Tchia (PS5)

Tchia is a game inspired by New Caledonia, and by saying it is just “inspired” rather than a true adaptation of the region and its culture, Tchia is able to provide an interesting look at the people and folklore of a region while still inventing new things that can better fit its specific story. It does unfortunately mean that fact and fiction can be hard to separate at times, the game not quite working as a virtual tour of the region’s land and beliefs. The game comes right out at the start to explain its approach to creating this world though, and even if it’s not always true to life, it is still clear Tchia is tapping into the beauty of a land and its inhabitants and not necessarily in a way all too different to how fiction can be written about other regions.

 

Tchia is the name of the game’s protagonist, a twelve year old girl who lives on a small island only for her father Joxu to be captured by Pwi Dua. Pwi Dua commands strange beings of living fabric as both serve under the current ruler of the island chain, a being called Meavora who looks like a grub given human form. To try and speak with Meavora to request her father’s freedom, she must offer a coutume, a gift of items meant to show appreciation for an action that was undertaken or you’re about to ask for. You’re time exploring nearby islands will mostly hinge around coutumes or fighting against the fabric creatures called Maano, but initially there is a big focus on Tchia meeting new people and briefly engaging with their customs. Many times a newly made friend will lead to Tchia playing along with a communal song and dance, and for a while it can seem like the game is going to be about pleasant vibes as you explore lush islands with little danger and encounter new people. The later half of the game can get pretty dark though, something that becomes a bit clear when you watch Meavora swallow a baby whole rather casually, and it can actually be a bit of a surprise how few punches it spares on further depicting the threat he poses while still disrupting it with odd bits of comedy. Tchia never gets grim or grisly, but it really plunges into some deep lows for its hero after spending quite a bit of time near the start with more casual feel-good activities.

Tchia’s adventures across the islands do often boil down to finding the right items or going to the right places, but the game feels like it has a much larger range of activities than it utilizes for the main adventure. Most any object you find can be picked up and stored in your pack for later, and while not many of them have much use, many objects and even animals do tie into Tchia’s main mechanic of interest: soul jumping. Tchia is able to possess an object or creature and move around as it, this feeling like it could open up a lot of opportunities but the utility of it isn’t as broad as one might hope. The larger islands in the archipelago definitely benefit from this mechanic, taking control of a deer or bird much better for getting around than Tchia’s fairly slow walking speed in areas that often have wide stretches of nothing worth finding. Underwater Tchia can’t breathe too long thanks to a stamina system, but take over a fish or sea turtle and you can get down to treasures and clam pearls safely. Outside of the travel assists though, the main use for this power is against the Maano fabric creatures, but there it’s pretty straightforward. Possess a lantern, gas can, or some other explosive, launch it at a Maano, and they’ll go down easily. Rarely a moment might ask for a specific possession like a crab for a single interaction, but mostly beyond travel and Maano fighting, soul-jumping feels like a system lacking any other purpose besides fooling around as something odd like a coconut.

There are many other activities in Tchia though. You can set sail on your catamaran, although it remains a means of getting to new islands rather than something that ever gets tested or made difficult. You can play your ukelele, which can serve two purposes. You gradually gain melodies with special powers like changing the time of day or making a helpful thing to possess appear, but these feel more like conveniences than something necessary. The music segments where you use a radial to play the right notes in time with some lovely music are able to be a bit tough at times, although for some odd reason the game would occasionally hitch mid-song and lead to notes being missed. The game allows you to auto-play music and doing well is not necessary to proceed, but it is a shame one area where the game was willing to push you to perform well is marred by a technical problem. Clearing out Maano camps, carving tikis to enter vaults, and engaging in timed races around the islands still give you some interactions with some substance, and taking in the sights and pleasant interactions with characters can at least buoy your mood despite how simple much of your activities can end up being.

 

Tchia tries to populate its world with plenty of side activities so your time spent exploring new islands can be more fruitful, but they are a bit basic and straightforward. You start off with pretty low stamina for things like climbing and swimming and there are plenty of stamina fruits out in the world, but they usually only add a single number to your stamina meter. You start with 20 and the maximum is 120, so it can take a while for you to really feel the impact of your fruit finds. Other collectibles like trinkets and pearls also don’t get too much use, mostly used for outfit purchases, and the chests of goodies around the world also contain clothes and customization options for your boat. You do have things like the slingshot shooting ranges where figuring out what is best to shoot does take some thought and a bit of dexterity and rock balancing is rare but involved enough to be interesting, but most activities around the island are just running up to grab something uncontested. It works as a mild deviation on the path to a task of import, but it can be tedious and unrewarding if you’re searching for more to do on an island and most of it puts up no resistance. With even most battles effectively optional, Tchia can feel like it wants to be a world you can get more deeply involved in yet doesn’t know how to populate it, the path through the story working well enough but the many gorgeous locations you want to explore often offer little more than some nice views to appreciate.

THE VERDICT: The gorgeous islands and cozy interactions found in Tchia’s world definitely pull you in enough that some of the darker late game turns hit harder, but while Tchia wants you to take your time to explore its island environments, it feels confused about what to offer to make that task interesting. Most interesting activities like Maano camps don’t change much in design while other collectibles and tasks are too straightforward to really be worth the effort. The soul-jumping mechanic feels like it has so much potential but outside of the novelty of becoming certain objects it rarely gets put through its paces with actual goals, Tchia leaning a bit too strongly on lovely vibes over substantial tasks.

 

And so, I give Tchia for PlayStation 5…

An OKAY rating. One of the biggest disappointments with Tchia was seeing some impressive new environment and realizing how little purpose there was to it. I wanted to dive in and explore a new place, but picking up trinkets of little value and stamina fruits that take too long to really have an appreciable impact makes the lovely locations feel like little more than vistas to appreciate rather than wellsprings of opportunity. Spending time messing around possessing some new bug or object you encounter is fun for a second, but most forms have no use. On occasion the game musters up something, a race where you have to be a bird for example, but broader purposes and flexibility could have really brought the game together. Place a collectible behind a puzzle that requires you to figure out some nearby item’s use or give you more variety in the Maano camps so that you won’t just be hurling fire around like you did every time before, and the optional activities in Tchia could have started to bear the weight the game seems to expect of them. When you are on the story path the plot is pleasant but with some hard hitting moments to flesh it out and the required activities can usually put together or present activities with a bit more substance, but Tchia wants its world to be a big part of the equation and yet it can’t cook up much of interest to do. The inviting lush environments would be a great host for open-ended adventuring and it feels like the design was heading towards a huge focus on that with how many objects can be interacted with, but the minimal follow through means Tchia has to lean more on its plot events that still rarely push you to perform well as if it was trying to accommodate the more relaxed approach to play first and foremost.

 

Tchia can be cute and creative and its world does still hold some wonders even if they’re purely aesthetic ones. The urge to poke around still can drive you even if you’re left aching for more of interest to find, and there are occasional successes to break up the more basic tasks. The soul-jumping is such a flexible concept and yet barely explored, Tchia’s lack of commitment feeling like it holds back what could have been a wonderful adventure if only more time was spent fleshing things out.