Review: Tunic explained to parents

Tunic cover Ecran partage

What parents need to know

In Tunic, you play as an anonymous little fox who goes on an adventure in a mysterious world, for equally mysterious reasons.

Why so much mystery? Because Tunic doesn’t offer instructions, voluntarily. As you explore, you’ll find pages from the game’s instruction manual scattered here and there. These pages, beautifully illustrated, are nevertheless written in an invented language, with only a few words translated into our language.

The game will remind veterans of the very first Zelda, which were stingy with instructions and explanations, leaving players with the pleasure of exploring and discovering the world on their own. The game system is also similar. With isometric shooting, we attack enemies with our sword or using objects that we collect over the course of the adventure and that also allow us to explore areas that were previously inaccessible.

Combat, puzzle, exploration; The recipe for a classic adventure game is here!

Details

Release date: 16 March 2022
Developer: Andrew Shouldice
Publisher: Finji
Available on: Steam PC, Steam Mac, Epic Games Store PC, Epic Games Store Mac, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Available format: Digital
Version tested: Xbox Series

Game genre: Action-adventure
Themes covered: Fantasy
Duration of a game: 1h
Duration of the main game/story: 13h
Total time to complete everything: 20h

Text languages: German, English, Simplified chinese, Traditional chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian,
Voice languages: No voice

Number of local players: 1

Level of experience required

Age 3+ 7+ 12+ 16+ 18+
Beginners
Intermediate
Experienced

Evaluation

Some small enemy creatures have monstrous but cartoonish appearances. Arachnophobes may have a bad time because a few monsters come in the form of spiders, but otherwise, Tunic is not a game designed to scare players.

No content of a sexual nature.

Tunic Image 2 Screen Sharing

The required reading level is really very low. The instruction manual is written in an invented language, apart from a few words translated into the player’s language that can give valuable clues.

Tunic Image 1 Screen Share

Tunic’s story is deliberately difficult to understand; We must try to make sense of history by observing the environments around us.

That being said, the story hidden behind the clues (we will not reveal the meaning of the story to avoid spoiling the pleasure of discovering it) presents our protagonist in a rather positive light.

Tunic can be very, very difficult. Enemies, especially bosses, are tough, and require recognition of their attack patterns. Even lowering the level of difficulty, the challenge remains daunting. The level of execution required by the controller is also high.

The time that passes before we cross a new save point is sometimes long, which can force us to redo long game sequences.

We therefore do not recommend this game to beginners or those who are easily frustrated by the difficulty.

On achète le jeu qu'une seule fois.

No extra cost!

Local game modes

The single-player mode asks us to complete Tunic’s story.

Online Game Modes

None.

Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)

None.

Our opinion

Let’s say it right away: Tunic is a success. Developed solo by Canadian Andrew Shouldice, you’d swear Tunic was developed by a large team of experienced developers.

The visual style is breathtaking, with dynamic lighting that brings this diorama-like world to life, the fox protagonist is cute at will, and above all, the controls respond well, and make the fights, all in all simple, dynamic and engaging.

The great originality of Tunic, however, is the thick fog of mystery that surrounds the game world. Players who grew up in French-speaking Quebec in the 90s and 2000s, where games were rarely or never translated into French, will recognize the feeling of playing a game whose text and instructions we did not understand, except for a few words here and there.

However, this mystery can be a strength as well as a weakness depending on the temperament of the players. Tunic is very stingy with instructions, and an adventure that would take less than 10 hours to complete can easily take double that because you’ll spend hours exploring looking for the next place you should go.

You should also know that the level of difficulty is very tough. Even choosing the easy option for fighting, enemies will give you a hard time.

These two elements can create a lot of frustration for players who are not endowed with much patience.

But for others, Tunic is a little gem that will undoubtedly make you nostalgic for the games of your childhood, or that will create indelible memories if you are newcomers to this hobby.

Our rating : 18 / 20

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