken in by its charms. It channels the older Zelda games, but with something of a modern twist. The closest comparison would be the Link's Awakening remake for the Nintendo Switch. Despite this obvious (and quite deliberate) inspiration, the first thing that came to mind was Elden Ring. I'm not just chasing SEO traffic here - look closely and you'll see I avoided the temptation to put Elden Ring in the headline - but after the gaming world has been unable to talk about anything but Elden Ring since it launched, maybe I have just finally succumbed to the idea that nothing besides Elden Ring matters anymore.
Elden Ring is obtuse in its design, and as defenders will quickly and loudly point out, deliberately so. What's extremely funny to me is that I have complained, since launch, about these obtuse features and have been repeatedly told that they are part of the developers' vision. Except now they're getting patched in, so I guess they weren't. I know it's more complex than that, but it doesn't change how amusing I, personally, find it. In any case, Tunic is also somewhat obtuse, but in a way that's much less unfriendly, more intuitive, and generally doesn't result in me wanting to break my controller with my face, or my face with my controller.
Related: Elden Ring's Messages Underline The Community's Hypocrisy
When you first start Tunic, the game just starts. There's no cutscene, no dialogue, no quest markers, nothing. Just click New Game and boom, you're in. You're a little fox wearing a tunic (good job he's not wearing assless chaps or marketing the game would have had a very different tone), and that's pretty much all you know. There are two bars on the
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