[White Night Talk] The most underrated little fox this year

Although I have been looking forward to the release of “TUNIC” for 4 years, it was not until I saw the news of the game landing on NS some time ago that I remembered to clear the game that was released as early as March during the National Day holiday.

The reason is probably because too much time was invested in “Ayrden’s Circle” at the beginning of the year, and it was too boring and temporarily lost interest in soul-like games, so I dragged it and forgot.

Although the producer Andrew Shouldice only admitted that he paid tribute to “The Legend of Zelda: The Triangle of Gods”, after clearing “TUNIC”, I can clearly see the shadow of many excellent games from it.

It goes without saying that it is a parody of the 2D Zelda series. The combination of the little fox’s clothes and sword and shield, the classic card vision hidden props from the 2D bird’s-eye view, and the revisiting the old map that has been opened in “another way and purpose” are all following in the footsteps of the green hat figure. .

As early as 2015, the game had decided to adopt a brightly colored 3D modeling style, coupled with the toy texture simulated by the tilt-shift photography effect, which was also unexpectedly similar to the remake version of “The Legend of Zelda: Weaving’s Dream Island” released in 2019. Art ideas coincide.

In the combat system of “TUNIC”, the energy system and the slow-paced attack and post-shake action that are widely criticized by players make it easy for people to label it a “Dark Souls”-like game. In fact, in the main storyline of the fragmented narrative guards that are ubiquitous in the game, the process of “running up and down to ring two bells, and then collecting multiple props to open the door of the bottom BOSS room” can indeed correspond to The author is paying tribute to its speculation.

But in my opinion, before Zelda and Dark Souls, the more obvious tribute to “TUNIC” is the 2012 independent puzzle game “FEZ”.

It’s a pity that “FEZ” is the only pair of pixel sunglasses out of the circle.

Whether it’s the past few trial experiences or the pre-game publicity, the biggest impression of “TUNIC”, apart from the cute protagonist little fox, is that it combines the styles of 2D Zelda and soul games. Even after the game was released, these labels were repeatedly mentioned in a large number of evaluations, ignoring its lowest-level game type: puzzle solving.

Perhaps it is for this reason that there is a strange dislocation between TUNIC and its players. People who play it because of its fresh style will dislike it for being too hard-core; players who come for action adventures will always dislike its operating feel. And those puzzle game players who are most likely to like it, but it is very likely that the game’s reputation has not reached the height it should have because the skin of its action game failed to touch it.

The sense of sight in many places makes me willing to believe that it is the spiritual sequel of “FEZ”

Based on the basic framework of 2D top-down action-adventure, “TUNIC” is a puzzle game that can be called “one-to-one”. Just like the equally classic independent puzzle games “The Witness” and “FEZ”, “TUNIC” has its own set of puzzles, which will eventually turn the entire game into a huge puzzle.

In particular, it is similar in temperament to “FEZ”. Not only is the design idea of ​​the core puzzle of “Holy Cross” in “TUNIC” similar to the latter, the game names of the two games are a special kind of clothes and clothes, and both games use 8-bit and synthetic There are also instrument-style music sound effects and a set of text specially designed for the game.

This “strategy book” that cannot be fully understood will also run through the game

In the second half of the process of “TUNIC”, if you want to unlock the true ending, you have to start a very difficult puzzle-solving journey, and understanding this set of “fox essays” is a single-plank bridge that you have to cross. .

This set of characters, which looks a bit cuneiform, is a set of phonetic characters based on English, and can even be divided into print and handwriting. According to the various clues and hints buried in the game, in theory, players can slowly find the answer by themselves, but it requires a lot of trial and error costs.

It’s just that with the help of the community and the collective wisdom of the players, the cracking of the text “TUNIC” was quickly completed. Later players only need to directly check and use the “translation tool” made by the player after figuring out the principle, but it is still enough to experience the fun and shock of this “word cracking” puzzle.

The result output by the “fox language” translator made by netizens

But even this level of difficulty is not the hardest or most critical puzzle in TUNIC.

The hardest puzzles in the game are actually not in the game. When the player has collected all the hidden items, they can get a string of letters by using the “fox language” interpretation – they are actually a URL.

This website is a strange creature that doesn’t match the fresh style of the game at all. It keeps roaring like a mechanical failure sound, which makes people puzzled. But the answer to this puzzle is actually written in the spectrum of these sounds.

And when most of the puzzles in the game are solved, the biggest obstacle between the player and the true ending is a puzzle called “Golden Road” – it is difficult for me to describe it without revealing the bottom line Complete look.

Part of it’s mysteries and answers that linger under the player’s nose from the first few minutes of the game, but just don’t get your attention. When people notice its existence and revisit the solutions of previous small puzzles in various poses, it is not far from solving it.

At the moment of comprehending the solution of the “Golden Avenue”, it was as if dozens of movies that I had watched were linked together by an extremely self-consistent explanation in an instant. A taste of daigo reverberated in my mind. When I had this feeling in puzzle games before, it was in the aforementioned “The Witness” and “FEZ”.

“Walk through the Golden Avenue to clear the gate in the mountains”

Before clearing TUNIC, I was still wondering which of the two would be my game of the year, God of War: Ragnarok, or Ring of Eldon. But now my hesitations should be gone, because “TUNIC” has given me an answer in advance.

When the annual game-related summary really arrives, I may only be left with how to change the angle and recommend this game that they should not miss to more players who like puzzle games.

When I was in elementary school, I read a story book called “The Story of the Little Fox” in the school library. In the book, the little fox in the inset was wearing sunglasses. -CaesarZX