Child of Light

Child of Light is simply mesmerizing. Firstly, because at first glance the game seems childish, and you don’t expect much from the actual adventures, and secondly, the animated watercolor drawings truly enchant.

Just look at this beauty:

You can’t just tear yourself away from CoL, especially because of such pictures.

Meanwhile, the game – yes, in terms of atmosphere, it is truly a children’s game. Moreover, it is clearly “for girls”. The story of Child of Light is about a young red-haired girl named Aurora, who finds herself in a magical kingdom ruled by an evil witch. The girl needs to, firstly, return home, secondly, help her beloved father, and thirdly, make sure that everyone everywhere lives happily ever after. In other words, everything is clean, no horrible demons with bloodshed. Plus, the whole story is told in verses (the translation into Russian, by the way, is good, someone clearly made an effort); boys might risk getting bored.

After the first ten minutes, it seems like you’ve entered such a peaceful girly quest, and in Child of Light, you don’t need to do anything except talk to fairies, solve simple puzzles, and admire the watercolor beauty. The surprise is even more amazing and pleasant – the game is actually an action-RPG, and it has a well-thought-out and interesting combat system without any compromises on “childishness”. Suddenly, it turns out that we have something like Chrono Trigger with a side view. The action bar, different moves, damage modifiers, tactical tricks, and dynamics – everything is in place, but at the same time, it is free from unnecessary weight and your typical Japanese RPG quirks. Fighting with various spider-dragonflies is interesting and fun without reservations, whether you are a ten-year-old student or a twenty-five-year-old slacker with experience in Final Fantasy.

I want to clarify right away – it is not necessary to know in advance what exactly Child of Light will ask of you. As a gamer familiar with the genre, it is slightly difficult for me to judge, but it seemed to me that CoL calmly and unobtrusively manages to teach you all its intricacies, even if you have never seen any of these RPGs before.

In such ease, slimness, and – I don’t know how to say it better – faithfulness to the genre, there lies a separate merit of CoL. Designed for a younger audience, the project can not only provide hours of engaging gameplay, but also easily instill a taste for proper RPGs and good video games in general. They won’t discover another Sims or Angry Birds in this big, but hidden from most outsiders, world. But here we have a fresh, beautiful, captivating game, true to the best canons of the genre. Isn’t it great?