u/MadScientistCarl

I'm not sure if I want to do the post-game content. If it's just puzzles and doesn't provide more story insights, I might be a bit burnt out on puzzles. Maybe I'll try to solve the tune part of the language, as there seems to be some hints in the manual suggesting that music tones have something to do with the phonemes. I would like to hear what the bell has to say.

But I have to say the base game is very, very good. Attached are most of my notes (sans the three versions of the manuals I screenshot, printed, and written all over with stuff that makes it even harder to read). That's my entire journey of the game.

Background

I was recommended this game after playing Outer Wilds, which I consider the best game I've ever played, so expect some spoiler-free comparison. I'm also not a hardcore gamer: I like environmental storytelling; I am not proficient in action sequence/combat; I don't do complex puzzles that much either. I am also not a native English speaker. Of course, I only got the two endings, all fairies, and had a look into what looks like a final puzzle (the 3D cylinder thing which has Tunic glyph written in cubes instead of surface). Take these into consideration.

Let's talk about the Steam page description:

> Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about a small fox on a big adventure.

... which is wrong. Corrected version:

> Explore a land filled with lost legends, ancient powers, and ferocious monsters in TUNIC, an isometric action game about an illiterate small fox on a big adventure.

What drew me to the game is actually how it's almost completely written in an unknown language, and fully solving the language is my Day 1 goal. Optionally, I'd like to get the main endings.

Accessibility

Thankfully this game has it. I really struggle with the boss battles, to the point it's getting in the way of the parts I am getting the game for. Starting from the Scavenger boss, I turned on Reduced difficulty, and sometimes with infinite stamina too. Though I beat The Heir with just the reduced difficulty.

(Anecdote: In my successful run, I actually thought I turned on No Fail Mode. I didn't. I just kept going hyper aggressive with my attacks, not even noticing my HP bar was dropping until the screen flashed red. That was my only attempt that got to Phase 2 without using a potion lol. I won by ignorance... for both reasons.)

I greatly appreciate the difficulty setting. I suppose that also works for people who don't like doing the puzzles, and I appreciate that those exist too, despite not using them.

However, I do have a criticism on this... I think accessibility is the one thing that should be translated on the manual. It's accessibility options, after all. Why lock it behind a language barrier?

Knowledge-Gated Puzzles

The Holy Cross, ah. You can do it from the very beginning, you just don't know about it.

I came to this game expecting the majority of progress would be these types of puzzles. I was pleased when I learned the hidden shortcuts, the prayer, then the D-Pad inputs. However, quite a lot of the game are still locked behind items or paths that must be deployed by the other side, so a lot of it is still more like traditional puzzles and progression. So, there is unfortunately fewer knowledge-gated puzzles than I expected when I bought the game. (No, finding codes don't count as knowledge gated puzzles. Knowing about the Holy Cross counts, though.)

The greatest difference between this game and Outer Wilds, I think, is that OW's solutions are always simple, while this game's puzzles are hard even after you get the knowledge. It's a different flavor, I prefer the former, but I understand that this game's style allows for more content to be included.

Environmental Story Telling

There are quite a few. I especially like when the manual seems out of date from the map, like when it depicts bridges that has collapsed, creatures that has turned hostile, present-tense description that doesn't match what happened, etc. Gives me a look into the passing of time. Here are some interesting things I've noticed:

• The Ruined Atoll has degraded a lot since the manual is written. That's a very nice touch.
• The Quarry's artifacts have various different levels of degradation from Scavengers' efforts. I didn't understand what they were doing, and went from thinking they are destroying the basis of this world, to thinking they are extracting power/resources after I visited the Ziggurat, to... I have no idea now. Drink the pink juice?

Also, more details in the meta materials:

• Someone else has already "played the game" before us, leaving Player Notes everywhere. It's a bit weird that some code is shown only as Player Notes, though. Wouldn't that mean the game cannot be completed with a pristine manual? For instance, how can you possibly know the code for the chest in the starting area if a previous player didn't figure it out?
• The inside front cover seems to depict a different fox from our player character. I like to think it's The Heir, because it kind of looks like her after she shrinks down and turns into someone that looks exactly like a Ruin Seeker.
• The Player Notes almost look like they don't fully understand the language either. Otherwise why would they be writing alphabet construction rules in the memo? At first I thought the last player was the controller of The Heir, didn't get Ending B, and ends up trapped in The Far Shore until we give them the full manual... but given that they have notes on the last page (and the page on Ending B is required), I disproved the theory. "The Player" has to be a meta thing.
• I really like the in-universe justification for the existence of the fairy puzzles. I can see how magical fairies hiding in plain sight, but leaving their marks around the environment.

While I'd like a little more environmental details that looks into how the inhabitants live, I can also understand why there isn't much: nobody seems to be alive, for a long time. I didn't translate everything the ghosts say, so I don't actually know if they are still "living".

The Puzzles

I think they are very good. There are a healthy mix of knowledge-gated ones, and I can figure out most of the rest. The Golden Path is absolutely legendary.

I think there are a few "bad" ones, though:

• The one wall requiring a bomb. Every other attack have no effect. It's difficult to land a bomb on the tiny walkway. No other puzzles ever required bombing a wall.
• The one night exercising ghost. They should really make the code work when mirrored.
• There are a couple Golden Path pieces that are quite difficult to see due to the faint color. I first tried to find them on my printed screenshots, that's very difficult. Thankfully the in-game version is a high res scan I can zoom in.

The Language Barrier

The UI text, area titles, and manual text is very cleverly chosen to have just enough info to decode the language (even when incomplete) and have enough clues to play the game without understanding. I love how the mixed language is designed, especially when it clicked why an alien language is written partially mixed with English.

The tutorial section of the manual especially throws a good red herring with its contradicting text and graphics. I honestly didn't expect The Heir's betrayal when it happened (I expected her to give me the giant sword or something). That section is also crucial in my translation process, because it provides a lot of words which I know the ground truth of. I wish there are some more uses out of the translated language, but I understand that it might become too hard (I spent a bout as much time figuring out the syntax as playing the game).

I enjoyed the process of figuring out the language, and wish I get more uses out of it. Though I still think the accessibility option should be in plain English.

The Lore

Man, I really wish it's less vague. Coming from Outer Wilds where 99% of the truth was explained, this is the opposite side of the spectrum. Even after I decoded the language and translated part of the manual, I still feel like an entire page is missing between P4 and P5. How does it jump from "old ones flee to the ark" to "the Heir needs to live outside the shivering rings"? They missed an entire chapter explaining where The Heir came from!

And why does handing The Heir the manual frees her? It's great in a gameplay perspective as an ultimate puzzle, but... why, in universe? Did she got the password to The Golden Path in 5 seconds because unlike our tiny fox, she can actually read? And that somehow frees her from The Far Shore? I really hope the explanation isn't just "it's a game".

Also, what's slightly sad is that it's probably impossible for anyone in-universe to break the loop without an actual player, even if they could gather all the pages. There's one piece of the puzzle they literally couldn't get (unless they brute force it or something). In one way, it makes "us" special (fits the slightly meta narrative), in another way, I sort of feel the world get a little less lively.

Though technically, a determined Ruin Seeker with all the other pages collected will be able to figure out the code in at most 5461 tries. A lot of patience is required, but within reasonable time.

The Experience

The game is great after I reduced the combat difficulty. 9/10. It has a lot of puzzle depth, where most puzzles are integrated into the world instead of just being arbitrary. And I certainly like the mystery unveiled by learning the language. Still a little sad there are so many things unexplained.

Ultimately, I wish we could save the world, end the suffering of the "Fossil of Selves", or at least find the truth. But we don't really get any. At least we freed the Heir, so I guess a broken world with one fewer permanently trapped soul is better than just a broken world...? A little unfortunate.

Or did we break the world even more? We weren't really told about whether The Heir had a function, so I certainly hope she wasn't there to plug the hole of reality gnawed truth of Canonical Plane or something.

I've collected all the fairies and pages, and working on opening the door of the mountain. I have to say this is the most ridiculous complicated puzzle I've seen (why are printing errors and coffee stains part of the puzzle? Unless it's intentional...)

But I cannot find the golden path on page 9. I looked over the whole page, but there are only the two golden boxes in the save file menu. The background has some faint yellow-ish lines, but they don't connect to the rest of the puzzle. I tried guessing a straight line, but nothing happens.

Any idea?

EDIT:

I opened it! Thanks!

Also had to correct some extremely faint stop lines. Didn't see them the first time.

EDIT:

I Got The Ending B! (The Heir got smaller lol)

Wait, do we not get to do something like... fix the world, free a million entombed souls, or something?

I've tried my best to find all the fairies, but despite translating the page, I still don't know where most of the entries are referring to. I need some hints (not direct answers of course).

Here are the fairies I've freed:

• Secret Gathering Place
• The one in the directional compass thing.
• Temple
• Library.
• Old House.
• One in West Garden, the one with blue bricks on the ground.

However, I don't understand what the rest are:

• Flower 1/2, what flower? The compass has flower in front of it, does it count? Do I need to scour the entire map for flowers?
• Moss. Also, what moss?
• Caustic Light. The only caustic light I can think of is in the well, but none of the caustics have any pattern, nor can I find any line or dot patterns.
• Secret Gathering Place. I've done this one.
• Sealed Temple. Done.
• The Quarry. I went over everywhere (I think) in the quarry, but I don't see a dot pattern or a line pattern. The map shows a question mark under the waterfall, but I cannot find any way to get there.
• East Forest. Probably the monolith attached, but I can't quite make out the full pattern. It's missing a piece which I can't find (EDIT: Found it). And what about the non-orthogonal lines?
• The Great Library. I've done this one.
• Maze (column). I went over the Ziggurat (lots of columns) and the old bury ground (I can only run on columns), but I don't find either.
• Vein. I don't know what vein it's referring to. Ore? The rectangular power lines?
• Old House. Done this one.
• Patrol. Well... there are patrols everywhere. Closest I think of is the Frog's Domain, but there's nothing.
• Cube. I don't recall anything cube-shaped.
• Maze (invisible). Unfortunately, I don't recall any maze being invisible either. I mean The Golden Path has a few places I can walk on air, but there's nothing there.
• Fountain. I opened the door behind the fountain, but I don't think that counts. The fountain seems surrounded by some blue lines, but the fountain itself is covering it.
• West Garden. I've done the one on the floor.
• West Garden. I haven't found this one. I've opened a door though.
• Fortress of The Eastern Vault. I've searched the entire fortress, but I don't see anything.
• Another East Forest. I looked over the entire East Forest and Lower Forest, but I don't see another pattern.

Any hints would be great, thanks!

EDIT:

Ok, I thought all spells are called "Seeking Spells". I should have understood it literally.

I found something I can't fully solve. See the picture, I am able to translate basically everything, except there are words that almost make sense but slightly wrong. Is that actual typo in the manual? Or is my reference wrong?

Highlighted (written in IPA and not Tunic):

• "Understand" should be spelled /ˌəndɝˈstænd/, but the text is /ˌəndɝˈstad/
• "Sought" should be /ˈsɔːt/ or /ˈsɔt/, but thet text is /ˈsɑt/
• The next page (didn't scan because I didn't finish) has "will" which should be /ˈwɪɫ/, but it's spelled /ˈwɪɫɫ/.

Are these... like, in universe misspelling?

EDIT:

I was wrong. It's /ʊ/ not /a/ all along...

EDIT 2:

Wait, that doesn't make sense either...

(Please no spoilers, I haven't finished the game).

This is probably my last post on the language. I think I actually solved it, thus the "Fanart" flair :)

Last Post I showed the evolution of my notes about the language in my efforts of deciphering. About 5 minutes after I made the post, I realized a certain pattern.

So I changed how I index the alphabets. And... well, I think I solved it. The biggest optional puzzle of the game. Sure I didn't fill The Matrix out, but I got the rules, and that's the most important part.

What an impressive mix of breadcrumbs provided by the manual, the game pop up text, and game UI. I couldn't have done it without access to "ground truth" from the healthy mix of game controller page, UI text, location titles, and narrative story passages.

MVP in my journey (you know if you know):

• You
• Use
• Key/keys
• Guardhouse 1/Guardhouse 2
• "to", "a", "the", "is", "are"
• "Once, "
• continues
• Inventory
• Someone has made a map for you!

EDIT:

Just noted I made a couple mistakes by putting stuff on the wrong lines. Ignore those.

EDIT 2:

Oh... consonants are the inner parts and vowels are the outer parts isn't it?

(Please no spoilers, I haven't finished the game yet). Also I'd like some hints on a certain pattern. Just the dot pattern, not the language.

Hopefully I'm not making too many posts about the language. The images show my journey from copying chicken scratches, to isolating words from context, to figuring out it's English phonemes, to phoneme dictionary, to an actual dictionary

The more I learn about the language, the more I realize it's not just a bunch of random characters! It seems like there are rules to construct each... let's say grapheme (not a linguist myself)? Though I haven't figured out why sometimes the consonant is at the top and sometimes it's the vowel.

In my process of translation, however, I notice a pattern of dots in Page 11 in the PRIZE/TREASURE box. It looks like a seeking spell, but when I try to use it, it doesn't work. The same actually also goes for the one on the Old House tapestry. Any hints?

EDIT

Wait… if I squint, doesn’t it look like phonemes are constructed by overlaying a consonant and a vowel??? I need more samples…

Of course spoiler ahead, but **please don’t spoil more for me because I am still working towards Ending B**. This post is just me complimenting the game’s dedication to the language.

It’s amazing that the game’s fictional language is actually not so fictional, and the provided text is actually sufficient for a non-linguist like me to figure out how it works. The critical eureka moment for me was finding out “2” and “to” are written the same, “use” and “you” have the same prefix, “key” and “keys” have the same prefix, and “keys” and “use” have the same suffix. Then I went “oh that’s why they have english mixed inside an alien language”!

I’ll probably end up finishing the manual translation before I open the game again. As a game should be :)

I’m not gonna lie, I feel like cracking open the language is more fun than some of the puzzles (until I realized the player icon on the map actually updates) and combat (until I found accessibility options).

I greatly appreciate that the devs include options to reduce difficulty. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to complete the game at all.

Now I really want to know how on earth you are going to localize this game.

Just started on the game after finishing Outer Wilds and recommended here, and it seems very good (no spoilers please). I’m particularly interested in the fact that almost the entire interface is an alien language, so I make sure to note down everything just in case at a point I need to translate it… but is this necessary? Because it takes about the same amount of time to note down these as playing the game.