Written by Joey Carole
Hey! diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
~Mother Goose
We have all heard a Mother Goose poem wether we've realized it or not. "Three little pig's" or "The little old lady who lived in a shoe" is probably the most well known. The reason I'm talking about Mother Goose is because Child of Light feels like the essence of a Mother Goose book morphed into a turn based, real time, open world RPG. This is because most all of the dialogue has a rhyming scheme, and there is a fairytale theme present throughout. It's a wonderful downloadable game that looks like a watercolor painting sprung to life, it forego's your traditional strong male hero for a young princess on a journey to save her father. Her name is Aurora and she looks like the type who needs saving instead of one which you play as, making her memorable and the perfect hero for this game. Some of the unique companions who join us through our journey include a depressed jester, a romantic mouse, and a stumpy wizard.
We gain the ability to fly very early on in the game, allowing us to zip along this art-gallery of a world. Running into a monster on the way, brings us to another screen where the fighting takes place. The fighting is best described as turn based which is usually kind of boring to me, however Child of Light does it in an enjoyable way.
There is a timeline at the bottom of the screen and several icons on that timeline to represent each character in the fight. As the icons near the end of the timeline a list of abilities pops up for us to choose from specific to the character. Once the icon reaches the end our ability is cast. If we damage an enemy as they attempt to cast an ability we can interrupt them, sending them backwards on the timeline. We are only allowed to control two characters at a time but we can swap them out mid-battle. Sometimes we must face up to three enemies at once, forcing us to be timely and strategic with our abilities. Casting an ability at just the right time to land an interruption is key to victory. This requires planning 2-3 moves in advance and really keeps things interesting. Game's with this type of combat often suffer from overly complex battle systems. Child of Light seems to strike just the right balance between simplicity, and complicity.
We are also given three "skill trees" for each character which might focus them towards, healing, spell casting, giving damage, or taking damage. All the basic RPG elements are here, you have your healers, tanks, and DPS. But because we are only allowed control over two characters at a time, we are forced to rotate our companions during the tougher battles. Were also collect a variety of gems through-out the game that give us different perks. There is a crafting system that allows you to combine smaller gems to make larger gems with better perks.
As the game begins your joined by Igniculus, a glowing blue sprite. You can move him around the screen using the right thumb-stick or a friend can take control of him with a second controller. In a way, Igniculus is sort of like tales in a sonic game. He is used to collect HP, and MP that float across the screen and can also be used in combat to slow enemies and heal allies.
Child of Light is heart-warming and poetic. A relaxing adventure into an interesting world filled with a crew of characters who defy the stereotypes were used to, and are more memorable for doing so. Ubisoft has plans to make another game set in the same world. Child of Light is certainly not the most exciting game I've played, but its still well worth the time and money.
There is a timeline at the bottom of the screen and several icons on that timeline to represent each character in the fight. As the icons near the end of the timeline a list of abilities pops up for us to choose from specific to the character. Once the icon reaches the end our ability is cast. If we damage an enemy as they attempt to cast an ability we can interrupt them, sending them backwards on the timeline. We are only allowed to control two characters at a time but we can swap them out mid-battle. Sometimes we must face up to three enemies at once, forcing us to be timely and strategic with our abilities. Casting an ability at just the right time to land an interruption is key to victory. This requires planning 2-3 moves in advance and really keeps things interesting. Game's with this type of combat often suffer from overly complex battle systems. Child of Light seems to strike just the right balance between simplicity, and complicity.
We are also given three "skill trees" for each character which might focus them towards, healing, spell casting, giving damage, or taking damage. All the basic RPG elements are here, you have your healers, tanks, and DPS. But because we are only allowed control over two characters at a time, we are forced to rotate our companions during the tougher battles. Were also collect a variety of gems through-out the game that give us different perks. There is a crafting system that allows you to combine smaller gems to make larger gems with better perks.
As the game begins your joined by Igniculus, a glowing blue sprite. You can move him around the screen using the right thumb-stick or a friend can take control of him with a second controller. In a way, Igniculus is sort of like tales in a sonic game. He is used to collect HP, and MP that float across the screen and can also be used in combat to slow enemies and heal allies.
Child of Light is heart-warming and poetic. A relaxing adventure into an interesting world filled with a crew of characters who defy the stereotypes were used to, and are more memorable for doing so. Ubisoft has plans to make another game set in the same world. Child of Light is certainly not the most exciting game I've played, but its still well worth the time and money.
