Title: Child of Light
Released: between April to September of 2014
Story: You play Aurora, a little girl that has fallen ill. Apparently, the story itself supposedly leads you to believe that Aurora died, but it deviates in saying that, instead of dying, she ends up in Lemuria, a fantastical land different from the realistic world in which she came from. She is scared and afraid, unsure of where she is and how she got here, yet she is compelled to venture into the nearby forest. It is through here that she learns of a plight on the land and her immediate involvement. She has to recover the stars, the moon, and the sun of Lemuria if she wants to return back to her father, who has become bedridden with grief over the loss of his fair Aurora.
As Aurora journeys through the land of Lemuria, she encounters dark creatures, servants of the Queen of Night, who was the one that took the sun, stars, and moon out of the sky in the first place. In undoing what has been done on the land, she befriends the citizens and fights alongside them. What is unique is that most of the phrasing and script is written in a rhyming prose akin to traditional poetry. Of course, there are some characters that break that flow, but it adds some hilarity to the otherwise tense atmosphere that Aurora finds herself in.
Gameplay: The game plays out on a traditional 2D side-scrolling stage across several different locations. Once you interact with any of the shadow creatures, you are drawn into a battle with Aurora and, should you be far enough, your companions. It is a battle of two versus one to four enemies in an active time battle bar system. By ATB bar system, I mean that everyone's speed is gauged appropriately, and as they progress across the single bar to a specific point, it allows people to choose commands and plan accordingly. In fact, this is where battle strategy comes up, as it makes it so you have to plan your skills and their casting time accordingly to make the most of the battle in your favor.
Many of the battles and elements of combat are extremely repetitive at times, and it can be rather easy to level up. You might find that, even on lower difficulties, some of the bosses may still kick your butt around without proper planning and strategies, though. But from levelling, you're also given skill points to invest in stat increases, skills, and upgrades to those skills. You will have to rotate through your sidekicks as certain abilities can only be used by specific individuals, and the culmination of these abilities really makes the system that much more encompassing. Everyone gets equal time in a proper fight.
Sound: There really isn't a long list of music to think of with the game. The bits that are given music is very soft, very mystical and exotic, almost in a classical sense. If anything, classical music lends to this a more realistic approach to the ties it has in the real world, with Aurora able to glance upon her father repeatedly throughout the game. I actually liked this as opposed to some other type of music being played. The battle track does kind of get a bit repetitive though, especially when you're clearing the scenes out to try and level up. But the boss music is definitely epic and worth a listen every now and then.
Additional: The rhyming of dialogue and the story is definitely worth taking the time to read it, as it's not voice-acted, and the battle system is definitely taking an old-time formula and adding in a unique flair to the game itself. It does seem rather short, and you could easily breeze through the game and do everything within a few good hours, but I'd stress the importance of exploring everything, finishing every request, and just taking it slowly so you can truly appreciate this little gem. Child of Light is definitely something that is very promising, and perhaps we can see more games like this, if not from Ubisoft then from some other company. Give it a try if you can, and make sure you give it a long enough try before writing it off.
I've included a link to the soundtrack on YouTube, so you can take in the classical feel of the music that plays throughout the world of Lemuria for Aurora and her comrades.
Child of Light (Original Soundtrack)
As Aurora journeys through the land of Lemuria, she encounters dark creatures, servants of the Queen of Night, who was the one that took the sun, stars, and moon out of the sky in the first place. In undoing what has been done on the land, she befriends the citizens and fights alongside them. What is unique is that most of the phrasing and script is written in a rhyming prose akin to traditional poetry. Of course, there are some characters that break that flow, but it adds some hilarity to the otherwise tense atmosphere that Aurora finds herself in.
Gameplay: The game plays out on a traditional 2D side-scrolling stage across several different locations. Once you interact with any of the shadow creatures, you are drawn into a battle with Aurora and, should you be far enough, your companions. It is a battle of two versus one to four enemies in an active time battle bar system. By ATB bar system, I mean that everyone's speed is gauged appropriately, and as they progress across the single bar to a specific point, it allows people to choose commands and plan accordingly. In fact, this is where battle strategy comes up, as it makes it so you have to plan your skills and their casting time accordingly to make the most of the battle in your favor.
Many of the battles and elements of combat are extremely repetitive at times, and it can be rather easy to level up. You might find that, even on lower difficulties, some of the bosses may still kick your butt around without proper planning and strategies, though. But from levelling, you're also given skill points to invest in stat increases, skills, and upgrades to those skills. You will have to rotate through your sidekicks as certain abilities can only be used by specific individuals, and the culmination of these abilities really makes the system that much more encompassing. Everyone gets equal time in a proper fight.
Sound: There really isn't a long list of music to think of with the game. The bits that are given music is very soft, very mystical and exotic, almost in a classical sense. If anything, classical music lends to this a more realistic approach to the ties it has in the real world, with Aurora able to glance upon her father repeatedly throughout the game. I actually liked this as opposed to some other type of music being played. The battle track does kind of get a bit repetitive though, especially when you're clearing the scenes out to try and level up. But the boss music is definitely epic and worth a listen every now and then.
Additional: The rhyming of dialogue and the story is definitely worth taking the time to read it, as it's not voice-acted, and the battle system is definitely taking an old-time formula and adding in a unique flair to the game itself. It does seem rather short, and you could easily breeze through the game and do everything within a few good hours, but I'd stress the importance of exploring everything, finishing every request, and just taking it slowly so you can truly appreciate this little gem. Child of Light is definitely something that is very promising, and perhaps we can see more games like this, if not from Ubisoft then from some other company. Give it a try if you can, and make sure you give it a long enough try before writing it off.
I've included a link to the soundtrack on YouTube, so you can take in the classical feel of the music that plays throughout the world of Lemuria for Aurora and her comrades.
Child of Light (Original Soundtrack)
No comments:
Post a Comment