Tunic’s ‘No Fail’ mode let me enjoy its puzzles way more

polygon.com:

Tunic, an indie adventure game that melds influences from The Legend of Zelda and Dark Soulsinto an adorable and mysterious package, has taken over my brain for the past two weeks. It’s been ages since I beat a game and plunged into the New Game Plus mode without so much as stopping to refill the glass of water on my desk. I have to admit, though: I never would have gotten to the end — let alone enjoyed the ride as much as I did — without occasionally using the game’s “No Fail” mode.

Related

As much as I have savored the puzzles and sense of discovery in Tunic, I’ve struggled with its combat. The tiny vulpine hero’s sword swings feel floaty, sluggish, and imprecise. The game lacks the laser-like precision of similar combat-heavy isometric games like Hades, where failure always felt like my own fault. In Tunic, I’d often fail combat sequences simply because I hadn’t landed an attack head-on, or dodged in the exact right direction — even though I often felt certain that my button-presses should have done the job. Even after a dozen hours of combat in Tunic and several difficult boss battles, I still don’t quite feel like I have the hang of it.

I don’t blame Tunic’s development team for this. It’s composed almost entirely of one person, Andrew Shouldice, who designed and programmed the game. Additional art came from Eric Billingsley and ma-ko, and the game’s gorgeous score is a credit to Terence Lee and Janice Kwan. Still, the combat design was all on Shouldice, as well as the level design and puzzle ideation. Tunic is an incredible feat — especially considering that it didn’t have a larger team to help polish off its rougher edges.

It’s for that very reason that I’ve felt no remorse about turning on Tunic’s “No Fail”