Zelda like a fox [Tunic] (Mark spoilers)

bloodatonement

With the nature of exploration and discovery in Tunic, please be extra careful with spoilers so everyone can experience the journey as organically as they prefer.
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It's like Zelda, but cuter, but with harder enemies, and lots puzzles and secrets, and a nifty game manual.




Obligatory Zelda Souls comic. (It's not really DS hard)

So much to discover. So many "it was right in front of me" moments. So many frustrating deaths.




Lost? Confused? Need a little guidance? Ask away.

Golden Yak

I saw G & T play a few hours of this, it was great. Tempted to check it out myself, I don't want anything that's too hard right now though.

bloodatonement

I wouldn't say it's"too hard" it's "tough but fair"

I played about 30 minutes of Dark Souls and gave up. This is no way that hard. But it can be a challenge, especially bosses.

Jam Warrior

Worth noting that you can turn on no fail combat to just enjoy the puzzle and exploration aspects and those aspects are thoroughly worth doing that for if you’re finding it too tough.

The puzzle aspect of this game is a true masterpiece.

When you work something out that was right in front of you the whole damn time it feels sooooo good.

Dark Raven X

Played a little bit of this at PAX, it was very cute n' seems fun. I love the way his tail swishes when he climbs ladders

Jam Warrior

I never actually got to fight the final boss properly. I tried a few times and decided I wasn’t in the mood for the challenge so carried on with the secret hunt. Then when you have all the secrets needed for the good ending you can’t do the fight! Suited me fine.

Opening the mountain door was a much better final boss for what I was enjoying about the game.

shoeboxjeddy

I enjoyed the game a great deal, but will admit that I tapped out for the end game, extremely esoteric and demanding puzzles. Ones where I have to solve clues to hand draw my own map and then use that to etc, no thanks to all that. Just looked up what to do to finish those parts.

Drascin

I managed to get the Golden Path puzzle with only looking up a couple clues, primarily

what the "Holy Cross" was and where the manual page I was missing was because like hell am I going to manage to find one page in the entire game area

but I am absolutely not going to bother with the 100% completion.

A thing that I found hilarious, though (very large spoilers):

So, you know how the Heir kinda murks you and you come back as a ghost?

Since suddenly everything is dark and stormy, and there's a bunch of bridges and such missing and there's very few enemies if any around in most of the normal areas, and you can suddenly see a bunch of other ghosts of people, I assumed the world had kind of broken or something. Went on, did the whole recover your body quest, obtained some fairies, dide some secrets, did the obvious bad ending fight, kept looking for secrets for this Golden Path thing in the dark world. It seemed weird to me that the broken world had so many *fewer* enemies, though, and it was a bit of a bother because this meant not being able to get money to upgrade my stats and stuff.

And then, while exploring looking for secrets in the first areas, I went into the ruined house at the beginning and interacted with the bed while in the time-honored tradition of looking for secrets by clicking on everything.

And my character slept, and now it was morning, and everything was back to normal, the enemies were back, the sun shone, the ghosts were gone, etcetera.

The world hadn't fallen to ruin...

It was just 2 AM.

Jam Warrior

The golden trophies get into silly full translation territory. They are also not needed for the good ending.

Everything else is perfectly manageable just from contextual inferences in the manual pages.

shoeboxjeddy

Jam Warrior wrote: »

The golden trophies get into silly full translation territory. They are also not needed for the good ending.

Everything else is perfectly manageable just from contextual inferences in the manual pages.

I think it's rough that you get a secret code to tip you off when a secret fairy is nearby, to let you know a puzzle even exists where you are, but no such luck for the golden trophies. Also to those who skipped the final battle, I dunno it was pretty good! The boss' power is daunting, but you have dash for the first time in a boss fight, and it is INCREDIBLE.

bloodatonement

I'm nearing the end. Few questions...(looking for gentle nudges in the right direction)

Doing the secrets hunt. Found a number of hidden chest, but definitely hitting some where I know the chest is there (thanks fairies) but don't know the unlock pattern.

I was making great progress after unlocking dash and learning the holy cross mechanic. But I didn't have time to play for a few days, an be lost momentum. Was there a generic secret reveal pattern, or did each treasure have a unique pattern?
Do I need to translate the strange text?
If so, is there a Rosetta stone somewhere (don't need to know where right now, just wondering if it's out there)? I see some indications of notes for understanding the script, but haven't been able to put it all together yet.

shoeboxjeddy

bloodatonement wrote: »

I'm nearing the end. Few questions...(looking for gentle nudges in the right direction)

Doing the secrets hunt. Found a number of hidden chest, but definitely hitting some where I know the chest is there (thanks fairies) but don't know the unlock pattern.

I was making great progress after unlocking dash and learning the holy cross mechanic. But I didn't have time to play for a few days, an be lost momentum. Was there a generic secret reveal pattern, or did each treasure have a unique pattern?
Do I need to translate the strange text?
If so, is there a Rosetta stone somewhere (don't need to know where right now, just wondering if it's out there)? I see some indications of notes for understanding the script, but haven't been able to put it all together yet.

Every treasure is unique. The code to punch in is revealed by the environment nearby to the chest in some way, some very obvious, some VERY obscure. If you want the fairies necessary to get the manual page, translation is not necessary. If you want all the Golden Treasures for the achievements, it is required to translate, yes.

Jam Warrior

Full translation is really not something the vast majority of players are expected to do. And definitely not from first principals. It’s a really weird structure.

If the fairy spell has guided you somewhere then there’s an environmental cue somewhere nearby for what sequence you need to press.

Frem

I'm still pretty early. I've rung the east bell and was on my way to the west bell. But I think I might have missed something critical and unwittingly embarked on a challenge run.

I see a blue (mana?) bar in the manual, but not on my screen. I see/collect tiny blue orbs when certain enemies die. And these chompignom thingies in the garden are orders of magnitude more difficult to fight than everything else I've encountered. It's so difficult to fight more than one at a time that I feel sure I must be missing something in my toolkit to deal with them. There's an island with three of them I can't get past.

The difficulty was so intense that I backtracked to the southern ruined archive area. I'm pretty sure I'm there a little bit too early too, since everything still hits really hard. But at least I'm able to make progress through the area.

Edit: Actually, everything is fine near the western bell. Only one particularly large enemy remains...

bloodatonement

Frem wrote: »

I'm still pretty early. I've rung the east bell and was on my way to the west bell. But I think I might have missed something critical and unwittingly embarked on a challenge run.

I see a blue (mana?) bar in the manual, but not on my screen. I see/collect tiny blue orbs when certain enemies die. And these chompignom thingies in the garden are orders of magnitude more difficult to fight than everything else I've encountered. It's so difficult to fight more than one at a time that I feel sure I must be missing something in my toolkit to deal with them. There's an island with three of them I can't get past.

The difficulty was so intense that I backtracked to the southern ruined archive area. I'm pretty sure I'm there a little bit too early too, since everything still hits really hard. But at least I'm able to make progress through the area.

Edit: Actually, everything is fine near the western bell. Only one particularly large enemy remains...

No you haven't missed anything that would make things a challenge run. Give it some more time.

Have you been reading your manual?

I'll share my earliest mistake that made my run harder than it needed to be. Could be helpful.

Look on page 18

purchase upgrades at a shrine

bloodatonement

Well I've got myself stuck

Extremely late game

after bad ending.

I went to the Swamp during the day. Came in through the top route from the Over World because there is no ladder down the lower entrance. After zip dashing my way onto the graveyard fence posts, I used a freeze beam on a revolver guy and then hookshoted my way down to ground level. Now I'm stuck on that level and can't find a way back to the upper level to get back to the over world. I can get into the upper Cathedral and can wonder the the Swamp, but can't find a way to exit

On a different note my son started playing after watching me play. Somehow he was able to sequence break and

open the gold door before ringing the west bell

shoeboxjeddy

bloodatonement wrote: »

Well I've got myself stuck

Extremely late game

after bad ending.

I went to the Swamp during the day. Came in through the top route from the Over World because there is no ladder down the lower entrance. After zip dashing my way onto the graveyard fence posts, I used a freeze beam on a revolver guy and then hookshoted my way down to ground level. Now I'm stuck on that level and can't find a way back to the upper level to get back to the over world. I can get into the upper Cathedral and can wonder the the Swamp, but can't find a way to exit

On a different note my son started playing after watching me play. Somehow he was able to sequence break and

open the gold door before ringing the west bell

If you're past the gate (which is closed during the day), there is a ladder in the lower right (go to the closed gate, proceed to the right, but stay near the gate). Eventually there's a ladder. From the ladder, you can dash to gate posts until you get to the one that has a ramp down to the first part of the graveyard.

bloodatonement

shoeboxjeddy wrote: »

bloodatonement wrote: »

Well I've got myself stuck

Extremely late game

after bad ending.

I went to the Swamp during the day. Came in through the top route from the Over World because there is no ladder down the lower entrance. After zip dashing my way onto the graveyard fence posts, I used a freeze beam on a revolver guy and then hookshoted my way down to ground level. Now I'm stuck on that level and can't find a way back to the upper level to get back to the over world. I can get into the upper Cathedral and can wonder the the Swamp, but can't find a way to exit

On a different note my son started playing after watching me play. Somehow he was able to sequence break and

open the gold door before ringing the west bell

If you're past the gate (which is closed during the day), there is a ladder in the lower right (go to the closed gate, proceed to the right, but stay near the gate). Eventually there's a ladder. From the ladder, you can dash to gate posts until you get to the one that has a ramp down to the first part of the graveyard.

But I can't exit from there.

I need to get to the top part of the path in from the Over World. During night there is a ladder, but it's not there during the day.




I was trying to find a way back to this rope, but so far I'm unsuccessful.

shoeboxjeddy

bloodatonement wrote: »

shoeboxjeddy wrote: »

bloodatonement wrote: »

Well I've got myself stuck

Extremely late game

after bad ending.

I went to the Swamp during the day. Came in through the top route from the Over World because there is no ladder down the lower entrance. After zip dashing my way onto the graveyard fence posts, I used a freeze beam on a revolver guy and then hookshoted my way down to ground level. Now I'm stuck on that level and can't find a way back to the upper level to get back to the over world. I can get into the upper Cathedral and can wonder the the Swamp, but can't find a way to exit

On a different note my son started playing after watching me play. Somehow he was able to sequence break and

open the gold door before ringing the west bell

If you're past the gate (which is closed during the day), there is a ladder in the lower right (go to the closed gate, proceed to the right, but stay near the gate). Eventually there's a ladder. From the ladder, you can dash to gate posts until you get to the one that has a ramp down to the first part of the graveyard.

But I can't exit from there.

I need to get to the top part of the path in from the Over World. During night there is a ladder, but it's not there during the day.




I was trying to find a way back to this rope, but so far I'm unsuccessful.

@bloodatonement
In the place of your screenshot,

hold L for a different view. There is a ground path to navigate at the water line. Then you can dash at a certain point to keep moving.

If you meant you wanted to get to a specific point instead of just to leave, I can look at it again.

bloodatonement

Thank you. Don't know how I missed that when I was looking over there last night.

urahonky

Yeah that part is about when I started losing my interest in the game. I ran around that area for 2 hours and couldn't figure it out. And since the game was so new there weren't any youtube videos of people playing through the game.

Krathoon

This is one of those games where it kind of like a puzzle. Kind of like Fez. I don't know if it is as much of a mind screw like Fez.

bloodatonement

Good ending achieved.
Meddling with sequence breaking in NG+, and collectables.

Thoughts

Overall really well done. GOTY '22 (I'm unsure I've played anything else released in '22)
Played mostly blind and it was beautifully unfolding story and gameplay. The manual is a brilliant game mechanic.
Didn't see the twist coming. Was expecting some meta narrative of an absent (off to college/dead/divorced) older sibling or parent.
Solved nearly all puzzles without help, which always felt satisfying.
Had to look up returning to the East Forest, and the spinning light room (cause trying to follow that made my head hurt), and getting out of grave yard.
Collectable chasing after the twist killed the pacing.
Bummed I got the Golden Path spoiled before I got really dug into trying to solve it. (Stupidly clicked on a thread while looking for the way back to the East Forest) That would have been a great Aha moment.
Fairies were not worth the payoff.
Wish you could still free roam after good ending.
Still have 5 achievements not related to treasures, and from watching my son I know at least one is too freeze myself.

shoeboxjeddy

Playstation port in September they just announced.

Sterica

My PC is finally working and I got this on Game Pass and it has consumed me. I wanna just gush on and on but bottom line is that people should check it out.

Sterica

Two dumb things

One: Spoilers for After RGB (if you played enough you should get this)

I tried so much after getting all three keys, the mountain door, the room with the heir in the quick travel room who was just gone, and even dying. I was going to quit and come back later, but then I saw the sword on the title screen and went back to check the one place I had forgotten t was it. So perfect. Feels very intentional.

Two: those doors. You know the ones.

I solved these things, but using the analog stick and never thought to use the “holy cross” which makes me feel so stupid. I figured the diamonds where you start would represent the stick pads.

Bogart

This finally came out on PS so I picked it up. It's fantastic, a mix of Zelda, Fez and whatever Soulslike game you care to mention. Made it to the boss in the West Garden after about three delightful hours then had to go to bed.

Managed to miss practically every vital item necessary for each part for ages before stumbling across them. Tried to kill the guard captain many times with the stick, which was dumb. Tried to explore under the well without the shield, which was dumb, and went into the dark tomb without the lantern, which capped it all. All eventually sorted out.

Also it took the longest time to figure out that just holding the tooth and little fox idol didn't make me stronger and I had to sacrifice them at a bonfire. I mean I know it's inspired in part by Souls games but my brain didn't click that levelling up would happen at a bonfire and I didn't read the instructions closely enough.

Maytag

Does anybody know how the Switch performance is? I'd rather get it there if it runs well.

Jam Warrior

I don’t have first hand experience, but this review seems fairly comprehensive:

Comparing the Switch version graphics to my Xbox One S-version of the game made the consolidations that were made for this version seem very minimal. The framerate is a consistent 30 fps in both handheld and docked mode. The one downside is that you’ll often have to deal with slightly long loading screens when moving between regions or locations. On the visual aspect the game holds up fairly well compared to the xbox one s-version of the game. A noticeable difference is the ambient occlusion, which is of a significantly lower sample quality. This means you get a lot of flickering artifacts in corners and in pockets of shade around bushes out in the overworld. If you ask me, Switch owners have nothing to fear by playing Tunic on their consoles. Is it the best version of this game? Definitely not, but it runs like a charm and can be enjoyed on the go without too much of an issue.

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/61563/tunic-switch-review

Bogart

Ok it’s starting to come together a bit more now that I’ve discovered

meditating does all kinds of good shit in lots of different places.

jothki

Jam Warrior wrote: »

I don’t have first hand experience, but this review seems fairly comprehensive:

Comparing the Switch version graphics to my Xbox One S-version of the game made the consolidations that were made for this version seem very minimal. The framerate is a consistent 30 fps in both handheld and docked mode. The one downside is that you’ll often have to deal with slightly long loading screens when moving between regions or locations. On the visual aspect the game holds up fairly well compared to the xbox one s-version of the game. A noticeable difference is the ambient occlusion, which is of a significantly lower sample quality. This means you get a lot of flickering artifacts in corners and in pockets of shade around bushes out in the overworld. If you ask me, Switch owners have nothing to fear by playing Tunic on their consoles. Is it the best version of this game? Definitely not, but it runs like a charm and can be enjoyed on the go without too much of an issue.

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/61563/tunic-switch-review

My concern myself isn't whether it's playable, it's whether it's solvable. From what I've seen, being able to freely cut and paste into an image editor is extremely useful.

Marek

It's still solvable. I finished it on Xbox Game Pass. Actually had fun using pen and paper for something.

Sterica

Still holds fast as my GOTY

Bogart

The only thing I'm not 100% on is the bosses. The west garden boss was juuuust right in terms of challenge. The next two I've encountered (neither of which I've killed) aren't great.

Dude with the glowing ballsack you've got to hit is very tedious. Got him down to almost dead first time by just strafing and occasionally hitting his nads but it was a long, boring fight ended by a glowing ball blowing me up while I was under him and the camera was giving me no clue what was happening.

Dude on top of the sky tower is a bit better but again becomes a chore because you just have to keep lassoing them and then hitting them fifty times and it's a big yawn, but also takes a decent amount of time.

The west garden boss was much better - two attacks then three, then one of his attacks gains an extension and you learn the cues for each one and how to avoid them and then you've beaten him! Tense, fun, perfect boss battle.

Jam Warrior

jothki wrote: »

Jam Warrior wrote: »

I don’t have first hand experience, but this review seems fairly comprehensive:

Comparing the Switch version graphics to my Xbox One S-version of the game made the consolidations that were made for this version seem very minimal. The framerate is a consistent 30 fps in both handheld and docked mode. The one downside is that you’ll often have to deal with slightly long loading screens when moving between regions or locations. On the visual aspect the game holds up fairly well compared to the xbox one s-version of the game. A noticeable difference is the ambient occlusion, which is of a significantly lower sample quality. This means you get a lot of flickering artifacts in corners and in pockets of shade around bushes out in the overworld. If you ask me, Switch owners have nothing to fear by playing Tunic on their consoles. Is it the best version of this game? Definitely not, but it runs like a charm and can be enjoyed on the go without too much of an issue.

https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/61563/tunic-switch-review

My concern myself isn't whether it's playable, it's whether it's solvable. From what I've seen, being able to freely cut and paste into an image editor is extremely useful.

Totally not needed. Jotting down a few paper notes is fine.

Jam Warrior

Bogart wrote: »

The only thing I'm not 100% on is the bosses. The west garden boss was juuuust right in terms of challenge. The next two I've encountered (neither of which I've killed) aren't great.

Dude with the glowing ballsack you've got to hit is very tedious. Got him down to almost dead first time by just strafing and occasionally hitting his nads but it was a long, boring fight ended by a glowing ball blowing me up while I was under him and the camera was giving me no clue what was happening.

Dude on top of the sky tower is a bit better but again becomes a chore because you just have to keep lassoing them and then hitting them fifty times and it's a big yawn, but also takes a decent amount of time.

The west garden boss was much better - two attacks then three, then one of his attacks gains an extension and you learn the cues for each one and how to avoid them and then you've beaten him! Tense, fun, perfect boss battle.

Bosses are indeed too much IMO. There is a simple options toggle to become immortal, crude an answer thought that is.

Final boss spoiler:

I never beat him. To be honest I never even made a real attempt to fight him because the good ending doesn't require it!

King Riptor

Honestly even with immortality on the puzzles are very challenging.

Bogart

I think I’m at the end boss but it looks like there’s a fair amount left to explore as well. Found a few of the

Hidden treasures but aside from figuring out the code for the Cardinal directions I’m no closer to deciphering the language itself. Opened the grey doors when I’ve found them, freed a fairy, opened almost every chest I’ve seen.

I might be at the point where the difficulty of the remaining puzzles and the necessity of backtracking everywhere outpaces my interest in solving them.

But still, a fantastic little game. All the more impressive for being the work of basically one guy.

Jam Warrior

I am 99% confident in stating you will never figure out proper translation of the language yourself. It's something for most people to look up after finishing the game and marvel that anybody ever did figure it out. It's not needed for anything other than a few of the golden treasures that do nothing other than give you an achievement.

It's definitely not needed for what you need to do for the good ending.

If you want a hint for what you should be working on, look at the below spoilered manual page number.

47/48

Bogart

Figured out the

Golden Path. A couple of the squares baffled me, so I looked them up (9 and 12 - one of which was just what and the other seemed to operate on different rules to everything else - the golden lines aren't what you should be looking at on that one page, but the blue lines inside the golden square). I'm up to about 6 hidden treasures and half the fairies, and I think I'm done.

Terrific game, though some of the puzzles were located just beyond my patience for trekking about and trying different things, and deciphering the language is just: no.

tessarji

Jam Warrior wrote: »

I am 99% confident in stating you will never figure out proper translation of the language yourself.

I mean come on, it's not that far out there. I had a free evening and worked out the whole thing in about 3 hours, there are many many hints spread out to guide you to the right path. If you have any interest in cryptography or puzzles you should at least give it a go before looking everything up, it's certainly a fun bonus goal!