When they hit the ‘Cast’ section they can choose an action, and when they hit the end of the bar that action is carried out. Aurora and/or her team-mates and enemies each take turns to strike a blow or defend, but when they do so in the turn depends on their position on a time-gauge, with icons that slowly travel up its length. There are echoes of Final Fantasy in the time-based battles. What’s more, it’s party-based, not individual, and that combat has a proper old-school, turn-based flavour. The meat of the game is the same as any other RPG: combat and character development. Sure, you run, jump and eventually fly from platform to platform, and you’ll find the odd fireball or spike that has to be avoided, but in general what platforming bits there are simply form the journey from one event or encounter to the next. Don’t be confused: it might look like a platformer, but it’s really an RPG. The next thing that might hit you is the style of gameplay. Watch your young heroine’s scarlet hair drift in response to every breeze or motion, or the way bigger monsters lumber into action, and it’s both weirdly dream-like and hugely atmospheric, and what you would hope a classic JRPG might look like if made with modern tech. The crisp HD graphics help – each line and texture is incredibly crisp – but it’s also sold by the lighting and the animation. Child of Light uses the same UbiArt framework as last year’s Rayman Legends, and the team has built with it a stunning fairy-tale landscape and characters that look like old Japanese RPG character studies bought to life. It’s the graphics that make the biggest first impression. What might surprise you is how cleverly and elegantly it’s all been made. It’s no surprise that this journey will take her to some strange people and some equally strange places, or that she might meet some more familiar faces on the way.
All Aurora wants to do is return to her grief-stricken father, but to do so she must first complete a mission: recover the sun, moon and stars that have been stolen from the sky by the wicked queen of the night. It’s the tale of Aurora, a high-spirited princess bereaved of her mother who, underneath mysterious circumstances, dies and reawakens in the strange, dark land of Lemuria.
Ubisoft’s arthouse gaming effort is both a European take on a Japanese style, and an attempt to retool that style for modern players. It’s not hard to spot the influences – a little early Final Fantasy, some Zelda, a spot of Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and Enix’s Actraiser – but it’s not in any way limited by them. It’s a game that harks back to the glory days of 2D graphics, and to an era when Square Enix was producing some of its finest RPGs. Available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 (reviewed), PC, Wii UĬhild of Light is a game made by artists, where nostalgia is the overwhelming mood.
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