Tunic is not like The Witness

[Hairy Phil]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/TUNIC/

In case anyone else is tempted to try Tunic after hearing it compared to The Witness.

I completed Tunic in 20 hours. The first 15 hours were action combat. The final 5 hours were combat-free, spent locating and completing 33 Witness-quality puzzles (20 fairies + 12 treasures + 1 golden road).

Some people claim that both games reveal their mechanics wordlessly, but exploration (not puzzle-solving) in Tunic provides visual instructions showing "press X to do Y". Unless you have difficulty discerning which are the male and female toilets based on their wordless symbols, then this is no different from literal instructions.

For combat, a gamepad is required instead of keyboard, because you'll need to use several buttons simultaneously (lock on, change target, attack 1, attack 2, attack 3, block, dodge, heal). However, there is an invincibility option if you're not interested in the combat.

In summary, Tunic is a good game in its own right, but a mere 33 puzzles after 15 hours of combat barely justify comparisons to The Witness. It's like claiming that an action movie is a musical because the hero sings at the end.