izigame.me

This game is best experienced with as little prior knowledge possible so it's hard to write a review for so I'll just spoiler everything and hopefully convince you to buy it before you get to the end (And if you already played it, listen to me talk about why it's one of the best games).
☆ Zelda-like. Imo, if any game ever got the feeling Link's Awakening was going for, it's this one. I'd argue it even does it better. Not only do you wake up on a strange island with no bearings , to add to this feeling you can't even read most of the text within the game. The only thing you can even do a lot of the time is wander aimlessly with nothing more than the feeling that you're probably doing what you're supposed to. As you progress, things become more and more surreal. You find pages of an NES style instruction booklet of the game's mechanics that you have to slowly try to understand because when I said you couldn't read most of the text, that includes this. And as you piece together the mechanics of the game, the mechanics of the world and its artificiality become clearer. It adds an unsettling feeling to an otherwise inviting world. So you're stuck in this world where you're constantly unsure and looking for answers and secrets while never really knowing why you're doing it in the first place. While playing, I would often think "what would I do here if this was a Zelda game?" and when what I thought of worked, it felt like I was being rewarded for having a shared interest with the developers.

☆ Puzzles. The game has great puzzles. If you've enjoyed The Witness then you'll probably like Tunic. Like The Witness, the game doesn't tell you much upfront but there is a lot to discover. The more you play, you begin to realize how many puzzles have been staring directly at you the whole time, you just didn't realize it until you get on the same brain-wavelength as the game. Even a lot of the game's mechanics are left to you to figure out with just a few hints scattered around. I watched a friend play the game and discover things I never knew about and solve problems in completely different ways. It feels like you're only given the bare minimum information but there's actually clues everywhere, it just depends on how you think that determines which ones you see. And by the end you realize just how much power you've had since the beginning of the game. What looked like a linear path was actually a completely open world.
☆ It is what it is. The game can be very challenging if you want it to be. I'm told the game's combat is similar to a small indie game called Dark Souls? Never, played it myself but I hear people like it. That said, it's also completely optional. You can play without upgrade for an extra challenge , Modify the combat in the accessibility settings, or turn it off. If you turn on "No Fail Mode", you can just sit back and solve the puzzles. That being said...
☆ It is what it is? If you want to just play the game like an open world where you can fight enemies until you reach the boss to fight then you can kind of just do that too I guess. I have no idea why you would want to do that but you're the type of person that really wants to play puzzle games but wishes they didn't have any of those puzzles, then you can turn off pretty much every puzzle in the accessibility settings as well. Turning off all puzzles and combat is also an option if you want to experience the game without actually having to play it. Is there a "right" way to play Tunic? I don't think so. Is there a wrong way? It really seems like the developers don't think so.
☆ The Style . I generally believe that in almost any case, a hand drawn 2D version could look better then any 3D modeled version. Tunic is not one of these cases. Everything from the models, to the animations, to how they interact with you as the player was crafted perfectly. Graphics expire, but art direction is timeless. There's so much charm in the way the tall grass bounces as you run through it or as the bushes bounce away when you cut them. All the way down to the smallest detail, it all builds to an extremely pleasing aesthetic. But the cute is always just offset enough to build an atmospheric feeling that something isn't right. And it rides that line perfectly between inviting and somber, fantastical and futuristic, epic and silly. But the game never tells you what it is so anything it surprises you with something out of left field, it can't be "wrong". Everything you thought it was, was your own projection of what you thought the game was. Even the way the camera moves adds to the specific charm of the game. Something about being able to pan around a corner to reveal what's behind it feels jarring due to its isometric nature and style of top down adventure games. Being able to go behind so much of the foreground where you can't even see yourself anymore adds to it feeling artificial. And when the camera pans to reveal a shortcut that circles back to where you started, it almost feels like the developers are acknowledging you and messing with you at the same time. It's great! The game kind of cycles between being a fun adventure, hinting at a darker theme, and then reminding you not to take it too seriously.
And as you come to understand the game as a metanarrative, you start to see the game for what it is. It's really just a game. An epic adventure with unfathomable technology, a cute story in an unsettling world with an incomprehensible history, and just a game. A game between you and the developers who put so much time, effort, a part of their lives into it. It's a conversation with no words. A game in a language you can't read. A review mostly hidden by spoiler text. The only way you have to communicate is vague and unlikely to be seen. And I'm really happy I saw it.