The presentation of Tunic is unassuming, initially looking like yet another flat-stylized medium-sized indie game (see: VR games), but slowly I realized that it's not "just another", but is extremely intricately designed where every little detail that does exist does matter. It's masterful in art direction and sound design, quickly rolling its way into my favorite soundtracks as well.

I'll split gameplay up into two distinct sections here as many do, but I want to clarify now that this is as deliberate from me as it is from the game.

Combat-wise it's somewhere between any Zelda or Souls, feeling more like the former with some mechanics of the latter (stamina management etc.); actual encounter design is pretty firmly in the middle, at first feeling very much akin to something like Link's Awakening but evolving into something a bit meaner and a lot more thoughtful like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. (further elaboration in log notes, those will contain outright spoilers for mechanics just forewarning) This is one thing I've seen begroaned fairly often and I just don't get why? It's honestly pretty solid and opens up a lot as the game keeps going, though by the back half it then becomes kind of irrelevant; which, not to sound all "just trust me" but it becoming basically irrelevant is not at all a bad thing, it's just not the focus anymore, and I'd be willing to bet it was a deliberate metanarrative decision to reinforce this next segment. Before that though, worth noting that somewhat recently(?) they added better accessibility options in regards to difficulty; before it was basically default or god mode, but I think 2D Zelda fans refusing to level with Tunic will be happy they got their wish with the infinite stamina option. (In all seriousness, settings like these are great)

If you look at my log dates, you'll see I started Tunic over a year prior to what I'd consider my actual playthrough from Nov. 12th-16th, because frankly I find most puzzle games to be daunting. Not because I think I'm incapable of solving them, I eventually will for most things aimed at general audiences, but because I can never really escape feeling anxious around them. Tunic was different though, its navigational puzzles were always welcoming to get into and felt like natural evolutions. But I knew there was more, the entire language (which is no mere alphabet swap), the drip feeding of some key word info. Truthfully, I had hints at about 4 points, but like 3 of those were me somehow missing a manual page in plain sight like 10 hours ago and a friend chiming in where it was. I felt very out of my depth at the beginning, but once things started to click, it kept rolling and was exciting; frustrating at times, but nothing some deep breaths and short breaks didn't bring me back around to fixing.

My favorite part of the game though, enough to make stingy ol' me want to break a habit or beg for a bday present, is the in-game manual. The manual is an absolute masterstroke of game design and I refuse to elaborate further. I cannot stress how utterly incredible it is, made with such care by itself that most games blush at the task of detailing something so much while also giving it so much purpose. I wish I had a physical copy of the manual.

And now we reach the point where I feel talking about things much further would be too spoilery, and I had to keep things vague in other areas I normally wouldn't like doing in so as not to ruin the mystique entirely. Maybe just an excuse, I don't know; I feel Tunic deserves more words, though. It has this absolutely unparalleled sense of exploration and discovery, which will likely take even the most experienced puzzle game enjoyers by surprise. Barring only a couple puzzles that lack even a clue to their solution aside from "that one thing you forgot you could try 10 hours ago", the rest of them hit it out of the park and the game punched surprisingly well thematically for me.

One last thing, HLTB clocking in "12 hours" makes me mad and people who've completed the game will know why... They will never experience transcendence...

In one word: Knowledge.

Favorite tracks (3 hour long album btw, awesome.)
Redwood Colonnade
This Is The Wrong Way
Crouch Walker
Snowmelt
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"Hmm? Ah, hello there. Come down to explore these beautiful old ruins? Don't mind me.
I've a fondness for exploring myself. Getting lost and finding your way again is a pleasure like no other. We're exquisitely lucky, you and I." ❤️

Throughout my journey in Hallownest it felt as though a timetraveler went back to write the game to specifically mock me at several points, to terrify and sadden me at others; something I can't say I expected to feel from Hollow Knight, but the game has multiple moments instilling every type of emotion in me within a world so full of death with life that persists in decay. There's a nearly overwhelming sense of melancholy to nearly everyone and how they conduct themselves, but they all handle it differently. Some seem blissfully unaware, but even the seemingly arrogant and naive Zote has a deeper motivation buried in his being beyond fame and glory.
I simply adore the writing and attention to detail, Elderbug at the beginning of the game for example has 3 different greetings depending on if: 1) you greet him immediately, 2) you walk past him and come back, or 3) you walk past him, enter the well, then come back. He's far from the only example of this, the game is utterly chock full of flavor text and worldbuilding in such an unobtrusive way that I'd wager the casual gamer who isn't an autist like me who tries to exhaust every dialogue exchange will end up missing 2/3 of it. I find that absolutely incredible, and as far as any game goes I've only seen this level of care put into every minute detail rivaled by Supergiant's Hades.

Mechanically speaking this is perhaps the simplest part to talk about, but let me get it out of the way: The start is SLOW. Like, REALLY slow. It's not the slowest I've ever played but it's almost zen-like in its pacing for the first few hours until you find the dash ability and not too long after the walljump. Everything else is anything but slow though, for what I can only describe as MegaMan X/NES platformer kind of movement where your momentum is (practically) fixed pace and jump height is dictated extremely granularly by how long you hold the jump button. The act of exploration, uncovering more of the map, finding new or recurring characters is always exciting; it's a little bewildering just how massive the map is yet it's navigable with a fairly sparse quick travel system.
One system I'd like to highlight in particular though because it seems to be a weird point of contention is the Shade. Upon death, you leave a "Shade", which contains all of the Geo (the game's currency) you had on your person similar to bloodstains in the Souls games; difference here is you must attack it to absorb it. Again, similarly, if you die before doing so that money is just gone. I've seen a number of people complain about this but despite losing nearly 2k(!!) at one point it never really bothered me, because secretly this game keeps handing out items you can sell for 200, 400, 800, even 1000 geo to a vendor you meet at the halfway point (when geo starts to become relevant at all). I personally do not understand the frustration with this system, it's far less important than in something like Dark Souls which I know y'all love and the game periodically hands out a way to bypass having to manually collect it anyways (once per use, but by the end of the game I had 15~ of these lol). It incentivizes me to think about how I'm picking my wallet back up once in a while which is more than I can say about mashing X (Sony) while sprinting over a funny puddle. Even Zote knows better.
The combat is snappy and tight, very clearly designed around the instantaneous or otherwise fixed-distance movements; in a similar vein of dismissiveness I see nobody mentioning how you can adjust your playstyle dramatically through the use of Charms, if you want to be a spell-spamming glass cannon there's nothing stopping you and it's perfectly viable. Bosses are almost all excellent, with the finale being one of my favorite in any video game. (spoilers) "GIT GUD!"

Artistically probably one of my all-time favorites, in every department. I will say though, I became progressively upset in the latter half with each new area I found--BECAUSE Y'ALL KEPT TELLING ME THEY LOOKED THE SAME?? THEY LITERALLY DON'T?! THEY'RE DIVERSE AND BEAUTIFUL IN BOTH TRADITIONAL AND HAUNTING WAYS??? Seriously what the fuck!!! Game has a callout for this seemingly LOL
Real talk though it's incredble how cohesive the art direction is while still maintaining clear identities of each region. I have no problem distinguishing, without opening the full map, (minor spoilers start) that I'm at for example Greenpath, Fungal Waste, or Fog Canyon (minor spoilers end) despite these looking vaguely similar and all in approximately the same area. I also have no problem distinguishing the "edges" (no way to be more specific without giving away one of the coolest parts of the entire game imo). On a far more personal level I adore the character designs for the sole reason that they are simple yet extremely identifiable, which makes them encouraging to want to draw myself!

I want to put in so many different quotes from the residents of Hallownest, but if I put in the ones I "liked" I could fill out three more of these reviews. I opened with the one I did because I think it most accurately reflects my main joy in the game, or tied at least; I also just think that the game brilliantly shows all the different outlooks on the same circumstances people can have. My depression is not the same as yours, we have different struggles even if we potentially have the same trauma. It's as confounding as it is beautiful, right? Maybe... I don't know how to eloquently close that. The music and art and writing all come together to aid in that perfectly. I could have ended my playthrough 15~ hours earlier than I did, but I chose to delve deeper into the game and that only made it better as I learned more about each characters, their plights, their relationships and bringing the gay couple together.

In a world a world where every AAA studio is racing to see who can fit the most absurd amount of filler sidequests per dollar, even going so far as to start pondering the use of rancid A.I. tools to inflate this even more, (archive link), it's hard to see Hollow Knight as anything less than incredible.

One more.

...One more.

...Just one more.

...

In one word: Remain.