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

Tunic, an indie adventure game that melds influences from The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls into an adorable and mysterious package, has taken over my brain for the past two weeks. Since I last beat any game, it’s been years since I jumped into New Game Plus without even stopping to replenish my water glass. I must admit that I would not have made it to the finish without sometimes using “No Fail”, the game’s default mode.

As much as I have savored the puzzles and sense of discovery in Tunic, I’ve struggled with its combat. The tiny vulpine hero’s sword swings feel floaty, sluggish, and imprecise. The game lacks the laser-like precision of similar combat-heavy isometric games like Hades, where failure always felt like my own fault. In Tunic, I’d often fail combat sequences simply because I hadn’t landed an attack head-on, or dodged in the exact right direction — even though I often felt certain that my button-presses should have done the job. Even after a dozen hours of combat in Tunic and several difficult boss battles, I still don’t quite feel like I have the hang of it.

I don’t blame Tunic‘s development team for this. Andrew Shouldice is the programmer and designer of this game. Eric Billingsley, ma-ko and Terence Lee contributed additional art. Janice Kwan and Janice Kwan also helped to create the beautiful score. Still, the combat design was all on Shouldice, as well as the level design and puzzle ideation. Tunic is an amazing feat, especially when you consider that the team was small.

It’s for that very reason that I’ve felt no remorse about turning on Tunic‘s “No Fail” mode. I didn’t use it the entire time; I’d first explore each dungeon with combat fully engaged, enjoying the rigors of battle and the hardship of failure as I learned my way around. But once I’d gotten the sense of each dungeon’s map, I no longer felt the need to battle every single enemy over and over. I’d turn on “No Fail” and dive into each location’s secrets, not worrying about dying as I unearthed every last chest and power-up.

With “No Fail” turned on, Tunic‘s hero still has to engage in battle, and when they get hit, their health meter still ticks downward. When the health gauge reaches zero, however, the hero doesn’t die; their meter just stays at zero forever while the fight continues. There’s also a setting to turn off the stamina counter, allowing the fox to always have a full gauge of stamina. It wasn’t something I used as much as it was because I loved wrestling with the stamina gauge, just as I did in Dark Souls ). Not having to completely restart helped me enjoy the puzzles and not feel dread.

Tunic‘s puzzles are easily its best asset; in my view, they’re the entire reason to play the game. Exploring every room in search of hidden doors, ladders and pathways was my favorite part. I’d slowly walk all the way around each individual area, inching along bridges to see if the telltale A-button prompt would appear, thereby indicating a hidden ladder to climb onto. My fox was barely visible so I would scramble behind walls in search of the prompt that indicated a secret chest.

The game also has significantly more complex puzzles, like learning certain button patterns to unlock specific types of doors, as well as collecting every single page of the in-game manual and making sense of the mysterious language in which it’s written. The more I played Tunic, the more of its world I unlocked and understood — but, again, I wouldn’t have bothered to play for so long if I’d been dealing with the mushy swordplay that entire time.

I love creating challenges in combat-heavy gaming and learning all the movements that are required to win. Metroid Fear ‘ boss battles were a great challenge for me. I also loved the feeling of accomplishment when I learned all the steps to counter and avoid each attack. But in Tunic, I just never had that experience — and that’s okay. This is not the game’s strongest point and doesn’t have to be. By using “No Fail” mode, I got to enjoy the game’s best parts, and I’m still hungry for more. The game still has puzzles to be solved, but it gave me everything I needed to tackle them.