I really love what Tchia is doing, but I don’t really think the game itself is very good. There are certainly cool parts to it, but as a whole, I do not think it is particularly fun.

The heavy cultural roots of the game are so incredibly cool and a big draw. Admittedly, I had not really heard of New Caledonia prior to playing Tchia, but I love how the game pays tribute to the country and cultures there in ways that can be appreciated by someone like me who knows nothing of it. Gameplay-wise, soul-jumping into animals and random shit is dope. Jumping to a deer to sprint around the world and ragdoll into walls, or fly around as a bird to cover big distances quickly is rad. Don’t have an animal? Jump into a rock and then slingshot yourself into the air by chaining soul-jumps. It’s extremely cool! And I wish the game was just that, but it’s not. It has a boring story, long cutscenes, bad minigames, poor pacing, and a pretty empty world.

As described above, the best part of Tchia is the soul-jumping, but you have to play through a painfully boring 90 minute intro before getting the ability. And the opportunities to use the ability are entirely dependent on the objects around you. At one point I had to traverse through a large swampy area to find an item and the only thing I could possess within the area was a crab. While funny, after 3 seconds as a crab, I realized that my only real option to get where I needed to go was to just run slowly as this small child. And, man, that sucks. When I can be a cool bird or a fast-moving deer, any time spent as the kid just feels that much worse.

I played Tchia for 2 hours. In those two hours, I was introduced to about a dozen new minigames, 5 of which were not good rhythm sections. I love love love that the game used artists from the region to record original music. I do not need to play a bad rhythm game to experience said music. There was also a rock-stacking minigame with shoddy physics, a totem-carving minigame which requires a full restart if you make a mistake, a shooting range, and more. None of it really was worth doing

I wanted to love Tchia so badly. I wanted to experience this culture I was unfamiliar with in a new way, but man I just was not having enough fun to keep playing. I respect the heck out of the dev team for making this game and I’m so glad they did, but I think Tchia could’ve been a better game if the scope was reigned in just a bit.

+ Beautiful cultural representation for a country that never really appears in video games or media in general
+ Soul-jumping is rad as heck
+ Music is lovely
+ Ability to skip any segments you don’t want to play

- Intro is way too long
- Too many minigames
- Bad rhythm sections
- Not enough opportunities to soul-jump resulting in frequent, boring instances of running around as a slow child
- Feels a bit too ambitious for the small team they had

Really great score, great idea, and the best movement system in any game ever!

Playing a Ubisoft style Open World thing without being bogged down by SYSTEMS is just really chill! I'm sure the story is great but I lost interest in it so quickly sadly.

Won't win any awards but it's just really... nice! (Also it's obvs got a great Dev story behind it)

A “cozy” Breath of the Wild” that adds some unique gimmicks to it that helps it stand out. Morphing into objects or animals was cool and you could chain some funny events with it. The story got surprisingly dark and I liked the cultural roots behind a lot of things in the game. Something I really appreciated was the photo mode which had you use a real looking camera where you had to actually develop your photo as well which was a nice touch. Ultimately by the end I was a little burnt out on it but it’s still a good game if you’re into these types of open world games.

After about 30 minutes with the game, I had to give up. It controls so poorly. It feels, and also kind of looks like a game made in Dreams. Not at all what I expected. I understand you get different movement options as you go along, and those seem neat - but I have no desire to play more to get to them. After stumbling around for a bit and reading some dialogue, I was prompted to play an instrument. Cool! Yikes, it was also not engaging whatsoever.

I feel bad because it's clearly a game made from the hearts of the developers, but it plays so poorly that I just can't see anything redeeming about it.

First of all, YES to more unique stories repping the creative teams' cultures and not compromising the details in order to fit a tidy commercial box. 'Tchia' is an absolute success in that regard - the music, the environments, the mythology, the food, all a celebration of New Caledonian culture. That said, this had pacing issues for me that sometimes got in the way of its abundant charms. Lots of trophies, treasures and side quests to clean up, but feels very superfluous to the completed main story.

Fofo, divertido e com uma ótima trilha sonora. Tchia é relaxante em quase toda sua duração, onde o foco é desfrutar de seu mapa e da cultura que ele se propõe a criar e retratar. Sua história é simples, bem humorada e curta, não deixando a bola cair em momento algum. Porém, ele parece querer ser mais do que é, principalmente por sua inspiração em BotW, mas nunca alcança tal ambição. Seu mapa aberto parece grande, mas é bem vazio pela quantidade de mato. A mecânica de assumir objetos e seres vivos é muito divertida, mas só começamos a ter algum tipo de desafio em sua reta final. É um belo jogo que lembrarei no final do ano, mas não conseguiu me marcar.

This is an interesting little thing. It's a game "inspired by New Caledonia" which is neat on paper and I appreciate wanting to do something about where you're from but it kinda fell flat to me. What about New Caledonia are they trying to get across? The game, while inspired by it, actually says they don't reference any part of the people or the culture directly. Instead we get a story about a magic girl who can possess things. That's fine in its own way but when I hear your game is inspired by your culture I get excited to learn more about it. Are there hints of it in the game? Do New Caledonian people like to sing in groups? Are the offerings you make to speak with important people part of New Caledonian culture or is that just the game lore? The closest I got is that the girl speaks in Drehu which is neat but I kinda have to just take the game's word for it rather than them diving deep into it. I just wish they did more with it instead of them hoping I look more into it on my own time after playing this, which is how it comes across.

You might be reading this and thinking I'm being too hard on it for not delving deeper into its inspiration. Maybe it "doesn't matter". That's fine. It felt like it was going to be important to me but let's set that aside. What we're left with is a story about a girl with magic who has to save the land from bigger magic guy. It's a story told countless times and, without the deeper context on how it relates to New Caledonia, is something kinda dull and done better.

So what about the game? This is where I compare it to a few other games that are all better than this one. Mind you, this game is fun enough. I enjoyed playing this mash up of Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey. That's basically what it is. You run around an open world and possess things. The possession mechanic is neat and works well enough. I wish they had been more creative with it though. You mostly just possess things to move them. You can make some animals poop. That's kinda it though. You can't possess people or possess things to move in ways that are unique or add a layer of depth to the gameplay. It's also the only way you can really attack in the game though you aren't in combat very often.

Ultimately it kinda felt like Psychonauts to me. Not with a good story and interesting characters but in the feel while playing it. It was neat to play around with the possession even though its a bit limited. I really enjoyed exploring the island. There's a ton of extra little things to do like time trial races around the island both as yourself and as the animals you can possess, diving challenges, cosmetics to both find and win in claw games. I think the best gameplay part of all were the shrines. Shrines have like enclosed challenges that you have to get past to extend how long you can possess things for. They were a really fun aspect of the game, almost like standalone levels vs the games more open nature.

So yeah, this game is alright. I wish they would have pushed the cultural stuff way more heavily. The actual story is fine but kinda predictable. It plays like less interesting but more graphically polished PS2 game right down to the weirdly long load times. Ultimately fine enough for a few hours if you have PS extra or get it for VERY cheap but not really a thing I would recommend to anyone. It's just kinda there and there's a world of better games to play.

Tchia was such a cute time, with an engaging twist on a tired open world formula. Shapeshifting into basically anything made traversal in the game pure joy. Exploring the island and its inhabitants inspired by New Caledonia has very unique vibes and it’s refreshing to experience something wildly different from the grim and brutal open worlds you usually explore. Tchia does a lot of cool things, but in the end only offers just enough for a rather short trip to its island. That’s not a bad thing, especially in times where open worlds usually are heavily bloated.

An easy game to love, but also a surprisingly easy game to dislike.

The islands look so cosy, the protagonist is cutesy-cool, the animals you can become are lovely (not to mention that the ability to poop as any bird was a great success with the kids), there are many fun little touches (like being able to pick up animals above your head and deposit them in your bag for later use, or how you can dance on your boat while it speeds into a sunrise), and seeing Tchia kiss another girl made my queer-loving heart jump with joy.

And yet when I had taken photographs of a factory for a mission and the game then asked me to take pictures of three more factories, I couldn't help but feel my finger twitching for the “skip gameplay segment” button.

Because the problem is that the game doesn't have much to offer. The story tidbits can be cute, but most of the game is threadbare and just filler, sending you running across the island back and forth on boring fetch quests while filling the map with icons to gather like you’re in an Ubisoft game (and it's just as exciting as you can imagine). The possession mechanic isn't even as fun as I had expected - you can only possess a handful of things and creatures (no possessing a chair that somebody is sitting on), your stamina for possession is limited per day, requiring you to sleep and eat (boring things) to use the most fun mechanic of the game, and even then possessing items is nearly useless, as none of them have any actions that remain fun beyond the first introduction.

But the clearest sign that the game didn't respect my time wasn't even the factory quest, but when I had to talk to another girl to progress the story, so the game sent me to the other side of the island from her home village where I got the quest, and then gave a short cutscene when I arrived which ended with the girl standing up and walking up a path, calling me to follow. The cutscene ended and I didn't see her anywhere so I checked the map to see where she was and she was back at the village where they had just told me to find her here! A backtrack followed, because I was not ready to quit yet; unfortunately that didn't last.

There are things that are legitimately impressive about Tchia, but unfortunately I couldn't love it, and as it left PSN before I could finish it, hence the grade.

And what's worse - I had plenty of time to return to the game before it left PSN; but remembering the factories I still had left to photograph, I just didn't want to.

Tchia felt very inspired by Breath of the wild and Wind Waker, but fell a bit short due to the mechanics of the game not being utilised to its full potential. The game had an amazing mechanic that allowed you to turn into any animal or small object, but you really never had to use it to actually beat the game or solve (almost) any puzzles. Worth playing if you've got ps plus extra. Visuals and music are stunning. This is more of a game for people who enjoy photo mode (and I don't mean that as a bad thing).

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