Topic: 🍁 PUSH SQUARE GAME CLUB 🍁 | November | The Plucky Squire ⚔️

Good day to one and all, I hope everyone is having a great Sunday, It’s becoming increasingly hard to stay indoors playing video games. On this day in 1976 Martin Scorsese won the Palme d’Or for "Taxi Driver" at Cannes, which is nice and in 1431 Joan of Arc was accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution so there’s some food for thought when you’re out sunbathing.

Anyway, I digress, if my maths are correct it looks like Tchia has won the vote this month and will be our inaugural Game Club game. The game was a day one release on PS Plus Extra so hopefully most of you have access to it. Feel free to download anytime this week and make a start

Here’s a few bits of information on the game courtesy of HLTB. The game seems fairly short so should be able to fit in comfortably over the course of the month.

Tchia

A Tropical Open-World adventure. Climb, glide, swim, and sail your boat around a beautiful archipelago in this physics-driven sandbox. Use Tchia's special ability to take control of any animal or object you can find, and Jam on your fully playable Ukulele. A game inspired by New Caledonia.

Main Story: 7 Hrs | Main + Sides: 12 1/2 | Completionist: 22 Hrs | All Styles: 13 1/2 Hrs

@Pizzamorg @Mr_B021 @QualityGeezer @KilloWertz @Th3solution @Ryne-Gaia @crimsontadpoles @RogerRoger @Hallowmoonshadow @R1spam @CaptD @Th3solution @ralphdibny @LobsterJohnson

As always, if your name isn’t here and you want to be added, please let me know!

Happy Gaming All!

@AgentCooper Already installed and ready to go. This weather is relentless, bring back winter 😭

Great stuff @AgentCooper will install later.
Everyone else please provide your psn Id to shareplay and obtain "flawless Ukulele playing" trophy for me.
I jest of course*

*Not really.

@AgentCooper Yay that was my choice so glad it won, looking forward too playing it

@get2sammyb @LiamCroft Good Morning! I hope you’re both well? If it isn’t too forward of me, would it be possible to get a wee bump article on the main page to draw attention to our resurrected club pretty please? You are the best either way, thanks gang, have a great bank holiday 👍

If you want to avoid spoilers then when on game selection screen don't press down on the dpad as the very first video on the "latest videos captured on PlayStation" is the ending of the game with the caption spoiling everything (your region may alter selection).
And yes I do have "spoiler warnings" switched on.

Downloading it now. Pretty cool honestly, not sure I would have ever touched this without this club, and that is really what the club is all about right?

How does the format work from here, do I just post in here whenever I have something to say about the game, or are we just taking notes and then all dropping our reviews or whatever the equivalent is at some pre destined time?

@Pizzamorg Yes mate, just post your thoughts as and when, no pressure on progress but we’ll obviously choose a new game for July.

Remember to use spoiler tags everyone when discussing potentially revealing plot points!

I intend to start tomorrow, my sister got married yesterday so currently trying to sit off a champagne fuelled hangover unsuccessfully

@RogerRoger I aim to please 👍 come for the games, stay for the useless information.

Has anyone found out how to deal with the statues? I might be having a dumb moment but just can't seem to figure out how to destroy them and wanted to avoid good old Google!

Any strong first impressions? I haven’t started the game just yet, and it’ll probably not until this weekend until I get a chance, but I’m very curious.

I finished chapters 1-3 yesterday. It’s a pretty game, but a bit of a slow burner. It feels like a combination of an open world version of Never Alone and Disney’s Vayana/Moana universe. I like the sense of exploration so far and how the game takes a different approach with the map, but it might get repetitive after a few hours. The ability you gain seems interesting, especially for puzzle solving. I don’t like the constant stream of notifications/unlocks and the instrument mini games are a bit too long for my taste. It is interesting enough to keep me playing, so let’s see..

@Kidfried maybe I haven't unlocked that yet!! I certainly haven't come across a set piece to destroy one!

@Th3solution you can possess a bird and make them poop, 10/10 bud!!

I do apologise but I haven't started yet, since my sisters wedding been so busy. This was my choice so definitely will start by weekend

I work full time so don't do a crazy amount of gaming in the week, but I fully intend to dip in this weekend and I'll probably check in on Sunday with where I am at with it, if that is cool.

Spent an hour or so with the game today. It’s got something. So far I’m liking it on some level. It’s a bit different than the games I usually play, but that’s ok. I’m thrilled with the Pacific-Islander themes and setting. These cultures are very underrepresented in gaming.

The game is a little lacking in polish, to be sure. The art design has its charm, but the visuals of the first big town I’ve now arrived at are a couple generations behind. Maybe even PS2 with some of those buildings.

The controls are a little weird at times too, and I’m not a fan of the map and the way you can’t see your location on the map except at specific checkpoints. I’m sure it comes down to maybe some technical limitations of the development team, because I can’t imagine why the map would be like that otherwise.

Not to mention, I’ve had some frame rate issues (playing in performance mode) and mild visual glitches already, although rare and brief. But I did have the game soft crash when I got stuck in front of an NPC and couldn’t detach and was effectively frozen and had to exit and restart the game.

@Kidfried Yeah, the music sections were where I noticed the most glitching. I’ve only done two or three but there was a noticeable stuttering during each of the songs.

As far as the other point regarding the chicken, thanks for the trigger warning. I did notice in the settings there’s a option for ‘family mode’ or something like that, the description of which was that it toned down more mature content. I was surprised by this since the game for me so far is extremely kid-friendly. I agree there seems to be a strange disconnect sometimes with what the game is trying to be. I suspect some of this is due to cultural factors, in a way similar to Japanese games having a lot of weird humor and obsession with certain lewd themes. I wonder if the chicken thing is also something that hits differently in the native New Caledonian culture.

I’m halfway into Ch. 4 now and the game is really starting to hit its stride with me. I think I understand it better, and with the powers I’ve got now it makes more sense how the gameplay loop is supposed to be different. I’m quite enamored with the exploration part.

The music is fantastic so far. I love the island tunes and the commitment to the native language. I’m not a fan of reading subtitles, but the longer I’m playing the less annoying it is, since the language adds so much to the atmosphere.