The golden path puzzle is EASILY my favorite puzzle in gaming. It felt like the game slowly built up to it and being able to solve it without help was a momentous occasion

Tunic wins the award for highest density of "You can DO that???" moments in a game I've ever experienced. It was extremely satisfying to overcome all of its challenges and puzzles, but I will say don't feel bad for having to look up a guide. Tunic is a love letter to old video games, and lord knows how many Prima Games Strategy Guides got sold during the early 2000's.

I‘ve never played a game that handles mystery through its mechanics the way Tunic does. Understanding the Holy Cross, deciphering the script, finding the Golden Path… Being able to go deeper and deeper and having revelation after revelation activates something deep and primal in my brain I can‘t put into words, it‘s so exhilarating and satisfying.

This is genuinely one of the best games I've ever played and is probably one of the best games ever made. The music, the secrets, the game design. I cannot express how much I love this game and how much I wish I could play it over again for the first time. I love TUNIC, it's amazing.

I almost regret that i played tunic, only because it has left a hole in my heart that I've yet to fill. TUNIC was one of the most unique, engrossing, and satisfying gaming experiences I've ever had, and I have recommended it countless times since.

The two most important AHA! moments I had was partly the realisation how to interact with the yellow pads AND how to level up. Those two combined made me realise the puzzely depth this game was offering. I LOVE games like The Witness and Outer Wilds where knowledge creates progression. And now Tunic joins that awesome group. It’s not only that knowledge leads to progression that impress me but the real beauty is how this always was there in plain sight, you just didn’t know how to interact or use it to advance or even sequence break the game. Lovely, daring and beautiful game design.

The most fun thing about Tunic is realizing that easily about 75% of the game is open to you right from the start. One of the most common questions from people who recently began playing the randomizer mod for the game is "Wait you can get there? How?" or the many questions about chests that have always been there that they never would have noticed. But the game always provides a way to know: It's subtle, but your character will look at nearby unopened chests! Then you dig even further down into it and find out that there's a SECOND in-game language you encounter many times, from the moment you started up the game right until the end! Even the trailers have phrases of this language in them!

Tunic really invokes the feeling of having to discover things on your own through nothing more than context clues, which I enjoyed having to figure out on my own. Its like a Metroidvania where your progression isn't locked behind what you have,but rather by what you know.

my AHA moment was when i learned about the yellow pads and the obelisks, i kept seeing them and didnt know what they do and when i found out that i could have done those from the beggining i was filled with joy, the same joy i've felt in Outer Wilds. and when i foundout about the golden path i freaked out so much, this game is one of the best experiences i ever had, my only complaint is how hard the language is, i had to look up online to understand but you dont really need to understand to finish the game, i was just very curious

I can't recall any other game that has made me feel like Tunic did in years, such an incredible gem of a game

if we're talking about games with lots of obscure puzzles and hidden mysteries, you should consider talking about Zelda 2!

Tunic is a modern Masterpiece. It expects a lot from the player in boss fights and puzzles. But it also respects the player, it does not hold his hand. Every discovery feels earned, like you cracked the code, so many "Oh!" moments. One could argue that the very fact that this game is actually much more than the standard, simple, indie Zelda clone is part of the discovery, which makes is difficult to recommend to people without spoiling stuff. It does feel a lot like Outer Wilds in this way.

My aha moment: there's a weather vane compass early on, before the East forest. It's in the games native language and had the same four symbols repeated in different variations. I later found the page detailing another area, and saw the same four symbols again repeated. Already suspecting compass directions but now with a map to relate the symbols to the correct cardinal directions, I was able to translate my first symbols and thought back to that weather vane to get my first Holy Cross interaction. It's an early hint for both that gets overlooked by most for being the third or so sign in the language that "it's just too early to understand" and so ppl don't look so closely

The very moment I realized how Golden Path works I was literally deniyng it for a minute or so. The idea that all this piecies was scattered throughtout the whole manual all this time looking just like decorative elements are actually a key to the very last, final, sublime puzzle was way too bizarre. And the way it's done -Some golden lines on minor drawing? -What? -Yellow halo on some of the squares? -You're kidding, right? -Coffee stains? -Oh c'mon! But when after couple of hours I was looking at that door, tapping that hillariously long cipher with trembling fingers and it actually opened... That was THE BEST feelling I have EVER experienced playing a game. That feelling that I myself decoded this actually huge cipher using only my brain, intellect and logic. Finding all of those breadcrumbs in a right place and then assembling it in a right way. It was like in those adventure movies where protagonist finds some old relic, then flys to the jungles, goes to an old temple, figures out how to start an ancient mechanism and finally finds treasure. I was feeling like I'm a hero, who cracked the code only few on a planet can. And it actually is in a certain way. Yeah. This game is one of those things that you can not explain. You can only feel it.

Currently working through Tunic. But it’s a Snoman vid so I know it’s gonna be a banger. I’ll head here afterwards!

How the hell was I ever supposed to find the golden path??? Now I'm exhausted AND pissed off.

I had to use guides to find some of the more obscure secrets (like accessing the true ending) but all in all this game is wonderful. I typically don’t enjoy this sort of game on a second go around because finding the secrets is more fun than knowing them. My way around this is to wait several months (sometimes over a year) after beating a game so I forget most of the solutions and item locations and I can figure stuff out all over again. I played Tunic around New Year’s so I’m probably okay to replay it now

it was when it revealed the golden cross, but the moment when i realized how to open the big door and frantically searched for all the pieces gave me goose bumps with how exciting it was

Tunic immediately became one of my favorite gaming experiences. It was constantly surprising and discovering the solution to the golden path is one of the greatest moments. Hard to cover a game like this in a neat and concise way but you nailed it 🔥

SOO HAPPY YOURE BACK MAN SUCH GREAT IDEA WITH THE 3 WAY APLIT THANKKK YOU MAN IM IN CAMP 1 SO I RLY RLY LOVE THIS STYLE

So I saw this video came out and immediately bought Tunic without watching, because I know we have a similar taste in games. And boy you were right. I just spent two evenings pondering how the secret language works and it was sooo satisfying once it clicked. Over the next day I slowly translated words and little by little by context slowly uncovered more and more meanings to the symbols. To the point that I now don't even need my hand written reference to read it. Now I found every fairy and unlocked the true ending, I was ready to watch your video. I was in for some Zelda action, but this game was so much more, thanks for featuring it.

Funny thing; in 1996, when I created custom Doom1 episodes (18+ designs), I was lambasted, mocked, and cajoled for placing secrets within secret areas. None of the secrets were required to reach the exit to each map; they were meant to offer some additional challenges for completionists. Beyond that, there were ALWAYS hints regarding secrets. Slightly mal-aligned wall textures, different lighting values, or even more obvious clues. More often than not, people's ADD-style running around caused them not only to miss secrets, but some straight-up obvious things. I remember watching one person attempting to play through one of my maps, and they INSISTED that there was a bad design bug because they fell in a hole (shaped like an Ankh). The switch to raise that floor was out in the open and stuck out like a sore thumb (silver switch against brown walls), but it was just above, on a cliff's edge. The map was titled "Ankh Cliffs". 🙄 It wasn't necessary to flip the switch in order to reach the exit, either. 🙄 #MoronsAreCommon

I enjoyed "Tunic". It's a charming adventure which demands you explore and pay attention. I especially liked discovering the Holy Cross, because it was a power I'd always had but never realized. It'll make new playthroughs interesting because I can open paths early. It's a promising trend to use knowledge-gates instead of traditional item-locks or story-gates. The endgame did sour me a bit on the experience though. Some of the Holy Cross puzzles were incredibly long, and I failed them repeatedly while having no idea why. The rotating ones were a particular headache; the game including some sort of feedback that I was starting from the right direction might have been helpful. Using the manual was a novel idea, but when I ultimately gave up and looked up how to solve the final puzzle, I thought "Yeah, I was never going to figure that out."

I'm so glad you made this video. I also became enamored with this game, considering it my GOAT, after playing it. I'm actually waiting for my physical collector's edition to arrive in the mail right now, complete with a staple-bound manual. My "AHA" moment was the weather vein puzzle when I finally worked out how to get the solution. I don't remember exactly the moment I fell in love but I do know that I got together with friends and deciphered the language from scratch with them despite being the only one in the group playing the game. It's my most fond memory of the game and I personally know how you feel about struggling to talk about the game to people who haven't played it. I would like to recommend it more but I don't know quite how to do so because the beauty of Tunic is finding the secrets out yourself.

I played this game like a year ago (even made a video about it) and up until now I could've sworn you already made a video about it lol. Just felt like a game you'd rave about. There was a part in that interview where the dev was talking about giving you that childhood feeling of being communicated with but you have no idea what it's trying to tell you. That really resonated with me since I have strong memories of playing gameboy/n64 games before I even knew how to read. Great video and great game!

This game brought back wonderful feelings of discovery and joy that I felt playing Link to the Past as a kid. One of my fave parts in LTTP, and the first time I felt very clever for solving a puzzle in a game, was figuring out you needed to light the 4 torches in the second dungeon, the Desert Palace, to get to the boss room. This game, Tunic, was like the 4 torch puzzle, but as an entire game! Secrets within enigmas. I had an absolute blast solving everything - I wish I could erase my memory of it and play all over again.

For me the greatest aspect of the game was the isometric map. So interesting to explore

The golden path is the best puzzle ever made in video game history.

Man what a phenomenal game. My only complaint is how short it is. My favorite part, other than deciphering the in game manual, has to be the combat trial at the bottom of the Cathedral.

Excellent video format for a really-difficult-to-discuss game! Thanks for spotlighting this masterpiece

I’ve been putting off watching this video until I played tunic and WOW this game. One of my biggest ‘no way’ moment was, like you, when I understood where the golden path was hidden. The other one was when I discovered the hidden path to the mountain door, coming up from the quarry. I was FLABERGASTED because I had previously trekked all the way up the normal path, doing the usual ‘walking along the walls to see if there’s a secret’ but didn’t do it near the door and got stuck so I just went away… and OF COURSE that was where the hidden path was lmao

That damn quarry shortcut! It was there the whole time and yet I didn't see it! All the isometric shortcuts were amazing.

My moment was that I didn’t understand what the holy cross was, even after getting the page and unlocking the door right next to me (even though it spells it out pretty well for you) but I went to the golden plaque on the mountain side, and out of pure curiosity, decided to follow the lines, and when it worked, I actually screamed

that door at the top of the tower, and discovering each page had a line on it blue my mind!

Spoilers! One of my "aha" moments while playing TUNIC was when I found out that, and I quote myself... "I HAVE STATS!?" And honestly, there are too many others to count. I felt very clever solving many of the puzzles, and I did the vast majority of them without an out-of-game guide. I would only consult a walkthrough when I felt truly stuck, but the information I needed was always there, or I just needed to explore a bit more. One possible exception to this was the existence of fairies. I knew that there were puzzles in places that I didn't know how to solve (Holy Cross), but I didn't know about the number of fairies needed for the good ending, etc. In addition, while I DID figure out what was needed with the Golden Door puzzle, and got the pages necessary to solve it, and even tried writing it out. However, a few of the manual pages are a bit tough to figure out in that regard, and I didn't feel like re-writing that thing over and over again until I got it right, so I did look up the actual pattern necessary to save myself the trouble. So I did take a couple shortcuts here and there, but for 99% of the game I was totally fresh and unspoiled, and it felt incredible. I consider TUNIC to be a flawless masterpiece of game design; it does, in my opinion, exactly what it sets out to do, and pulls it off *perfectly.* That's not something I say about games very often at all. The developers should be extremely proud and I look forward to any future projects that they decide to bless the world with.

Literally playing Dave the Diver in monitor 2 while I watch this because of you.

The waterfall and windmill short cuts were real satisfying and eye opening for me too but the holy cross realization was such a face-palm moment. I'm a couple years too young to have drawn my own map of metroid and don't have huge nostalgia for the nes/snes era. In other words I didn't learn video games on a d-pad and still use it very rarely. I absolutely love video games but and liked Tunic a lot but having the holy cross refer too the d-pad is such hyperbole in my eyes. Sure raises a lot of meta questions about the games narrative that I haven't really seen thoroughly discussed.

I’m just so happy Sno is back

Other amazing a-ha moments include: * Finding the hidden path in the first castle town in Dragon Warrior that leads to a secret area. * The Psycho Mantis fight in Metal Gear Solid. * Fez I guess I'm a sucker for puzzles in games and discovering secrets.

A ton of the secrets in the game just had me saying, "Clever. If only I were more curious the answer would have never needed to be told to me."

I followed this game when it was announce because it looked cute. I had absolutely no idea what I was in for, and I only just played it a few weeks ago. This is definitely one of the most sleeped on titles to come out recently, it is an absolute masterpiece in game design.

You forgot about the fourth category of person, the "I have so many games and have been so busy outside of that, even if I could, I don't have the time to commit to a new game, but could probably visit it in five or ten years", where it's not a problem because I promise by the time I beat those games I'll have forgotten everything in this video except "aye it's a neat game".

More of a "WOW" moment: Learning my character's real name, and reading the full title of the game itself! It took me 50 hours to decipher / learn the language and I had a full table of notes and translations by the end!

Think that I like most about the game is the community resolve to let you figure it out with a nudge. Rather then telling you an answer flat out, they usually give a manual page number. So if you have gotten that far, you can solve it. Only giving direct pushes if you're completely stuck. Wish more would do that, or do what was done in this video.

Tunic is everything I like in gaming, roled into one. I was keeping my eye on its development since I heard Lifeformed from Dustforce was in charge of the OST and thought it was a Zelda clone, and I would be fine with that. The moment I realized it has knowledge based akin to outer wilds and then obscure puzzles like Fez, I was in loved. Easily my GOTY in 2022 and still one of my favorite game ever.

I will wait a few years to forget this information, and then I'll play it.

Weirdly, the game that comes to mind after hearing your last question is Anodyne. While they're nothing alike aesthetically, they both gave me the same feeling of mystery and discovery as if I was an archeologist slowly uncovering pieces of a lost world.

I was recommended Tunic by someone very close to me. I played through the first little bit of the game before without getting super engaged and then life happened and I took a long break. I got back into it fairly recently. My first real “AHA” moment was discovering fast travel, something I figured the game just wouldn’t have. It wasn’t the only time my mind was blown.

Funny, I just released my final video in my Tunic playthrough last week! I admit it was a bit over my head at the end, but I'm pleased with how much I figured out on my own. Now I'm left to wonder if there will ever be a sequel...

My "Aha!" moment in Tunic was in decoding the language. Right away you can tell that it's not a simple letter cipher, so I started taking notes: whenever I'd see some language, I'd try to copy it down. Eventually I figured out a couple of words, like "the" and "hi". From looking at what the buttons do on the controller page of the manual, I noticed that some of the words used there look similar but not identical to words used elsewhere, and I realized that the symbols represent concepts in some way. But no, that's not quite right, is it? I kept trying to figure out what various words were -- there's a page that explains what the fox icon means on the map, which is obviously "you are here", giving me those three words, and I could sorta figure out other words from those -- and eventually I understood what's *really* going on with the language and managed to decode the whole thing to the point that I didn't need to use my sheet anymore and could just read the manual plainly. At one point I even thought the developer was Canadian because of a weird spelling ("aboat" instead of "about", I think). I did eventually have to look up some puzzle solutions like how to get into a particular secret room (there's a button on the wall that you roll into -- I was sure I'd tried that, but I guess I hadn't), but I did almost all of the game myself, including the Golden Path. I thought that part was really cool, but solving the language itself was by far the coolest part for me. I mean, also the process of discovery in general. What a great game. Tunic is up there with La-Mulana, The Witness, and Obra Dinn. (Not Outer Wilds. That game was fine, but it doesn't compare.) I don't know when something like it will come around again.

Snoman, have you heard of a game called Void Stranger? It's a puzzle game that just recently came out and it reminds me a lot of the puzzles in Tunic, but with a narrative kinda like Undertale. It's probably my favourite puzzle game of all time now even if I haven't finished it yet! Highly recommended for you!

Amaizing way to create a video about a game like Tunic, dividing it in 3 parts hahah thanks!!!

Animal Well is a different genre but equally satisfying in game discovery moments!

Tunic really is something else, man

funny. I remember finding your channel not too long before or after I heard about Tunic. It was a game well worth the wait.

I just about gave up on games... thinking I won't find games I enjoyed playing, then I found this. So far I'm loving every minute. I almost didn't play because it looks so Kiddish but it's truly a great game.

Tunic is one of the best games I’ve played in recent years. Its up there with The Witness and Outer Wilds.

So glad this game finally got a physical release. This is the best 2D Zelda that's not titled Zelda.

This was the only game I can recall that literally made me take out a pen and paper for notes to be able to solve the golden path. Really reminded me of playing old SNES games. Exactly what the devs intended. It was an amazing experience to discover for the first time.

My favorite "aha" moment was the language puzzle, with the golden path being a close second. Seeing how it worked made me go "ohhh" and I started absorbing everything I missed.

I remember going "oh hell yeah this game is good" when things started to click, the I started understanding how to decypher the made up language (which is fully translatable although unnecessary) and when the mountain path clicked in my head I went "oh no, the game is good" fully understanding how big of a task it was gonna be

Well, shit. Now I gotta remember to watch this again after completing Tunic...

Such a unique game. The game mechanics were there the whole time but you have to discover they even existed.

thanks for splitting into 3 categories for my category - would love to play but will probably never find the time, but if i do, prefer its not spoiled.

For me it was definitely the pray mechanic. I spoiled the holy cross a little early so it fell a bit short. The golden path was another spot where i cane just shy of figuring it out on my own

Tunic has to be one of my favorite pieces of art ever

I got this game at the same time as two other family members, but I was the only one who beat it, let alone 100%'d it. So it was really frustrating trying to explain to them that the best part of the game starts after you get the regular ending. Another amazing "knowledge=progress" game that people seem to forget about these days is Riven (Myst 2). I finished it for the first time a few years ago and it definitely holds up.

As you said, It is the best game that you can't talk about if your friends haven't played it. Since you want them to also have all the WTF and AHA moments. I accidentally did the gamer move and found the holy cross early but I thought it was only within the room with the turning cube. So I didn't think it was for anything else afterwards. I was so dumbfounded and amazed when I figured it out in the endgame. It's in my top 5 games of all time and I can't talk about it. Also, great format to actually talk about it with your audience. Have a great day and top notch video!

I'll admit, the manual's language was the best part for me. Spoilers, I suppose. I had figured out "north, south, east, and west", while correlating that with the similar "up, down, left, and right". I noticed that these were all only a single symbol each; in fact, many "words" were just one or two of these glyphs big, and most English words are more than two letters, so I figured they represented something larger than a letter, but shorter than a word. I could only hope English was the final result given it was sprinkled about sometimes. I settled on syllables and if it was based on that, I considered the phonetic alphabet, something I had translated from another made up language for an online comic. When I saw the number phonetic consonants and vowels line up with the different variations of glyph layouts I knew I was onto something as syllables are made up of around one vowel and consonant on average. I began to translate the letters one by one starting with what I knew to be the directional words and make my way from there wherever I could guess what a word might be and see if the letters I knew lined up. Like "controls" on the page with the controller layout.

The folder where you can find your saves on PC is named Secret Legend, so that might have been the original name for the game in development. A bit more fitting of a name than TUNIC, although it sounds like a fake game someone would be playing in a TV show while randomly mashing buttons on a controller. Yeah I'm playing Secret Legend, new high score!

Certainly many of the things you mention were notable aha moments. But I was increasingly impressed with the depth of the secrets. So while I sid the stuff you mentioned essentially on my own, the secrets you showed but didn't discuss were more impressive in that they were beyond me. And the secrets you didn't even show/give evidence that you knew about were more impressive still.

Glad to see that you're back. Tunic is a fantastic game. I know the views may seem low, (though, they aren't too bad I don't think) but I do hope that if you continue to make videos, they will continue to rise

The dark tunnel: you COULD attempt it without a lantern. So was I supposed to? Tunic is full of areas you're not sure you should be heading into or better off waiting until you find a certain item/revelation.

Oddly enough I'm currently playing through this game. This game loves doing the teaching you or showing something that you could've done at any moment in the game. I really like accidentally figuring stuff out early but having zero context to it.

I only watched the first third of the video because I was curious about the game as the little fox looked a lot like Link, now I'm definitely gonna give it a try, thanks for the recommendation man.

Just started. So far. So much fun. True adventure game

Tunic is such a wonderful gaming experience that really challenged my expectations at every single turn. What a crazy well designed game.

This is the best game I have ever played and will likely stay the best game I have ever played for decades, nothing compares to playing tunic blind all the way through, every single time you learn something new in this game it's exciting, I wish I could forget all of it and play it again because so much of the game relies on playing it blind.

I recently saw Game Theory's 2nd video on Ninja and Mixer and 1 of the channels that was shown was this channel

everyone knows about Trunic, the written language, but did you know there's also _Tunic,_ the musical language? Game goes deep, man...

Yay! Tunic! Waiting for someone to talk about it. Have you looked into rainworld yet?

It wasn't a question of if Snow would make a video about tunic game design, but when.

Still listen to the ost frequently love it

I got stuck at the holy cross mystery, I’ll admit. I didn’t even know why it was. I had to look up what was up with that. I felt so so stupid. I was chugging along having a great time until then. Once I knew what it was, all the context clues seemed so obvious. I had no choice but to blame myself and respect the game.

There is a place with 3 chests at the beginning of the game, close to the end you just discovered that you robbed the poor fox who was laying outside the place sad and disappointed :"(

How is it the day I buy and start playing Tunic the same day you post a video on it really like your content. And I've enjoyed my time playing Tunic so far.

Yessss i cant wait to finish TUNIC so i can actually watch this but this game needs SO much more love than it gets

Another good video! Keep it up bro

I love the secrets in Tunic, but the fighting is actually bit hard for me to a point it gets frustrating.

I was liking the game, enjoyed some bosses and their challenges, learned way too late how to level up the parameters, but, for some reason, I ended up dropping the game while in the underground, right after the battle with that boss that you featured behind the title card of full spoilers.

I’m enjoying this game very much and reminds me a lot of Brave Fencer: Musashi for PS1 😢

Im eager to hear about this game dude.

Where was the "aha"" moment in Tunic?... My dear gamer friend... practically every single moment of Tunic was just a continuous SERIES of "aha" moments, from start to finish.

I loved the exploration in the game but I couldn't finish it, the combat was difficult for me but not in a challenging way, more in a janky way. I felt like I was fighting the game more than the enemies. I got all the way to the heir boss fight and finished the first phase by spending a bunch of consumables only to realize I was only halfway through the fight and promptly died in 2 seconds. I love difficult combat in many games but for whatever reason tunic's boss fights in particular just killed my mojo. If there was an easy mode to compensate for me not being able to git gud with the combat, I'd absolutely love the game explicitly for the INCREDIBLE exploration and sense of discovery in the game.

When I first played tunic I figured out that if I held the run button while still the fox would do a cute bow. I bowed in front of the checkpoint statues and nothing happens. However there is no partials that shown. Your character only shows particles when bowing until you have gotten the page on your save or a previous one, or have bowed near a tower a hero’s grave or a teleporter. So it was a little sneaky that it did that. If it had particles from the very start I would have thought it was more important.

I'm 10 minutes into the game, and it already feels way more like proper Zelda than TotK or BotW

I’m begging you snoman, do a good game design on hyper light drifter! There’s so much you’d love about it!

I bought the game precisely because of this review, and yet I forgot all about the Holy Cross until I got to that point in the game, so I just started a new save instead of backtracking. 😅 Also, the bottom of the Cathedral was pretty cool. It took me days strategising the best order to take on each enemy cluster to regain health and magic. 👌

Tunic was awesome. Just a really well made video game.

Man, too many moments in this game made me go "AHA" so many times. This game is a treat for those wanting to discover how this game works. And I may have spoiled myself by seeing how the end goes, but I'll forget about it by tonight anyways.