Child Of Light Review

Arriving from Ubisoft, Child Of Light isn’t the typical kind of game you would expect from the French publisher, but is something you will definitely want to see more of in the future. Providing a side-scrolling RPG experience that is beautifully rendered out in the UbiArt engine (Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends), this is a game with a distinct charm and a simple, yet effective set of RPG mechanics that make it a joy to play from start to finish.

Stricken by an illness causing her to fall into a deep sleep, you play as a young girl called Aurora who upon waking, finds herself inside the magical land of Lemuria. All is not well in this land, and with the sun, moon, and stars missing from the sky, the world has become plagued with evil and danger. With the help of Igniculus a friendly firefly, Aurora sets it upon herself to restore the land and rid the world of the Dark Queen, the dark force responsible, in hope that she may wake up out of her slumber and return to her grieving father. The narrative as a whole adopts a Grimm’s Fairy Tale styling to it, with the light hearted fantasy mixing superbly with a genuine element of darkness. The narrative is certainly one of the strongest aspects of the game, with it retaining its own unique identity throughout and constantly surprising with a variety of beautiful locations and interesting characters. Building on the fairy tale foundations, the games speech is presented in such a manner with characters consistently rhyming, and speaking in verse. Though some of these lines don’t flow entirely and can occasionally fall flat, it still serves as a great addition to the games spectacular charm.

Graphically speaking Child Of Light is quite simply stunning, offering beautifully painted characters, environments, and vistas that never fail to impress. It is certainly one of the most beautiful 2D games I have ever seen, and is definitely the best use of the Ubisoft developed ‘UbiArt’ engine. All of the game art fits so well together, with the detailed character designs working well against the backdrop of watercolour environments. The art sparks similarities to illustrations found in old childrens books, further adding to the overarching charm of the entire game. Serving as the cherry on top for the whole audio-visual cake, the games soundtrack is full of surprises, particularly with the games main theme that feels magical no matter how many times you may hear it. If you are anything like me, you may find yourself humming along to its memorable hook as it sticks in your head for days after playing.

As a side-scrolling game, ‘Child Of Light’ easily adopts platforming gameplay and even throws in a slight presence of puzzles within the games many environments. While exploring these expansive areas allows you to gorge your eyes upon the delicious artwork, I found that a few were lacking in interesting gameplay offerings and scenarios. Because you learn to fly at the start of the game, there is no running around, climbing, or jumping involved here, resulting in parts of rather dull level design. There are many pathways placed around each locale, with some being hidden, but these are often wide open spaces that can be easily soared through, showing little signs of challenge or in some cases, even creativity. Though some areas require you to control Igniculus and light up certain objects/switches, these don’t do that much to spice things up. Igniculus can also be used to blind enemies temporarily as to avoid combat, making manoeuvring around the levels extremely easy and stress-free.

When you aren’t exploring the many different locales, you will be spending your time fighting a large variety of different enemies. The games combat system is pretty unique, working along a timeline, with player and enemy speeds taken into account to determine who is the next to act on the battlefield. The timeline is visible on screen and is split up into two states: wait, and cast. When your character reaches the beginning of the ‘cast’ stage, they are given their battle options, complete with the amount of time they will take to cast. Players have to choose wisely on how to act as being successfully attacked during the ‘cast’ stage will interrupt their action, resulting in them being sent back on the timeline. It’s a fun way of approaching turn-based combat, and it certainly manages to retain a good element of tactics, especially when you can use Igniculus to slow down specific enemies to gain the upper hand, and attack before they do. Players don’t just have the opportunity to attack however, and they can choose to defend, use items, swap to a different party member, and even flee from battle should they want to. Typically the combat isn’t too challenging, especially considering that it’s rather forgiving on the player should they make a bad move. The difficulty does spike up considerably after the half-way point, and boss battles are especially tough, requiring the player to think on their toes and utilise multiple party members to take them down.

Throughout the game you will frequently pick up a large amount of characters for your party, all of which differ considerably, providing an expansive cast of characters with their own special skills and abilities. Being able to mix and match between which members you use is key to winning battles, and forming some great tactics. There is a level balance between the types of party members available to you, with some acting as support roles capable of healing and offering extra defence, with others being attackers, capable of weapon attacks and spell casting. To top things off, the characters themselves are interesting too, offering splashes of imagination, plenty of entertainment, and their own stories and unique personalities.

‘Child Of Light’ is very much a casual experience, swapping out complexity for simplicity, though not losing any of the enjoyment along the way. Unlike most games of the RPG genre, this game doesn’t like to dabble too much in the area of stat management, deciding to streamline character progression/customisation to a point where the game is an extremely accessible RPG experience. Players need not worry about the looting or purchasing of new weapons or armour, with the only item equipping required by the player is with the ‘Oculi’, a series of mythical stones which offer specific passive abilities/upgrades to whichever character they are applied to. Up to three of these can be applied to each character in your party, and their abilities are dependent on whether you apply them to your weapon or armour. Oculi are easily found around the land of Lemuria, with multiples of them frequently found in hidden chests. Players are encouraged to craft new Oculi of their own by combining up to three stones at once, always resulting in something incredibly useful. Though players have to discover combinations themselves, the ease and speed of it all means that players need not become frustrated by the process.

It comes as no surprise that a levelling system is put into place here, though as you might expect it is very much a simplified affair. Winning battles awards XP, as does completing certain tasks, resulting in frequent XP gains throughout play. Though each character in your party will level up separately, you will typically find that multiple party members will level up at once, meaning that it’s very easy to keep your party members at an average level. Character stat management is kept at a minimum here, with stats increasing automatically with each level up. As something else to find while exploring, there are stat boosters that can collected and applied to whichever character you want, further strengthening your party. Skill points are earned upon levelling up and are to be spent on each characters specific skill tree. With multiple different paths leading off to new abilities or stat increases, the player has a certain amount of choice in how they want each character to progress, and it’s certainly a rewarding process to battle as much as you can so that levelling up is a frequent event.

Verdict

‘Child Of Light’ is a game that is most certainly deserving of your attention. Though players seeking a deep RPG experience will walk away feeling disappointed, those seeking a casual experience will find a fantastic bundle of charm that still comes out as fun despite its streamlined RPG elements. From its magical storyline, to its beautiful hand-painted art style, Ubisoft have demonstrated a great deal of imagination that is unrivalled amongst most developers.

Positives:

• An interesting storyline set within an interesting world.
• Incredible hand-painted presentation.
• Fantastic soundtrack, with a memorable main theme.
• Fighting mechanics feel unique and fresh.
• Streamlined RPG elements that don’t tarnish the overall experience.

Negatives:

• Some of the environments lack in gameplay creativity.
• Smatterings of dull level design.
• Some gamers may complain of a lack of depth.

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.