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Child of Light (VITA) Status: Finished playing I started playing this game on Sunday 27 December, 2015 // I stopped playing this game on: Monday 18 January, 2016
Current opinion of this game
Beautiful and fun/interesting gameplay.
January 18, 2016 11:53:20 AM
Finished! Definitely a fun and enjoyable game. It wasn't too hard, but I'm not complaining. And the combat system was a lot more interesting than I initially thought - especially as I started to mix things up with the other characters and their abilities. I'll admit that I'm mostly not a fan of the writing, and I'm curious if this is a localization issue (written originally in French?). If it was, it was undoubtedly a major challenge.
January 5, 2016 08:55:43 PM
Been playing this some more - complete another chapter and WOW, all of a sudden there was a difficulty spike! I was no longer able to make it with just the two characters and I was suddenly forced into swapping characters and hoping for the best (given that I wasn't familiar with their abilities). I'm glad it happened because they're pretty neat - at least in the sense that they open up more possibilities for doing cool things. It also helps with those moments when the characters I had been using just don't have good counters/responses to whatever the monsters are doing.
December 29, 2015 10:58:31 AM
I had heard that the game was very pretty (it is) and that the writing was awful (I'm not sure about that yet). What I hadn't heard is that it has a really interesting (novel to me, at least) combat system that combines your typical turn-based mechanics (choose correct attack, defense, spells, etc.) with two dynamic (as in real-time) elements that combine in interesting ways. The first element is a timeline that shows all the characters (max 2) and enemies (max 3) moving along a timeline at different speeds (depending on their individual stats is my guess). When they get to the beginning of a red zone they start a "move" (attach, spell, etc.). Depending on the speed of the move they will then move along at a different speed than before. Whoever gets to the end of the timeline first has their move happen and anyone who is in the red zone is interrupted and kicked back down the timeline. So, there's a fair amount of strategizing - ideally you want your move to trigger before your enemies, but you want it to trigger when there are enemies in the red zone (that are getting targeted by your move, so they get interrupted). There are also spells that affect how the characters move along and all that. The second element is a light wispy thing that you move around with the right stick (or using the touch screen). If you place it over an enemy and hold down L1 - that enemy is slowed. If you place it over a friend and hold down L1 you can heal. There's also some plants that let you recover health and mana points. The wispy thing has a limited power bar too - so you can't slow an enemy forever. Both elements combine in interesting ways because you can now affect how quickly an enemy moves along the timeline (slow him down so you character gets to the end before, or not slow down so he's in the red zone when your move triggers, etc.). I've found that it keeps me on my toes because I have to do two things at once - with different fingers and all that. As for the story? Yes, the characters rhyme but...while I understand the big picture elements, I'm not really "clicking" with the prose/rhyme. It seems nonsensical, but not nearly nonsensical enough to be, say, a children's fairy tale. I should probably pay more attention to it though... I've just started chapter 5 - halfway through?

Child of Light (VITA)