The game follows Aurora, a young Austrian princess who ends up in the land of Lemuria. In search of a way back, she encounters members of the various Lemurian peoples, some of whom become staunch allies. Aurora and her friends must restore the light to Lemuria and defeat the queen of night before our heroine can return to her home.
Child of Light is designed to play like a storybook, using visuals and text to achieve this effect. Its hand-painted environments are glorious, with desolation and bleakness interspersed with heartbreaking beauty. Ominous glimpses in the background turn out to be much more benign when viewed up close, such as when the giant Magna, home to a race of mouselike traders, meets Aurora for the first time:
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| Image source: https://childoflight.fandom.com/wiki/Magna |
The environs of Lemuria spark joy! during interactions, especially after Aurora gains the ability to fly. Her movements are graceful and her reactions to barriers well executed, like when she hits thorns or fights against howling winds.
By contrast, the story text is a bit strained. The rhyming that occurs throughout the entire game sometimes has awkward pairings, although it is pretty funny when one character consistently chooses non-rhyming words and the others peevishly correct her. It may not have detracted from the experience to have normal dialogue in between the prologue and epilogue.
Apart from the non-sick rhymes, everything else about Child of Light is divine. The soundtrack is particularly outstanding, with simple piano melodies evoking Aurora's emotions as she makes her bewildering and often melancholy journey. The princess also plays "Aurora's theme" on her flute during key moments, usually when she's trying to reach someone who is experiencing/has experienced profound loss.
Meanwhile, the combat system is like being pawed at by several kittens. Touching an enemy starts fights: a regular ol' have-at-thee, an advantage-Aurora tumble if you sneaked in from behind, or an ambush if the opposite happens. Players can have up to two characters in their active party, and can switch freely among the roster when a turn comes up. You have your standard tanks, healers, mages, and buffers. Combat is a combination of real-time and turn-based, with a bar at the bottom (the "timeline") showing each combatant's headshot marching toward their turn to act.
And this is where Igniculus the firefly shines. S/he can blind enemies, thus delaying their turn, and can also heal party members. Outside of combat, Igniculus also heals, lights up dark spaces, opens special and normal chests, is instrumental in solving puzzles, clears acne, and improves your credit score! I prefer single-player modes, but it would be super fun to do two-player and have one of my kids be Igniculus (although it's likely they'll demand to be Aurora).
Finally, the characters are terrific. Aurora grows during the course of her journey, her companions have their own arcs, and the villains are intriguing--there are hints of a complex Lemurian history that Aurora is just a small part of. She's actually my favorite person in the story, because of her let's-get-it-done attitude and compassion.
Child of Light has great pacing; it all goes at a fast clip, with sidequests easily completed. It went by too fast; I was not ready for my adventure to end. I'm used to JRPGs with epic final boss fights and then a showdown with the final final boss, possibly another fight with the secret final boss, but definitely followed by an hour of exposition and end credits. Child of Light strays from that pattern, possibly because there's no secret boss--it's clear via character design that the queen of the night is bad news, and her dismissal of the common folk doesn't help her, either.
In the end, Aurora's journey becomes much more than she imagined, and my soul is all the richer for having played this beautiful game. There's material for a sequel or even a prequel, and I am here for it. Lemuria forever!
TL;DR: Like breathing in the scent of baby hair or the top of a kitty's head.
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This post brought to you by Juniorette banging on the keyboard as I'm writing!
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