Tunic is an isometric adventure game developed by the Tunic Team and published by Finji. It was released for Windows on March 16, 2022. It features a fox as the main character where you’ll run through various levels finding treasure and pages of a sacred book.
Since Tunic is available on the Xbox Games Pass for Windows 11, I decided to give it a try for this review. There are many stages to complete, and you’ll be busy for several hours trying to finish it. However, there are some frustrating aspects to warn you about, so stay tuned!
Tunic’s fun adventure
When you start playing Tunic, there isn’t much to direct you in the way of a solid plot. You’ll run around, exploring the environment, until you pick up a stick for a weapon. I haven’t really seen any story elements explaining why you’re there and what the ultimate goal is, except for a minor mention in the game’s description.
Be that as it may, let’s take a look at a few elements worth mentioning.
A fox looking for treasure
As mentioned, Tunic presents you as a fox exploring various environments where you’ll discover an assortment of enemies. The primary goal appears to be finding lost treasures, which then give you gems and new items or weapons. If there’s any driving motivation for the fox to find these treasures, the game doesn’t explain it well enough.
Locating manual pages
There’s an object called a sacred book in Tunic. You’ll find pages along the way that works as a manual for the game. It also provides pages of your map, without which the game becomes a confusing maze. Without any proper quests, locating these manual pages is as good as it gets for a mission.
Nothing to keep you going
Sadly, there’s nothing really keeping you going in Tunic’s story. You won’t really receive any massive quests, and nothing motivates you to progress to the next level. There were a few moments when I stopped and wondered where I needed to go next. There’s more exploration and adventure, than narrative.
How long to play Tunic
If you’re brave enough to continue playing Tunic past the first few levels, you can rack up about 17 hours for the main game. You may well want to be a completionist and collect all items, which will take you up to about 20 hours.
Tunic: playing the game
Combat is the primary gameplay element in Tunic. Exploring areas and fighting enemies is what you’ll be doing 80% of the time, while the rest is spent opening treasures and changing weapons. Similar types of games include Zelda Classic and Pikuniku.
Here are the gameplay aspects to consider in this review.
Learning how to play Tunic
There’s no tutorial for Tunic. The best you’ll have is finding the lost pages of the sacred book that shows you how specific actions work. When you need to perform an action, a small icon will appear on the screen showing you which one to press. The rest is up to you.
A different language
What confused me the most was the written language used in the game. I made sure my settings were in English, but for some reason, I was seeing a different language. There was English on occasion, but some signboards were in another language.
It made me wonder if the Xbox Games Pass version was the same as the Steam version. It’s frustrating when you want to know what the controls are or in which direction to head when the game throws strange languages at you. Perhaps it’s how the game was meant to be, or the developers didn’t feel like translating the words.
Weapons and combat
The combat starts as basic as you can get in a game. Take your weapon, head to an enemy, and bash it on the head. Later, you’ll unlock new weapons and abilities that will help you cross new areas. However, don’t expect any combos or fancy kill moves. At least the items do become more interesting to use.
Environmental obstacles
You might be able to see where you need to get to, but that doesn’t mean you can get there easily. Tunic places obstacles in your way to make it more challenging. Part of the puzzle is working out how to get to the new area, which requires exploration. It may need a new key or an alternative route.
Death is not the end
When you die the first time, you’re transported to the spirit world. You can run around until you find a massive female fox figure waiting for you. She touches you for a moment before transporting you back to the world of the living. After that, you won’t really see this sequence of events again.
You’ll need to find your ghost by the last place you died. When you touch it, you’ll receive your gems and items again. There’s also a massive explosion that causes damage to any enemies nearby. It’s a nice touch that I really appreciated.
Minimal interface elements
Tunic presents an interesting user interface, especially if you’re using an Xbox controller on your PC. You’ll see your health in the bottom left corner, but there’s no mini-map to guide you. You’ll see your active weapons in the top right, while there’s a button for your inventory.
Tunic computer requirements
Fortunately, Tunic doesn’t require too many system resources. You can play it on Windows 10 with the following settings:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel i5 Quad-Core, 2.7 GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 660 / RX 460
- Storage: 2 GB available space
Despite the low storage size, there are several hours of gameplay and items to find. The performance is also decent with no lagging.
Tunic visual and sound elements
Finally, I want to touch on the graphics and sound in my Tunic review. If the game shines at all, it’s in this section, mostly for the visuals.
Overall appearance
The game presents an isometric view from the top down, which you’ll find in games like Diablo 3. There are plenty of colors to liven up the display, which are pleasant to behold. It holds up as an exploration game, as you’ll want to investigate every area to see what it looks like.
Character and environmental designs
There are fascinating enemies along the way, each with different designs and fighting styles. It’s clear that the developers put plenty of thought into the visual representation of each creature and item, making them shine on screen. It looks beautiful when playing the game on a television screen, too.
Environmental objects respond when you run through them. The tiny trees sway in the wind while moving slightly when you pass between them. I spent some time hitting some of the objects to see if they would break, as there were no visual clues. However, your character does turn its face towards an item you are able to interact with.
How Tunic sounds
There’s fun music in Tunic to accompany your journey, and you’ll find pleasant sound effects when fighting or from enemies. It’s akin to what you’d hear in JRPG games where there’s no voice acting. Even some of the menu functions have an accompanying sound.
Tunic: Should you download it?
Tunic is an entertaining exploration game to a point. Since I love detailed plots and quests, I’m slightly disappointed at the lack of proper narrative. It also doesn’t help that not all the text is in English. Still, if you’re into casual gaming where you simply want to explore and hit enemies, it’s still worth playing. I recommend trying a demo first or playing it on Xbox Games Pass for free.
To read about games that I enjoyed a lot more, you can check out my Minecraft or Shadow Warrior 3 reviews.
Pros
- Stunning graphics
- Enjoyable sounds
- Weapons become better
- Exploration and puzzles
- Lengthy gameplay
Cons
- Not much of a story
- Nothing propels you toward a quest
- Signs and manuals are sometimes not in English
- No tutorial
- No mini-map
Developer: Tunic Team
Publisher: Finji
Game Modes: Campaign
Platform reviewed: Windows 11 – Xbox Games Pass
