Child of Light (PS3)
Feb. 8th, 2017 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroChild, tuck yourself in bed
And let me tell a story
Of Lemuria, a long lost kingdom
And a girl born for glory.
An action-jrpg starring a girl named Aurora in a mystical fairytale land, who learns the true meaning of queenship by making lots of friends and hitting things with a sword.
As Jethrien put it, "Their watercolors are much better than their poetry." It's beautiful. The music is lovely. The story is one part inane to two parts incomprehensible. I get that it's supposed to be dreamlike and fairy-tale-ish, but there's too much that comes out of nowhere, too many side paths, too little time spent actually tying things together. The story tries far too hard to be "deep" and is actually kinda dumb.
In delightful side notes: the narration voiceovers were done by Caroline Dhavernas (of Wonderfalls, Hannibal, etc.).
The gameplay is very interesting--it's an excellent example of non-equal co-op that works. Surprisingly and remarkably tactical combat: The firefly (controlled by player two) can heal your characters or delay your enemies, the latter of which is critical because of the interrupt system. If an enemy (or PC) has queued an action but not used it yet, getting hit makes them lose their turn and bumps them back to the beginning of the action bar. When combined with an assortment of status effects that can also impact turn-taking, locking down enemies and avoiding getting interrupted yourself becomes an important aspect of combat.
(Also, buffs/debuffs can be extremely powerful, as I learned near the end of the game. I had been hoarding most of my items, and then like when I played Shadow Hearts, I was able to use them to trivialize the final boss. Slow the boss, throw haste and damage potions on your characters, be equipped with gems that add light damage to your attacks, and you barely have to pay attention to the battle.)
The exploration parts of the game also work very well. It starts as a bit of puzzle-platformer that goes away once you gain the ability to fly, at which point the game heavily uses the ability to move in multiple dimensions and the abilities of the firefly. There are a ton of optional puzzles that get your items; and sidequests for each character who joins you (two of which, from what I can tell, I missed entirely).
The plot, on the other hand…When Norah (the sister) shows up, I couldn’t even tell what was going on with her, as the opening implies that our heroine is an only child. Then we see that, ah, okay, she's an evil stepsister who suddenly but inevitably betrays us. And because it’s a fairytale, the entire step-family is evil. The overall plot is sort of a coming-of-age story (especially when Aurora inexplicably instantly grows up); but it’s also clearly a Jesus allegory, as Aurora dies, descends to the underworld, defeats the devil, then returns and leads her people to salvation in a new world.
I also should note that Robert the mouse archer was my least favorite character, acting as our dumbass "nice guy," and being generally insensitive and prone to saying stupid, self-centered things. His entire shtick is trying to get with a girl who doesn’t like him by ignoring her wishes and doing supposedly “heroic” things for attention. Gag.
Overall: We had fun playing this, and it’s very pretty, but I don’t think I’ll be looking up story-based sequels or fanfiction any time soon. It’s very good from a gameplay perspective, but the writing falls flat.
And let me tell a story
Of Lemuria, a long lost kingdom
And a girl born for glory.
An action-jrpg starring a girl named Aurora in a mystical fairytale land, who learns the true meaning of queenship by making lots of friends and hitting things with a sword.
As Jethrien put it, "Their watercolors are much better than their poetry." It's beautiful. The music is lovely. The story is one part inane to two parts incomprehensible. I get that it's supposed to be dreamlike and fairy-tale-ish, but there's too much that comes out of nowhere, too many side paths, too little time spent actually tying things together. The story tries far too hard to be "deep" and is actually kinda dumb.
In delightful side notes: the narration voiceovers were done by Caroline Dhavernas (of Wonderfalls, Hannibal, etc.).
The gameplay is very interesting--it's an excellent example of non-equal co-op that works. Surprisingly and remarkably tactical combat: The firefly (controlled by player two) can heal your characters or delay your enemies, the latter of which is critical because of the interrupt system. If an enemy (or PC) has queued an action but not used it yet, getting hit makes them lose their turn and bumps them back to the beginning of the action bar. When combined with an assortment of status effects that can also impact turn-taking, locking down enemies and avoiding getting interrupted yourself becomes an important aspect of combat.
(Also, buffs/debuffs can be extremely powerful, as I learned near the end of the game. I had been hoarding most of my items, and then like when I played Shadow Hearts, I was able to use them to trivialize the final boss. Slow the boss, throw haste and damage potions on your characters, be equipped with gems that add light damage to your attacks, and you barely have to pay attention to the battle.)
The exploration parts of the game also work very well. It starts as a bit of puzzle-platformer that goes away once you gain the ability to fly, at which point the game heavily uses the ability to move in multiple dimensions and the abilities of the firefly. There are a ton of optional puzzles that get your items; and sidequests for each character who joins you (two of which, from what I can tell, I missed entirely).
The plot, on the other hand…When Norah (the sister) shows up, I couldn’t even tell what was going on with her, as the opening implies that our heroine is an only child. Then we see that, ah, okay, she's an evil stepsister who suddenly but inevitably betrays us. And because it’s a fairytale, the entire step-family is evil. The overall plot is sort of a coming-of-age story (especially when Aurora inexplicably instantly grows up); but it’s also clearly a Jesus allegory, as Aurora dies, descends to the underworld, defeats the devil, then returns and leads her people to salvation in a new world.
I also should note that Robert the mouse archer was my least favorite character, acting as our dumbass "nice guy," and being generally insensitive and prone to saying stupid, self-centered things. His entire shtick is trying to get with a girl who doesn’t like him by ignoring her wishes and doing supposedly “heroic” things for attention. Gag.
Overall: We had fun playing this, and it’s very pretty, but I don’t think I’ll be looking up story-based sequels or fanfiction any time soon. It’s very good from a gameplay perspective, but the writing falls flat.
