I think COVID created a whole new audience of video gamers who want to play games that are peaceful and relaxing. Despite a few gun toting characters, Tchia looks like it’ll be a game that’s not only relaxing, but incredibly beautiful, filled with places to explore and treasures to uncover.
Tchia is an open world third person adventure game. In it, you take control of the eponymous Tchia as she explores an archipelago inspired by the South Pacific nation of New Caledonia. As Tchia you can climb, swim, jump, and glide with a glider that has to be inspired by the one in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Tchia can also possess various animals, which means she can fly, swim and even roll around as a banana if she'd like. At least you don’t have to suffer bokoblins in Tchia, as you explore and do tasks for the locals. There are enemies to fight, but in the preview build I played they were more side activities–though it is possible you’ll have to do a lot more fighting when the game properly releases.
The archipelago in Tchia is very pretty. I spent a lot of time with the preview build just exploring as various animals, and enjoying the sights of the South Pacific inspired vistas. There were a few quests that I could do, mostly fetch and gathering style quests, but I found myself spending my time swimming as a dolphin, or using trees to fling myself around more than I wanted to complete quests.
Tchia also has a surprisingly in-depth system for playing the ukulele. Seriously. You can play different notes, choose to strum them or pick them, and more. You can play for fun, or use the ukulele as a way to change your environment–like changing the time of day, or summoning explosive plants.
Mash together The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker and you can get an idea what Tchia’s open world feels like, at least in the early build I played. I’m excited to explore the world of Tchia and uncover its secrets when it releases later this year.
Tchia will be available for PC via the Epic Game Store on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
An Epic Game Store key was provided to us for this preview