Child of Light Review: Once Upon A Time In Lemuria

 Review

April 28, 2014 By Maya Mayfield

Child Of Light is a throwback to the classic JRPG's but with new school visuals. When Ubisoft had announced they were working on this game, we were all very excited to see just what they would come up with using the UbiArt Engine. Now that we have had a chance to get our hands on the game we can tell you that Child Of Light is a visual masterpeice.

Captivated right from the very beginning with this magical, yet haunting story book introduction of Child Of Light, we are whisked away into the game set in Austria's 1895 where a Princess by the name of Aurora falls terribly ill only to awaken in a world far from her own. Aurora is soon introduced to a firefly by the name of Igniculus and it is from here we begin our adventure. What I first love about Child of Light is the way it reminds me of old fables my grandmother used to tell me and my siblings when we were kids by the camp fire out in the woods. Child Of Light manages to recapture most of that wonderful nostalgic charm I grew up with yet manages to still stay unique and true to Aurora's quest.

Visually, Ubisoft have really out-done themselves on Child Of Light as I stopped at times just to admire the gorgeous details of this living, breathing piece of artwork bleeding through our 60 inch HD screen at the office. The painting style visuals go beyond traditional fantasy-esq effects and we could see that a lot of details had gone into the background. For example the subtle movements of light reflecting of stained glass to steam flowing from factories.  The attention to detail doesn't end there as even the dialog and texts are beautifully displayed with individually conversations highlighted in color.

Beyond the visuals, child of Light is simply a Puzzle Plat-former featuring JRPG combat mechanics. You will participate in a variety of miniature puzzles with your firefly buddy Igniculus. These puzzles could range from lighting up shadowed areas in a particular order to pushing boxes. Maneuvering Aurora around the levels is fairly straight forward, but the game really opens up once Aurora has gained the skills to fly.  (No more spoilers we promise!)

Child Of Light was designed to be simple and fun for most casual gamers to pick up and play. The titles tutorials is easy to understand and available to guide you every step of the way, though hard-core gamers can turn this feature off and increase the difficulty setting to get more of a challenge. Another awesome feature to Child Of Light is the ability to control the firefly Igniculus using a second Dualshock 4 controller. Igniculus can be controlled by a friend to fly around the screen and light up at will. This rather seemingly simple action is more useful than you may initially realize as you can use Igniculus's assistance to figure out puzzles, daze enemies, grab HP and MP orbs during combat and slow down enemies in the heat of battle. If you don't have a friend around to help, you can do it on your own using the cleverly designed right analogue stick. With a little bit of practice you will soon get the hang of control Aurora's and Igniculus's actions simultaneously.

While controlling Aurora you will need to avoid enemy contacts now and then. Your foes are displayed on-screen and coming in contact with them will start a fight. Like many classic JRPG's the element of surprise is included in Child Of Light allowing you to catch unsuspecting enemies from behind. When locked in combat you will find  an active gauge located at the bottom of the screen which moves both Aurora and the battling enemy forward in the shape of a tiny avatar on the meter.  Players can line up various actions from defense, attack, magic spell and using  items, during combat.

The action combat sequences can vary depending on the enemy and selected queued action. If your foes hit you before another action is lined up they can interfere or cancel that attack. One example of a counter attack measure is the sneak attack which stops enemies from pulling of shorter attacks, or interrupt their fast attacks with a counter defensive measure of your own.

Child Of Light features all the classic RPG elements commonly found in similar games from leveling up, increasing time with magic spells, creating a party of various skills and building up your skills and abilities on a skill tree. Those familiar with games like Final Fantasy should be able to easily get into this one as the skills operate in a very similar way. Players will have the option to select which path to work through, with no clear distinction between attack, defense and magic. As you progress through the game you will level up and gain points through completed missions and there really is no right or wrong way to going about this.

Child Of Light Available Now To buy

Overall 

Child Of Light tells a wonderful story in a very smooth presentation guaranteed to keep you captivated from start to finish. Even if the narratives don't particularly move you, we think you will be blown away by the level of detail and uniqueness of each stage, which I found was completely different from one to the other. The game has a decent level of side missions and options to keep you entertained. It may not be to everyones taste, but fans of RPG's will most likely enjoy what we hope is the first of many similar UbiArt developed games from the team at Ubisoft Montreal.


Score 4/5