I have to be honest: I had never heard of New Caledonia until Tchia came my way. Or better: The name of this place came across to me, but I couldn’t have said what it looked like there and in which direction I had to slide my finger over the map to find it. Thanks to Tchia, a new indie title taking its cue from this group of islands to the right of Australia and roughly halfway between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, I know. And even if this game is far from everything I had dared to hope for after the preview: This knowledge awakens a lot of wanderlust.
It even does so without being overly specific or overly idealizing New Caledonia on its fictional islands. But the way in which the mountains sometimes flow beautifully, sometimes seem to be hemmed out of the sea, how deciduous trees, palm trees and coniferous trees that twist like corkscrews at dizzying heights follow one another, it seems so strange and strange that one would like to see it for oneself once. With his own eyes and not through those of a character. Here the skeleton of a drowned forest, there a mangrove swamp, then a heavenly lagoon filled with corals of every color imaginable. And right in the middle, you as Tchia, who slides down the slopes on the seat of your pants, climbs what your fingers can hold or slips into over 30 animals to control them.
In short: that feels like an adventure holiday, the kind you would have liked to experience every summer as a child with a thriving imagination but without single-minded ambitions. My five-year-old son, who is seriously obsessed with animals and suffers from constant wanderlust, really enjoyed watching me here and I was happy to show him Tchia. Until the story of the liberation of Tchia’s father from the clutches of the island’s ruler, Meavora, took a few extremely sinister turns. Although they had the advantage that you get a strong motivation to put a spanner in the works for the “bad guys”, it certainly doesn’t go down well with every child.
That’s quite unscrupulous, as the antagonists don’t stop at babies and small children, and despite the sunny first impression, it should perhaps only be experienced by children over the age of six. It’s not that much more challenging than a Pixar film and of course a lot (but by no means everything) is good again in the end, but a few mean murder-and-manslaughter scenes come as quite a surprise. So much for warning if you plan on playing tchia with kids.
Another surprise lies in the possibilities that developer Awaceb gives to its protagonist. At the beginning of the year I raved about the cool mobility ideas that Tchia had. Climbing treetops, swinging back and forth, and then flicking yourself through the air is so insanely cool I’d love to see it in every game. You can also glide if you open your parachute while jumping off a cliff. To conjure up the smooth skin of a dolphin in order to circle elegantly under water, or to storm up steep slopes as a deer yourself, which you slide down again at dangerous speed as a Tchia, all of this has its charm. Trouble is, pretty much everything becomes obsolete after wishing into a pooping pigeon for the first time. After that, you only cover each path by flying.
This sort of design problem actually runs almost the entire route through Tchia. It’s definitely fun and effectively wraps you around your finger with its charm and big heart. However, how it takes the sandbox approach undermines the actual game a bit. To stick with the sandbox metaphor, bury some candy and small toys in the box and set out a bunch of tools for you to dig up. But why grab a plastic bucket, hand shovel and watering can when the excavator and wheel loader are right next to you with a full tank of fuel and the key in?
Almost every problem can be solved on the fly, almost every quest by putting yourself in one of the plentiful lanterns and letting the evil stuff demons, their stuff pile nests or Meavora machines explode. Some animals have little or no use and those that do dominate the game. Birds make running as a deer obsolete, digging (dog, wild boar) only makes sense occasionally and if a treasure chest is too chained, I always have a palm thief crab in my inventory with whose claw I can crack it. I wasn’t sure what to do with some creatures. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that a game throws in stuff just for the fun of it, but it can feel a little empty at times. On the main path of the campaign, you therefore play past many systems, mechanisms and abilities. Simply because there are a few that are far more powerful than all the others.
The fact that the enemy stuff beings pose almost no threat and that the first entertaining, but then very uniform fight in the form of different fiery projectiles is far too easy and soon feels like hard work, fits perfectly into the picture. Just like the fact that at the end the use of the slingshot is required, which I had almost forgotten at that point, or that neither animals nor tourists really react to Tchia’s tricks and magic, which are often not entirely harmless. That’s a shame, especially in a sandbox where you’re even allowed to manipulate many of the rocks and stones.
In addition, I shouldn’t forget that the game is extremely collectible and challenging and distributes various things on the map that have little or nothing to do with the rest of the adventure. Some very well hidden, others extremely obvious and only a few, like the stamina fruits or the treasure chests that contain new clothes for Tchia, are really worthwhile. Still, things like the springboards or the racing challenges are fun, although I never found them compellingly motivating. Anyone who likes collecting and ticking checklists, which given Tchia’s relaxed atmosphere is more pleasant in this game than in many comparable games, will get their money’s worth here.
The various music mini-games are also nice. The ukelele, for example, can actually be played quite “freely”. But Tchia’s rhythm game excursions just lack challenge, which is why I often put the game on auto mode here to be able to read the subtitles of the beautiful lyrics.
Tchia for 29.99 euros in the Epic Store or for
Buy 29.99 euros in the PlayStation Store.
A few bugs and crashes, meanwhile, caused me difficulties during my test. Most notably, I sometimes couldn’t move after taking control of an animal and when switching between two monitors, an incorrect aspect ratio was displayed several times until I restarted the game. And – this doesn’t fall under “bugs” – whenever the game wants to depict cities or industrial plants, all beauty falls away from it. Sometimes it really looks as if it was put together from Duplo.
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Tchia test – conclusion:
So although Tchia sometimes seems a bit out of round in a playful way, I can’t help but fondly remember my time with it. It lives from its beautiful landscapes and the cute designed and expressive characters. Meavora looks and behaves like a gloriously nasty villain, while Tchia and her entourage are easy to like. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s probably the game with the biggest heart I’ve played in a long time without coming off as cheesy, over-the-top, or tear-jerking. And although the campaign ended quite suddenly, I was actually very touched at the end (after you still have a few tasks to do).
So yes, ultimately there remains a game that, despite all the considerable possibilities of the sympathetic main character, too often runs the same overall. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun with it. The scenario is fresh and the breadth of Tchia’s abilities is interesting and large enough to get you so deep into the game that you want to finish it. Letting Tchia down is something only brutes have the heart to do.
Tchia – Rating: 7/10
Tchia pros and cons
Per:
- Tchia’s powers and locomotion are a lot of fun
- Nice reference to a far away piece of earth
- Story becomes surprisingly dark and later very touching.
- Nice art direction and beautiful landscapes…
Cons:
- … but very blocky when you leave nature
- Flying and burning let other mechanics take a back seat
- Very collection-heavy and quest design a bit unimaginative
- Little real interactions with other characters and animals
- enemies hardly menacing
Developer: Awakeb – Publishers: Awaceb/Kepler Interactive – Platforms: PC (Epic Store), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 – release: March 21, 2023 – Genre: Action-Adventure, Open-World – Price (RRP): 29.99 euros, included with PS Plus Extra and Premium
