Elegance. It's a word I've rarely found applicable where video games are
concerned, but there's no better way to describe what Ubisoft has
achieved with Child of Light.
With its earthy, hand-painted art style and charming character designs,
it deftly sidesteps the tropey land mines that have littered the RPG
landscape for the better part of a decade. Yet it still pays loving
homage to what's come before it with enjoyable exploration and puzzle
solving, and a combat system that's second to none. The intelligent
simplicity with which it's been crafted makes it both easy to grasp, and
rewarding to master in a way that very few RPGs can match.
From one screen to the next, Child of Light
commits fully to its hand-crafted aesthetic. Each stunning, water-color
backdrop looks ready to be framed and hung in an art gallery. That's
not strictly because of the high level of overall quality, but also due
to how warm the characters and environments all feel. Dark silhouettes
of gnarled, ancient trees scroll through the foreground, adding a sense
of depth to painterly forests, and oppressively dreary caverns give way
to towering windmills amidst rolling hillsides.Each area possesses a
rare, naturalistic beauty that words honestly fail to capture.
Jester who can’t figure out how rhyming
works, a love-sick mouse archer, and most importantly, a young girl
named Aurora who’s trying to save her father rather than the other way
around. None of them adhere to the overly worn, widely accepted
conventions of powerful men and sexualized women, and the motley cast is
all the more memorable for it. Aurora’s transformation from a
frightened child to the hero of her own story is framed relatably by
filial strife, making her journey feel deeply personal despite the broad
strokes it’s painted with.
This feeling of warmth and sentimentality can be seen in every aspect of Child of Light,
from the character portraits in the menus, to the lovingly detailed hit
animations in battle. The net result is an experience that feels less
like a power fantasy, and more like the cherished memory of a childhood
bedtime story.
Some modern RPGs suffer by either abandoning too much of
the choice and depth that first made the genre interesting, or by piling
on needless, bloated systems that don't add anything to the experience.
Child of Light makes neither of these mistakes, striking a near-perfect balance across each facet of its gameplay.
Its biggest success is the combat system, which skillfully
mixes turn-based and real-time elements. Icons move along a bar at the
bottom of the screen, indicating when you and your opponents get to act
next. Scoring hits on an enemy who's winding up for a big spell
interrupts them, canceling their move, and sending them back on the
timeline. This creates a constant tension, forcing me to plan two steps
ahead while looking for chances to interrupt, and keeping enemies from
doing the same. That fusion of big-picture planning, and
second-to-second awareness kept me feeling like a tactical genius battle
after battle.
Your spritely helper Igniculus also plays a vital role in combat. You
(or a friend in co-op) control him independently with the right stick,
slowing down foes, healing allies, and grabbing health and mana pickups
when necessary. You’re doing all this while switching characters in and
out of the fray to capitalize on their assortment of well-tuned spells
and abilities. Enemy encounters, especially the boss fights, are
balanced tightly around the tools you've been given, so while the tool
box isn't huge, every piece of hardware has an application. Armor spells
actually add a noticeable amount of survivability, and crowd control
abilities like Hinder, and paralyze work 100% of the time, even against
bosses. Every card in the deck feels like an ace when you use it at the
right moment.
Even great RPGs struggle to make what happens between scraps interesting, but Child of Light
nails this too. Giving us the ability to fly almost right away is a
smart touch, one that invited me to explore constantly for mini-boss
encounters, side-quests, and collectibles. Igniculus proves useful here
again, helping you solve puzzles, stunning enemies, and lighting your
way through dark caverns. Granted, most of this will look and feel
familiar to RPG veterans, but it all worked well enough to hold my
attention outside of combat. Like everything else in the 12ish-hour-long
adventure, it does just enough to be engaging without feeling cluttered
or ungainly.
The Verdict
Every aspect of Child of Light
has an unmistakably artisinal, organic feel to it. None of it feels
focus-tested, or designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience;
rather, it always comes off as exactly the expression its creators
intended. The artwork on display is stunning, and the combat is
constantly engaging, and the characters openly defy genre convention.
But perhaps the best thing I can say about Child of Light
is that I was often unsure as to whether I was headed in the direction I
was supposed to, and I never once cared. I just wanted to fly to every
corner of the world, take it in, and smile.
Souce: ign.com
Rating: 9.3
