Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rrp: £11.99
Released: 29th April 2014
Available on Steam and Uplay
Played using: A Xbox 360 Controller
In the lost land of Lemuria the people are suffering and they need a hero, enter Aurora a lost little girl from another land looking to go home. You play as Aurora guiding her through this strange world of talking mice and dwarf like people.
Child of Light is a platformer (sort of) with RPG Elements and a semi-turn based battle system, so a cross between Rayman and Costume Quest. There is a reason I said ‘sort of’ in that last sentence, after a short while you gain the ability to fly (not a spoiler its in several of the trailers), which kind of removes the actual platforming part of it.
Shortly after starting your way through this strange world you’re introduced to your first companion, a firefly. This firefly will be quite possibly the most useful member of your party. For example, in the platforming area you can use his light to stun wandering enemies. In this state they can’t attack and you can slip right by… Or, if you’re like me, you use this to allow you to position yourself for a sneak attack. Its controlled with the right analog stick and can be made to glow with the left trigger. The firefly’s glow has four uses, the first as mentioned previously stuns enemies in the platforming area. The second is used during the combat, if you position him over an enemy and use glow the enemies time between attacks is increased, meaning you may be able to attack before they do. Healing during battle is the third use, hover the firefly over your party member and use its glow and it will slowly heal that member. Lastly the firefly’s glow can be used to solve some of the puzzles by shining its light through coloured filters and positioning the beam of light correctly.
As useful as the firefly’s glow is it uses up energy, the energy will regenerate itself over time or it can be boosted by collecting the orbs from glowing plants in both the battle screen and the platforming areas.
If I had to name a game that the battle system reminds me of it would be the game I mentioned earlier, Costume Quest. Everything from the ability to interrupt a attack to the tactical level you are required to think at in some of the fights reminds me of it. Of course there isn’t any button mashing involved in Child of Light as opposed to Costume Quest.
During the battle screen you can switch out the active members of your party as soon as the portrait reaches the ‘Cast’ section of the combat bar. The change over is instant so accidentally selecting the wrong character is as simple as just re-selecting with penalties incurred.
Some of the enemies that you fight will have different vulnerabilities, some to magic, some to light etc. Usually there is a visual clue to what would work best though sometimes a bit of guesswork is involved.
As with most RPG’s the enemies you defeat give experience points, which eventually cause you to level up. When you do go up a level your character’s stats increase (as expected) and you’ve given a skill point to use in your skill menu. The good this is that once combat is over all members of your party whether they have fought in combat or not receive XP. Meaning that you don’t end up not using a character because they are too low a level to be useful.
Weapons and equipment can be enhanced using the oculi that you pick up in the world or that creatures drop (or buy as DLC a practice I despise, an entry on that subject will be coming soon). They can be added or removed with ease within the Oculi screen and there are clear guides on what effect each oculi has in combination with that weapon or piece of equipment.
Within the oculi window us the option to craft oculi. When you select this you can choose three oculi to meld together to create a stronger version, similar to the way you improve gems in Torchlight. Just as in Torchlight the oculi must be of the same ‘level’ before you can craft them. Note that the oculi don’t need to be of the same type as there are several combinations that will create different types.
Child of Light is a very stylised game everything from its aesthetic to its writing practically drips with personality. Something that I found rather charming is that all the dialog be it written or spoken is done so in rhyme, most of the time it flowed well but on occasion it did stumble, which is to be expected. I actually thought I’d try and write this review in rhyme to match but it turns out its incredibly hard, so I can’t fault the writing for having a few issues.
To me the art style has a very art deco look and feel to it, I particularly love how the whole world seems to be done in what looks like watercolour paint. I can’t be certain if that its just a watercolour effect or if the backgrounds were painted first and then animated over the top of.
As seems to be the case for everything with this game, in a unusual move rather than have a separate window for side quests and that you receive end up in your inventory as pieces of paper and when you select them they remind you of the quest.
There is a fast travel system which can be found in the pause menu called the map of Lemuria, which I’m very glad for because several of the side quests require you to backtrack to area’s you have been to previously and loading times can last up to a few minutes.
I whole heartedly feel that Child of Light is a must for any fan of RPG’s, it has so much charm going for it and I found it to be great fun to play. It also has a bit of replay value because once you’ve completed it a new game plus mode unlocks which does the usual trick of allowing you to start from the beginning but with all your skills, stats and equipment. My first play through lasted approximately twelve hours and the second a further eight or so. On the whole I’m glad I bought this game.
