History VideoGame / Tunic

* AllThereInTheManual: Everything you need to know about the game -- mechanics, dungeon maps, enemy information, secret treasures, etc. -- can be found in the game's manual. Played with, in that said manual's pages are scattered throughout the game itself, and it's up to the player to find them. Have fun!

** The Ruin Seeker has no masculine nor feminine features and isn’t referred with any pronouns, making their gender identity unknown. According to the developers, the reason for this is for the players to more easily project themselves onto the Ruin Seeker.

** The gun. It does great damage and stuns foes, but it also has a slow wind-up and consumes large chunks of your mana meter. Some items can mitigate its drawbacks, and its mana cost is less of an issue when fighting multiple enemies that drop mana.

** The manual page for The Swamp [[spoiler:says "Only ghosts are permitted to enter the Inner Grounds." This hints that the Ruin Seeker will die at some point]].

* IsometricProjection: The game is rendered in full 3D, but the camera almost always stays in this view. It only breaks the isometric angle for specific puzzles or dramatic angles.

* MindScrew: However, learning to read the manual's story pages will not alleviate your confusion.

** [[spoiler:The gun. It does great damage and stuns foes, but it also has a slow wind-up and consumes large chunks of your mana meter. Some items can mitigate its drawbacks, and its mana cost is less of an issue when fighting multiple enemies that drop mana.]]

** [[spoiler:[[HumonguousMecha Siege Engine]]]]: [[spoiler:[[LastOfItsKind The Last Functioning War Machine]]]]
** [[spoiler:[[BadassBookworm The Librarian]]]]: [[spoiler:The Thieving Scholar Who Seeks the Cross but Does Not Understand]]
** [[spoiler:[[MirrorBoss Scavenger Boss]]]]: [[spoiler:The [[SamusIsAGirl Queen]] of Those Who Pick the Bones of This Land]]

* CanadaEh: [[spoiler:The runic language specifically translates into Maritime Canadian English, meaning words like "The" are phonetically transcribed as "Thee", not "Thuh". Parodied in one conversation with a ghost fox who uses a lot of words that get hit with a stereotypical "aboot" accent, while another nearby fox will ask if they sound weird to you.]]

** [[spoiler:Yet another cypher can be found in much of the game's audio, which has a "rosetta stone" in the form of a strange website found through one of the game's more obscure puzzles involving the secret treasures and the Glyph Tower. It works similar to the runic language, with different notes corresponding to different vowel and consonant sounds. Examples of it in use are the title screen jingle saying "WELCOME", hidden fairies saying things like "WHAT UP LIL FOX" and "WOO HOO WOW HA HA" when released, and wells saying "YUM" when you flip a coin into them.]]

* FlashStep: [[spoiler:The [[UnusualHalo Hero's Laurels]] allow the Ruin Seeker to do this, even being able to dart across gaps in the ground to access otherwise off-limits areas.]]

* GeniusBruiser: [[spoiler:The Librarian]] is a formidable adversary, as well as a dedicated scholar.

* GoldenPath: What the manual calls [[spoiler:the game-wide puzzle necessary for the best ending]]. The trope is actually averted, as you can solve the puzzle at any time if you have enough information.
* GottaCatchThemAll: [[spoiler:Three Questagons, six Hero Relics, twenty fairies, twelve hidden treasures, twenty-eight instruction manual pages...]]

** [[spoiler:The manual lists 15 cards the player can get, but there is actually a secret ''16th'' card that the manual does not clue you in on at all: "Bone", found in the Ruined Atoll.]] It is possible the manual doesn't hint at this because [[spoiler:the card's effect - doubling your roll's invincibility frames - is effectively made obsolete once you obtain the Hero's Laurels; no other card is impacted in this same manner.]]

* NoobCave: [[spoiler:The Eastern Forest]], complete with a KingMook that quickly becomes a DegradedBoss.

* PalmTreePanic: [[spoiler:The Ruined Atoll, an archipelago on the south side of the map.]]

** [[spoiler:One of the first ability cards you can get is the Flaming Sword, behind a Holy Cross door right outside the East Forest. Grabbing it lets you burn away bushes with just the Stick, meaning you can beat the game [[ChallengeRun without picking up either Sword]].]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: [[spoiler:The gun. It does great damage and stuns foes, but it also has a slow wind-up and consumes large chunks of your mana meter. Some items can mitigate its drawbacks, and it's manacost is less of an issue when fighting multiple enemies that drop mana.]]

** The manual page for The Swamp [[spoiler:says "Only ghosts are permitted to enter the Inner Grounds." This hints that the Ruin Seeker will die st some point]].

* InterfaceSpoiler: A subtle one. The options menu — [[spoiler:specifically the section where you can remap your controls — references a "d-pad," but the assigned inputs don't seem to do anything in game]]. This is your first clue to the true nature of [[spoiler:The Holy Cross, which ''is'' the d-pad]].

* SoulsLikeRPG: Let's see: Cryptic plot delivered piecemeal? Check! Checkpoints that restore you and cause enemies to respawn? Check! Set in the ruins of a fallen civilization? Check! Spending currency to level up? Check!
* StoryBreadcrumbs: Very little of the overarching plot is openly offered, leaving the player to piece together environmental elements, context clues, and information from the instruction manual into a cohesive narrative.

** In a nod to ''VideoGame/StarTropics'', one of the steps necessary to solving one treasure's puzzle is [[spoiler:to dip one of the (in-game) manual's pages in water]].

** [[spoiler:Yet another cypher can be found in much of the game's audio, which has a "rosetta stone" in the form of a strange website found through one of the game's more obscure puzzles involving the secret treasures and the Glyph Tower. It works similar to the runic language, with different notes corresponding to different vowel and consenant sounds. Examples of it in use are the title screen jingle saying "WELCOME", hidden fairies saying things like "WHAT UP LIL FOX" and "WOO HOO WOW HA HA" when released, and wells saying "YUM" when you flip a coin into them.]]

''Tunic'' is an ActionAdventure game developed by Andrew Shouldice and published by Finji. You play as a small fox who wakes up on a beach. With no further motivation than a desire to explore, you soon find yourself facing off against unforgiving foes and discovering powerful artifacts, all while trying to unravel the mysteries of the land. The game was released on March 16, 2022. [[https://tunicgame.com/ The game's website can be found here.]]

''Tunic'' is an ActionAdventure game developed by Andrew Shouldice and published by Finji. You play as a small fox who wakes up on a beach. With no further motivation than a desire to explore, they soon find themself facing off against unforgiving foes and discovering powerful artifacts, all while trying to unravel the mysteries of the land. The game was released on March 16, 2022. [[https://tunicgame.com/ The game's website can be found here.]]

* MetaTwist: Since the game borrows many elements from [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI a certain other series]], you'd be forgiven for thinking that [[spoiler:the regal, glowing sword in the Far Shores is this game's equivalent to the Master Sword and that you'll be acquiring it after retrieving the three keys. Not only is that not the case, it's actually the weapon used by the FinalBoss against you.]]

* AwesomeButImpractical: [[spoiler:The gun. It does great damage and stuns foes, but it also has a slow wind-up and consumes large chunks of your mana meter. Some items can mitigate its drawbacks.]]

* MirrorBoss: [[spoiler:The Boss Scavenger]] has nearly all of the same tricks you have, [[spoiler:except the grappling hook]].

* MediumAwareness: The Librarian has been gathering manual pages from previous Ruin Seekers, and judging by the notes on one of the blackboards in the great library, he may be aware he's in a videogame as a result. Played with in that [[spoiler:translating them manual or his BossSubtitles makes it clear that he doesn't fully understand, since he thinks that the Holy Cross is an in-universe item to be found in the Cathedral.]]

[[spoiler:Be Free.]]\\

* MediumAwareness: Judging by the notes on one of the blackboards in the great library, The Librarian may be aware he's in a videogame.

* AmbiguousGender: The Ruin Seeker has no masculine nor feminine features and isn’t referred with any pronouns, making their gender identity unknown. According to the developers, the reason for this is for the players to more easily project themselves onto the Ruin Seeker.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Invoked by the way you recover pages of the manual. One of the first pages you're likely to find is half of a spread showing the fox holding his sword and facing a dangerous fight with determination. [[spoiler:You don't find the other half of the spread, showing ''who'' he's fighting, until much much later in the game - and it shows, after it's too late, that he's facing The Heir, who initially appeared to be SealedGoodInACan.]]

* OnceMoreWitClarity: Invoked by the way you recover pages of the manual. One of the first pages you're likely to find is half of a spread showing the fox holding his sword and facing a dangerous fight with determination. [[spoiler:You don't find the other half of the spread, showing ''who'' he's fighting, until much much later in the game - and it shows, after it's too late, that he's facing The Heir, who initially appeared to be SealedGoodInACan.]]

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:Inside the Ziggurat, you find a machine that builds the obelisks you've been using to power puzzles - which, as it turns out, each have [[AmbiguousSituation what appears to be]] a fox that succumbed to TheCorruption sealed inside them.

* HumongousMecha: The Guardian of the Eastern vault absolutely dwarfs the player character.