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This will be one of the few reviews which will have a radically different structure, simply because I do not know how to tell you about TUNIC and why it is such a magnificent game without ruining the playthrough for you. “You cannot describe it, you have to experience it,” a friend who gifted me TUNIC said and he was absolutely right! I also finished about 80% of the game without looking up any guides or googling anything (I will tell in the end under a spoiler where I gave up), and I highly recommend you doing the same. Even if you are a completionist, there are only 2 missable achievements and both can be unlocked after the main playthrough on NG and NG+ in 2-3 hours, so it is no big deal.
TUNIC is one of those games where only the first playthrough gives you the true experience, because you learn so much about the game and its secrets with each new location and every hour that it gives you a sense of revelation and incredible joy, so NG+, when you already know all this stuff, simply does not feel the same and does not provide you with the same emotions even closely. I initially started TUNIC as a metroidvania souls-like game which takes a lot of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda – personally it also reminded me a lot about Hyper Light Drifter which I really like. I explored the locations, found secrets, collected gear, upgraded my character, and frequently frustrated about the difficulty of the game. Even though I like hardcore games, I never was a big fan of souls-like projects, plus, my nerves and mentality weren’t that very stable lately. Yet, after 2 weeks of trials and grinding when I thought that I finally got to the end of TUNIC, I was seriously astonished and dumbfounded… And only then I realized (and the friend who gifted me the game told me), that souls-like is only the top surface and the iceberg goes much deeper… That’s where I will stop discussing my experience because I’m already walking a thin ice not to ruin the experience for you, so I will speak about the elements which can be discussed without spoilers.
Graphics - the game has a soft low-poly vivid style with an isometric camera view which honestly fits it perfectly. It looks pleasant, creates its own atmosphere and lets the game play with the perspective and encourage you to check for secrets. Music – simply majestic, one of the best indie game soundtracks of the last few years which definitely goes to my personal playlist. It gives the unique vibe to every location as well as enhances the crucial story moments.
Who would I recommend TUNIC to? If you are a fan of souls-like games with high difficulty, deep lore, and many hidden secrets – this one is a must-play. If you just love good deep stories and mind-boggling puzzles – I would also recommend giving TUNIC a try; if the basic difficulty is too hard for you, there is a simplified mode and many accessibility settings, which do not even turn off the achievements as far as I know. If you just want a cozy little indie game about a cute protagonist’s adventures in a fantasy world, it’s probably better to look at simpler projects like Ori And The Blind Forest or OneShot; however, if you are okay playing with the invincibility on (yeah, it is in the accessibility settings too) and constantly following guides to decipher puzzles and find secrets, maybe you can get you share of fun from TUNIC too.
Overall, TUNIC is one of the best indie games of the last few years and is definitely on the list of my favorite games of all time! I simply cannot find words how much I fell in love with that game, even though it’s souls like part did give me a lot of pain and frustration in the first half of my adventure.
P.S.I dropped no googling rule when it came to translating the game’s language and I also had about 4 treasures left undiscovered (one of them included that one infamous music puzzle). By that time, I already cracked the secret of the golden path and the holy cross, and I just wanted to clear the save on 100% before getting the true ending. I wouldn’t say that that translating language is that difficult, especially if you have some knowledge in linguistics, and I definitely could have done that myself if I spent a few days pondering on those hieroglyphs. I also could have gotten all the treasures myself if I was more attentive in the manual and exploration and put more effort into cracking the puzzles, except maybe the letter-in-the-water treasure, because the solution for it is really obscure and unobvious even when you can read the language. As for the glyph tower, I honestly did not even attempt it after my friend told me that the entire TUNIC community had spent several months cracking it all together but maybe if you are a prodigy, you can give a try to that one yourself.