Beyond Buttons: A Personal Look at TUNIC’s Accessibility
I wipe sweat from my trembling hands. “This is the run”, I mutter to myself again and again like a mantra. “This is the run…”
I’ve been playing TUNIC recently. If you haven't heard of it: This game was developed by Andrew Shouldice and TUNIC Team (as listed on Steam) and published by Finji. In TUNIC you play as an adorable little fox who explores an unfamiliar world inspired by early Zelda titles. Minor spoilers going forward.
The game is packed to the gills with wonderful puzzles and exploration that make you exclaim: “That was there the whole time?!” I highly recommend giving it a play. It also has what I would describe as (Dark)Souls-like combat. I am much less fond of this aspect.
You see, I was diagnosed with a disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy or SMA type 2 at an early age. I use a power wheelchair for mobility and need assistance with many daily tasks such as cooking meals or putting on pants. (Or trousers if you’re from the part of the world that needs to return some things from your museums)
Practically, that means when I play games my reaction time is on the slower side. My hands also tend to shake like a pubescent teenager buying condoms for the first time. This can cause games with punishing combat to present barriers to play for me. Even in a game like TUNIC, which I think is fairly low on the souls-o-meter punishment index, I can still run into difficulties.
This is where accessibility settings come to the rescue. TUNIC has a couple options that I found tremendously helpful. Firstly, you are able to rebind your inputs which allows me to move, for example, enemy lock on to a shoulder button which, I find much more comfortable. Additionally, there is a “No Fail Mode” where our little fox friend becomes invincible and will no longer take damage. This was particularly useful when I found myself stuck at a gauntlet section later in the game. I’d attempted this gauntlet of enemies a dozen times or more and each time I found my hands giving out before I was able to complete it. I had zero qualms toggling on No Fail Mode and slashing my way forward so I could see the rest of the game. Being able to turn on an invincibility mode allowed me to skip over particularly challenging sections before returning to our regularly scheduled programming. However, I would quickly come across another barrier that wasn't as conquerable.
I found myself facing the final boss of TUNIC. I threw myself forward dodging, slashing and dying. And dying. And dying. Again, and again, over, and over. At this point I had some more advanced skills in my toolbox. I had learned to parry and even found an upgrade that made that critical skill timing easier. It didn't matter, I died again. I rebound block to a face button on my controller making parrying a little easier for me to pull off. Nope, died again. I proceeded through roughly four hours of attempts spread out over a few days.
I had the slow crushing realization that I wasn’t going to be able to do this. While No Fail Mode would allow me to beat the fight, using it in this instance just felt wrong. I was at the final chapter, the final test of my skill. Simply becoming invincible felt like robbing myself of the intended ending to a wonderful story. What I wanted was to slow down the game speed 10 maybe 20 percent making the timing windows to dodge, block and parry just a little bit easier while keeping the rewarding feeling of overcoming a challenge. Alas, TUNIC doesn’t have that option. I wasn’t ever able to beat the final boss myself. I eventually turned on No Fail Mode and delivered myself a hollow victory.
I’m used to not being able to do things in my daily life. Games are usually a place where I have more agency, where I can feel empowered. Having such a beautiful experience turn sour at the final hurdle was devastating. As someone who does game development myself I in no way blame the developers. Getting a game shipped is a small miracle. It's clear the TUNIC team put some great thought into its accessibility, but I think my experience highlights that things can always be improved on. All I want is gamers of any shape to be able to try on their own tunic and see how It makes them feel.
