Developer: Ubisoft Montreal | Publisher: Ubisoft | Genre: Platformer / RPG
PS3 | PS4 | PS Vita (Coming Soon) | Xbox 360 | Xbox One | Wii U | Windows PC
Whilst this game is filled with often challenging battles complete with grotesque enemies, it's easy to get lost in the beautiful atmosphere, especially with a soundtrack full of ambience and relaxing tones. REVIEW1
After mysteriously falling asleep, a young girl known as Aurora, the protagonist in this story finds herself in a bizarre world known as Lemuria, which has strangely enough had its sun, moon, and stars stolen by Umbra the Dark Queen. Aurora is given the challenging task of retrieving what has been stolen so she can return to her own world and greet her father once again, who is the king in all of this. The narrative is played out in a storybook style with themes of good and evil, what it is to "grow up", and so forth, complete with spoken narration here and there.
Even before beginning the game, you'll be able to notice the incredible art style, a unique combination of what looks like hand drawn/painted pieces fused with a constant bombardment of visually striking environments and backgrounds, often making you forget you're actually playing a game at all. But this is a game (obviously), a 2-D platformer RPG featuring multiple layers and lots of enemies to keep you busy whilst exploring the vast world of Lemuria.
During the early stages, you'll encounter lots of generally easy enemies in order to give you room to learn the game's mechanics in terms of how to navigate the field and basic battle commands. Enemies can be seen in real-time, however once you interact with them you'll enter a battle mode featuring the active time battle system, which is a mix of the battle mechanics you'd get if you combined Grandia and Final Fantasy X, meaning there is a certain amount of time you must wait before utilizing your command but you are also given an infinite amount of time to consider what your next move should be. Although a single enemy can be seen in real-time, there may be up to three in actual battle, which keeps you on your toes as you might not have expected that to happen at all when initially stepping into combat.
The initial stage of a battle can depend on how you approach an enemy, for example if you manage to sneak up behind them you'll start off in a surprise attack state, meaning you have the opportunity to quickly use your attacks, spells, and skills to win the fight. Or an enemy can ambush you, ultimately leaving you to take a lot of damage early on, resulting in you having to wait longer before you can fight back. This keeps battles fresh and promotes different trains of thought when deciding how to take on the many monsters in the game, which there are a lot of and vary in skill sets, difficulty, and distinctive appearances.
One of the main themes you are reminded of throughout the entire game is that of light versus dark - practically every enemy has a weakness against light-based attacks, but more notably is Aurora's firefly companion; Igniculus. This ball of light is a fantastic tool to help you along the adventure as he has many abilities such as being able to shine his vibrant glow on enemies to slow them down in battle or use his skills to heal Aurora and the rest of her party. Although his abilities are useful, they quickly consume a lot of 'wishes', which are essentially power to keep him going - these wishes can be found in real-time as well as within battle and are advised to collect if you are running low on energy.
There are various puzzles throughout which are way too easy and feel as if they've been put there to shamelessly extend the gameplay, but are a nice addition if you want a break from grinding for experience. No matter where you go, there are plenty of items to collect, whether it's coffers (treasure chests), stardust orbs, which are used to permanently increase stats, or confessions - a less common collectible that give an insight into the world of Lemuria. Not massively important but are worth finding as you'll be able to explore the vast world in detail, rather than heading straight to the end of the game. This is a game that needs exploring properly.
Along the way you'll bump into a whole host of other playable characters, in battle at least. These include Rubella, a Jester who specialises in healing and defence boosting, Finn, a spellcaster who can use his spells to effectively deal with element-based enemies. There are more characters to find but I'll let you do that yourself - each will offer a specific range of skills which are hugely helpful in some way or another. Only two characters can participate in battle at a time, however everyone will gain experience regardless of their involvement.
Like most RPGs, Child of Light is no different in terms of character development - you gain experience from enemies, more from bosses, allowing you to level up and gain skill points, which are used to unlock new skills, abilities, spells, and stat upgrades on a special grid which sort of resembles the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X. Two Final Fantasy X references in one? I really don't mean to. The bosses are visually amazing, and can provide a challenge which will make you thankful you spent the extra time levelling up, or you might end up disappointed at the depressing game over screen if you rushed past potential battles instead of engaging in them. One of the bosses takes its own head off and throws it at you, causing massive damage - it's things like this that make you look forward to fighting the next boss as each is unique in their own way.
Eventually, you are able to fly through the skies, allowing for much faster travel and makes it easier to find those hidden coffers or stardust orbs. Although it's tempting to hastily navigate your way through some parts of the game, it's not advised as there are plenty of environmental hazards such as falling spikes and lava pits, which can cause a lot of damage in a small amount of time if you're not careful.
It needs to be highlighted just how impressive the overall visual style is and the amount of thought and attention to detail put into the environments and sound design. For example, you could fall down a simple well and find yourself in a complex and beautiful underground structure or a basement in someone's house which ends up being a fiery cavern full of lava and undead enemies. Sometimes you need to stop and simply take in the art style because it's rare games are this stunning, but still provide excellent gameplay.
The music is often peaceful and ambient, which is nice to hear when you're flying through the clouds, but it's also nice to hear the environmental audio heard when travelling through a town, for example a busy market town will promote the sounds of people talking in a crowded environment much like a real market. This adds personality and a sense of atmosphere to the already colourful world.
Child of Light is an incredible story that holds its own with a brilliant battle system - that combined with the gorgeous world of Lemuria will keep you engaged for a lengthy amount of time, something which a good RPG should always do.
9/10
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