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| Possibly the ugliest review for such a beautiful game. |
(No spoilers, we promise) When it comes to video games - Turn based RPG's seem like a thing of the past these days as this generation demands more live action titles. Child of Light follows a traditional blueprint for success and the combination of elements they've used actually works.
However, much like dating a super model - the game itself looks so beautiful, you almost forget or simply refuse to believe anything else can or will be bad within the entire game. The lighting, the fluidity, the environments, and the characters all breathe so much life to the eyes, even with most of the cut-scenes being still pictures in motion.
Visuals aside, the games soundtrack is more than fitting. Each note seems to blend with each action flawlessly. The in-battle tracks seem to be the highlight of the OST, packing some of the most epic arrangements of your adventure.
Speaking of the encounters, the turn-based battles fit perfectly and are arguably the highlight of COL. Being able to interrupt your enemies actions and setting them back on the gauge makes way for your next move. For those who aren't used to RPG style battle or are used to the more live-action sequencing, the battle system could be a potential turn off.
Level-ups, skill points and occuli crafting are also the little things that make this game great. We would consider Child of Light an "open world", even though the path is linear. There is plenty of room for exploration and the further you get into the game, paths are well hidden and much harder to find.
On to the weaker side of our experience, the story just couldn't deliver us in the end. We felt the plot was weak and the ending really wasn't the fairytale ending we were looking for. In the later part of the game battles felt more like a chore. Granted we were playing on HARD mode so maybe that had something to do with the sudden drop in momentum.
The character interaction was a little disappointing and at times just felt lazy. Having someone new in your party interact with other members in mini-scenes was cute but after every battle it got really annoying. Some of the dialogue was pointless and carried no interest or humor whatsoever.
We would have loved to see Igniculus be more of a guide than just a companion in rhyme. At first he seemed to know where to go but after that it became apparent he didn't know much of anything. We would have also liked to see him reveal information about enemies or have shared some knowledge with us along our path.
Rhyming seems forced and makes for horrible dialogue, but only some of the time. Most of the things that could be considered bad are easily dismissed when balancing the pro's and cons. Taking into consideration the game is a smaller title with a much smaller budget than a full length game also makes you think twice about holding your punches.
We played through the entire game on HARD and really gave Child of Light a chance. So what's the verdict? Should you play it? Absolutely! Is it worth the money? Absolutely! Would we play it again? Maybe, but we're leaning more towards a no here. The replay value just isn't there for us. When it comes to continuing a game on new game+ you have to be drawn in enough where you wouldn't want to move on to an entirely different game and Child of Light doesn't do that for us.
Like we said, the story-line was weak and not memorable for us and neither was any of the rhyming dialogue with the exception of Aurora and Igniculus' conversation about love. With that aside, we highly recommend you try the game and buy it if you really want to experience it in full.
Platform: PC
Difficulty played: Hard
Main quest completed: Yes
All side quest completed: No
Reached max character levels: No
Max skill: No
Rating: 4.5 out of 5