If there has ever been a game that I am completely excited for, it would be Ubisoft’s Child Of Light. From the gorgeous Studio Ghibli inspired artwork and design, to the JRPG battle system that is a love letter to my childhood greats. Even the story and the sound design has me enthralled.
“Tuck yourself in bed, let me tell a story of Lemuria, a kingdom passed and a girl born for glory…”
Aurora is a girl from 1895 Austria, who contracts a horrible ailment that causes her to fall asleep. Upon awakening, Aurora finds herself in a mythical and magical world called Lemuria.
This is a fairy tale world with dangerous creatures and evil monsters. The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars were stolen from the sky by the evil Black Queen. Aurora is tasked with recovering these three lights, and hopes one day to return to her own world.
“Lost from our world came she, treachery gave close chase. She raised her sword and flew, for she did not fear the wraiths…”
Using the UbiArt Framework engine–which is the same engine used in Rayman Legends—Child Of Light has a beautiful art design that looks like it game directly from a children’s book, like Winnie The Pooh. Child Of Light’s game play focuses on exploring, and uses the tried-and-true turn based battle system similar to that of Final Fantasy.
The dialogue in Child of Light is in rhyme, for the game is a playable poem. Quests you accept or decline will have an impact on your story, so be careful on which quests you accept, or choose not to accept. Child Of Light also has a co-op feature, where the second player uses Igniculus–a small blue ball of light–to turn off traps, open secret passages or even blind enemies.
“Three long-lost lights to save, a mad Queen to defeat, the journey will transform her. Her destiny to meet…”
During the battles in Child of Light, every player and enemy in the fight will have to wait a certain amount of time before acting. Each action is a different length for its cast time, so be wary that you are not hit during your casting, as it will interrupt you. The second player can use Igniculus to heal you and your allies, or slow down enemy attacks. So there is a bit of strategy involved for each fight.
The skill tree in-game is like Far Cry 3, so every time you level up you gain a skill point that you use in the tree. How big is the tree? I have no idea, but I do know that there are over 200 skills to unlock in-game.
You can also leave messages in-game for others to see, like the message system in Dark Souls.
“The path home tragic and fate. Beware the night, child of light.”
Child of Light also has a lot of puzzle solving to progress in the game. One puzzle, for example, will have the player using the light from Igniculus to cast shadows and match symbols on the wall.
The game also features a crafting system with over 600 different combinations. While exploring players will find items called “Occuli,” which are gem-like stones, used to power up Aurora and her allies.
I cannot stress enough on how excited I am for Ubisoft’s new side scrolling RPG, I will definitely be picking this up on day one.
Child of Light comes out April 30th on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and PC.
Published: Apr 3, 2014 08:00 am