From left to right: Pancho, Qaru, Nayra, and Rumi
Tunche is a hand-drawn Beat 'em Up Hack and Slash game with Rogue Like elements, co-op, and a pinch of shaman witchcraft, developed by LEAP Game Studio and HypeTrain Digital. After a funding campaign on Kickstarter, a free preview titled Tunche: Arena was made available in January 2019, and a Demo of the main game was made available via Steam
in 2020, with the full game finally releasing on November 2, 2021 via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Choose one of the five heroes (Rumi the Shaman, Qaru the Accursed, Nayra the Warrior, Pancho the Humble, and Hat Kid the Guest), master their skill-sets and ultimate abilities to defeat epic bosses, and unravel the secrets of the mysterious Amazonian jungle!
Tropes:
- Action Girl: At least three of the five playable characters (Rumi, Nayra, and Hat Kid) are female, and fully capable of fighting the jungle's wild beasts.
- Antagonist Title: The titular Tunche serves as the main antagonist.
- Apocalyptic Log: The player gradually collects notes left behind as they progress through the game.
- The Atoner: Qaru's motivation for seeking the Tunche is to ask for forgiveness, and potentially remove the curse he gained from a prior misdeed.
- Boring, but Practical: Defeating the first boss gives you a flat boost to your damage and HP.
- Combo: Much like the side-scrolling beat-em-ups the game is inspired by, you are given a streak counter for your move and attack combo's, and a grade depending on what attacks you use and when you use them.
- The Chosen One: Rumi, according to her description on the Kickstarter.The goddesses of Rumi’s people foresaw a life of greatness for her, so from the moment she was born, she was chosen to become the spiritual leader of their tribe once she came of age. She is determined to reach the heart of the jungle and find Tunche to acquire power and knowledge worthy of a Leader to her tribe.
- Evil Knockoff: The Enhanced Edition update adds evil versions of each playable character (Minus Hat Kid) as additional bosses.
- Forced Transformation: Qaru, who killed a sacred beast, and was cursed to have both his arms transformed into wings.
- Generic Cuteness: All human characters are drawn in simple chubby style with very little emphasis on anatomy.
- Gentle Giant: Pancho is the stout village protector whose sole motivation is to help keep people safe.
- The Goomba: Frogs. Their attacks are easily avoidable and they're vulnerable to a number of different combos.
- Guest Fighter: The game features Hat Kid, from A Hat in Time. Notably, while all other characters fit the "Amazon jungle" theme, she's still wearing her purple-and-yellow outfit, and really stands out because of it.
- Lady of War: Nayra's been a warrior ever since inheriting her mother's spear, and is seeking the Tunche solely to prove that she's capable of doing so.
- Socialization Bonus: While an overall solid Roguelike in singleplayer, Tunche definitely feels like a game that was designed with multiplayer in mind first and foremost as exp does not carry over between different characters.
- Stripperific: Nayra wears a bikini top and a loincloth, although justified as she is a member of a jungle warrior tribe.
- The Voiceless: Nobody has any voice lines in-game, but dialogue is spoken via text boxes. That said, Hat Kid is literally this, as while she does have voice lines in her home game, they're generally far and few between. Here, most of her dialogue is represented by various face emoji's.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The titular Tunche, "A being of no discernible shape that confronts people with their inner selves, leaving the unworthy to die deep in the jungle".
