Child of Light is Simply Stunning! When was the last time you saw a review describe a video game with those words? There is no other way to describe Child of Light, the visuals, the music, even the feeling you get from the game is simply stunning. Ubisoft’s first attempt at a Japanese RPG style game includes hand painted water colour levels, extremely well composed music and an interesting story told in rhyme.

You play as Princess Aurora, a little girl who wakes up the enchanted world of Lemuria. She is trying to get back to her Father and her kingdom. Straight off you meet up with Iniculus who is a glowing creature that has special powers to blind enemies or unlock doors by casting shadows. Iniculus is controlled by the right analog stick or you can have a friend control it via a 2nd controller.

Within a minute of trying out the basic controls and getting used to some basic puzzle solving you come across a sword and your first RPG style battle scene where you take turns to attack and defend against enemies. The game simplifies the battles, so don’t worry if you hate digging through menus just to find an item: Ubisoft Montreal made this extremely accessible to even the RPG newbie. It is extremely hard to balance RPG experience with overly complicated menus or over simplifying the experience, Ubisoft Montreal simplified the system a little too much with just a leveling up system for the amount of health you have, defence and magic. You’ll learn quickly that the real time bar on the bottom is essential to a successful kill of your enemy, timing attacks, magic and or defending yourself. Iniculus, your glowing friend can also help out in battles, by blinding enemies, picking up mana or healing, all from the 2nd controller or the right analog stick.

Puzzles are fairly easy to solve, involving moving boxes or using Iniculus to shine somewhere. Even children can easily take over Iniculus to fly around the level and eat all the goodies from the plants around the screen. Eventually even Aurora herself will be able to fly around the levels adding another gameplay dynamic.

The story is very well written, with plenty of twists and turns into this magical land. Eventually you’ll get to a point where you won’t be able to put down the controller and just want to free her from this world to meet her father again. The characters you meet will sometimes give you side quests, this extends the gameplay long enough to warrant the low cost of the game.

If you are looking for a slow paced RPG with stunning visuals, this is definitely worth the download for almost all home consoles and even from Steam for $14.99.

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