Written By: Tyler
Platform Played On: PC
See 10 minutes of gameplay here:
http://youtu.be/70Kkn2YOAt0
Rating: 8.5/10
Verdict: Child of Light does a few intriguing things with the format, and is an incredibly polished, beautiful game, but it doesn't stand among the best JRPGs in the world. It's only $15 though, and it could cost a little more and I still wouldn't feel ripped off.
Child of Light is an interesting gamble for Ubisoft. They are known recently for violent, expansive, open-world/sandbox games, and indeed, their next game in May is the much anticipated/eater of worlds Watch Dogs. Child of Light is a Japanese RPG made by North Americans, and it has slipped into existence a mere month before Watch Dogs gets released into the wild. It's very cool to see a company like Ubisoft release a smaller passion project before a big release, and it's especially cool that it's a genre that has fallen off the radar a bit over the years. But is it any good?
In a nutshell -- yes, Child of Light is good. Great even, but not a classic. It will not stand amongst the best JRPGs in video game history, but if there is any justice in the world then it should be remembered as a completely solid side-scrolling, turn-based RPG that does a few neat things with the genre.
You play as Aurora, a sick little Austrian girl who drifts asleep and wakes up in a foreign, fantastical land -- Lemuria. She is trying to get home. Whether it's real or a dream isn't apparent at the beginning, and you mean an odd bunch of characters through the ten hours or so that you adventure through the world.
The plot is interesting and emotional, while being told entirely through poetry. This is an awesome stylistic choice, because how often do we get to see a game where everyone talks in rhyme? Unfortunately some of the dialogue is timed and this can be problematic because of the nature of it -- it's lyrical, so it may take a moment to fully comprehend and the game doesn't always give you the time to understand it.
It's hard to talk about the game without acknowledging the visuals. The hand drawn/painted art style is beautiful and makes it very easy to drift into this wonderful fairy tale. Look in the background and there is plenty going on, or look around you and see how fully realized the entire area is. This game oozes atmosphere on all fronts, and it's an early candidate for visuals of the year.
In fact, I am going to go out on a limb and say that I think the primary focus of the game is creating a rich, awe-inspiring yet believable world. This extends to the music. The music doesn't stand out like some games, but it's solid and always there to compliment the visuals wonderfully with its usage of a lot of strings. It sounds like it belongs in a fairy tale, as opposed to in a big Hollywood movie like a lot of games these days go for.
The JRPG is known for turn-based combat, and Ubisoft has decided to bring that back. However, they didn't bring it back in a bland, unoriginal way. There are a couple ideas here that progress the genre. There is a timeline on the bottom of the screen and you can see who is going to get to attack next. Some enemies/characters are faster so they will move along the line more quickly. You can use spells to decrease or increase speed, and it becomes a battle to see who can get there first. You could just hammer it out and get through the game because it's not that hard, but there are a couple elements to the combat that encourage you to use strategy.
Your blue firefly companion can slow down enemies. He has an energy bar and if you click and hold down the mouse button on an enemy, they move slower along the timeline. You can also use him to heal yourself. This allows you to get a bit of an advantage on enemies, or at least somewhat level the playing field if they're faster than you.
He also ties into the two-player mode, and while I haven't
played it, I can't imagine it's that much fun. He has a few ways in
which he helps, like in combat. But you also use him to reach items,
solve easy puzzles (I'm notoriously stupid and had no issues), stun enemies -- since they can be seen on the "world map"
you can go behind them and get a sneak attack -- and collect healing. The multiplayer just seemed tacked on and unnecessary to me.
There is also importance in going first beyond the obvious reason of just attacking the enemy. You can actually interrupt enemy attacks if you've timed it right, which sets them back on the line. What this means is that you could essentially go an entire battle without getting hit if you plan accordingly and things work out well. Like I said, you don't really need to put this much thought into the combat, but the options are there and it's much more rewarding if you do.
In battle you can also switch your characters on the fly, allowing you to utilize any and all characters since they all have their pros and cons. Some are best at healing, some can caste haste, some are brutes, etc. I always enjoyed this aspect in Final Fantasy X, and it's nice to see it employed again.
There is another way in which the game is like Final Fantasy X, and that's in how you level up. Child of Light essentially has a Sphere Grid, only it's more of a Sphere Grid-lite. There are a couple different ways you can go, but in my experience there's really only one way I wanted to go, except for with a character or two.
You can unlock new abilities, or upgrade your statistics like strength or magic defense. You level up at least every second fight (I'm not kidding), and while that might sound cool, due to the limited nature of level progression, it's not really all it's cracked up to be. There isn't really a sense of accomplishment after you've put a few hours in because you level up so quickly. I get what they're doing by constantly offering growth, but sometimes less is more.
Regardless, due to the fact that you ultimately have a choice with how your character progresses, and the fact that there's a crafting system -- there is a decent amount of depth here. The Oculi crafting system is simplistic and straight-forward, but it does pay to experiment a little bit to see how all your gems can benefit you. In this case, despite how minimalist it is, it's better to have it than not because it adds to the experience.
At the beginning of the game you walk and jump, and it's slow going, but in roughly an hour or less you can suddenly fly. Yes, you can fly... with no limitations except for the map ending. There is no energy bar to prevent you and you never have to walk again. This may seem like a simple thing, but it gives the game a more open feel and it's just beyond cool to be able to take flight whenever you see fit, and travel wherever you damn please (within reason). The game doesn't force feed you where to go, or how to do anything, so you can get disoriented pretty quickly if you're not paying attention, but there's a tip section when you pause that poetically tells you where to go.
Despite how technically sound it is in a lot of ways, it didn't grab me like the best RPGs do. I still really dug it and was into it, but favourite games have a way of burrowing their way into your heart, leaving you with this feeling of amazement (depending on who you are, this is either starting to sound erotic or romantic).
Child of Light is a polished JRPG-lite in a few ways, but in other ways it is near the top of its class (such as the visuals). It's not a long game, and anybody looking for a serious challenge should look elsewhere, but it's also only $15 so you definitely get your money worth.
