Okay, I can answer my own question. Using a dynamite stick and dying results in having one less dynamite stick (you don’t get it back if you die).
As far as that shield goes, no idea where it is. Went West and ran into something that I have a page in the instruction books says “use shield” to avoid. Went back east and beat the spiders and that got me nothing except reaching an item in the environment that I don’t AFAIK have the ability to use.
I found a shield but it was not in an obvious place like the sword. Also not sure I could direct anyone back by memory.
Can you spoiler tell me if it to the East or West of the starting position?
No PS5/Switch port. Boooo!
It’s to the west.
When you can get to the windmill, there’s a building near it that needs a key. I can’t remember exactly how I got the key, but it was somewhere around that area. And the shield isn’t right behind that locked door, but that was a step along the way.
This is helpful–thanks. The first key you find is close to that locked house than to the door you eventually use it on, so I started to fear that I had used the keys in a different order than intended and there was a key back in the eastern part of the map that I had missed. I do kind of feel like the level design in this starting area tends to cross its wires a bit; I don’t mind some fuzziness or uncertainty at all, but I keep feeling like I’m getting direct signals that I’m off-track.
Thanks @WhollySchmidt I found it.
The problem I had was that the key is actually under where the big fox guy with a shield is standing. When I killed the fox guy he fell on top of the key and I couldn’t see it.. When I paid more attention before starting combat I could see it there and knew where to look for it. Then it all went fine.
I like this, but so far (still very early, I have the next piece of equipment after the shield) I like Death’s Door more.
The movement and combat in Death’s Door were tighter. Things are improving on that front as I unlock things in Tunic, but Death’s Door felt right from the start.
Artistically they’re both lovely. Tunic is perhaps more striking, and I love the “printed” manual, but overall Death’s Door has the edge for me. That’s very subjective, of course.
What’s keeping me interested in Tunic is the same thing that has me worried. The Eurogamer review I skimmed really emphasized how they didn’t want to spoil anything, and if that means this pays off with some really impressive stuff, that will be lovely. If that means the reviewer was just over the moon for some superficial mystery in the presentation (like slowly revealing the language in the interface. Cute, but is that all it is, or is it in service of some more satisfying revelations later?), well, maybe that’s not so exciting.
In any case I should just shut up and keep playing rather than agonizing too much over impressions this early. If I hadn’t just played Death’s Door I probably wouldn’t be so critical.
I might be reaching my limit on Tunic, we’ll see. I also reached a limit on Death’s Door pretty quickly, and I agree that DD is a tighter gameplay experience, if also slightly less charming. I’m getting a little tired of running the same gauntlet in Tunic trying to just get a little further than last time and make it to whatever reward there might be that will make it worth it. It feels like the game is incentivizing me to just run past most enemies, which isn’t fun. But the bigger issue is that both games feel like they are missing something that makes all the trial and error worth it. I was hoping that whatever is going on with the coded language, etc, in Tunic would be that thing, but we’ll see.
I’m 8 hours in and still really enjoying it. I might get permanently stuck at some point though. Took out the main boss in the West barely with just a smidge of health left even though I had the recommended stats as specified in a page from the instruction book. Mostly I’m just not that good at action games.
I did poke around in the next area in the North and boy, scenery changes drastically!
I haven’t seen any fast travel options (although quite possible I just haven’t unlocked them yet), but that’s one of my main complaints on this vs. Elden Ring. I got tired beating my head against the boss, but couldn’t easily go somewhere else to fight something else. So instead I went at him probably a good 20 times and then finally beat him.
Wow I started out liking the game, but the more I play the more I hate it, and I think the west garden boss is the final “time to move on” for me.
The number of souls mechanics in this game (minus the punishing difficulty) really grates me and makes this a hugely unenjoyable experience for me. You can’t even run past enemies you don’t want to fight again after a bonfire like in most souls games, because they will follow you even across rooms, which means you’ll quickly make matters worse. The extra damage you take when you run out of stamina is irritating (especially when fighting multiple crocs). I’ve enjoyed plenty of souls style games but I 100% do not enjoy the mechanics translated into this style of game.
The instruction manual is cute but infuriating. It has all the hierogliphyics and talks about holding A to rest or w/e, which I have no idea what it means. There are a ton of other random english words mixed in with heiroglyphics that make me unsure if I should be understanding it or not. Getting an item with 1 quantity and not being told what it does is annoying. The dagger I guess freezes enemies but not the boss?
I really don’t find the levels intuitive, and it took me a good while going in circles (even with the map open) to figure out how to even get to the west garden.
I got to the west garden boss but my damage was terrible, which I guess is why they gave a damage offering right before I got to him, except I’d need to farm more rupees (or w/e) in order to get them.
Gotta love flying enemies that can fly where you can’t get them, so you have to waste time trying to bait them back onto the path.
I don’t know, I really was excited for this game based on aesthetics and what I saw, but I’m glad I didn’t pay for it.
You want attack and defense both at 3 before trying to take him on. That’s the recommendation from the “instruction book”.
One of the things that I prefer in Elden Ring is, here you can’t just farm to level up. AFAIK the only way to increase attack, defense, or other stats is to open specific chests in the world. Farming enemies doesn’t actually do much good. Plus its harder to do because there’s no fast travel.
I have a lot of trouble with those flying tiles. Same with the birds.
Well that’s the joy of Game Pass!
I’m still really enjoying it — now at 9 hours. I love the aesthetic.
@KallDrexx or anyone else that wants to explore the world more but is having a rough go of things. Care of Gamespot’s Tunic Review, there’s actually some difficulty settings you can play with if you want an easier time. In the “Accessibility” menu you can turn off Stamina Restrictions which reduces damage and should increase your ability to attack and if you really want you can turn on God Mode by turning on “No Fail Mode”. Gamespot says this does not effect achievements.
huh neat. Didn’t think to look for those
Also if you haven’t seen any frogs, there’s lots of opportunity to strengthen yourself in their area before fighting the West boss. Frogs are in the far south I completely missed them in my initial exploration of the area.
I didn’t have much trouble with the west garden boss, possibly because I just spammed it with the firecrackers that I hadn’t bothered to try on anything else yet. Following that I’m less sure what my next objective “should” be but I’ve found a new area and unlocked some stuff, so I guess I can’t be doing too much wrong. Except then I stumbled into another boss called siege engine and that was a disaster. Time to check out more of the areas I didn’t fully explore along the way.
So it turns out there is a fast travel system. I just didn’t figure it out until I got the right instruction pages.
Interesting, I thought I had tried that, but maybe I wasn’t using them very well.
Huh, I have no idea where that is. If you haven’t already seen frogs definitely find the Frog’s Domain can give hints if you need more guidance. I tried heading north I’ve tried entering the quarry from two entirely different sides and both sides kicked my ass, so I headed back down South for more exploration. There was definitely a bunch of major areas I had missed and I’ve upgraded my attributes quite a bit. Currently I’m fighting a bunch of guys like that really like fire.
Okay well I found the siege engine and that does seem like one tough cookie.
Yeah I think I went pretty much straight there, because I also obviously ran into the enemies that like fire, and unlocked the fast travel, but I’ve never seen the frogs.
I have not taken any time to revisit anywhere in the early areas that might have opened up since I learned about kneeling in front of those silver monoliths.
I’ve been going back for that exact reason. I also now have the ability to use those hooks now.