Child of Light - JRPG from Ubisoft

[subotaiy]

Too much style, too little substance. Perfect game for hipsters.

 

[Keldryn]

I'm honestly surprised that this game is getting a relatively positive response here.

Looking forward to playing Child of Light myself. I'll get the Wii U version in a couple of weeks (my wife is getting me the system for my birthday this year). My oldest daughter (4) is still a bit too young to play this, but I think she'll like watching it. I'm always looking for more good games that I don't have to play late at night when the kids are in bed.

The presentation is a major draw for me. "Amazing graphics" look outdated rather quickly, but fantastic art direction can be timeless. I genuinely don't get poetry and never read it on my own, but I think the idea of writing all the game's dialogue as poems is really cool.

 

[aris]

Too much style, too little substance. Perfect game for hipsters.

I love how hipsters always accuse other people of being hipsters. It's so hipsterish.

 

[aris]

So, I finally bought the game, and fired the game up on hard, expecting the casul experience of the century when it comes to combat. Instead, the game is surprisingly hard! I'm on the first boss, and I've got my ass handed to me twice. I might have to restart the game too, since I've used all my potions. I simply don't know how to beat them without taking a couple of hits, and these two hit really hard.

The combat seems relatively simplistic, but I like the importance of timing your attacks on the time line, making sure your attack don't get interrupted and trying to interrupt their attacks, it's a very nice innovation, I haven't seen in other TB-games.

Edit: Almost made it the third time, but got interrupted before the killing blow and then killed.

 

[spekkio]

I like the importance of timing your attacks on the time line, making sure your attack don't get interrupted and trying to interrupt their attacks, it's a very nice innovation, I haven't seen in other TB-games.

Grandia says hello.

 

[aris]

I like the importance of timing your attacks on the time line, making sure your attack don't get interrupted and trying to interrupt their attacks, it's a very nice innovation, I haven't seen in other TB-games.

Grandia says hello.

Ah, never played that one. Looks fun!

I'm really surprised by the gameplay and the combat though. I wasn't expecting much, but it's much deeper than I thought. One reviewer said that the rpg-elements are paper-thin (or something like that), and while it's certainly not complex, it's more complex as an rpg than Mass effect 2, or even mass effect 1. Two games that have been hailed as "great rpgs". It's also very comparable in complexity to many of the FFs, also the early ones.

So far the game seems quite open, I might be mistaken, but I've encountered at least one very big area which you can just skip, and since you seem to be able to skip just about any fight, it seems like you can explore at will. I dunno, maybe it is more linear than I think, I haven't played it enough yet.

Also the combat. In many jrpgs, especially FF, also the earlier one including the "legendarily difficult" FFIV, you can win many non-boss fights by just mashing the x button (attack, select monster, rinse and repeat), not so in this game, and it punishes you heavily most of the time if you do a timing mistake. There seems to be no level scaling, and as I ventured deeper into the kingdom I encountered many monsters that kicked my ass. There also seems to be a lot of completely optional mini-bosses, I also like that they took the rock-paper-scissor gameplay of the elements, which is a classical trope of the Jrpgs of old.

I also like the FF-X system of being able to exchange companions at will. Edit: Though being able to change out downed companions, which I just discovered, is decline.

 

[aris]

Finished the game. A short but sweet little game that surpassed greatly my expectations. There's nothing to be said about the art direction and the music (The last game I played with such a consistently great sound track must have been back in 2001 with FFIX), because it's goddamn near perfect, and the dialogue written in rhyme was excellently done (at least in the italian translation). I really enjoyed the combat too, that was challenging and required you to think and pay attention throughout, simplistic the underlying RPG mechanics may be, but it roomed several interesting strategic situations. I didn't do or explore even close to everything, and I'm going to replay it now and try to uncover more secrets and understand the lore of the land.

It was a little bit more linear than I first had the impression of, but one can only expect so much from a 15€ game.

Highly recommended game! Ubisoft has really been inclining this year, releasing two really great games in a short time span, although I would say that child of light is the better game.

*edit*: Hey waddya now, seems like you can go back to the game after the end credits have rolled. What do you guys recommend me to do? Do the side quests now, and try to discover secrets (for example I never found out what do to with those altars around in the game world), or do them in a new game?

 

[aris]

Tripple post by now, but since I'm the only one interested in this thread, I'll pardon myself.

The feels

Fucking best combat theme ever

Fucking best boss theme ever

 

[spekkio]

Well, I didn't like the game at all, after a short test, but maybe I'll reconsider, thanks to your marketing efforts.

 

[Shadenuat]

Yeah, music in this game is just orgasmic.

 

[Jasede]

dat music o.o

Never heard of this game until now.

 

[Snozgobler]

Only obvious downside for me is the limitation of there only being one save game. I'm playing on the easier mode with my daughter and I'd like the option of seeing how hard the game actually is on hard, but I'll probably never find out as I rarely play games more than once unless there are significant differences in the story due to decisions made along the way.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

dear god what a fucking shitty combat this game have. nice art and ost but playing on hard some of those battles are fucking retarded if you dont spam "slow down"/defend every second turn you gonna get raped.

 

[Shadenuat]

I'm really struggling with myself now to not say some sort of "casul-git-gut" standard Dark Souls line.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

i am "gut" enough to beat this game on hard

Spoiler

what i dont like is that they mix turn based combat with shitty qte. either make it pure turn based or real time with pause or let me use some fucking gambits/templates for my team.
cause its fucking retarded to jump between 3 foes with that blue fart to slow down exactly the one you need to between gathering the blue crystals/healing your team/noticing which of the foe is the fastest one in this turn/which one is buffed etc.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

So how exactly does the combat function?

Like Grandia? or Paper Mario?

 

[Snozgobler]

Enemies are visible in the world and when you run into them you start combat.

There is a bar along the bottom of the combat screen with each combatant's face on it. The bar consists of two sections: A longer section to the left where you are waiting to take your action and a shorter section to the right where you are winding up to do your action. You start combat somewhere on this bar based on whether you surprised the enemy, were surprised by the enemy or met them head on.

Every character moves from left to right along the bar. When any of your characters reaches the end of the first section, by default everyone stops moving along the bar and you get to choose what action you want to take. Actions have their own speed, so how fast you move along the smaller "winding up" section of the bar is determined by what action you chose to do. (You can also choose to defend in which case you head back to the start of the first section, with a decreased time to pass along it and take reduced damage)

While in the second section, if you get hit your action is wasted and you get pushed back to somewhere on the first section of the bar unless you have been buffed to ignore interruptions.

Once a character's action is completed (be that attacking, using an item etc) they return to the start of the bar on the left. (Some characters have skills that can allow them to start closer to the right after each action).

While all this is going on you also have a free flying character called igniculus. They take no active part in attacking/defending etc, but they can be moved around the screen to interfere with combat. Igniculus has a certain amount of "energy" that it can expend to either slow enemies or heal allies (This uses the same energy bar that Igniculus has out of combat, so entering combat with reduced energy is less than optimal unless that energy was used to facilitate a surprise attack on the enemy). This ability is used by moving Igniculus on top of an ally or enemy and channeling its energy onto the target. The energy bar is a set length, but can be replenished by absorbing firefly like things that Igniculus can knock out of plants that appear on the battle map.

The first time Igniculus knocks into each plant (there are normally two, boss fights tend to have three) health and mana regen fireflies appear along with the energy Igniculus uses, over time the plants can "regenerate" energy fireflies to replenish Igniculus, but no more health/mana fireflies will appear within that fight.

 

[Starwars]

Just finished this after getting it on a sale. What a beautiful little game, really enjoyed it overall.

 

[Haba]

Really liked the game. It's just so gorgeous visually. Why can't we have more games like this?

Length is just about right for a game like this. It took me 20 hours to complete it, while doing all the side-quests. Any longer would be overstaying the welcome, since there aren't that many new mechanics introduced in the endgame.

And fuck, the game was actually challenging! I found most of the stardust and got the best oculi, yet even some of the standard trash fights took several tries. Surprisingly little hand-holding either, the game doesn't really tell you what you're doing wrong. Which can be frustrating, if you don't realize that some enemies are highly resistant to physical damage (100 dmg v.s. 1000 dmg).

I couldn't find all the chests and stardust despite going the areas through with a small comb. Hrrrmph.

 

[Infinitron]

It'd be nice if somebody did a Codex review of this.

 

[Metro]

Buy me a review copy. I'm a professional -- there are standards to how this works.

 

[Snozgobler]

Infinitron, is there a specific format/set of guidelines to follow? I enjoyed the game and could look at writing something, though having played it from start to end with my five year old daughter I'm not certain my impressions will be entirely and free from an overly optimistic take on things. For most trash fights she relegated me to using Igniculus and it was mainly the boss fights where I took over control of the main party (while raging at her for being a n00b, using up boosts too soon and not slowing the correct god damned leviathan head!)

 

[Crooked Bee]

Infinitron, is there a specific format/set of guidelines to follow? I enjoyed the game and could look at writing something, though having played it from start to end with my five year old daughter I'm not certain my impressions will be entirely and free from an overly optimistic take on things. For most trash fights she relegated me to using Igniculus and it was mainly the boss fights where I took over control of the main party (while raging at her for being a n00b, using up boosts too soon and not slowing the correct god damned leviathan head!)

Just take a look at a few of our previous reviews, make sure your text is up to snuff, and then submit it via the Contact Us forum or PM me or Infinitron. We'll take it from there.

Not sure if your daughter's experience is representative of e.g. Haba's experience, though

 

[Avellion]

I love how hipsters always accuse other people of being hipsters. It's so hipsterish.

 

[Haba]

Not sure if your daughter's experience is representative of e.g. Haba's experience, though

Wat, didn't you all sit on the lap of your papa as you played the game on your home TV?