Tchia is a beautiful tribute to the tiny nation of New Caledonia. The developers have built a gorgeous world that is bustling with personality and quirks attentive to New Caledonian culture. The music and use of native language were aspects I found to be particularly effective. Unfortunately, I did find the overall pace of Tchia dragged at times. In many ways, this charming world is undermined by bloat and haphazardly scattered map markers or upgrade economy. Similarly, the strong and heartfelt story Tchia tells is held back by redundancies in the gameplay loop and sequences that are dragged out without purpose. Traversal in Tchia is also laborious. The game has limited fast travel locations and frequently tasks players with lengthy travel, but does not provide ample means for efficient transportation.
Tchia is an impactful game that I would recommend without hesitation, but the initially charming gameplay loop overstays its welcome. This game truly wears its heart on its sleeve, and is an inspiring tribute to a pulchritudinous landscape and endearing culture.
Tchia is an impactful game that I would recommend without hesitation, but the initially charming gameplay loop overstays its welcome. This game truly wears its heart on its sleeve, and is an inspiring tribute to a pulchritudinous landscape and endearing culture.
6/10
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
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.
Complete playthrough. A beautiful tribute to New Caledonia and its culture, Tchia sadly didn't particularly 'click' with me. There's a decent supernatural story to play through and some emotional story encounters, but the core open-world gameplay overall just felt rather dull. Even making use of the possession mechanics, it takes far too long to travel from place to place, with little of note to find between points of interest. I understand the reasoning behind not including a precise location on the in-game map, being to encourage exploration, but in practice this just leads to a more frustrating experience than necessary - there are other, better ways to achieve this (look at the recent Zelda games, as an easy example) - and led to this being a relatively rare example of a game that I won't be trying to 100% for a reason other than difficulty. There's still a decent game here that I'm sure plenty will enjoy, it's just a bit disappointing to me having heard positive things about it before playing.
What a pleasant surprise. Tchia's designers and artists wanted to include so many things in this game. Chapters often conclude with a musical sequence, the sunsets are always vibrant, and the sailing is blissful. Diving for pearls from your boat would make for a pretty decent small game on its own. So would racing around as deer, a pigeon, or just a person with a glider. While it would have been nice for some of Tchia's many powers to be more relevant to missions, they're all plenty of fun.
Tchia possui vários elementos de Zelda, com uma história bem emocionante, o mapa é lindo e vc com certeza vai se apaixonar por Nova Caledônia e as historias que os personagens contam. A mecânica de se transformar em animais é incrível. Se vc quiser fazer tudo no jogo vai ser cansativo, o jogo possui muitos colecionáveis e pequenos desafios que depois de um tempo comecam a ficar repetidos, mas isso nao anula os pontos positivos do jogo.
Cute and fun, and then shockingly dark at times. It's like the devs looked into my spouse's soul and said, "How could we make a video game with all of this person's favorite things?" There might have been too many collectibles, but that's a minor quibble.
Tchia wears its influence on its sleeve but unfortunately, it does not do anything interesting with it. The main mechanic of possessing animals or objects seems cool at first but there isn't much to it. Throwing possessed objects is pretty fun for a time. It builds its world to be explored based upon your curiosity of what you can see. Not marking your location on the map was an attempt to encourage this exploration which I appreciate but it didn't work well. I mostly just marked everything on the map and then just follow the compass. The activities you find aren't particularly fun and of all the games to have enemy camps to clear out, this shouldn't have been one. I don't want to to be too hard on the game since it was clearly made with passion and features a setting we rarely if ever see in video games. It just didn't work for me.
This review contains spoilers
The movement in this game is so incredibly satisfying. Transporting into a bird, exiting out of that bird mid air, pulling off a triple backflip into your glider and finally landing onto your boat is nothing like I’ve ever experienced in a game before. The fluid movement is where this game truly excels once you master it.
It never reprimands you for having fun either unlike GTA; the game it was clearly inspired by. I don’t get why Rockstar actively punishes you in their recent games for having fun. Remember in GTA IV how you could bail out of a car into a wall and be totally fine? Not the case in GTA V in its push for more realism. Funny given how its story is anything but. Contrast that to Tchia in which very little has the potential to kill you or ruin your fun. Failing a triple backflip is just as fun as pulling it off, watching your ragdoll body fly down a ravine.
This is one of those games that you have to be careful to avoid the activities that would turn it into a tedious checklist hunt. Taking out every enemy camp, collecting all the items and cosmetics, doing every activity, etc. That happened to me with this and so I had to keep my checklist obsessing tendencies reined in by actively finding the fun.
If you can do that, you’ll have a good time with Tchia. I’d say 3 activities were actually very enjoyable: Doing the shrines that all had unique challenges and puzzles, the 16 different races (you mostly race as Tchia but also as a deer, bird, and dolphin), and the treasure hunt.
The main quest is a good time. It starts out as a fetch quest but gets interesting, wacky, and mystical as it progresses. I liked the story that was inspired by the actual folklore of New Caledonia. The ending felt a little weird with how some characters died unnecessarily, but overall good.
The soundtrack is amazing. Had a couple moments that reminded me of the musical journey into Mexico in Red Dead Redemption. Couldn’t help singing along. It’s one of the best ost’s I’ve heard in a long time. Very novel.
Some other minor issues I had are that your backpack space is too limited and can’t be upgraded, the trophies in the game are mostly pointless, the cooldowns for your powers take too long and make travel sometimes irritating, there aren’t enough fast travel spots around the map, and you can’t filter what you see on the map, making it difficult to find stuff sometimes.
It never reprimands you for having fun either unlike GTA; the game it was clearly inspired by. I don’t get why Rockstar actively punishes you in their recent games for having fun. Remember in GTA IV how you could bail out of a car into a wall and be totally fine? Not the case in GTA V in its push for more realism. Funny given how its story is anything but. Contrast that to Tchia in which very little has the potential to kill you or ruin your fun. Failing a triple backflip is just as fun as pulling it off, watching your ragdoll body fly down a ravine.
This is one of those games that you have to be careful to avoid the activities that would turn it into a tedious checklist hunt. Taking out every enemy camp, collecting all the items and cosmetics, doing every activity, etc. That happened to me with this and so I had to keep my checklist obsessing tendencies reined in by actively finding the fun.
If you can do that, you’ll have a good time with Tchia. I’d say 3 activities were actually very enjoyable: Doing the shrines that all had unique challenges and puzzles, the 16 different races (you mostly race as Tchia but also as a deer, bird, and dolphin), and the treasure hunt.
The main quest is a good time. It starts out as a fetch quest but gets interesting, wacky, and mystical as it progresses. I liked the story that was inspired by the actual folklore of New Caledonia. The ending felt a little weird with how some characters died unnecessarily, but overall good.
The soundtrack is amazing. Had a couple moments that reminded me of the musical journey into Mexico in Red Dead Redemption. Couldn’t help singing along. It’s one of the best ost’s I’ve heard in a long time. Very novel.
Some other minor issues I had are that your backpack space is too limited and can’t be upgraded, the trophies in the game are mostly pointless, the cooldowns for your powers take too long and make travel sometimes irritating, there aren’t enough fast travel spots around the map, and you can’t filter what you see on the map, making it difficult to find stuff sometimes.
what a delightful game! a beautiful crafted love letter for the people of new caledonia. while this game repeats the same problems that plague open world games (albeit they thankfully scaled this game much smaller scale so its not too bad), the story and characters what what truly shines. if you have a spare 10 hours, please give this game a try!
A cute, small open-world game that is packed with a lot of ideas and mechanics that, while interesting, often aren't utilized in all that interesting of ways.
Meh
Nice and fresh game. Music excellent. Story good and mature.
Genuinely some of the best movement I've ever experienced, definitely give it a shot.
Très mignon, fait découvrir des plats, la langue, faune et flore
Beauty
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.
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.
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.
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.
did breath of the wild let you rocklaunch and turn into fish and birds and shit no i don’t think it fuckin did
É uma experiência bem gostosinha e relaxante. Além de uma baita mergulho na cultura da Nova Caledônia.
As mecânicas de locomoção e exploração são muito satisfatórias. O único erro é quando tenta criar atmosferas de combate que não funcionam.
As mecânicas de locomoção e exploração são muito satisfatórias. O único erro é quando tenta criar atmosferas de combate que não funcionam.
After 14 hours of playing to 100%, I can safely recommend Tchia for no other reason than the amount of love the creators clearly have for their project.
On the other hand, it's by all accounts an indie Ghostwire Tokyo quality wise. A short, decent campaign centered around the power fantasy of being completely unstoppable, rounded out by hundreds and hundreds of pointless collectibles.
If you're the type to ignore collecting pointless objects, you'll probably like the game, but collectables are the only incentive to actually interact with the games mechanics in a meaningful way, so it's catch 22. There's 33 Far Cry style enemy camps built around a combat system so wafer thin that it gets old by the second fight. Possess jerry cans and throw them at enemies, then run around looking for another. Rinse, repeat. There are some late game unlockables that help a little, but they don't last and have huge cooldowns.
At the end of the day, this game is a must try on PSPlus Extra for the Wind Waker vibes and Mario Odyssey transformation mechanics. Yes, its super padded to complete and kind of shallow, but the story missions are good and there is a shit ton of care and love in this game, which really does help me come away from it feeling better.
I'll take a flawed game with a lot of heart over a polished, jack of all trades AAA grindfest.
On the other hand, it's by all accounts an indie Ghostwire Tokyo quality wise. A short, decent campaign centered around the power fantasy of being completely unstoppable, rounded out by hundreds and hundreds of pointless collectibles.
If you're the type to ignore collecting pointless objects, you'll probably like the game, but collectables are the only incentive to actually interact with the games mechanics in a meaningful way, so it's catch 22. There's 33 Far Cry style enemy camps built around a combat system so wafer thin that it gets old by the second fight. Possess jerry cans and throw them at enemies, then run around looking for another. Rinse, repeat. There are some late game unlockables that help a little, but they don't last and have huge cooldowns.
At the end of the day, this game is a must try on PSPlus Extra for the Wind Waker vibes and Mario Odyssey transformation mechanics. Yes, its super padded to complete and kind of shallow, but the story missions are good and there is a shit ton of care and love in this game, which really does help me come away from it feeling better.
I'll take a flawed game with a lot of heart over a polished, jack of all trades AAA grindfest.
Gamers might not like the feel of the mechanics, but with my seven-year-old, this was a grand slam. Exploring, discovering, finding new things? Quite an achievement for representation and cultural discovery too.
I'll try it again when I feel like I really want to
Like a modern Ubisoft game sandwiched together with a classic Ubisoft game, with cultural spirit and creative, enjoyable design in the middle. It's a pretty good sandwich.
Really cute little game! A ton of fun mobility options with your boat, hand glider, and the ability to become birds, deer, fish and so much more.
Playing a game based on a culture and country that has seen basically zero representation so far (New Caledonia) was a wonderful breath of fresh air, jumping into their myths and experiencing their traditions was a ton of fun.
Speaking of fun, the game has a really silly but effective way of humor, made me laugh a few times and smile a whole lot more.
THe last act unfortunately drags the game down a good bit, in which Tchia moves away from the rewarding, free flowing Island exploration and towards three big weirdly forced stealth and combat encounters, that can be cheesed with your guitar powers (playing your guitar makes cool stuff happen, how much more of a sales pitch do you need) but were still a tedious break from what made the game fun up until that point
Playing a game based on a culture and country that has seen basically zero representation so far (New Caledonia) was a wonderful breath of fresh air, jumping into their myths and experiencing their traditions was a ton of fun.
Speaking of fun, the game has a really silly but effective way of humor, made me laugh a few times and smile a whole lot more.
THe last act unfortunately drags the game down a good bit, in which Tchia moves away from the rewarding, free flowing Island exploration and towards three big weirdly forced stealth and combat encounters, that can be cheesed with your guitar powers (playing your guitar makes cool stuff happen, how much more of a sales pitch do you need) but were still a tedious break from what made the game fun up until that point
This game is a delight, being able to just run around and sale around with basically no "failure" state. Even once there's enemies the worst they do is just put you in a cage that you can immediately escape from anyway. It's an extremely stress-free type of experience. Everything looks great. There are some very killer musical tracks, and the environmental sounds are excellent.
I guess the worst I can say about the game is that the controls are a little wonky, a little too floaty maybe. You don't generally have to do any careful platforming, so it's not a deal breaker for me.
This is an absolutely excellent "short game" experience.
I guess the worst I can say about the game is that the controls are a little wonky, a little too floaty maybe. You don't generally have to do any careful platforming, so it's not a deal breaker for me.
This is an absolutely excellent "short game" experience.
Such a bright and charming little game. Loved sailing around on my raft and exploring the islands, an absolute delight.
It's a charming game with good intentions. Leans closer to the cozy game side of things so there isn't a ton of actual gameplay mechanics in this and those that are do have a few annoyances and problems. But overall, it's a pretty decent little game.
easily one of my favorites of the year. awesome flow state, learning to backflip out of a bird possession and land perfectly on top of a tree is so satisfying and endlessly chill with a bit of weed and a custom playlist. a collectathon that’s more than just a collectathon, each run for a map blip feels like a little self driven adventure.
loved matching outfits to my goals, diving suits and cave exploration beiges. special one here.
loved matching outfits to my goals, diving suits and cave exploration beiges. special one here.