Preview | Tunic |

LifeisXbox’s Tunic preview | Tunic is an action-adventure game about a cute little fox in a big world. It is being developed by Andrew Shouldice and a demo was made available during LudoNarraCon. In this short but sweet demo, you get to experience a little bit of what Tunic is all about. Fight off monsters, discover ancient ruins and get to exploring! The demo definitely leaves you wanting more, but unfortunately, a release date has yet to be announced! What we do know, is that this will be an Xbox One console exclusive, and a Steam version will also be released!

Exciting gameplay

Even before playing, I knew I was going to be a fan of Tunic. This is just one of those games that has a look and feel that I totally admire. Of course, the gameplay still has to be fun and run smoothly. Luckily, it did! You start your adventure as a little fox dressed in green. This whole game was giving me Zelda vibes, honestly! You begin with nothing, but soon you’ll discover your first weapon: a majestic… wooden stick. Well, if it beats the enemies, I’m down for it! Don’t worry, the demo also gives you a taste of fighting with a sword, which you’ll discover somewhere in the middle. Basically, you’ll be exploring a beautiful world made out of ruins, and you’ll have to defeat various enemies to be able to journey further. In the demo, you’ll already meet a few of your opponents, including a spider, weird-ass creatures I’ve never seen before, and yes, even your first boss at the end! Defeating enemies gets you coins and hearts. So far, I’ve yet to discover the purpose of these coins, but I’m guessing they’ll be useful for buying or upgrading weapons and armor in the full game! So far I’m really enjoying the gameplay, and I’m curious to see if this will remain for the full gameplay.

Fun features

Tunic has some interesting features that immediately caught my eye. First of all, there are the saving points. In this short demo, there were, I think, two of these to be found. Enough to save your progress regularly, so that’s great. But what’s more important: if you die, you’ll respawn at your latest saved point, and you’ll still have all the items you acquired after saving! I really enjoyed this, seeing as I didn’t have to go back every time I died to go fetch my shield.

Another featured that I used plenty, was the ability to lock in on your targets. Using the LT button (the demo can only be played with a controller), you lock in on your nearest enemy and you’ll attack them. This is also the only way the camera’s point of view will change a little. Usually, I enjoy being able to change the camera’s view myself, but I did not miss that ability in Tunic at all.

I’m still confused about the language being used, though! From what I’ve seen in the demo, everything is in some indecipherable language. I even found a page that showed me how to use the buttons on my controller, but since it was all in some gibberish language, I could not figure out what the hell it said. I’m very curious to see what that is all about.

Graphics

The art style of Tunic is so freaking cute! It starts with the tiny fox, who is looking as adorable as it can be. And then you have the environments, which I just love. Everything looks charming and enchanting, and I cannot wait to see what the developer has in store for the other sceneries in the full game! I’ve also enjoyed the way the enemies look. Some are clearly known creatures, e.g. the spider, but others were brand new, non-existing monsters that all looked great. Add to this a cute soundtrack and you have the basics of a game totally covered.

One person development

It’s safe to say that I’m proper excited for the full release of Tunic, and it can’t get here soon enough! I would like to conclude this preview by telling you guys that Tunic is currently being developed by one single person, so that’s really quite impressive, seeing as how good this game seems to be in every aspect!