Can you remember back to when you first fell in love with gaming? Because I can. If I think back on my childhood, I have these crystal clear memories of lying on the floor in front of my parent’s old CRT TV (completely ignoring the perfectly good couch because who needs comfort). I can still feel my parent’s disgustingly scratchy carpet leaving its telltale imprints on my skin while I lie with snacks at the ready and controller in hand (slightly sticky from the snacks, if I’m honest). I would be completely enthralled with the game I was playing and oblivious to the rest of the world around me.
As I’ve grown up, I’ve found myself less willing to sacrifice my comfort and less likely to be utterly emersed in any game to the point of me losing track of time. I still enjoy gaming, don’t get me wrong, but my feelings have matured and evolved over the years, and then I played Tunic. If you’ve ever wanted to go back to what it felt like the very first time you played a Zelda game, or even if you’ve never played one before but want to feel that rush you missed out on as a kid, Tunic is the game you’ve been missing in your life.
Tunic is a game that, at first glance, would remind any gamer of Link’s Awakening, thanks to its cutesie protagonist, colourful art style and incredible score. However, it is very much its own game, and even though you can feel the Zelda-esque inspiration while playing, the game never feels like a copy. Tunic might look like a simplistic action-adventure game, but it can sometimes be as hardcore as any souls-like game, and your journey will be filled with flights to challenge you and puzzles to test you.
Taking a page out of many old-school games that have come before, Tunic is not much for words. By that, I mean the game tells you surprisingly little. You play as a little fox, and throughout the entire game, you never once speak. Any dialogue that is included in the game consists of an indecipherable script. Therefore, it is up to you, the player, to figure out what to do, where to go and make sense of everything.
This lack of handholding is utterly refreshing, and for the first time in a long time, I found myself actively engaged in the game while playing it. The only guidance you get during the game is in the form of an instruction manual whose pages you find scattered throughout the world. While the text on the manual is still eligible, there are multiple clues, hints, and secrets to discover if you pay attention to the pictures.
Tunic is a beautiful game that manages to be enjoyable all the way through, even when I found myself constantly dying. It didn’t matter how long I played or how comfortable I got with the controls, the game was always challenging, and even the simplest foes could still put me in my place even multiple hours in. Yet as a true testament to the game’s enjoyment factor, I never gave up and ended up playing Tunic for over 15 hours in one sitting.
