Tunic - What We Know So Far

Tunic is an adorable upcoming action-RPG from Finji that follows the adventures of a tiny fox who, yes, wears a green tunic like another famous hero. In 2015, game designer Andrew Shouldice quit his job to work on a project called Secret Legend. At the time, he described the core concept of the game as "an isometric single-player adventure that holds certain classic triangle-seeking games as important touchstones." The game was officially announced at E3 in 2018 during Microsoft's press conference, but things have been relatively quiet since then.

Shouldice explains in multiple interviews that he spent a lot of time wondering about video games before playing them as a kid, "just wondering at the secret possibilities that a game could get at." Tunic attempts to capture that feeling of discovery by throwing players into a world with little context. Players must contend with a fictional, glyph-like language made specifically for the game. The player and the fox protagonist must figure out the language together, at the same time. Obviously, Tunic is a must-play for fans of retro-gaming.

What is Tunic, and when can fans get their hands on it? Unfortunately, Tunic doesn't have a release date just yet. In a December 2020 interview with IGN, Shouldice discussed his team's progress on Tunic, mainly focusing on how the game feels more complete at this point in production, whereas it was only a vague concept before.

About the release date, Shouldice only said, "No official-official date yet, but I am super excited about finishing TUNIC. More work has been done on this game in the past year than any year before, which feels really good." That, at the very least, sounds promising.

However, in a 2019 interview with Red Bull, Shouldice stated that he thought the game had needed "just one more year" for the past three years, which explains why he's been hesitant to provide specific details about a release date to any media outlet. Since the game demo has been reviewed by some outlets, hopefully Tunic will be finished in the near future.

There's absolutely a trailer for Tunic, but it's not new. The sole trailer premiered at E3 in 2018, and has had to satisfy fans since then. The trailer begins with a sweeping view of an ocean zooming in on a small, tunic-wearing fox. The fox finds a sword in a mossy stone labyrinth, then begins adventuring around the world, slashing through small trees and bushes, opening chests inside homes, and venturing through magical gates. The unnamed fox also fights adorable animal enemies, employing both the sword and perhaps magic to defend itself. The trailer culminates with the fox meeting a tall, dark fox-like creature standing on a tall tower. The creature grows wings, coinciding with an immediate change in music before the game's logo materializes on screen.

Clocking in at only a minute and half, the trailer doesn't provide any solid plot information for the game, but it does give a good general overview of the mechanics of the game and what the world looks like. While there hasn't been a new trailer for Tunic just yet, sometimes the devs release gifs from the game on its official Twitter account.

The comparisons between Tunic and The Legend of Zelda began straight from the source, its creator. In an interview with Xbox Wire, Shouldice describes the appeal of games that don't provide players with much instruction other than "go find the treasure, it's out there somewhere."

Other sources, such as The Escapist, note that "there's just not that much different about [Tunic]" in comparison to Zelda games. A hands-on review from Mobile Syrup reports, "Like Zelda, Tunic is about finding the way to progress, whether it's through obtaining a new item or flipping a certain switch." 

CBR also acknowledges the Zelda connection, explaining that Tunic "takes the core gameplay of its inspiration and applies its own feel to it." Fans can expect Tunic to lovingly mimic some gameplay aspects of older Zelda games like A Link to the Past. 

IGN dubs Tunic a "Zelda-like," which ties the two games together as part of a wider genre of games that owe much of their success to the iconic franchise. Nostalgia is a powerful tool in the gaming industry, and hopefully Tunic can capitalize on the feelings so many felt during childhood.