Every Way Tunic Is (& Isn't) Like The Legend Of Zelda
The recently released action-adventure game, Tunic, draws some inspiration from The Legend of Zelda series. There are a few clear similarities between the two games, but there are also some important differences that set Tunic apart from Legend of Zelda. While it's obvious that Tunic was inspired in some ways by Legend of Zelda, it's also a unique title that provides its own mix of exploration and secrets.
Tunic presents the story of an adorable fox who must explore and save an unfamiliar land. As the fox ventures into each dungeon, they'll uncover secrets about the world and their purpose in it. By defeating powerful enemies and collecting mysterious objects, players can uncover the secrets surrounding Tunic's story. Throughout Tunic, players may notice a likeness to the Legend of Zelda series.
Like Link, the fox dons a green tunic, and they both have an affinity for pot smashing, but there's a lot more that these two heroes share. The journeys that are taken by both Link in Legend of Zelda and the fox in Tunic convey the struggles a hero faces when setting out alone to explore and save their lands. However, a lot of the mechanics and some story elements differ between the two titles as well.
In both Legend of Zelda and Tunic, there's some disaster or destructive enemy plaguing the land, and the heroes must complete objectives to reach a final confrontation with the main villain. In a broad sense, Tunic's fox relates closely to Link in Legend of Zelda. The premise for each story in the Legend of Zelda series, along with the more specific details of Tunic, obviously differ, but the core concepts are comparable. In Tunic and Legend of Zelda, the heroes must journey through dungeons to find specific items that lead them to battles with powerful villains.
Tunic hides all of the game's instructions in collectible pages scattered across the world, so a lot of the mechanics need to be discovered. Some of the puzzles in Tunic revolve largely around understanding how the game works. For example, there are fast travel platforms in Tunic that can be used from the start of the game, but the instructions for how to activate them are found much later. In Tunic, upgrading stats, maneuvering the fox, and figuring out where to go are all secrets hidden inside the instruction booklet.
Contrastly, the instructions in Legend of Zelda are usually given upfront. There may be some difficulty understanding how to accomplish a goal, but players generally know where they need to go and what they need to do in Legend of Zelda. The series even takes it a step further in some titles, like Ocarina of Time's Navi constantly reminding Link where he needs to go next. Items are also explained when they're unlocked in Legend of Zelda, but the descriptions for Tunic's items are written in a foreign language as an added challenge. The instructions being included as collectibles in Tunic provides players with an incentive for learning the game without any lengthy tutorial sequences like Breath of the Wild's Great Plateau.
Items, equipment, and currencies are all hidden in chests in Tunic and Legend of Zelda. Whenever a new dungeon is tackled, there's an expectation of hidden treasures and new items to find. In Tunic, there are a lot of chests that just contain coins, but important items, ability cards, and upgrades are also obtained by opening them. Legend of Zelda includes similar items hidden in chests throughout the series, and, like Tunic, finding all of them is a challenge. Recent additions, like Breath of the Wild's impossible chest, show the lengths players are willing to go to collect every bit of treasure. In Tunic, there are a lot of chests that seem unreachable, but there are plenty of secret paths to find in order to obtain them.
Supplies are generally easy to come by in Legend of Zelda. There may be times where Link runs out of arrows or bombs at crucial moments, but for the most part, there's not a lot of worry about depleting all of his supplies. In most cases, Link can throw a rock, cut down some grass, or smash a pot to find important items. There are also various shops in Legend of Zelda games where items can be purchased, and the items are usually cheap enough.
In Tunic, items are much harder to come by, and they aren't as easily purchased either. Cutting down grass and breaking pots can earn coins for the fox in Tunic, but there are no bombs, magic refills, or hearts to find that way. Some enemies will drop magic and heart refills, but they are minimal and don't appear during non-combat adventuring in Tunic. Consumable weapons and items need to be found in chests or purchased at one of the few hidden shops for a substantial fee. While Tunic is a much smaller game than titles like Breath of the Wild, features like scarce items can make it just as challenging.
Both Link in Legend of Zelda and the fox in Tunic start with limited equipment and low stats. Upgrading health, stamina, magic, and other stats or equipment capacities is vital to completing each game. For each of the six available stat upgrades in Tunic, the fox will need to offer the correct item to a fox statue along with an increasing fee per upgrade. Tunic's upgrading process is similar to the way Link increases health and stamina in Breath of the Wild in that both characters need to make sufficient offerings to mysterious statues.
A lot of the secrets that can be found in Tunic are locked behind the camera angle. There are hidden paths behind objects and on the sides of tall structures that are easily missed. It's likely that many of the easier paths will only be discovered by first finding where they lead and backtracking to the entrance. Other than using the lock-on feature, there's no way to move the camera in Tunic. Unlike Legend of Zelda, finding new routes in Tunic involves walking off-camera instead of blowing up cracked walls or solving puzzles to unlock new areas.
While Legend of Zelda has some notably difficult bosses throughout the series, overall the bosses are fairly easy. The bosses in Legend of Zelda games usually have specific weaknesses or can only be defeated with certain weapons. For example, in Ocarina of Time, Link could only defeat King Dodongo by making it eat bombs. However, Link doesn't need to deal a ton of damage to defeat King Dodongo, or a lot of the other bosses throughout Legend of Zelda. There are a few tough fights across the series, but Tunic's bosses are more consistently difficult.
The Garden Knight is the first boss to defeat in Tunic, and the fight comes fairly early on in the game. To win the fight, the fox needs to constantly dodge ranged and melee attacks while trying to deal small amounts of damage. It's especially difficult for those that haven't learned how to upgrade their stats yet, since the instructions need to be collected in Tunic. From that first fight, the bosses only get more difficult leading up to a very challenging fight with The Heir. While a lot of inspiration was drawn from The Legend of Zelda series, it's clear the bosses in Tunic were designed to offer a much greater challenge.