So I needed something to cleanse the palate after 100,000 hands of Balatro and this did the trick nicely. Beat the game in 10 hours-ish and now going back to find all manual pages.

Stuff I really liked: The manual of course. Its so goddam cute, and a nice way to give hints and maps to the player. The music is superb, with some absolutely gorgeous tracks (between this and Cocoon, we're in a great era for indie soundtracks). I like how it rewards the player for exploring every inch of the maps, as secret rooms are often out of sight and obscured.

Stuff that was ok: graphics are nice, but not jaw dropping. Combat is basically Dark Souls-Lite, you got attack, dodge and then items and magic to use. Pretty basic, but serviceable. The game is pretty hard, and you will get more than a few very cheap deaths because the combat is not refined enough, and also the camera is too pulled back for really precise combat. Level design is ok, and the way the maps all connect is cool (and once again very Souls).

Stuff that got old, fast: cheap combat deaths, annoying enemies. Bosses are pretty hard, but mostly because of how spongy they are and how easy it is to get hit because of the imprecise controls and camera not being close enough to the action. Backtracking and not knowing where to go next. The manual gives you just enough hints, but man there is so much random wandering around and backtracking through areas, over and over again. Constantly pulling up the manual to check the maps to see where to go, just to get to the fast travel nexus area, to get to another area, just on the off chance there is some treasure or some room that wasn't accessible the first time through, but now with new abilities might be.....yeah that aspect of the game is tedious and boring.

With its Zelda inspired aesthetic and Dark Souls mechanics, this was a lot of fun. I like how getting the manual pages are so important, because without them you are basically wandering blindly through this world. Cute graphics, great music. Really good game, and with a few tweaks could have been a classic.

Edit: an extra 5 or so hours to get the Plat. The puzzles you need to decipher to get the secret treasures and fairies, not to mention getting all the manual pages and opening that friggin' mountain door tho.....ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. Took me about 5 hours using online guides, without those it would have been about 50 hours, if I could have done it at all. Really obscure crazy "how the fuck did anyone work this out?" kind of logic. That input to open the mountain door is just bananas on its own. I kinda respect it, but at the same time, I don't wanna have to use guides to work this shit out. If anyone got the Plat without using a guide or getting any help, I call bullshit.

I come away from TUNIC feeling a bit sour that it wasn't exactly what I was hoping it would be. Or what I expected it to be based on the opinions of others. The combat and world exploration just don't do it for me, but they are held up by some really enjoyable puzzle-solving and the incredible use of the in-game instruction booklet.

For being a game so many compared to Zelda 1, it shines its brightest when it wants the player to do one of the activities that personally helped me the most during Zelda 1: taking actual notes with pen and paper.

(more in-depth review on my neocities)

My friend said he was going to buy me Balan Wonderworld but hit me with this instead, so if it's a trick or a pleasant surprise that's for you to decide.

Tunic has some really interesting ideas that, should you dare go for completion, will really demand you work your brain for it. I think the Instruction Manual is a brilliant concept that cutely made and several times as I flipped through it I thought "damn, they're probably selling this for money they'd make a killing". I got the standard ending because eventually the demand for guessing what you input at the secret input spots for so many puzzles got too much for me (I likely would have been more interested had I known earlier, but I only found out near the end of the game). Mid-Late game collecting the keys and the dungeon after was where it peaked for me, unraveling more of the world as I explore and clear dungeons, now that's my kinda game.

I also think the bosses are pretty fun, the Librarian getting a special shoutout. Some bosses like the final boss and Scavanger Boss can get stuck in a loop trying to dodge as they're against the wall which lets you combo a good amount before they get unstuck. Combat is all around solid although not knowing what items did kept me from experimenting with a few of them.

If you have a giga brain (or a cheater but that goes against the spirit of the game) you'll enjoy the puzzles, if you have an average brain like me I think going for the standard ending is sufficient enough, even if the endings felt a little simple. Better than Balan most likely as I can see me genuinely recommending this to some people.

I played this through, not knowing what to expect other than it's supposed to be "like Zelda." After 100 %ing, I laughed. It is so much more. This game is a Souls-lite combined with the original Zelda exploration and knowledge-based progression. This game is one you will want to go in blind; the less you know, the better. And those who know about that one door, well done and LET'S GO!

I came back to this game sometime after 100%ing it and realized I missed stuff in the game. Even then, they have more than 100%. Crazy!

The sense of ohh and ahh in this game was pretty damn solid. Really cool idea of grabbing instruction pages and see how your perspective shifts on certain things so you can explore new paths.

Was hard for me combat wise so im thankful for the god mode. Puzzles really upped at the end which kinda threw me off.

Pretty fun tho overall!

Veeery enjoyable game with innovative mechanics. Isometric, Zelda inspired fighting and exploration game but identifies more as a puzzle game through its core mechanic of putting together the game's cryptic manual by finding its pages in the world.
Towards the end some optional puzzles give it the extra spice.

Weird difficulty spike and fighting a little sluggish. In that regard Death's Door takes the crown. Can be played in No-Fail and easy fighting modes though for the moments you want to focus on the other aspects more.