“Child. Tuck yourself in bed and let me tell a story
Of Lemuria, a long lost kingdom, and a girl born for glory.”
Let me first say this: I had little knowledge of Child of Light until I saw that one of my favourite YouTube Violinists, Lindsey Stirling, made a promoting the game. The video featured game play footage at the end of the video and there was a glowing blue orb thingy that looked pretty. Even then, I didn’t bother to research or look it up until I made an impulsive buy at my local game shop. It was at an attractive price and was the deluxe version (deluxe versions of anything makes me happy) which came with a glowing key chain and art book.
From the moment I started playing, I was sucked in – not bad for an impulsive buy.
Princess Aurora is sassy. Fact.
Created by the brains at UbiSoft (whom you may know from such titles as Assassins Creed or Far Cry), Child of Light is a multi-platform role playing game that was released last year, 2014. Using the new UbiArt Game engine that was first used in Rayman Origins, it allows the game to be in full HD and run at a nifty 60 FPS.
The game is set in the kingdom of Lemuria in 1895, where you play as a young girl named, Aurora. As you wake from what appears to be a dream, you learn that the Sun, Moon, and Stars of the kingdom have been ‘stolen’ by the Dark Queen aka. Stepmother Umbra. It’s up to you, the player, to help Aurora to reclaim all the light and sparkly things and overturn your very evil Stepmother with the help of your allies and your new best friend, Igniculus the (blue) firefly.
Gameplay wise, It’s very much like your classic RPG with elements of leveling up your characters (which isn’t that bad as the XP gets shared around to alllll the characters in your party, so that’s a bonus!) and unlocking new abilities and skills using the level up points you gain.
The game reminds me of three other RPGS; Chrono Trigger for it’s focus on certain elements such as light, fire, water, thunder, earth and ground as characters tend to ‘excel’ in their element. Aurora, as you might have guessed, is the Princess of Light. Grandia for it’s battle system, having the option to interrupt a enemy’s attack at an opportune moment means winning the battle or struggling through another three rounds. And finally Final Fantasy, in that it lets players equip gemstones called ‘Occuli’ to enable the characters to have certain skills and abilities such as having extra HP or Reducing wait time. This is similar to the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII.
Controlling and camera sense, it’s relatively simple. It’s side scrolling but the thing that was hard to get used to, personally, was controlling Aurora AND Igniculus at the same time – but it becomes natrual with some time.
The overarching reason why I bought the game (minus the reasons I stated at the beginning) was the music and the art style of the game. Video games that are memorable to me either have fantastic art direction and style OR it have an amazing soundtrack that compliments the game. Child of Light is one of the rare games that I have found which had both fantastic art and an equally amazing soundtrack.
The game seems to steer itself away from the realistic and 3D elements that games of its kind seem to focus on and instead uses a watercolour like environment and simple colour palettes. It’s something that I have kind of fallen in love with and is probably the reason why I am still playing it.
My final thoughts for Child of Light is that it’s a beautiful game for those new to RPG games who like a good storyline and action sequences. For veteran RPG players, it’s a good game that sticks to the basics with good balances between storylines, side quests, and action sequences. It does lull a bit in between quests but there is plenty of exploring to do with hidden nooks and crannies to explore.
Child of Light is avaliable on PS3/PS4, PS Vita, Xbox 360/Xbox One, Wii U and Microsoft Windows.
