Episode 149 - It's a Slant Rhyme - Child of Light

What is love known by? When it hurts to say “Welcome to NOCLIP.” Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we are doing as the dice instructed per the rules of Mystery May and playing Child of Light. Another game that’s been on our list for a while, Child of Light is an Ubisoft developed RPG that showcases the studio’s “UbiArt Framework” engine that was designed with the intention of being able to develop with artist’s ease of use specifically in mind. As a result, Child of Light is a game that has an obvious focus on delivering it’s storybook-styled visuals over all else, and therefore has a strong and consistent aesthetic throughout. Beyond the visual style itself, the music fits the theme well while not being overly showy, and conversely, the writing is done entirely in rhyme, calling attention to itself massively and just being a big in-your-face element of the game. Playing the game, though, is more traditional RPG fare, with its big distinguishing twist being a combat timer that allows strategies based around slowing or interrupting enemies and choosing attacks based on the length of time they take to cast. It fits together well enough but contains some design pitfalls that makes this a flawed game, but still an interesting one. We’re going to be talking about the abundance of systems and the harm they can do to the player’s experience, the really charming character and visual design and how they fit it together with the narrative and gameplay, and how Ubisoft really changed as a person once they got that sweet-sweet Rabbids money. Thank you for joining us again today! We’re sad to see Mystery May close out, because it’s been a surprisingly fun time not having to make decisions about what to play. Were you one of the people who played Child of Light when it released, and if so, what made it grab you then? Did you pick it up recently and become confused at the weird DLC elements that just kind of got thrown in? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, with full control back in our hands, we’re going to be talking about Super Mario 64, sort of keeping with the theme of “how did it take them this long to cover this,” so we hope you’ll join us for that!