TUNIC

Gioco gasante a dir poco. Dai fateve tutto [spoiler] il golden path [/spoiler] e si dai perché no anche [spoiler] tutti e 12 i segreti [/spoiler] senza reddit. Goty, comunque

not just a funky little zelda game, i thought it was which made the beginning rough, but knowing you gain knowledge over time makes it a 10/10 game

absolute masterpiece of a game. The only bad thing about it is the rather bland name for such a beautiful experience. Everyting else is perfection.

打完了真结局，优点大伙都说了很多遍了，说说缺点： 1.引导极弱，个人体验下来有几次完全不知道接下来该干什么，闲逛了几小时，遂去看了攻略 2.解密要素很多，尤其真结局和全收集，有些解密真的反人类，完全对不上电波 整体瑕不掩瑜，还是很好玩的，建议真没思路认真看看手册，没办法再去看攻略，自己解出来还是很爽的

Un juego precioso sobre un zorrito que fusiona Zelda y Dark Souls con uno de los mejores resultados que he visto nunca. El diseño del mundo es una locura, los atajos e interconexiones no dejan de explotarte la cabeza, llega un punto que no entiendes como pueden ser tantos y como puede estar todo tan bien diseñado. Con unos apartados gráficos y de sonido sobresalientes, pues difícil no recomendarlo. Por sacarle algo, y tengo que hacerlo: el combate es la parte menos destacable, sin ser nada malo ojo, pero está bien y ya. El problema es que luego llegan las bossfights: sosas, insípidas, fáciles... No entiendo cómo un juego que sobresale tanto en los demás apartados se ha podido liar con uno de los más importantes la verdad. Los jefes están como una transición y ya, son esponjas, te hacen lo mismo una y otra vez hasta que les bajas la barra o si encuentras algún punto débil/cheeseo en cuyo caso los destruyes y ya. Aunque quizás le estoy dando demasiadas vueltas, es intencional y querían centrarse más en los otros aspectos. A mi desde luego me ha faltado un poquito ahí.

This game for me went through several changes of genre and associated feeling. At the beginning a classic Zelda like action-adventure, traversing this land, getting upgrades and fighting mobs and bosses. Then it also becomes a metroidvania (but with a lot less backtracking imo) with all the new upgrades and skills I am getting and new path options that open up because of that. Mixed in with a bit of the souls-like formula, fighting bosses, dodging and shielding! And finally, for the last act of the game, it suddenly becomes a complete riddle solving feast. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The first part of the game, the action-adventure exploration was a lot of fun. What a colourful, creative world. With each area having a very distinctive feeling, the score and colour palette playing a major part in that. And then there is also the handbook, which made this game unique from the first time I found a page. It made me feel like a kid again, playing a game, we just got at the store and reading up in the manual what is what and who is who (and even try to imagine where I am on the maps provided). [the runic language could even be seen as a literacy barrier, depending on how early a gamer you were ;D). I’ve felt and read the comparison of this game to three different games. Zelda as the obvious inspiration for the character and the core gameplay. Darksouls for the way one progresses through areas and fights bosses (but being way more forgiving and having very generous shortcuts). And FEZ for the way riddles are solved. This alone would have made this a very enjoyable experience. Had I just gotten to the final boss and beat it in a fight and gotten the “bad ending” first I would have shrugged, blamed the confusing lore behind everything on the souls-like storytelling, given the game an solid 8/10 and moved on. But suddenly for the last act of the game, things changed in an unexpected way. There were a good amount of secrets to find along the way. Having to bomb open secret tunnels or changing perspective to find secret chests or shortcuts. But as soon as I got the pages, suggesting having to input commands via the d-pad - as if I'm inputting cheat codes - the game changed completely. Suddenly all I see are clues and riddles and new clues and secrets and new riddles. At one point trying to solve the golden path I felt like Ben Gates in National Treasure being told by his dad, that one clue leads to another and so forth. That the treasure - the final solution - is a myth. I want a game to make me feel something. I don’t just want it to be a movie projected at me. I want to be part of it! And Tunic managed to make me feel mad! Madly searching for an answer to a riddle, that’s not even properly introduced. That you just kind of stumble over. With all the leads and secrets, that have been staring you right in the face the whole game through. Realizing I could have done these inputs from the very beginning of the game. Just like in Outer Wilds, you progress through acquiring knowledge (and some tools) along the way. What a nice split between Metroidvania aspects and knowledge progression. There is also a similar feeling present as in playing The Return of the Obra Dinn, but sometimes with a much bigger leap of faith. You don’t get the right answer after having done three inputs correctly. Having written this, it feels like this game is just a constant comparison to games that came before it. And surely there is a lot of inspiration from prior game, no doubt in that. But it still manages to be something very new entirely. And that’s very impressive to see and feel. The reason this game gets pushed to a 10/10 for me is the final riddle of the golden path. This marks the last part of the review as just a rambling on that, since it’s the reason this game will stay with me for a long time after having played it. I don’t remember the last time I got sooooo sucked into a game, I actually played this last part on one long (~10h) sitting. The last riddles with the Fairies had such a nice flow to them that just kept me going until I reached the Mountain Door puzzle. Everything worked so well with all the knowledge of the prior puzzle. With the final one seemingly asking me, if I understood what it’s been teaching me. Once again, I have to compare this game to Outer Wilds. Trying to think of the next step to an idea, based on the clues I have formed. I wasn’t just stumbling onto the solution, it usually worked out just the way I had planned it. And that was just so satisfying. (of course, I also had the classic moments of: why this isn’t this working? I tried spelling out what the riddle is telling. And that’s where it usually dawned on me WHAT THE RIDDLE ACTUALLY MEANT.) Having made a screenshot of the golden path template I went on a wild chase through the booklet, trying to find the next hint. Starting with page 2, sure enough, there is a golden "path" right there. And moving forward every page always tried to one-up the last one on its cleverness to hide the path in plain sight. Of course, I also didn’t know at first where the path on page 9 was. (Funnily enough I had found the safe file from page 9 prior and actually managed to escaped it, before realizing what it was for.) I just remembered the long winding GOLD path I had gone through. That’s where it dinged. (I also loved how the "search secret" input command is PART OF THE FINAL PATH to the door!) I don’t know if I ever was this excited or scared for a "code input" before. I felt like I was about to go into an oral exam in school. Could all of this actually be correct? (By the way: I love how for the finale, you can either beat the BBG in a fight (which is the only two-phase boss fight in the game) or have a "riddle" boss-fight. With apparently ~100 inputs of the d-Pad. Brilliant!) And the reward for that? The final (and first) page of the book. Which just shows "TUNIC" with a thank you for playing and a signature from all the creators. I couldn’t have wished for more personal credits. And finally, I also have a bone to pick with two of the last riddles in the game which came with a sharp drop-off in fun compared to the rest of the game. Recency bias is a ♥♥♥♥♥, I was going to rate the game so much lower when I wrote this, here we go: The wind chimes and the puzzle on page 1. With the windchime puzzle, I knew I had to listen to the sounds (not knowing about the accessibility options) but just couldn’t pick them apart and didn’t know when the input starts. Several times I was convinced this could not be the way I am supposed to solve this. But it was and I think that’s ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. But especially the last puzzle fell sooo harshly out of the established rhythm of the game. Logically all the other riddles including the mountain door puzzle and the golden road, didn’t need to read the runic language to understand what was going on or how to approach them. Everything could be gathered through being observant and using context. I didn’t have the energy in me to decode an entire language. The relative amount of work expected to be put into solving this on riddle for one trophy was just not worth it for me. Especially since the riddle itself was a play on word, even having read it out loud to me just didn’t make sense. Once again, breaking with the rhythm the game had leading up to this. In the end I got over it. I couldn’t solve the whole game myself. These last two riddles were the only ones I needed help. And having slept on it? I’m ok with that. This game is still a 10/10 for me.

:tunicgasp: