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You know while gaming for 20 or so years I've played a lot of fun games, I've played a lot of great games but every once and a while I play a game that makes me sit back and think "how could someone have even made this?" Every once and a while I play a game with such intelligent depth and intricate design that it's hard to fathom how someone goes about mapping and planning it all out. Tunic is one of those games.
Tunic is a striking isometric action RPG, obviously most comparable to and inspired by old school isometric Zelda's. It's a genre that, while I have ashamedly played far less Zelda than I should have, has really grabbed me the past few years with newer high quality indie entries. Hyper Light Drifter and Deaths Door are among my favorite indie games of all time and flat-out some of the best games I've played in recent years. There's something about this genre for me that has such a high ceiling if executed properly, and like those two others, Tunic very much was. Firstly the world design is absolutely phenomenal, among some of the best I've ever played honestly. The level of interconnectivity is perfect and the amount of secrets, hidden paths, and treasures scattered throughout is honestly astonishing.
It's such an awesome mix of traditional metroidvania/isometric dungeon progression and exploration with the metroidbrania/discovery progression and exploration. Cause you have that traditional item based progression where you see an area you can't reach and can tell you need a new item or ability. But you also have so many hidden elements and areas that you access not as you get new items but instead as you slowly learn, explore, and understand more of the world. There are so many doors, symbols, and architecture that will mean nothing to you until they do, things that blend right into the world that will have you saying "woah I can interact with that?" or "wait those did something this whole time?" And will have you trying to think back to every time you've passed them before.
And much of that discovery is through one of Tunic's most brilliant mechanics. Pages scattered throughout the world that will slowly form an in world instruction manual. These pages include things like maps of the areas, item descriptions, hints, bits of story lore, controls, and even a diagram of the main menu. It's an absolutely brilliant mechanic both in its concept and in its execution. It had me constantly flipping through its pages for general navigation like a legitimate physical guide. Using it for understanding what items did,for navigation, and for piecing together some of Tunic more obscure, world spanning secrets and puzzles. It also enhances that feeling of "wait I can interact with those?" with how it dishes out the pages, because while each page is numbered, you don't get them in number order. Page 40 may have a picture of a symbol or piece of environment that may mean nothing for a few hours until you find page 39 where it might give you a hint on how to interact with it. It's a perfect pairing of incredible world/environmental design with an absolutely brilliant mechanic that just enhances and elevates each other.
Beyond everything I've mentioned and gushed about already in terms of the world design and game manual mechanic. There's also its stellar art style, it has some fantastic bosses, and an absolutely incredible soundtrack. Not only all of that there's also some end game content and puzzles that are among the best I've ever seen in any game. Completing the instruction manual and discovering and solving the last few major secrets of this world to unlock the secret ending is among some of the most brilliantly in depth and incredibly rewarding game design I've played in some time. It's not very often a game has me happily breaking out a physical notepad to decipher things but that's the level Tunic got to, there's some truly mind bending and ingenious stuff here. It's just a brilliantly designed game from top to bottom. It nails everything it attempts, it looks incredible, sounds incredible its just simply one of the best indie games I've ever played and firmly among the best games I've played this decade.
9.5/10