Xbox just released its port of Tchia, a little open-world adventure game that’s earned quite a bit of praise and attention in the gaming world. It won the “impactful game of the year” award for 2023. And its gamemakers have proclaimed that it’s a “love letter” to the indigenous people of the island nation of New Caledonia, where the Awaceb studio co-founders grew up.
The first thing players will notice is that all the fully voiced characters of this game speak in either French or Drehu, the main language of the island’s Kanak culture. (But no worries, it’s all subtitled in English.) And this title kicks things off with a very casual gaming feel before leaping in unexpected directions.
Gamers are introduced to the titular character, Tchia, a young girl living on one of a string of tiny, out of the way islands. Players are called upon to gather coconuts and other items for the girl’s dad; learn to jump from a high rock area and float down with a leafy glider; dive for pearls; sit down for a meal; play a little rhythm-based music game; and generally ease into what appears to be a laid-back casual life on a South Pacific island.
But it soon becomes evident that Tchia’s ocean-bound home is no paradise. For just after wriggling your virtual toes in the sunbaked sand, a henchman for some local overlord, named Meavora, shows up to snatch Tchia’s father away. And it’s pretty obvious that Dad doesn’t want this baddy to see his precious little girl.
Gamers must then set off to explore and find out what’s going on. And they also quickly learn that Tchia has a special power that she was unaware of: a “soul-jump” ability that lets her possess animals and inanimate objects.
While Tchia’s soul meter is full, she can control nearly anything–a gull, a coconut, a crab, a machete, a nearby gas can–and then get it to move around any way she wants. So gamers can travel quickly by leaping from a soaring gull to a scampering dog. They can squeeze into tight spots as a crab. Or tumble down a mountainside as an impervious rock.
The adventure unfolds as Tchia travels the islands and meets lots of people who’ll lend her aid if she simply fulfills some quests on their behalf. And she slowly unravels the mystery of the malevolent and magical Meavora, while striving to find and release her dad.
This is a single-player adventure that does not require an internet connection, other than for an initial download.
Part of what gives Tchia its casual-game feel is its simple but very appealing artwork. Just exploring the game’s colorful and open world among a variety of sunny islands can feel like a treat. And the action is all accompanied by a bouncy and appealing underscore.
The game physics are also flexed a bit to allow gamers to climb nearly any surface—from trees to buildings to sheer mountainsides—as long as Tchia’s stamina meter holds out. Tchia can dive under the ocean and swing on the top of bamboo trees to catapult herself long distances. The key is to creatively use those climbing and swinging skills in combination with the soul jump ability in order to make it past environmental challenges and locked gates.
Once Tchia meets and works with other island residents, she becomes fast friends with nearly everyone. She even has a chance to heal some rifts between disparate groups. Tchia also seeks out magical soul fruit that boost her soul-jump abilities.
The game encourages exploration and even getting lost in its open, sometimes heavily forested islands as a means to find rewards along the way.
For all of Tchia’s colorful and exotic explorations, though, there are times that this game takes unexpected twists. For instance, Meavora turns out to be a malevolent god-like character based on Kanak lore. This evil (albeit human-like) creature unleashes deadly attacks and swallows babies to absorb the infant’s powers.
Those spiritual possession powers—similar to Tchia’s—are never fully explained, and we later learn that the swallowed individuals are still alive within Meavora, but those baby-gobbling visuals could still be unnerving for a younger player.
There are also more violent things happening than what the game’s laid-back opening might suggest. A man’s hand is lopped off by a machete, for instance, and the bone-protruding arm spouts blood. A central character is killed in an explosion. A huge creature’s eye is impaled. A baby is slashed and bloodied with a large blade. And a chicken has its head lopped off, and the bird then runs around, spraying blood. (In fact, that spurting headless bird becomes a running joke throughout the game.)
Meavora creates scores of golem-like baddies from scraps of cloth that will attack and tie Tchia up. She can’t use weapons other than a sling shot, but she can soul jump into lanterns, burning logs and cans of gas to set the golems on fire.
Tchia also starts a friendship with another girl that takes an unforeseen turn. The two best buds become close enough that they eventually voice their loving devotion for each other and kiss. And as the story plays out, we see the two as a couple in later life.
There’s some potty humor here in the form of defecating animals and the like. (Tchia can soul jump into that smelly stuff and move it about.) A character flashes a rude hand gesture.
There is much to appreciate and enjoy in this award-winning adventure game. But its not exactly a kid’s island paradise.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
Our weekly newsletter will keep you in the loop on the biggest things happening in entertainment and technology. Sign up today, and we’ll send you a chapter from the new Plugged In book, Becoming a Screen-Savvy Family, that focuses on how to implement a “screentime reset” in your family!
