Tunic – test, action-adventure

One man development?

Andrew “Dicey” Shouldice is a Halifax-based developer who has been building his own dream game since 2015: inspired by The Legend of Zelda and fueled by the idea of ​​making a game that feels like a kid explore a strange world in which an exciting secret hides behind every corner. Secret Legend, as the project was initially called, became Tunic in 2017, and another year later the title entered the widest possible stage for the first time: At E3, Microsoft put it in the limelight for a brief moment as an up-and-coming indie game for the Xbox platform. Shouldice, who has worked alone on the title so far, is getting attention and soon some reinforcements. A helping hand takes care of the music, plus there are people who assist in designing the levels and fine-tuning; In addition, Finji, the publishing label of canabalt inventor Adam Saltsman, is joined by a sales partner. Nevertheless, it still takes almost four years from the cute E3 demo to the finished game – sometimes it’s even really quiet about the project, so that some vulpophiles are seriously worried about the future of the fox Zelda.

But that was ultimately unfounded: Tunic is finished, available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC, technically polished to a high gloss and also a really fine piece of software in terms of content. But first things first: The isometric perspective alone, the green cloak and the fight with sword and shield are of course obvious parallels to the Zelda series – especially the 16-bit legend A Link to the Past or the recent remake Link’s Awakening come to mind when you see the adventurer fox scurrying through the game world between cute little trees. Anyone who has carefully combed through the gaming landscape over the last year will also be reminded of the fantastic Death’s Door. Because Tunic succeeds in the feat of being just as pretty, lovingly detailed and technically spotless in its very own way as that adventure of 2021, which we were only too happy to pin our gold award to its feathered chest. tldr: If you like Zelda or Death’s Door, then Tunic is a must for you.

Indiana Fox

The actual principle of the game is therefore well known: fox darts through forests and meadows, climbs temples and mountains, fights on beaches and in the sewers and explores dim high-tech caves or spirit worlds that shine in glaring light. The anthropomorphic hero dashes faster at the push of a button, dives off track (at the expense of a stamina bar) and goes on the offensive with his sword: As with Link, there are no complex combat maneuvers, our steppe here can’t even do a charging attack. To do this, he collects clever (sorry!) extra weapons and items during the course of the game: you use a magic wand to elegantly shoot flying enemies out of the sky, and a shotgun can be used to treat bigger chunks.

The grappling hook is particularly practical: it lets you dash elegantly to anchor points in the game world, but it also turns out to be an indispensable tool in battle to pull enemies into the abyss or to pry open their cover. Hook, magic shot, shotgun or ice attack nibble at Fox’s magic bar, which you fill with blue crumbs that some enemies leave behind, or throw in a potion. And after every death, it is filled to the brim again, as is logically the life bar. This does not apply to consumables such as dynamite, decoy dummy or ice bomb – so only use these gadgets in hard fights when you have a good run and a chance to survive the duel. Otherwise you’ll fall into the old Gradius trap: Boss failed? Then try again – only without all the extra weapons!