Child of Light Review

Review: Child of Light - An Adventure Unlike Any Other

Originally Published on the Official Blast Away the Game Review Page on 5/7/2014

Review by Aaron Johnson

Pros:
- Has an Immersing Story
- Fantastic Soundtrack
- Creative Art style
- Original Combat system
- Open World
- Full of Emotion

Cons:
- Short in the means of length.

Final Verdict: 9.5 out of 10

Final Thoughts: Child of Light is unique in the means nothing like this has been done. It has taken a format of storytelling we’ve only seen in tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and many others only to put it on an interactive medium. It has portrayed itself as one that could set a new trend for fairy-tale like games. Luckily, Child of Light, is one of those games that any one from new to gaming to hardcore in gaming can pick up, enjoy, and not feel disappointed with. It is truly a title unlike any other.

 When I first saw the trailer for Child of Light I wasn’t chomping at the bit to buy it, but an opportunity presented itself to try it out, and so I took it. At the start menu you are greeted with some fairy-tale like music that presents itself as the theme song of the game since you hear it quite often throughout the game and it surprisingly it grows on you. To be quite honest, all the music in the game does.

 Starting the game you are introduced with a cut scene story, of a long lost kingdom of Lemuria and a royal family of Austria, you are introduced to the main character Aurora. It then goes into some back story on her family. Her father the Duke was a widower and raised Aurora alone, after some time the Duke remarried. On an Easter day Aurora went to sleep and never awoke, she was dead. But she woke up in a strange land, upon an alter. She thinks she must be dreaming.

 Now the game play starts with basic controls such as X to jump, left stick for movement. You pretty much wander around until you happen to come upon a tree that is in full blossom, but when a firefly comes out of the tree, Aurora speaks with the firefly briefly; the firefly wants Aurora to follow it to see a lady. oh also the game text tends to rhyme whenever possible. Now having spoken with the firefly, you have been given the ability to control the firefly with your right stick. After traveling for a short while you are presented with a puzzle. Once done with the puzzle that presents itself you enter a door into a chamber with a sword you obtain, and your first combat situation.

 As someone who doesn’t play a lot of RPG’s, I have been able to experience the classic combat system Child of Light uses. It features a few different aspects like the wait/cast timeline, you can control the firefly to either slow your enemies progression on the wait/cast timeline or heal your characters, but the firefly has limited energy as well as the HP/MP counter. To enter combat all that is needed to be done is to collide with an enemy in the open world and there are two ways of doing it, colliding head on with said enemy or colliding when they’re back is turned. Unfortunately you never know how many enemies your getting. Even after beating the game I have yet to master this system, though I did play on Hard my first time through.

 After defeating the single enemy you are called upon by a voice, on the way to discover this voice, you will have a few puzzles to solve and a few enemies to face. Once finding the source of the voice it turns out to be the Lady of the Forest, but she is trapped in stained glass. Now you have another puzzle to solve following a mini boss. When you beat the boss a cut scene follows. It explains what happened to the place that Aurora woke up in. In short a Queen of Light once ruled the land, but one day she and her light vanished. Being taken over by Umbra Queen of the Dark, she sent her daughters to take the sun, moon, and stars. The land was then over run by Umbra’s dark creatures. After the cut scene Aurora and the lady speak, saying she is unable to go home unless she banishes the dark and returns the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and explains where to start. Once finished speaking the Lady of the Forest gives Aurora wings like that of a fairy.

 Now with some knowledge on what to do, where to go, and you know how to use the combat system, you can start progressing through the game. Along the way you’ll encounter companions that willl join your group friends and foes alike, though most have their own missions to complete, along with meeting NPC’s that give you side quests. Overall, Child of Light is unique, and is an adventure any player can easily find themselves spending hours, upon hours, upon hours enjoying.

Graphics: Using the UbiArt engine we’ve seen in previous entries (Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends), Child of Light follows this uniqueness with smooth graphics, a storybook like look, and of course smooth flowing motions that help tell the story through the games atmosphere and locations.

Sound: With a rather enchanting setting, the sound follows through quite well to help players feel spell-bound through this fairy-tale, and there is no lack of creativity that has been presented forth in this title.

Controls: For anyone who has ever played a side-scroller, Child of Light is very easy to control, and allows for even new gamers to take over. From combat, to exploring, the control scheme is very learning friendly.