It's been some time since I've done an RPG review... At least, been a while since I did one that wasn't the current focus of blog updates. (And the last Recurring RPG Review didn't go so well.) Thus I figured it was time to get in here and really accomplish something. Had a few days off in a row from work and I decided to review... this.
Recurring Fantasy Recurring RPG Reviews Proudly Presents
#5 - Child of Light
First of all, if that image doesn't have you at least a little interested, you should probably walk away now.
Secondly, I couldn't find an actual game case cause it's mostly a digital release. (I believe there's a collector's edition available, but it literally comes with digital vouchers.)
Child of Light released earlier this year as a digital title pretty much across the board. It came out on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, WiiU, so basically everybody can get it. The initial thing you probably already realize... It's a bit of an indie-ish title. It has the look of it just from what's above, and I can agree with that. However, before this review is over, you're going to find out that it's quite a bit more than just another "indie title". Thus, we're going to dive right into this and get you right on board with this Child of Light.
As per my normal format, I'm going to go through the Aesthetics, the Gameplay, and a combined overview of the Characters and Story. Now...
The Aesthetics! It's easily one of the shining points of this game. I've got a few screenshots to share (that I borrowed from around the Internet), and they get across the basic idea for the look and feel the game is going for.
Example of game's cutscenes. (Robert is a Bolmus.)
Example of battle.
Overworld exploration with nearby enemies
Another example of battle.
Early demo look of exploration in a well. (Still how the game generally looks)
More early demo look! It's still the same art and all, but there's some minor differences.
Oh... sad gnome/dwarf/insert here thing. (They're called Capilli in game.)
Well, now that I have shown those, you have to be interested in the game... right? Again, if you aren't into this style, you probably should walk away. I'm not saying the game is all about the look, but if you don't like the look, you might not have as strong an interest. ANYWAYS!
So the game looks and feels like a children's story come to life. The visuals appear hand drawn (pretty sure they are buuut not 100%) and just look beautiful throughout the game. The fairy tale-esque style that abounds throughout the designs really shows and shines. The various character designs and areas of the game are always a treat to see as you explore the vast world of Lemuria. (The name of the world in the game. More details will follow in the story section.)
Every single area is just a treat to see. It's worth exploring to see the vast, lush landscape. The spooky yet fertile forest. The cozy country village of the Capilli. The classic yet brimming town of the Bolmus. The rocky landscapes of the mountains. And just so much more. There's a variety of areas to see, and they're all pretty gorgeous on their own. I'd enjoy this story purely as a child's book full of pictures. Really enjoy the art and graphics.
You can't forget about the soundtrack either though! (Give it a listen
here.) For Child of Light, the style of music needed to match the overall feel of the game. I'd say that a game like this requires a certain mixture of fantasy, a storybook, child-like wonder and fears, and serious times. It easily hits every single mark.
It goes for more of a classical sound with a strong orchestra abounding throughout. Lots of piano, drums, string instruments, and piano abound throughout the music. It's got a very deep and moving sound as you explore the world. A mysterious and almost somber melody as you go about your journey through the world. Even with your world travelling melodies going, you immediately know when the fights hit you. The game strikes up into a very live and dramatic boom when the battle begins. They really let loose with the drums and strings there. (Whereas the sadder moments take to the piano of course.)
If you're looking for some kinda of rocking guitar solo or electronica... Then you have come to the wrong game mister. You get out of here now!... Anyways, I'm going to say the aesthetics of the game is just completely and utterly amazing. It's just great stuff. Enjoyable to both watch and listen.
If I had to say something... I did notice something. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like everybody outside of the main character was 2D while she got a fully 3D model. (And I do mean EVERYBODY... even the other main characters.) Maybe I just saw things wrong, but I really noticed it here and there as some of the main characters made their appearance. I'm not mad or even disappointed really. Just... felt like mentioning it I guess.
Overall, ignore that mentioning right there. It's just great aesthetics all around, but... does the gameplay hold up?
I'm going to be frank. Yes, yes it does. But... what is it like? Child of Light manages to combine several game styles into one. If I had to describe Child of Light to someone who knew other games but not it, I'd probably say it was like if Final Fantasy IX, Grandia, and Limbo were thrown into a blender and mixed together quite vigorously. How so? Well, let's get into them details.
Exploring the game's world feels something like a modern 2D platformer. There's platforms to jump and leap about on. Switches to hit, a few spots have boxes with weight switches. Despite the small-ish game world (small for an RPG that is), there are a lot of spaces to explore. Hidden areas are all over the place and reward you pretty well for finding them. Enemies are located on the actual map, so it is possible to avoid them as you want/need to. People who don't like random encounters... You might enjoy that part quite well.
You also have a little spirit creature, named Igniculus, who has various features both in the world and in battle. He's used to activate special switches, you can hold enemies in place, solve puzzles, and quite a bit more. Honestly, the platforming and exploring elements alone could almost be a game in and of themselves. I'd enjoy a game like that, but now we should get into the real meat of the game... the battles and RPG elements!
The RPG portion of the game is pretty strong as well. (Much like I said before, each part of gameplay is actually strong enough to be its own game.) Gaining levels for each character earns them points to spend on their skill tree, which branches out on three paths per character. The branches don't seem to be particularly focused on one stat over another and instead opt to boost and learn special attacks. (Boosting your main attacks, learning new attacks, etc) I thought it did at first, but I never really saw a true pattern on any character.
Beyond leveling, there's very little character customization I'm afraid, There isn't any kind of regular equipment in the game, but you do find items called Oculi. Pieces of gems with names like Diamond, Ruby, Onyx, Tourmaline, Spinel. You get where they are going. You equip the Oculi into three different slots: Attack, Defense, Timeline. (Timeline will be explained a bit better when I get to the battles.) Each gem has a different boosting effect to the character's ability. Each Occuli changes your character in some small way. It might change your attack's element or give you a very meager boost depending on the type. There are a few that give you weird conditions like "Boost defense by % while HP is less than %", but they tend to be such a low HP % requirement that I felt it was too little, too late. Then you got the awesome ones that simply boost your attack/magic/defense. Those are the winners in my book. There's a lot to say and describe here, but that's the main idea of how you can customize here.
On top of all that, you can combine small pieces of Oculi to create bigger pieces with stronger effects or combine different kinds of Oculi in general. It sounds super deep and such, but there's a fairly limited number of combinations available. I'd also advise caution here... to not be hasty when combining. There are Oculi all over the place in chests and won in battles, but I kept messing up when combining them. Shortest version? You can combine 2 or 3 based on what you are going for. I kept accidentally combining two because the game automatically moves the selection to the combine command after choosing two compatible ones. It was very frustrating, but also one of the few minor nitpicks I truly had. (I could have just slowed down and prevented every single one.) I'm kind of lagging on here, so let's push into the battles.
The battles in Child of Light are something of a combination between Final Fantasy's Active Time Battle and Grandia's Battle System. To keep this as simplified as possible... Enemies are present on the field, and you can choose whether or not to fight them at your whim. It's possible to dodge them with your character's flight (that you earn quite early on), or you can hold them in place using Igniculus.
When you do get into battles, it is two of your party versus a combination of one to three enemies. (After the first area of the game, it's almost always two and later on three.) There is a bar present at the bottom of the screen with your character's icons along the top and the enemy icons along the bottom. The bar is split into a Wait area (about 3/4ths of the bar) and Cast area(the final 1/4th of the bar). Your icons move along the bar based on Speed stat and current status. When you hit the Cast area, you choose your actions for that turn, and they charge up until they hit the end and activate.
The trick to all that? If someone is hit during the Cast area, their action is cancelled, and they're thrown back into the Wait area. There's several status effects that affect all the conditions of battle, and it can get quite strategic. The battles can be quite challenging in this game, especially if you play it on Expert like I did. It's... both a good and bad thing.
The further along I got, the harder the battles got. That makes sense with progression of course, but the level of difficulty didn't slowly grow so much as it just SKYROCKETED. Not even halfway through and I'm already having quite some issues dealing with even the lesser of enemies. This doesn't even include the ridiculousness of some boss fights. There are bosses that have just so much power behind them it isn't funny. On top of that power tends to come an almost unfair counter attack if you cancel them during the Cast phase. (Many enemies have this, but the boss tends to have the worst version.) All I'm getting at is that it's a challenging game and nothing to joke at.
I could go on and on into details, but that gives you the main idea of what you will be dealing with. I could make several complaints here, but they're mostly things that caused me trouble versus actual problems with the game. However, I don't plan to hold back either!
First of all, there isn't any form of currency in the game. None at all. The only items you get are those found in chests and the ones earned through battles. Beyond that, you can't buy or stock up on any kind of healing items. I wasn't even halfway when I ran out of potions... and then the game kind of stopped giving me any. This is EXTREMELY rough if you consider this additional fact: Only one character has an actual healing spell. Yeah, let that sink in. There's these light things, referred to as Wishes, that you can collect outside of battle to heal up, but as far as battles go, just be sure to use your items wisely.
I'm also not a fan of only having two party members in battle. This means that if someone falls, you have to hurry and pick them up, or the game over will be on you in no time. Also that person with the healing spell? Also the only one who can revive people as well, so if she falls in battle, you best hope you have a Revive item. Otherwise, you are going to be fighting the most uphill battle ever.
Minor nitpick that I feel needs mentioned? You get the ability to fly super early. I mean, within the first hour or two of gameplay, you obtain flight. With flight at hand, it just seems... I figured you'd get it later rather than earlier. That'd be like giving Samus the Space Jump at the very beginning. You basically can go anywhere and do anything so long as you can find it. It matches the flow and feel of the game, so I guess it doesn't matter too much. Less of a negative more of unexpected for me.
Final thing I can really think of here is the lack of Side Quests. For the overall length of the game, the number of Side Quests is pretty spot on. However, for an RPG, the number of Side Quests feels a bit on the low side. I'm not saying I need a billion Side Quests nor do they have to be so involving that they're nearly half the gameplay. (Looking at you Final Fantasy X.) But I would have liked if the game contained just a few more Side Quests to lengthen out the end game. As far as I could tell, there was only one Side Quest added before the true finale of the end. (You have to revisit the next to last area of the game to find it. Didn't take long to complete either but really great reward.) But again, it matches the length of the game as is, so I guess I can't really complain. Just wish there were a few more is all.
Despite my complaints of course, it's still a very rock solid game. The exploration/platforming is done well enough to hold up on its own. The skills tree is nice and simple but offers options. The Oculi are interesting enough, but several of them tend to have useless or very singular effects. Battles are quite fun and challenging, but the need for strategy and difficulty rise quite quickly and can sometimes make simple battles into large ordeals. The only true complaint I can give? I really wish there was more than ONE character who can heal and revive. Beyond that, it's still a really great game with really great gameplay. So much so that it seems to outdo other games that only had one style of gameplay, whereas this one hosted two quite easily.
We aren't quite done yet though! We still lack the true lifeblood of the RPG... The story and characters! Let's get started with the story...
To keep it simple, the game revolves around a little girl's journey into the mysterious and magical land of Lemuria. The story begins with a bit of some ups and downs. Our main character, Aurora, appears to have died in the real world (apparently in 1895 Austria... a duke's daughter) and awakens to find herself in the magical world. She explores the world while attempting to find a way home and discovers that Lemuria is in danger. The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars have been taken by the Black Queen, and it is up to Aurora to get them back.
As far as the story goes, it's pretty top notch and really creative. It's hard to truly create something new in the world nowadays, but I'd say Child of Light is a great start. The story feels involving and interesting enough to keep you going. It's got all your basic ingredients without getting over the top complex like some games feel they need to. I don't want to say too much here and reveal a lot, but like many stories, it's not as straightforward as it might seem!
The only negative from the story is that the ending of the game comes up very, very quickly. Everything is really well paced, and then it suddenly all catches up and the ending almost smacks you in the face. I'm not saying it ends abruptly at all, but it feels like there could have been a bit more length near the end. I am trying to not reveal anything here, but let's just say that if you are "under the sea", then you should know the ending is closer than you might think. I thought there might be one more grand dungeon after that, but there wasn't. That's all I got for story right now, so let's move into the characters.
As you journey through the game, Aurora meets a variety of characters that begin with their own goals in mind, but each one evolves to be something more in order to defeat evil and save Lemuria. The pure variety of teammates reminds me of a certain favorite team of mine... Final Fantasy IX. Each person has their own attitude and agenda for the ride, so they all have a nice unique and different feel. For a group of characters, this should just be the 101. I shouldn't feel like every person has to hit an archetype nor should they be so out there that they make no sense.
I enjoyed almost every character both story and game-wise. The Golem (a DLC character) did feel a bit out of place compared to the rest, but he was still a decent character. After you met a new character in the game, there was a chance they'd strike up conversations among one another. I say chance, but realistically, there would be a single conversation after every battle between the new person and every other character. These were always enjoyable and gave a little insight into each character. Unfortunately, there was only one conversation between two characters all together so... They each only happen once. Kind of wish they had more, but it never built beyond that.
And now I finally bring this up. Mentioning the conversations of the game, I have to bring about one of the game's elements that is probably the biggest source of negativity I have about the game. (Not enough to affect the score, but I still feel it is worth mentioning.) The style of the game has all of the characters rhyming. Whether they go with one rhyming scheme or another, every sentence from every character throughout the game is forced to rhyme.
This could be taken as a delightful way to journey through the game, and it generally is, but it's not always good. There's many times where although the words technically rhyme, it's not rhyming correctly. I'm not an English major, but I know that just because words sound with the same ending doesn't mean you can always rhyme them. It's the ebb and flow of the words along with the sounding alike that makes rhyming work. Orange might sound like door hinge, but you can't rhyme them and be rhythmly correct. I can't think of direct examples right now, but you'll know them in the game when you see them.
On top of that, the rhyming gets annoying at times. It's a clever way to go about the game and really cute, but there were a few times where the rhyming scheme makes it almost unintelligible to understand what is going on. I mean it isn't that confusing of a game, but there's only so much you can read into it when they force everything to rhyme up. Overall, the rhyming doesn't kill the gameplay for me, but they could have toned it down here and there. And I've said my piece on that.
My Final Score - 9 out of 10.
Now it's finally time to really wrap this post up, so let's get a good glimpse of what all happened here.
Child of Light brings us the RPG we want in this day and age. The aesthetics of the game are just spot on. They're going for a children's book-style fantasy setting, and they hit it spot on. The look, feel, and sound are just perfect for what they are going for. If you remotely enjoyed the screenshots above, then you are in for a treat.
The gameplay is a great combination of both platforming exploration and real-time turn-based RPG. Both sides of that could easily stand on their own for a singular but still great game, and yet they combined it all here for one really well done game. Those looking for a fairly simplistic build and stats system will enjoy what goes on here, and although the battles can be pretty rough, it's nice to see an RPG challenge you to play a bit smarter and strategic as opposed to "Just attack always."
Finally, the story and characters are a general delight throughout. There are a few times I'd have liked the characters to flesh out a bit more, but I still liked them nonetheless. Overall, there's really no problems I have with the game that aren't just me being a tad nitpicky. It's not the perfect RPG you might wish for, but it's just so damn close it isn't funny. If you need yourself a tasty little morsel of an RPG, go buy and download Child of Light today!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
