Devs - respect the player's time! (ENDGAME SPOILERS)

[Baggy]

TL:DR - The lack of any in-game reward for finding everything in this game spoils it.

I think Tunic is almost a great game. The secrets, the game manual mechanic, the music and the atmosphere are all brilliant. However, there is one big problem (at least for me) that puts a huge blemish on all of this...

Since I spoilt Fez for myself years ago, Tunic, having similar mystery vibes, presented me with a second chance to see and receive everything a video-game had to offer knowing that I had earned it.

So I wanted to 100% this one. Out came the pen and notepad and the hours of head-scratching and the frustration and the swearing at why-isn't-this-solution-working blah blah and the ah-ha! moments and the joy of opening the mountain door and the dozens of times hearing that jingle and seeing a treasure chest materialise. It took almost a week but I did it... I translated the relevant text, collected all the secret trophies, made it to the glyph tower, inputted the code correctly and what did I get? Some of you already know.

A link to an website. Yep. That's it. No, seriously.

So why then, after all the player goes through, are they not rewarded in-game, with ANYTHING? Did I have fun deciphering the language, finding the fairies and the trophies? Yes, because I was looking forward to seeing what I would get - a hidden boss fight or OP sword was my hope. If you were to tell new players that they won't get anything for 100% completion how many do you think would bother? I know I wouldn't have.

By taking the player out of the game you break immersion, you haven't let Tunic stand on it's own and I couldn't care less if its promoting some upcoming project, DLC or sequel - The reason I don't care is because I feel my time as a player has been wasted, not respected. So I don't trust you not to do the same again with my time in the future.

Patch something cool into the game for those of us that did what you hoped most players would do. You designed a language in hopes players would be invested enough to try and decode. I did that. You wrote riddles in said language in hopes players would solve them. I did that. You created a trophy hunt endgame in hopes players would complete it. I did that.

For nothing.

[Countersync]

My guess is the intent is a player is supposed to get the 'bad ending' first, deduce what is necessary for a good ending and then they have that.

It sounds like you went right past unlocking the good ending to tackling all of the bonus puzzles. AKA the post-game content. Only you were looking for something other than a fun journey.

PS: I too saw the 100% on page 48 and assumed it meant I should tackle everything... rather than 50%.

[Katana]

If there was some epic boss fight after "The Golden Path", I would have felt bad that players would be locked out from it simply because they didn't want to take the immense amount of time solving it - and having to go online to learn "You need to go here and press these buttons" would have just seemed arcane and really exclusionary.

I'm fine with the journey being its own reward.

[Baggy]

Originally posted by Countersync:

It sounds like you went right past unlocking the good ending to tackling all of the bonus puzzles. AKA the post-game content. Only you were looking for something other than a fun journey.

That's right I did. It was the anticipation of 'what's going to happen when I crack this' that kept me going. Put it this way - I expected something more than nothing you know? Maybe I'm in the minority here.

[Baggy]

Originally posted by Katana:

I'm fine with the journey being its own reward.

I'll have to swing around to this way of thinking if I'm to pick up and play Tunic again - and I'm sure I will in time.

[NatePrawdzik]

I agree completely with the OP. I periodically check reddit or here just in the hopes that they patch something in so that my time wasn't wasted, only to find disappointment.

It's possible to enjoy both the journey and the destination, you know? Apparently, they don't...

[SushiJaguar]

Can't have your cake and eat it too, as they say. Would it've been nice to get, I dunno, an extra special sword for 100%-ing the game? Yep. Did we get that? Nope.

But that doesn't mean the devs aren't respecting your time. It means you're just being a little ♥♥♥♥♥ because you didn't get what you want. Which is fine, if you wanna react like that. Nobody can really stop you from feeling that way. But I think you got plenty of reward out of doing 100% the "proper" way by puzzling it all out yourself.

[Baggy]

Originally posted by SushiJaguar:

But that doesn't mean the devs aren't respecting your time. It means you're just being a little ♥♥♥♥♥ because you didn't get what you want. Which is fine, if you wanna react like that. Nobody can really stop you from feeling that way. But I think you got plenty of reward out of doing 100% the "proper" way by puzzling it all out yourself.

Ha can't argue with anything there - but it was 2 weeks ago and IDGAF anymore - just hope new players don't feel like i did.

[FRΛCTURΞD SOUL]

tbh there might be something more in the futur ? the quote on quote website is nothing more than another clue to something else .. it is just pushing you to search more and more . even if it end up being another riddle at the end , maybe they are building something that dedicated people will search for

as for the immersion , it is just making the game bigger than itself including something that complex should be viewed as a perk

[Yagger]

always funny when people demand their time to be respected

[Imperial_Squid]

Two things:
1) the website with the video is part of an ARG, go find the Finji discord and join the tunic-deeper-secrets channel, it's a collaborative puzzle

2) I think you missed the point of the game anyway. Fez was like this too, the point of finishing the puzzles *is* finishing the puzzles, the point of translating the language*is* translating the language. It's fine if you don't feel satisfied but for me and the vast majority of others the journey along the [[spoiler]golden path[/spoiler] was the whole point! Being presented with s challenge and proving mastery over it, satisfaction with a job well done, that kinda thing

[Nyu]

a guide user made this thread.

[admiral1018]

There is a bit of irony in the fact the final puzzle just refers you to a website. This game references the famous "dip this letter in water" puzzle from Startropics, and that became a legendary point of video game frustration when players would rent the game or play it digitally without the physical manual and would get completely soft-locked without external help (or hours of trial and error). Now, the devs of Runic have created a similar type of puzzle, as the website being referenced will eventually not exist, and the pay-off for distant future gamers who do all this will be immense disappointment.

Maybe not an in-game acknowledgement, but I'll give the OP a giant kudos and nod of respect if he was actually about to complete every puzzle and solve the glyphs without any external help. I questioned if it was reasonable or even possible to expect any player to do that without outside help, but if the OP did that, I am highly impressed.

[Wylie28]

Just a heads up.

Respecting a player time means not making the game take too long.

Not. Rewarding a player for their time.

If you don't feel rewarded for completing a game. Then you just shouldn't do it lol. That is the reward. you aren't a completionist, don't try to be.

[ThatFinnishFox]

If you enjoyed the game while playing, then it wasn't time wasted.
If you didn't... I just don't know why people would play a game, they don't enjoy, to the end.

Just my opinion though.