Tchia Review – A NEW CALEDONIAN ADVENTURE WHICH IS BEST LEFT ALONE!
Tchia is the story about a little girl, of the same name, who goes on an adventure to find her father, who has been taken from her. She decides to travel away from her small homeland and explore the vast oceans to find any leads that will reunite her and her father. This narrative is definitely fascinating, at least at first. However, after the journey away from the island begins, it is not long before the narrative seems to run dry. This becomes really noticeable in a lot of the quests.
As the world is largely inspired by New Caledonia, the devs have attempted to implement quite a few of their cultural aspects into the game. One in particular is the ‘Coutume’, which is the tradition of giving an offering to any person who hosts another. This is largely focused on, and turns the game into a series of fetch quests. Many interactions with people in different areas boil down to this, they want to help you, but you must first follow the tradition. So you go and collect the things they ask for, then they provide you with information. That information often leads to you meeting another group of people, following the custom again, and so on. Because of this, the narrative really just feels like an add on to encourage players to explore the world.
Tchia’s Tedious Gameplay
Seeing as there is a large emphasis on traversal, it is vital for the gameplay to be intriguing and a real selling point. So is that the case in Tchia? Well, not exactly. It is a bit of a mixed bag in this department. The Soul Jump feature, which allows you to take control of any creature, and sometimes inanimate objects, as a way of solving puzzles or just simply traveling the vast islands. This is definitely an intriguing mechanic that I did have a fair bit of fun with.
However, on the other hand, most of the traversal does feel quite slow and tedious. This makes exploring a bit of a chore! Quite often, the game will send you to one side of the map, just for one inconsequential cut-scene or interaction and then just send you back to where you just came from. This quickly takes a fair bit of the intrigue out of the game because even with the Soul Jump mechanic, it just does not feel worthwhile to travel those long distances.
The Intriguing Art Style of Tchia
The art style is definitely the highlight of Tchia! Featuring cell shaded characters, on simply textured backgrounds looks great, and some of the views are quite breathtaking. Plus, I am always a sucker for stunning water aesthetics. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to distract from how empty the world is. Only the occasional collectible will give you any reason to stop traversing to your objective marker. This was honestly quite disappointing, especially given the lovely art style.
Decision
Tchia is a mixed bag that struggles to impress. The lack of a strong narrative, combined with some average gameplay mechanics, leads to a title that is mediocre at best. It really is unfortunate, especially given the potential that can be seen here. However, whilst the visual design is quite aesthetically pleasing, the absence of depth to the world design made Tchia a bland and tedious experience.
By Samuel Incze – Reviewed on PC
Playable
Tchia does initially give players a decent narrative to latch on to. Unfortunately, after a couple hours of play, it becomes quite dry. Tchia’s setting, which is heavily based on New Caledonia, does look stunning, especially with its simple art style. However, the world does feel quite empty, and with traversal often feeling quite slow, there is little reason left for players to take on the chore of seeing the sights.
This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Awaceb and Kepler Interactive. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.
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