TUNIC

[h1] TL;dr: I highly recommend Tunic if you meet the below criteria. If you like puzzles and can muster through the souls combat (or turn it off in the Accessibility settings) this game is for you! [/h1] Tunic is a very unique experience that combines Soulslike combat, the Zelda franchise's exploration, and some deviously cryptic puzzles. It could be said that discovering everything in the game is in itself a puzzle. From the moment you begin, you know nothing about the world other than the fact that there are monsters that can end you in a few hits. You come across text on a sign that is in no language you've ever seen before, and suddenly you feel like a kid who can't read playing A Link To The Past for the first time. You come across a white square on the ground. A prompt that you can't read appears. You select one of two options and it appears to be a page from the game's manual and you realize you've just found the first major breadcrumb that finally tells you something about what you're meant to do in this world. For the first time in years, decades even, the game makes you actually use your brain. There is no AAA tutorial. You have to figure out everything. So generally knowing how the game begins, you have to decide the following question: [h2] Should you play Tunic? Is it right for you? [/h2] [h3] Well, do you like puzzles? [/h3] No matter how cryptic and perplexing, are you drawn to thinking about it for hours and hours? Are you willing to make some drawings and take notes? Do you like theorizing about trying new things when you can play the game again? Do you like thinking about a game's lore and how it relates to everything you are doing? Being a Zelda fan, having played the Witness last year, and having grown up with SNES and N64 games that also don't tell you anything, I felt like Tunic's puzzles were a natural step up, and they exceeded my expectations for puzzles in a video game in every way. I tried so hard to figure everything out, but I eventually did have to look a few things up. Maybe you can best me and solve everything on your own! Some of the puzzling at the very end is still keeping me thinking about what it all means... [h3] Do you like Soulslike combat systems? [/h3] How many games with boss battles have you beaten? Have you ever played a Metroidvania to the end? Do you dread boss battles and get really stressed trying combat encounters over and over? Fortunately, there is an accessibility option that makes combat easier and yet another option that nullifies it completely. Since the game doesn't tell you anything, you also discover your moveset and what items help you. You will say often "Oh I can DO THAT?!" I popped an achievement randomly pushing buttons during combat and spent a lot of the game figuring out how to trigger it again. And consumables are included in this experimentation. They really do help, but you have to be willing not to hoard them like the filthy packrat you are. I decided when I bought this that I would try to go as long as I could without turning the combat accessibility options on, and I just kept pushing further and further into the game slowly taking down the bosses. Knowing the combat was tough going in actually made me match my expectations better than coming across some a-hole boss in an otherwise easy game. With this mindset, I made it to the end without using the assists, but the final boss was tougher than any boss I've ever faced as a Souls newbie. It's certainly not for everyone, but if you manage to tough it out to the very end, you do feel very accomplished. It's very much a question of how much of a "gamer" you are. Can you watch for specific animations/frames, use audio cues, and press the right buttons in time all the while avoiding getting tilted? Use the accessibility options if this ever gets to be too much for you. There's absolutely no shame in how you decide to play your game. [h3] Do you have time to commit to playing this game to the end without other games taking too much time away from this? [/h3] Since you're using your brain so much, you'll really forget things quickly if you take too long of a break. Taking notes really is a great idea for this game. [h3] Do you like completing games 100%? [/h3] You have to play rather far in to get to the puzzles. It's not at all like The Witness in that regard, but nearing the end you'll have more and more of a completed game manual and a head full of questions... All in all, this is an unforgettable game I can never play for the first time again. It's a true masterpiece!