Game Review--Child Of Light (Switch)

"In this world, for ill or good, we live together, not alone."
--Aurora, Child of Light


Child of Light is not a game that some might expect from Ubisoft, the firm behind the Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed games, but its illustration-like art style and its unique rhyme-based dialogue set it apart from many other mainstream RPGs.  It tells the story of a young girl named Aurora as she is mysteriously brought to a strange land called Lemuria some time after her mother dies.  She discovers that she must recover the sun, moon, and stars of Lemuria, which have been removed from their places by the wicked Queen Umbra, if she wants to return to her own land.

Production Values

The art style suits both the side-scrolling exploration mode and the combat mode well, and the environments and characters have the consistent appearance of moving illustrations.  Fittingly, the vast majority of the lines in the game are delivered through onscreen text, with select cutscenes being narrated aloud.  Most of the dialogue, if not all of it, literally forms rhymes even when two or more characters are speaking.  This is perhaps the most unique of the design choices in Child of Light, but practically everything about the production values was handled with excellence.

Gameplay

The gameplay is split between a side-scrolling landscape--where Aurora can walk around, find collectibles, and open chests--and a combat landscape where up to two player-controlled characters and three enemies take turns exchanging attacks or using defensive/healing items.  Characters in a battle move along a meter at speeds that vary depending on individual stats and equipped items, and an enemy can be sent to an earlier point on the spectrum if they are successfully attacked within the "casting" portion at the end of the meter.

As with many other RPGs, some types of attacks inflict elemental damage that is especially weak or effective against enemies associated with certain other elements (for example, water-based enemies are particularly vulnerable to attacks enhanced by lightning damage).  These advantages are at their most helpful during fights with boss creatures, so it is usually better to flee a boss battle that is triggered by a cutscene and rearrange the oculi slots that can grant such powers and restart the fight than it is to face the boss while underpowered.

Story

Some spoilers are below.

A young princess named Aurora dies after her father falls in love with and marries an evil queen.  The new queen secretly schemes to kill Aurora's father and rule as a tyrant.  The despairing child finds herself in another realm she thinks is a dream, but the mysterious Lady of the Forest tells her it is not within her mind, speaking of a queen of light who was replaced by the usurper queen Umbra.  Umbra soon attacks Aurora, only to find that a special crown given to her by the Lady of the Forest protects her from Umbra's magic, but Aurora's sister Nox becomes a thorn in the princess's side.


Intellectual Content

Child of Light's emphasis on the mutual love between a daughter and her father is never used as an excuse for softening Aurora's attitudes towards the evil queen and her deceitful sister Nox.  While themes of family are central to the story, the distinction between healthy and destructive family members is made with explicit clarity, and no one is said to have a special obligation to be kind to family members in arbitrary ways simply because they are family.  The game does not specifically clarify these points through dialogue, but it is still very evident from the events in the story that family relationships are not being presented as inherently positive or negative.


Conclusion

From its rhyming dialogue to its story to its blend of side-scrolling exploration and RPG combat, Child of Light is brimming with quality that shows Ubisoft still has some ideas for original games.  Its short length is its greatest limitation, but the journey to the conclusion was not thoughtlessly assembled.  The Switch port even includes a handful of minor DLC costumes and bonus items.  Lemuria is well worth experiencing on the Switch for those who appreciate artistic flair and RPGs, at least if they never heard of or played Child of Light upon its initial release.


Content:
 1.  Violence:  Combat involves turned-based attack animations that feature no blood or gore.  In fact, physical contact between the player's characters and enemies is rare even in battles.  Aurora, her allies, and her opponents often slash at each other or unleash magic attacks from opposite ends of the screen.