Tunic’s easy mode called “No Fail” made me enjoy its puzzles more

tunican indie adventure game that fuses influences from The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls into an adorable and mysterious package, my brain has been taking over for the past two weeks. It’s been ages since I’ve beat a game and thrown myself into New Game Plus mode without even stopping to refill the glass of water on my desk. I have to admit though, I would never have gotten to the end – let alone enjoyed the ride that much – without occasionally using the game’s “No Fail” mode.

As much as I enjoyed the puzzles and spirit of discovery tunic, I have fought with his fight. The diminutive Vulpine hero’s sword swings feel floating, sluggish, and imprecise. The game lacks the laser-like precision of similar combat-heavy isometric games such as: Hades, where failure has always felt like my own fault. In tunic, I’ve often failed combat sequences simply because I didn’t land an attack head-on or dodge in exactly the right direction — even though I was often confident that my button presses should have done the job. Even after a dozen hours of fighting in tunic

I don’t blame myself tunic‘s development team for it. It consists almost entirely of one person, Andrew Shouldice, who designed and programmed the game. Additional artwork came from Eric Billingsley and ma-ko, and the game’s great score is a credit to Terence Lee and Janice Kwan. Still, the combat design was all on Shouldice, as was the level design and the puzzle idea. tunic is an incredible achievement – especially considering there wasn’t a larger team to sand down the rougher edges.

That’s exactly why I haven’t felt any regrets about tuning in tunic‘s “No Fail” mode. I didn’t use it all the time; I first explored each dungeon with full combat, relishing the rigors of combat and the rigors of failure as I made my way. But once I got a feel for each dungeon’s map, I didn’t feel the need to fight each and every enemy over and over again. I would turn on “No Fail” and delve into the mysteries of each location without worrying about dying after digging up every last chest and power-up.

Image: Finji via Polygon

If “No Fail” is activated, tunicThe hero of still has to go into battle, and getting hit still ticks down his health bar. However, if the health bar reaches zero, the hero does not die; Your counter just stays at zero forever while the fight goes on. There is also a setting to turn off the stamina counter so the fox always has full stamina. I didn’t use this that much as I enjoyed wrestling with the stamina meter (just like in Dark Souls), but not having to fully respawn helped me enjoy the game’s puzzles without a sense of dread.

tunicThe puzzles of are simply its biggest asset; in my opinion they are the only reason to play the game. My favorite part was searching each and every room for hidden ladders, doors, and paths. I slowly made my way all the way around each individual area, walking along bridges to see if the telltale A key prompt would appear, revealing a hidden ladder I could climb. I would crawl behind walls, my fox barely visible, hoping to see the same prompt indicating a hidden chest needs to be opened.

The game also has significantly more complex puzzles, such as learning specific button patterns to unlock certain types of doors, as well as collecting every single page of the in-game manual and grasping the mysterious language in which it is written. The more I played tunicthe more of his world I opened up and understood – but again, I wouldn’t have bothered to play for so long if I’d been immersed in the muddy swordplay all the time.

I love challenging myself in combat-heavy games and learning every precise move I need to make to win. Metroid horrorFor example, the boss fights hit just the right spot in my brain; I loved both the challenge and the sense of pride I felt in learning the dance steps necessary to avoid and counter each and every attack. But in tunic, I just never had that experience — and that’s okay. That’s not the strength of the game, and it doesn’t have to be. Using the “No Fail” mode allowed me to enjoy the best parts of the game and I’m still hungry for more. There are still mysteries to solve and the game has given me exactly the tools I need to face them and enjoy every moment.