There are many video games that have tried to copy The Legend of Zelda throughout history to take advantage of those players who want more and more adventures of the style. Most of these titles end up falling on deaf ears and in a matter of months, everyone forgets about them, but this is not the case with Tunic, an indie game that is clearly inspired by Zelda, but that has drawn particular attention both for its graphic quality as well as its way of modernizing this type of adventure by bringing elements and mechanics from other genres .
Tunic: a creator, 7 years old and a great goal ahead
Can you go back to the origins of Zelda and create something original? Andrew Shouldice has shown that it is possible with Tunic , the video game he has been working on solo for the last seven years. He has done it without hiding. It is not a plagiarism of Zelda, but rather a tribute to her classic games, with a visually spectacular scenery design with an isometric perspective. Since it was presented at E3 in 2018, many have been the players who have been looking forward to this work. The title has come out this week and it looks like we are facing another wonder of the indie world that is aiming for the top.
Tunic enters very well through the eyes. His dungeons are made to be lost, with secrets that may be in plain sight but are cleverly camouflaged on stage due to perspective. But there is still more. Do you remember when you played video games as a child and you did not understand English? —or you couldn’t read, which could also be the case—. Well , Tunic also recovers that by making use of an invented language . The game will be full of signals that you will have to interpret by pure intuition like when you went to elementary school and played Zelda on your Super Nintendo or on the Game Boy if you were born in the nineties.
Shouldice also wanted to give Tunic a touch of difficulty by adding the mechanics that have come together so well in Hidetaka Miyazaki’s video games. It doesn’t have such an exaggerated difficulty as these games, but it does incorporate souls-like elements that add a great challenge to the player. This step is extremely logical, since Tunic is looking for an adult audience, so awakening that spark of nostalgia in the player is only possible by adding difficulty to the title.
Conclusions and platforms in which it is available
It is still early to claim victory, but everything indicates that Tunic will reach the top as Stardew Valley or Undertale already did . This is an indie gem that proves once again that a single developer can create a work a thousand times more interesting than a large studio by putting work, passion and a lot of love into a title.
Tunic is now available for Xbox consoles (One and Series) integrated into Game Pass. You can also buy it for PC on Steam, Epic Games or Gog.