Like a rolling stone.
It sounds a bit American Beauty, I know, but actually it was a brisk delight.
To be honest, it was a bit of a wrench to leave it and do the school run.
Tchia review
HowTchia, I thought afterwards.
Tchia is one of those games that lives on in the memory after you’re done with it.
But you have this power that allows you to get a grip on it.
The yogurt carton would be right at home.
Soul jumping is absolutely the best thing about Tchia.
And they’re brilliant as well.
But there are lovely wrinkles added everywhere.
It’s how a kid thinks trees work.
It’s a treat.
Tchia’s archipelago is quietly designed around these skills of yours.
There are villages with huts to hop from, industrial areas, and a decent-sized city.
A couple of great islands and a lovely stretch of water around them.
There’s much more territory here than you might expect.
So what do you do here?
Instead, this is pretty intense stuff.
People getting knives in the face (srsly)!
Not all of the missions are like that, and variety is actually one of Tchia’s many strengths.
But they’re all - to me at least - surprisingly intense.
Meanwhile, the islands!
The rocks to embody, the trees to swoop between, the mountains to climb.
Places to have dinner.
Harbours to unlock fast travel.
Pearls to pluck from their cases.
Enemy camps to explode.
Some of it is properly inspired, though.
I loved playing music.
I loved the treasure maps I was given that encouraged me to look for clues in the world itself.
I loved rocking up at a new location and having dinner before sleeping at a campfire.
And that dinner thing is important, I think.
It gets at the special charm of Tchia.
The songs, the languages, the art, the way people live and the things they value.
And the things they eat.
Someone smart once told me that The Odyssey is really a story about how people are greeted.
Odysseus goes from island to island and sees how they treat strangers.
You even make the food in certain cases and find the ingredients.
And end each busy day with a nice dinner, of course.
