Developer Andrew Shouldice
Publisher Finji
Format PC (tested), Xbox One, Xbox Series
Release Out now
Anxiety of influence is not something that seems to bother Tunic developer Andrew Shouldice. This game declares its inspirations up front with the image that, if we still lived in the days of such things, would surely be its box art: your vulpine protagonist, decked out in green, sword raised high, with a blue and red shield in the other hand. It’s a good thing they are a fox, in fact, or else you rather suspect Nintendo’s lawyers would have come knocking by now.
This is just begins with your amnesic hero waking up on the beach of a mysterious island. Presented from an isometric perspective that makes heavy use of tilt-shift, and rendered with a certain clumpy physicality, it recalls the Switch remake of – though, given Shouldice’s work on predates the latter game’s announcement, this is surely coincidence. The same can’t be said of the quest it puts you on, to unite three parts of a magical relic. Nor of the way combat feels, as you lock on to enemies with a trigger, then alternate between sword slashes and a roll that, in the early going, feels more than a little sluggish. (Well, Link has never been the nimblest of heroes.)
