Tchia Review (PS5) | Push Square

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Developer Awaceb created Tchia as a love letter to its native home of New Caledonia. Though the game itself is set on a fantastical archipelago, it draws deeply from its real-life counterpart in terms of environment and story. It feels really genuine as a snapshot of the culture; its story is heavily rooted in the territory's folklore, and some of the cast and crew are also New Caledonian natives. From members of the dev team, to the voice actors and the soundtrack composers, this game is as authentically New Caledonian as it's possible to be.

Our titular protagonist, Tchia, witnesses her father being kidnapped the day after her 12th birthday. Eventually, she learns that the evil ruler Meavora has him, and she journeys to meet with him to save her father, and ultimately her homeland.

Tchia unlocks many abilities along her journey, the most fantastical of which is soul jumping. She's able to transfer her own soul into any animal or object and control them. This is a really fun element, and can create a lot of chaos, but is also really useful for exploration throughout the world. You can soul jump into explosive items to defeat enemies, or simply get into hard-to-reach places by jumping into a rock and rolling through a gap.

Some of the abilities you unlock aren't quite so unusual, but all have some bearing to progression in the game. Sculpting totems means Tchia is able to unlock totem shrine doors, provided she sculpts the exact same face as on the door. There's a rock-balancing game which unlocks different 'Soul Melodies' that Tchia can play on her ukulele — tunes which all give different effects, from changing the time of day to invoking crabs or birds to soul jump into. Tchia really encourages the player to think