Tunic Review: A Tall Tail

I’m obsessed with foxes. Foxy Christmas ornaments for my tree, fox-shaped coffee mugs (there are several I’m eyeing on Ebay right now, as a matter of fact), I’ve knitted myself a fox-shaped scarf, and, of course, I’m obsessed with video games that include foxes. So when Andrew Shouldice’s Tunic reared that fuzzy, adorable foxy head, I all but tripped over myself with excitement to give it a try. But don’t let Tunic’s adorable exterior fool you – inside, it’s a brutal mash-up of Zelda and Dark Souls.

A Tail as Old as Time

If you’re looking for some deep story, you’re gonna want to look elsewhere. Tunic eschews a traditional narrative in favor of giving you snippets of a story and letting you fill in the blanks. In fact, Tunic foregoes many traditions found in games of this style. There is no hand-holding; hell, there are barely any instructions (though, more on that in just a moment). The game begins with you waking up on a shore, alone, and completely without any weapons or equipment of any kind. With no directions given (literally), it’s up to you to start exploring and seeing what you can find of this new world you’ve awoken in. You will very quickly find that what few signs exist are written in a language that is completely incomprehensible. I’ll admit I was initially (and very briefly) annoyed by this fact, but then I realized that it was really quite brilliant.

Like I said, there’s no hand-holding, but you are given hints now and then. Scattered throughout Tunic’s world are glowing mystical-looking pages that turn out to be the game’s instruction manual. Presented as though they’re some kind of sacred text, the instruction manual is also written in the same unknowable language as everything else in the game, but there are amazing drawings that help you figure out some of the game’s mechanics. It’ll be up to you to really figure them out, but the presentation really hearkens back to the old days of the NES where you’d have to consult the manual for all the help you could get.

A Real Tail-Blazer

Tunic is as brutal as it is adorable. Your first weapon will be a tree branch, and lemme tell you, it’s as crappy a weapon as it sounds. Still, it’s serviceable, if nothing else, and if you aren’t too reckless, it’ll keep you safe until you can find a real sword. But don’t think the game gets any easier once you’ve gotten a real weapon – the difficulty is just beginning. The bulk of combat will consist of attack, dodging, and blocking. When attacking, you can chain together up to three attacks in a row, though it’s not always wise to do so. You can also dodge, and while you can see yourself kicking up dust on the screen, you are ever-so-briefly invincible – something that will be absolutely indispensable for your trials and tribulations. You’ll also eventually find a shield, which allows you to block most enemy attacks. You can lock on to a specific enemy, which will help you strafe, dodge, and dart in for an attack when an opening presents itself.

Of course, you can’t just dodge around and block as much as you want. You have a stamina bar that will be depleted every time you block a hit or each time you dodge. Should your stamina run out, your movement speed will drastically decrease, you’ll lose the ability to roll out of harm’s way or raise your shield, and you’ll take significantly more damage. Thankfully, you can stock up potions that can be used quickly and easily, and will restore a decent amount of your life meter. Additionally, as you progress through the game, you’ll find ways to increase your attack, defense, stamina, how many potion bottles you can hold at a time, and more.

Think Outside the Fox

While there is plenty of combat to be found, most of your time in Tunic will be spent exploring. Since you’re given very, very little direction, it’s up to you to figure out where you need to go. This will, more likely than not, involve quite a bit of dying. You frequently won’t have the item you need to progress further in a given area, so you’ll have to choose a different place to explore. Don’t feel too bad if you die – I lost count of the number of times I died, honestly, but thankfully, wherever you fall, there will be an “echo” of yourself left behind and you’ll be able to regain some of the money you lost when you died.

The overworld is pleasantly large, which is a good thing, considering how much time you’ll spend trekking across it. The dungeons are, by and large, well-designed, enjoyable, challenging, and infuriating (in a good way!) all at once. Scattered across the map and inside some of the dungeons are statues of a fox that will refill your heart, your magic, and your potion bottles, as well as act as checkpoints when you die (trust me, there’s no “if,” it’s definitely a “when”). The bosses grow increasingly more intense as you progress through the game, and by intense, I mean occasionally so rage-inducing that I considered smashing my Switch on more than one occasion. Still, the push to do better every time was oddly rewarding.

Fight Tooth and Tail to Survive

Tunic is an absolutely gorgeous game. While the Switch version isn’t going to be as crisp and stunning as some of the more powerful consoles, there’s no denying it is beautiful. While Tunic pulls plenty of inspiration from a certain green-tunic-wearing Hero of Time, it is undeniably its own game. From the chunky shrubs you can cut down to the enormous, brutal bosses, everything in this game is lovingly rendered, though it does sadly suffer from some sluggish frame rates during some of the boss fights. Not always, and not drastic, but enough to be noticeable and annoying. The soundtrack is beautiful, though it can start to feel a bit repetitive after a while.

Although I am admittedly just not good at games like Tunic, I still immensely enjoyed my time with it. Tunic is intuitive gameplay at its finest, requiring you to figure things out as you go. You’ll either sink, or you’ll swim, and though I sank far more often than I swam, I still couldn’t get enough of this game. If you need a little Dark Souls with your Zelda, this is one of those games that you don’t want to pass up.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5

Available on: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S; Publisher: Finji; Developer: Andrew Shouldice; Players: 1; Released: September 27th, 2022; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $29.99

Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.