The time has finally come. I've finished Child of Light. *queue the sad music and crying* Honestly, before I say anything else... This game is beautiful. If it had absolutely nothing else going for it, it would still be worth a look at just for that. Child of Light is an amazing blend of animation and hand-drawn art, delivered with a beautiful score, adorable characters, a fun story, and a dedication to rhyming that would rival almost anyone's. Seriously, I write poetry and I don't rhyme as much as this game did (I'm not half as good at it either). The dialogue manages to be witty regardless, and the characters have distinct personalities. Each one gets their own story quest, which teaches you a little bit more about their motivations, and encourages them to join your merry band of ragtag misfits.

Anyway, moving on. What is Child of Light? CoL is the story of Aurora, a young girl from a small kingdom in Austria that is ruled by a Duke, her father. Of her mother, a mysterious Duchess, nothing is known. Her father dotes on his only child, and their bond is loving and strong, until he feels the call of loneliness and shares his heart with someone new (and evil). The day of their marriage, Good Friday in 1895, little Aurora suddenly falls ill and slips away, leaving her father entirely distraught and bedridden in the belief that she is dead. Aurora, meanwhile, awakes in Lemuria and sets out to find her way home. CoL is the story of a young girl trying to get back to her father, of a teenage girl trying to right wrongs, and of a woman ready to rule as she was always meant to. CoL gives us the evolution of Aurora, from an innocent child with simple drives, to a complex adult who ultimately chooses saving the people of Lemuria over her own father; the greater good over her own ultimate, driving desire. CoL presents a strong and determined female lead, who learns the hard way not to be too trusting (her step-mother and step-sisters are evil and the reason she finds herself in this mess to begin with) and learns to make the hardest of decisions with wisdom and without allowing herself to become bitter. And that about sums up the story line behind the game.

Screenshots from the game's introduction.
In terms of the intricacies of the game itself (story line aside), I'm going to put out there that I LOVE that monsters in this game have vulnerabilities. It's always fun to play around with the different characters and find the one that best suits each given situation. That aspect of the game actually reminded me a lot of Final Fantasy (X and XI, not so much easy-moded XIV). I find that CoL reminded me of a few different games at different times and I'll point that out as I proceed through this review. I also love-love-loved that flying is your primary way of moving around and that Aurora has these beautiful, almost transparent wings that are there when she flies but not so visible when she walks around. I'm a huge fairy-fan so that just appealed to me so much. Most games don't allow you fly around like that.

The game play is simple enough. CoL is a side-scrolling, platforming, turn-based RPG, and you control Aurora with W-A-S-D, as well as E and the Spacebar. Igniculus, your little firefly (or elemental) friend is controlled by the mouse. The game states that you can play 2-player by having one person control Aurora, and the other control Igniculus. While technically that's true, I'm not sure how much fun it would actually be for the person controlling the mouse. Igniculus is useful, but he's not Aurora.

The game has several companion characters, and they represent the various tribes and races of Lemuria. Each one has their own individual story, and a quest that comes with it. I'll give a quick run-through of them below.

Aurora:

The main protaganist of the story, and your main playable character (other than Igniculus, the others are only playable in battle). She must defeat her evil step-sisters Crepusculum (Cordelia) and Nox (Norah), take back the moon, the stars, and the sun, and defeat The Queen of the Night (Umbra) to free Lemuria.

Igniculus:

A little elemental who was brought into being when Aurora entered Lemuria. He is your constant companion, your light in darkness, a healer for you and your compatriots, a means of blinding and slowing your opponents, and a helpful hand in opening chests and doorways. 

Golem:

A DLC character, only available if you purchase him. He used to stand atop the castle, until The Queen of the Night destroyed The Queen of Light and disassembled him, throwing his pieces into the Tree of Thorns below. Aurora comes across his head in her travels, and must find his torso, arms, and legs in order to reassemble him. Once she has, he joins the party.

Finn:

An inhabitant of the Village of the Capilli, he returns from a trip to find that The Queen of the Night has cursed the entire village, and turned them all into large black birds. Only Water of Lethe from the well can restore them to their proper forms. Finn, considered a coward by himself and the other Capilli, is too frightened to go into the well until Aurora offers her help. She shows him that he has strength and courage inside him, and he decides to join her on her quest.

Norah:

Aurora's step-sister, and Umbra's youngest daughter. You stumble across her on your journeys and she spins you a story, telling you that she was pulled into Lemuria through a magic mirror, and that she can take you back to it and to your father. Aurora, so trusting, believes her and walks right into her trap. Norah does not lead you back to your father, but rather to Umbra, her mother, The Queen of the Night.

Oengus:

A member of the Kategida-clan, a warrior race who live to protect Lemuria, he and his fellow clansman climbed to the top of the tower to wage war on Umbra and her daughters after The Queen of Light was killed. Unfortunately, they were defeated and he is seen as a traitor by his people for pledging to serve Umbra in exchange for all their lives. Oengus approaches Aurora and offers to free her if she will help him free the Kategida, who are locked in the bowels of the tower.

Robert:

A member of the Bolmus race, Robert is probably the companion with the simplest and most selfish of motives. He finds you when you visit his village, and joins you for gold and glory so that he can impress a young lady named Margaret and prove himself worthy of her love

Rubella:

A jester and a member of the Aerostati people, a Lemurian race that live in floating houses in the sky which are kept aloft by enormous balloons. Rubella is supposed to join the circus with her brother Tristis but he goes off without her, leaving only a note behind. When she meets Aurora, she asks to travel with her in the hopes of coming across and rejoining her brother. Rubella is the only character in the game who is unable to make things rhyme.

Tristis:

Rubella's brother, and another member of the Aerostati people, Tristis is the only companion without his own quest (his joining Aurora is the end result of Rubella's personal quest). He ran off to join the circus, leaving his sister behind, but was eventually dismissed by them for being sad rather than funny. When Aurora and Rubella find him, he is on the side of a cliff and considering ending his life. Rubella persuades him to join Aurora's group instead.

Gen (Genovefa):

A member of the Piscean race, and the youngest companion, Gen and an old man named Drust are the only members of their people left after a giant ogre terrorized their village and took its inhabitants. When you meet them, Gen asks you to find and save her parents. Aurora takes off to find the ogre, but although she is able to find and defeat him, she is unable to bring back the villagers that he has eaten. Unable to find the words to explain to Gen what has happened to her parents, she plays her flute for her instead. Gen realizes that her parents are not coming back, and decides to join Aurora in her quest to save Lemuria.

*****

And that's the characters. Which brings me to... the battle system. It's turn-based, as I said before, and you can have two characters on the field at a time. If Aurora engages the monster before it sees her, she gains the advantage as either she or her companion get first pick of actions and can start said action immediately. If the monster gets the jump on her, they gain the advantage instead. The game does give you the option of fleeing from fights, which is very helpful if you're trying to get somewhere fast and are pressed for game-time. The characters have their own unique strengths which makes swapping them around during some fights rather useful. Again, as previously mentioned, there are vulnerabilities in this game so casting the right thing, or using physical vs magical damage, can make or break some fights. Knowing when to use your potions is also important, as some of them can replace character swapping which can save time, although using a potion takes up a full turn while swapping characters does not (although using a skill with the character you swapped in does, clearly). When playing on Casual, you can get away with being somewhat lazy with your character-swapping and potion-using - I imagine that you'd have to be far more on the ball when playing on Difficult.

The skill trees are interesting, and remind me a little bit of Final Fantasy or early WoW. Each character has a few paths that they can follow, with the skills on those paths getting significantly stronger as you progress down them. This review is already long and I don't want to spam it full of images, so I'm only going to post Aurora's skill tree. It should give you a basic idea of what they look like:


I had some skill tree regret, as I wish I'd completed that lower branch on Aurora, but overall I was pleased with the strength of my characters by the time I finished the game. You have a good balance of physical and caster type companions, and some have more flexible skill trees than others. If I can suggest anything, it would just be to take a good look at the trees BEFORE you start assigning points, as it's easy to end up going down a path and regretting it, and the game does not offer you any way to reset the trees once you've put points into them.

I'm not going to go too far into the crafting system. It works a lot like Diablo 3, in that you combine 3 of each gem, or Oculi, to make a higher tier of that gem. One key difference is that you can also combine 2-3 DIFFERENT gems to make new gems altogether. This becomes vital as you go forward, as there are some "special" gems that can be crafted, including the ultimate Oculi "The Princess Stone." I did manage to craft that for Aurora, but it left me somewhat short-changed on gems, so some of my other characters didn't have any Oculi equipped.


The mechanics of it are simple. Left-click on gems from the right-side panel to add them to the crafting circle, right-click on gems from the crafting circle to remove them. When the big circle in the middle is yellow, and showing a preview of a stone underneath, it means that you have an approved combination and can go ahead and click on that big yellow circle to craft yourself a new Oculi. There is a pretty complete Oculi Crafting Guide on Steam that you can check out.


Aurora and her special Oculi.
There are only a couple of things left to go over. The first is Stardust, which allows you to permanently augment a characters stats, and the second is completionism - and they kind of go hand-in-hand.

Stardust is something that you can find in random locations around Lemuria, and your map keeps track of how many you've been able to collect in each area. There are seven different types of Stardust that can be found, and they are the following:

• HP Stardust: Permanently increase HP by 5.
• MP Stadust: Permanently increase MP by 3.
• Strength Stardust: Permanently increase Strength by 3.
• Defense Stardust: Permanently increase Defense by 3.
• Magic Stardust: Permanently increase Magic by 3.
• Dodge Stardust: Permanently increase Dodging (%) by 1.
• Speed Stardust: Permanently increase Speed by 1.

They are super helpful when it comes to balancing your characters, or just making one super strong if that's what appeals to you. Personally, I like balance. They are also kind of tricky to find, which is a pain in the ass if you are a completionist. The game has a lot of zones, but only four distinct "areas" and that's how it tracks how many Coffers and Stardust you've managed to find. I was able to complete the first area, almost complete the second and the third, and the fourth... well, thankfully you can keep playing your characters after you've beaten the game. ;) For those of you who like to make sure that EVERYTHING is done before you finish - Good luck! Some of them are super tricky to find.

And I do believe that's it! The game is amazing, and definitely worth a play through (or more). I've clocked 30+ hours in it, and I still haven't completed all of the collecting or maxed out my characters. I'll probably work on that, even though I've technically already finished the game - I like having things nicely wrapped up. If you think I've missed something, or if you have any questions, please leave a comment or shoot me a message. Otherwise (for those who don't mind spoilers), here are videos of the final boss fight and the post-credit scene. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the review!