Child of Light is a fantasy adventure RPG that combines Limbo-style 2D platforming with a battle system not unlike the ATB system from older Final Fantasy titles. And then it’s lovingly wrapped in some amazingly gorgeous UbiArt visuals. The protagonist, Princess Aurora, is a young girl and part of a royal family who falls into a deep sleep caused by illness. She awakes in the world of Lemuria where she finds that the sun, moon and stars have been stolen by an evil queen. Aurora’s task is to find them and return light to Lemuria.
Between battling the various enemies and bosses that litter the paths of Lemuria you will spend your time platforming. There’s not much in the way of frantic, accurate leaps and hops between moving ledges or getting shot by inexplicably fixed ‘turrets’ but rather a series of simple puzzles. You may have to move a box to reach a ledge or use your main companion, Igniculus, to unlock a door or align silhouettes of symbols in the correct order.
Igniculus is a firefly who joins you early in your adventure and will accompany you throughout your quest. Igniculus is controlled with the right thumbstick while you control Aurora with the left, it’s very similar to Puppeteer for those who’ve played it. Holding down the trigger (top-tip, click ‘R3’ to save your trigger finger) will cause Igniculus to shine brightly allowing you to either solve puzzles, open certain chests or even stun or slow enemies.
And it’s Igniculus’s ability to slow enemies that not only forms a key part of the combat but also ensures Igniculus becomes more than just a novel use of the right thumbstick. At the bottom of the screen during combat there is a time bar with each member of your team, and each enemy, represented by an icon. Once the icon reaches the first bar the game will pause and you can select an action. Then your character will act once their icon reaches the far right of the bar. Simple so far.
But, if an enemy hits you while you’re within the cast ‘buffer’ you will be interrupted and have to wait until you can perform another action. You can also do the same thing to enemies or choose to ‘defend’ which is an instant action and allows you to perform an action much sooner than if you get interrupted. Fighting early battles rarely makes much use of the time bar and interrupt systems but once you start fighting more formidable foes the battles are allowed to come alive.
On top of paying close attention to the time bar to see which order you should attack in, or even whether to attack, Igniculus is by your side to slow your enemies. Having a certain enemy slowed can vastly alter who gets to go first which in turn can vastly alter the outcome of a battle. With the possibility to interrupt enemies the battles become intrinsically strategic. To further add to your considerations Igniculus has a ‘mana bar’ that will eventually run out if you use it for too long.
It can be refilled using ‘wishes’ found in certain plants twice per battle. For the most part that’s more than you need but during boss fights you have to consider the marathon and not the sprint. Plus Igniculus can be used to replenish relatively small amounts of health should you need it. I found he’s better used to slow enemies and save the healing for the white mage but if you’re desperate you may regret having slowed that enemy.
Every part of the battle system is well crafted and considered. The interrupt mechanic allows for turn-based levels of strategy but keeps things real-time. There isn’t a moment when you don’t think about what’s happening and what that means you need to do next. Even the standard enemies will get the better of you if you stop paying attention. It’s a level of strategy that is far too uncommon in the RPG genre today and just as it always used to it’s derived from a relatively simple, but robust mechanic that runs through the core of the game.
And what would an RPG be without upgrades? Each character has their own, unique, upgrade tree for you to complete. They also have choices you must make. You can’t just acquire all the best upgrades straight away and forget about it. There are several paths to choose from and more often than not there will be at least one upgrade you want from each, requiring you to gain many levels and keep acquiring new abilities and upgrades long into the game. On top of the ability trees you will gain increases to stats such as HP, MP, strength and defence on a per level basis.
There is a dark-fairytale-style theme to the world of Lemuria and its inhabitants. Despite the 2D side scrolling setting the character animations are amazingly fluid and smooth. The entire world of Lemuria and everything in it is simply beautiful. Nothing is overlooked or looks out of place. Nothing is below the standards set by this supremely good looking adventure.
Ubisoft have succeeded musically too. The dark fairytale theme is enforced by a chilling piano-based soundtrack that never lets up. It doesn’t interfere or steal the spotlight it just does what a good soundtrack should, creates atmosphere. And the atmosphere that results from both the fantastic visuals and the ever-present soundtrack is perfect.
It’s very difficult to find fault in Child of Light, but I’m going to try anyway. The only real gripes I have is the overuse of plot progression through cutscenes. And the fact that those cutscenes are the only real recorded speech in Child of Light. Admittedly speech isn’t integral to Child of Light but it would have been nice to hear a few more of the characters, especially given the great character design. The trap of only progressing the plot through ‘sit down and listen’ cutscenes is an easy one to fall into and unfortunately it occasionally dragged me out of Child of Light’s otherwise outstanding atmosphere.
But, despite this I found myself gladly taken in by the wonderful world of Lemuria and its characters’ quests. It’s impossible not to be impressed by the visuals or resist their charms. UbiArt has done it again. But refreshingly the visuals are just icing on the cake. The beating heart at the core of Child of Light is truly that of an RPG.
The ATB battle system has plenty of simple mechanics at work that ensure battles are simultaneously strategic and filled with action. I’ve never known a battle system so close to the perfect balance of ATB and turn based gameplay. Upgrades are plentiful and don’t dogmatically restrict you to simple levelling up but instead make you think as you decide what to acquire next. I can think of a few AAA’s that should pay close attention to both the battle and upgrade mechanics of Child of Light. Beautiful visuals, an enveloping atmosphere and refreshingly strategic battles ensure Child of Light is not to be taken lightly. Child of Light is simply superb.
