Thierry Boura and Phil Crifo grew up in Lifou, a small island within the territory of New Caledonia. Together, these childhood friends moved to France and created their game developing company: Awaceb. Inspired by their memories and fondness for New Caledonia, Awaceb took on an impressive passion project titled Tchia.
In the words of Matt Miller, editor-in-chief of Game Informer, Tchia is ultimately a “love letter” to Lifou, and a worldwide window to the Kanak culture of New Caledonia. Players play as a little girl named Tchia who sets off on a fantastical journey exploring the beauty and culture of the archipelago whilst on a mission to rescue her father from a tyrannical, otherworldly being.
Initially released in 2023, Tchia can be played on Steam, PC, the Nintendo Switch, and the PlayStation 4 and 5.
A fabric in time
The game begins at an orphanage at some point in the future, where a new boy arrives. He joins the other children around a campfire, while an older woman tells them the tale of a young heroine named Tchia.
Her story begins on Tchia’s twelfth birthday, where she resides on a tiny remote island alongside her father. Joxu, Tchia’s father, is a mysterious man who loves his daughter, and has a passion for cooking and music. The following day, a man named Tre arrives from a nearby island. Tre is an old family friend who often brings Tchia and Joxu various food and goods. He gifts Tchia a tiare flower, which when placed on her right ear, symbolizes that her heart is “free to be taken”. Tchia is ultimately a coming of age tale.
On that night, seemingly out of nowhere, a sky craft descends down. Out pops a henchman of Meavora’s, who is “the God of the Depths,” reigning over the inhabitants of the archipelago. The henchman emerges with several alien-looking fabric soldiers and kidnaps Joxu. In a desperate rescue attempt, Tchia’s right eye glows green and she magically launches upwards, narrowly missing the henchman. After plummeting into the ocean, Tchia wakes up the next day in Tre’s home. Tre gifts Tchia a powerful ukulele, and warns her to leave his island soon. The fabric soldiers are coming for him next.
The world opens up to the player as Tchia departs on her raft, sailing the seas of the archipelago to reach Ga Ngazo hovering above the town Aemoon. She attempts to request a meeting with Meavora, but has to go through all of this red tape and complete “la Coutume” first. La Coutume is a Kanak custom of giving cloths, coins, and other items accompanied with a speech to show respect for a host. Tchia thus sets off and becomes more acquainted with her special “soul-jumping” ability, where she can transmogrify into animals and objects.
Continue playing as Tchia and learn more about her special identity, and rescue Joxu from the clutches of the fabric soldiers.
A hidden gem
Tchia is immersive, stunning, and full of awe and passion. It is a impressive piece of work regarding the small but mighty indie development team Awaceb. The game is massive, charming, and voiced in both French and the native tongue Drehu. The Drehu lines were voiced by locals of New Caledonia due to the struggle of finding professional voice actors who know the language. Drehu is spoken by around 12,000 people!
Overall, the game plays smooth and beautifully. The landscapes are full of color and vitality, and the music only adds to the tropical, comfy atmosphere. Tchia can do many things, from soul-jumping (like Mario Odyssey), paragliding (like Breath of the Wild), diving underwater, using a slingshot (like Minecraft), play the ukulele to alter surroundings (like Ocarina of Time), emote, screaming into the world to mark significant locations, sail the open seas (like The Wind Waker), swap up outfits, and so much more. Yes, this is quite a lot of game mechanics, but each and every one of them are highly enjoyable. It serves as a great mix of human realism and cultural fantasy in respect to the Kanak way of life.
Playing the ukulele around a campfire or near friends is quite a treat. I think this game mechanic is very interesting, as it is more than just button mashing. Players have to rhythmically hit a button in time while also hovering over the correct string/note. If this is too difficult, the game allows automatic play as well.
“Too much water”
While Tchia blew my mind in a myriad of ways, the game might have flown too far from its perimeter of capabilities. The game’s map itself is very large and has a hard time living up to its open-world genre. This is namely because of its lack of side quests to give Tchia ulterior purposes aside from the main storyline, aside from the player’s own curiosity to explore the landscapes. I dedicated several extra hours to the 12ish hour-long game to dillydallying, collecting, and observing all the areas I can.
On the same note, most methods of in-game travel are clunky and slow. The boat Tchia sails on to get from each island feels heavy, making controlling it not very fun or efficient. Tchia herself cannot dash either. There are very few spots to fast travel, and sometimes Tchia might go faster if she soul-jumps to a speedy animal or a far-launching object. I will say, it was very humorous to control Tchia as a speedy deer or a stampeding boar.
Again, with the map, it is really difficult to identify where exactly the player is. There is an option to press “Where am I?” on the map . . . yet it still fails to be specific. A little chalk drawing of Tchia appears on the map but it is very large, covering a general area of where you could be in relation to your objective. The drawing does not move as you move either. I had to greatly rely on my compass or wait until a cutscene suddenly happened to know that I was close to where I was supposed to be.
I suppose there was uncertainty in determining whether Tchia was going to be a comfy linear game or an open-world sandbox. It is certainly both, but does not excel at either idea. It could help if there were either more optional side quests to do, or just narrow the scope of the map to allow for an easier time getting through the story.
Final thoughts
Tchia took me by surprise, and ended up as a whimsical visual and musical product full of beauty and joy. Tchia herself is a great protagonist who is trying to understand herself and her role as a powerful being hoping to rescue her father. The mix of languages, the expansiveness of each town and biome, and the plentiful activities to do are wonderfully captivating. I cannot recommend this game enough.
These developers have set an inspiring precedent. It would be lovely to see more anthropological video games to allow people worldwide to become acquainted with unfamiliar cultures. Overall, I think that Tchia is a gem that needs more spotlight, regardless of its shortcomings.
