Remember when everyone used to love Ubisoft? When each of their games were different and unique from each other. How their developers put passion into every single project they worked and wanted them to be the best they could be. Represent the shining beacon of hope that was the Triple A industry and how video games could tell meaningful messages or be works of art. Those were good times, but unfortunately times have changed. Video games have evolved, and so have the companies and let you some of them don't change for the better. In fact, some of which may have ended up going backwards and Ubisoft is one of them. A majority of their games seem to follow a similar formula now, because why make something original or unique when we can do the same acceptable format over and over. Then there was that whole sexual harassment fiasco spreading rapidly through the company, the heads not doing anything, and a massive lawsuit for which they lost to. Ubisoft is no longer this pioneer standing alongside the beacon and has now become this drunk buffoon. Doing anything to get praise including sucking someone’s d*ck for five dollars. Okay, maybe I went a little too far with that statement, but I think you get the point. Ubisoft was once well respected, so why not look at some of their more well respected titles? The ones that they forgot about unless they were Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry. Remember when Ubisoft made animated games? I sure do! Rayman Legends is one of the best games they ever produced and is also one of the best 2D platformers out there. Valiant Hearts was a beautiful yet sad tale about the horrors of war for which I will describe as “All Quiet On The Western Front but more PG-13.” Then there's Child of Light, a charming turn-based RPG released back in 2014 and was made by the Montreal team.
Much like Valiant Hearts, this was one of the few independent projects within the company. It was created and directed by Patrick Plourde and he had a lot in mind of what the game would be. The game would focus around a child with pure innocence, but grow up to realize the darkness and corruption in the world. A journey about maturity, learning to find light during all the chaos, and setting a path for not just themselves but for those seeking aid. Gameplay and progression would reflect the themes of maturity as the player started off helpless and young early on, but as time passed on the player character would grow older and more powerful. Art direction took a bit of inspiration from Studio Ghibli, and when it came to the story and presentation Plourde looked at JRPGs such as Final Fantasy VIII and Vagrant Story which he grew up loving. It was a dream project, but the thing about dream projects at Ubisoft is that they are a major risk. It’s either the game does well enough and Ubisoft deems it a success, or it doesn’t and they don’t acknowledge the IP for the rest of its existence. Surprisingly, Child of Light did really well upon release. There were a couple of technical issues for the version released on last gen consoles and the game didn’t sell a million copies within the first few weeks, but Child of Light was positively received amongst critics. It was a refreshing title compared to some of 2014’s more darker releases, and quite a few considered it one of the best and most underrated games of the year. The game did well enough that Ubisoft was open to the idea of a sequel, and Patrick Plourde was praying they would give him the thumbs up to get working. Sadly that sequel never got put into the works, and while there are still plans for a sequel Plourde said it’s unlikely modern day Ubisoft would want to create another game such as Child of Light now.
Child of Light is nearly decade old and you have to wonder if the game aged well? Did it truly deserve the acclaim it got during release or should it be forgotten to the end of time. It’s been on my backlog for quite awhile now and wasn’t until recently that I decided to dive deeper and see what it was all about. Again, the question is “Did Child of Light age well?” The answer is yes of course it did. There are a couple of problems that hold it back from excellence, but for the most part I really enjoy this game and would happily recommend it to anyone interested in it. Today we are gonna be talking about why I loved Child of Light and why it deserves your attention.
Story
The game opens up in a small kingdom perched atop five tall hills located in Austria. The year is 1895 and the duke which founded the kingdom has his first born daughter, Aurora. He would do whatever it takes to raise his daughter into leadership as the mother for which Aurora never knew would die a few years later. The duke would then remarry and Aurora was then surrounded by two older stepsisters. Aurora didn’t mind this though as anyone part of her family was to be well respected and treated with kindness. One year on the eve of Easter, Aurora dies during her sleep and this sends the duke into despair. Unable to get up from his bed now that both his first wife and daughter were dead, unable to lead his kingdom, and his health was slowly declining. No one knows exactly why Aurora died during her sleep because she wasn’t in bad health and was not poisoned the night before. Then a miracle happens and Aurora wakes up in a land far from her own. It’s inhabited by fantasy creatures and magic flies around in the air. This land is known as Lemuria and compared to our world it’s been slowly falling apart. There’s no king or queen to guide the people, and the land has been overcome by monsters and darkness. Aurora is greeted by a ball of light named Igniculus who leads her to a small temple where the Lady of The Forest is imprisoned. She tells Aurora there is a way to return home and that by doing so she may rid her father of his despair. However, there are a plethora of monsters who’ll stand in her way and that she must help out the inhabitants of the land. Aurora agrees to this and just like that she is given a pair of wings so that she may fly freely through the skies. You’ll befriend a lot of weird faces and along the way you’ll learn more about Lemuria. The brilliant Queen of Light and how there’s a never ending struggle between light and dark.
Gameplay
Child of Light is a 2D RPG where you explore areas, uncover secrets, and try to make your way towards your next objective. Along the way you’ll encounter a variety of enemies and when you touch one of them you initiate combat. It’s turn-based combat, which if you’ve read any of my reviews on turn-based games I quite enjoy, but what makes the combat of Child of Light unique is the disruption system. Below you is a bar showing who gets to act next during a fight. You are taking turns, but icons show you when a participant is ready to act. Once an icon hits the red the participant can ready their next action, and once it reaches the end of the bar they perform said move. The twist is that if you can hit an enemy before they can perform their action you can then cancel their move and send them near the beginning of the preparation meter. However, this can also happen to you which creates a distinct strategy. Do I use quick attacks that do light damage, or do I use heavier damage dealing blows that are much slower and put me at risk? Should I just defend and play it safe, or hope I am quick enough to do what I need to do? What type of allies should I bring into the fight as each of them have different attack speeds and abilities. There’s also another feature that allows players to slow down the rate for which enemies perform maneuvers. You remember the glowing ball of light who aids you across your journey. He can shine light in the face of enemies and blind them. Slowing down their preparation speed and allowing you to out move them. You can only do this for one enemy at a time and there’s an energy meter for how light he can shine. You can also use the light to heal you and allies, so if you are low on mana to use spells or have no healing potions you can instead use light. This creates another strategy of how you use your resources and it’s great because this game has no currency or shops to buy items from.
Kill every enemy, win the fight, and gain experience points to level up. Everytime you or an ally level up you gain a skill point and they can be spent on one of many skills on a skill tree. It’s a little similar to that of Salt and Sanctuary where instead of having a ton of bizarre useless perks you instead have core stats. You can level up health, mana, defense, magic defense, the chance of dealing a critical hit, speed, and if not one of many different skills. Sometimes you unlock a new move, or improve the power and efficiency of them. Some paths on the skill tree lean towards specific skills, so it gets you to consider what path you want to invest in the future, because of course not all of them will probably be obtained in a single playthrough especially since it takes more experience points to level up per level. Outside of combat you explore and solve puzzles. There are hazards in the world that can harm you, and when they hit you they drain your health which isn’t good if you are thrown into another fight. There are chests containing potions and occasionally NPCs offering side quests. Your ball of light can also be used during exploration too and he’s required to solve a lot of puzzles in the game. He can help open specific chests, activate certain contraptions, and even blind enemies allowing you to fly by them. What you’ll mainly want to use him for though is triggering glowing plants to release magical orbs. Collecting them will refill his energy, but if you collect them in a correct pattern they will unveil green and purple orbs. Allowing you to refill health and mana, which is great if you like to go into fights a lot but need to constantly refill. Besides that there’s not much else I have to say about Child of Light. It’s as simple as turn based RPGs get and that’s alright as it avoids some of the fat a lot of these types of games have. Become the light everyone needs.
Thoughts
Child of Light is a simple yet wonderful turn-based RPG that I’m glad I stuck around with till the end. Despite being a game aimed towards younger audiences it has a lot of mature things to say and the difficulty of this experience feels more targeted towards experienced RPGs players rather than inexperienced ones. It’s not a complex RPG and in some areas it’s really shallow, but it is a well designed one that removes some of the unnecessary features other titles have. First thing I should mention are your companions, their specializations, and lack of build variety. Normally I love when an RPG has built diversity and lets you experiment with the different tools offered. Child of Light doesn’t exactly have builds and you can’t equip different abilities for characters besides the ones you unlock on their skill trees. The clown is a healer that moves quickly, the dwarf casts elemental magic, the dragon-looking tank hits hard but moves slowly, and so on. The game has no equipment whatsoever that changes the characters’ stats and the only way you can increase them beyond leveling up are these one use orbs found throughout the world that level up specific types.There is a lack of customization as well as a lack of difficulty options. Ubisoft is a company that prioritizes accessibility which I respect, but Child of Light is one of few games they have that doesn’t allow you to change difficulty. You either grind it out or get good at the boss you are stuck with. However, even though some of the bosses are long and frustrating at times I never found the game too hard or unfair. Bad fights are ones you poorly plan out or try to rush, and the game is generous when it comes to health refills.
I think combat is great for most of the game and has a lot of unique ideas. Being able to disrupt an enemy attack before they can perform creates a system of prioritization and preparation. It felt similar to Octopath Traveler and knowing what to do at an exact given moment. Being able to change your allies on the fly creates ease and different strategies, but I feel the disruption system is a system that comes to a fault. Enemies can cancel your actions and it’s a punishment for those who try to perform all the time, but then there are the occasions when the game throws to much bullsh*t at you. Enemies who just move too quickly or have to deal with so many of them en masse. Most boss fights in Child of Light are hard because they either move faster than you, or are paired with a group of enemies that are hard to manage. You have a boss that basically makes it impossible for the player to do anything, and that sucks. The final boss especially took me a few tries because they dealt an unholy amount of damage and my party was somewhat under leveled. Despite these complaints though it’s a nice enough combat system and each boss you conquer feels like a satisfying achievement. Exploration is fine and there’s enough secrets lying around the world, but at times it feels shallow. There’s not many reasons to revisit an area once you complete the main story objective lying in it, and the side quests don’t offer many good rewards. Two of them reward you with companions and those are only two worth doing. It is shallow, but I do think Child of Light avoids the problem of bloating the world full of needless side activities. I did grind near the end, but a majority of the time you don't have to.
Child of Light is a pretty good video game on the whole, but the art direction and story are two of the biggest highlights for the game. The game is absolutely gorgeous to look at. It’s watercolor, there’s a wide amount of lighting and shading, and the different colors on display are amazing. It feels like you are roaming around a painting, no, a children’s book which is exactly what the devs wanted you to feel. They stated that they wanted Child of Light and its themes to capture that of a children’s fairytale book and they did it perfectly. The music is a symphony of emotions and it makes playing the game a treat. Storywise I think the game starts off on a poor note but as time goes on it gets really good. Discovering more about the world and learning the destiny for which Aurora must fulfill. Seeing her grow up and mature into a kindhearted woman willing to lead her subjects towards a bright future. Not being tainted by greed, corruption, or the looming darkness that surrounds her. The writers said they want to create a strong female protagonist and not another damsel in distress, and I love that. They took your average princess character and went outside the usual tropes most writers would do. The big twist is interesting and the ending is really satisfying although it might be questionable for some. The game took me around eight to nine hours to beat, and I’d say that’s a really good runtime for a game such as this. It goes on sale often for less than five dollars but even then you can still get around twenty bucks. Despite some of the problems I do strongly recommend Child of Light. It has a distinct personality and a nice little story to tell. It’s better than a lot of games Ubisoft makes now which is a given. In the end I am going to give Child of Light an 8.5/10 for being pretty good.
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