By: Robert Murphy
It’s rare that I would pick up a RPG for myself, I don’t
have any hatred for them but it’s just never been my game type but with Child of Light I was very pleased that
I gave it a try again. This charming game unfolds much like a child’s story
book when you were younger and has the beautiful illustrations to match it as
you travel through villages and forests in the land of Lemuria Aurora
who awakes in this magical land when she lies down to rest one night and has no idea how it happened. You must set out and explore this land in order
to find your way back home, fighting dark and powerful forces, solving puzzles and bringing
back light to the land and hopefully finding a way home once again.
Every single aspect to Child
of Light features the hand drawn and water color style art work and it’s
simply fantastic, it makes the fairy tale style of story that much more
enjoyable as you play the game. Disney has
nothing on this story as poor and innocent Aurora is trapped in this land with
no idea how she got there or how to get out and return to her loving family.
Characters you meet and see are just as charming and brilliantly put together
as the world and it is like nothing I have ever played through before, it’s
almost whimsical and it goes without saying that the design work is nothing
short of amazing. The dialogue though may give some of you a bit of an eye
rolling notion and not because it’s a bit childish but rather the fact that
there is a rhyme or forced cutesy style to and while I understand why it was
there the charm of it ran dry with me around chapter 6 of the story.
Now what I often found with the RPG’s that I’ve played is
that they are filled with so many different systems and game elements that just
bog everything down but with Child of
Light things are immensely simple. The combat system boils down to the
normal turn base style of play we’ve all seen before but with a little bit of a
twist and ability to get the jump on enemies with surprise attacks. You have a
little flying partner, a blue firefly named Igniculus, but don’t worry he’s not
going to be a pest like another little blue partner who will remain nameless. He
allows you to stun your enemies with light he emits and from there you can go
around your enemies and move on or attack them from behind, this giving you the early cast
against them. When you enter combat you’ll see at the bottom of the screen a
progression bar with icons of your characters and your enemies and it will indicate
who will attack next. If you get the jump on your enemies or if they somehow
get the jump on you they’ll appear further forward on the bar but Igniculus can
help again with this by shining his light on them and slowing their
progression. You yourself can interrupt your enemies’ attacks by casting first
and sending them back down the progression board and vise verse for your
enemies too. Bottom line though, Igniculus is the man, he is perhaps one of the
best companions I’ve used in a game in a long time, oh and did I mention he can
heal you during battle.
Another stellar aspect to Child of Light is just how free you’re in such a linear type of
game where you mostly progress from side to side like a classic side scrolling
game but this time it’s so much more interesting. Aurora gains the ability to fly almost
immediately in the game and it’s a very freeing experience and well placed to
have here in a linear style of game. Throughout the land there are hidden
chests and collectables to find here or there and while you think diving
through different areas for a chest or item would get old it just doesn’t.
Among the items you will find are various Oculi which are gem like items that
can be used to enhance your characters with a number of abilities and can even
be crafted into more powerful Oculi in the crafting menu. This was a nice
little perk to the game I found and it was very easy to pick up, you can use
these gems on your armor, your abilities and your weapon and each offers an
added bonus to obliterate enemies you will fight along your journey.
Child of Light
gives off such an amazingly charming feel to it from the very beginning all the
way to the end and it just feels like it could be put right to paper and sold
as a kid’s book. The art and design work that went into the game just looks
painstakingly done by an artist and it is all breathtakingly good and can
barely be put into words by how much I loved it. Plus once I was granted the
ability to fly I couldn’t help but soar all over the place, going down caves
and forests looking for every little thing I could get my hands on which was
great fun. You can almost get lost and forget about the entire story while you’re
flying every which way but that makes things even better, you don’t feel forced
at any point in the game and can just enjoy everything Child of Light has to offer.
Good:
- The indescribable hand drawn art work and style
- An easy to use system thats very balanced
- Oculi crafting is fun to tool around with and experiment
with
- Stellar combat
Bad:
- Ugh the rhyming, it just never ends I’m afraid to say
Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10
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