A tropical open-world adventure. Climb, glide, swim, and sail your boat around a beautiful archipelago in this physics-driven sandbox. Use Tchia's special ability to take control of any animal or object you can find, and Jam on your fully playable Ukulele. A game inspired by New Caledonia.
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6/10
Beauty
I've played many games with better gameplay, better mechanics, and better writing, but I have rarely played a game that exudes as much joy and passion for its subject matter as Tchia. This game is everything that it sets out to be: a love letter to New Caledonia, making it a joy to play, despite its underwhelming mechanics
A very cute albeit flawed, game about exploring a small open world with the ability to possess anything. Loved most of it, but some things feel quite rushed and under utilised, like the different abilities of the animals which are only useful for the (really fun) treasure hunts.
Huge shoutout to the devs for having native voice acting. I love seeing more languages than English spoken in games and it really elevates the experience. Oleti Awaceb for this wonderful little experience.
i don't wanna rate or review this game traditionally cause i didn't get very far, HOWEVER i do need an outlet to say that the PS4 version is very unoptimized and i wouldn't recommend picking up that version. framerates are choppy and character models look stiff. i get that it wouldn't get as much attention as the newer platforms, but also if you're putting out a physical "special edition" of a game it should at least be adequately optimized. this is the console that runs The Last of Us Part II; there's no decent reason why it couldn't run this at stable, presentable performance.
This review contains spoilers
For the developers, it seems that the concept of Tchia came first while the actual game elements came at a very distant second. Exploring the game’s version of New Caledonia is by far the most rewarding part of the experience and it stands out as a wonderful little open world.
While the transform mechanic is exceptional, the game fails to truly expand upon the mechanic beyond being able to shoot things at enemies, a concept that they take from bandit camps dotted around the world, all the way to a gloriously tedious trek through large enemy encampments at the end that sours the experience. The game becomes work, and I honestly just wish they poured all of their collective hearts into the exploration or found ways to incorporate conflict better than standard AAA “clear the enemy camp” tropes.
The story has the quality of an old wive’s tale which I like, though. I just found the game too simple to be drawn out to this length.