A friend of mine is very anti-Child of Light because he sees it as an "Indie by checklist" exploitation. I don't think he's wrong, but I was willing to support the game because I wouldn't mind seeing AAA game companies try to be more indie. You can argue day and night about the legitimacy of it, but in the end it's more about the results.
Child of Light is a good, but not great game, but I enjoyed it for the niche itch it scratched for me. On the other hand, big companies doing small games also gave us Hearthstone, which is so far one of the Top 10 games of 2014.
To be empowering requires there to be a character to empower. Aurora is not a character, she's an archetype. I've seen Child of Light described as a metaphor for coming of age but that's also a lie.
Aurora is little more than a Hero, capital H intended. She is a little girl, a strong man, and everything in between. That is WHAT she is, but there is nothing that describes WHO she is. She's generic in every way, with no change from beginning to end. It would be insulting to consider a blank slate to be "empowering" in any way.
I don't think that's the case when the available female archetypes in fairy tales are generally...lackluster. I'm not saying she's a well developed character, just that there's certainly a purpose and even a need for female archetypes like this even as generic as her characterization is so far. A better game would have used that realization to make Child of Light a deconstructionist fairy tale, but Yohalem is clearly nowhere close to being a good enough writer to pull that off and based on how badly he fails at what he clearly thought he was GOOD at (that God awful rhymed dialogue) I'm glad he didn't try.
Well, the point with Hearthstone is that it was created by a very small team for Blizzard (I think it was about 10). It's certainly not at the level of their marquee IPs. I'm happy with the idea of big developers taking a chance on smaller teams instead of trying to push for constant AAA titles. Especially when they're not focuses solely on designing freemium mobile games.
With this I must agree
I too did this you see
I gave her dust
And you must
Believe it helped me!
...sorry. Yeah I gave all my stardust to Aurora. She was my heavy hitter, by the end her Slash was doing 150 dmg and the Light Ray ability like, 300. Oh and you there's an oculi stone that gives you bonus XP too... but I forget which one.
Wait... You USE the Stardusts? I just had them sat in my inventory thinking when I picked them up they applied to everyone. I finished the game without using a single one.
The game kinda expects you to start with Rubella's Ailment Protection but her damage output is meager. I have not bothered with Tristis and Golem.
Oengus and Robert are the top-tier party members. Finn is good when you need to nuke stuff with magic but not much outside out.
Once I got Oengus, it was all Oengus all the time for me. Oengus and Aurora; I only rotated other party member in to buff/debuff for a turn if it was needed. Oengus+haste+elevate damage+spinels for attack and speed.
The game kinda expects you to start with Rubella's Ailment Protection but her damage output is meager. I have not bothered with Tristis and Golem.
Oengus and Robert are the top-tier party members. Finn is good when you need to nuke stuff with magic but not much outside out.
Once I got Oengus, it was all Oengus all the time for me. Oengus and Aurora; I only rotated other party member in to buff/debuff for a turn if it was needed. Oengus+haste+elevate damage+spinels for attack and speed.
Huh, I expected a lot out of Oengus, but I was disappointed.. Aurora was a glass cannon, so I was very glad to have a tank. However, I felt he wasn't sturdy enough to survive without buffs, and not fast enough survive while he raised his defenses. Were you on hard?
Yeah, but I did buff him. I progressed him all the way down his normal attack line first for max damage, loaded him up with spinels so he started farther along the battle gauge. I'd haste him first turn, and swap in Aurora to elevate damage him second. I'd usually then switch Aurora out for the mouse dude to slow all the enemies. I'd usually switch aurora back in after, to keep elevate damage up on Oengus, or possibly the elemental dude to thrash mobs with his magic.
Oh, and now I have Gen. I am so glad I now have Gen. Her wide-angle Slow Strike is a massively welcome thing after losing Norah and her Lull All.
Actually, I'm pretty sure she's even better at hindering enemy speed than Norah was, what with Backward Slam, and helping my party with Jump-Forward Jig. Basically, she's gonna be a major feature in my party, with her only competition being Robert. Tristis is also boss, with his Haste and Armor spells.[/spoilr]
Did you play on normal or hard? On hard you end up grinding out levels quite a bit more, but even then I wouldn't expect to max out the upgrades. The game is pretty short though. It's a shame really, I would have liked to see a hell of a lot more of the art. I also felt like I got some of the characters so late into the story that I didn't really get a chance to use them. And even though it's kind of tropey:
I would have liked to been given a chance redeem Nora
I just got to Chapter 8... about how far into the game am I, 50%, more?
its the part where (character spoilers)
your stepsister betrays you and you get captured by the queen, and your whole party is captured as well. I just got to the point where you get them all back before I stopped.
I just got to Chapter 8... about how far into the game am I, 50%, more?
its the part where (character spoilers)
your stepsister betrays you and you get captured by the queen, and your whole party is captured as well. I just got to the point where you get them all back before I stopped.
You're close. You have about 5 bosses and 1.5 dungeons left
The story of Lemuria didn’t end with Aurora’s journey in Child of Light. Today it continues with the release of Reginald the Great, a free downloadable book written by Jeffrey Yohalem and illustrated by Serge Meirinho. Picking up a couple years after the events of the game, Reginald the Great follows the story of Reginald, the adventurous young son of Robert and Margaret, whom you probably remember from the game. Patrick Plourde, Child of Light’s Creative Director, and Serge Meirinho spoke with us about the decision to continue the story of Lemuria and its citizens in a book, the desire for a new character, and the idea for community involvement in future stories.
XBL - ArchSilversmith
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
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"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Child of Light is a good, but not great game, but I enjoyed it for the niche itch it scratched for me. On the other hand, big companies doing small games also gave us Hearthstone, which is so far one of the Top 10 games of 2014.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
What do you think Rainbow?
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Aurora is little more than a Hero, capital H intended. She is a little girl, a strong man, and everything in between. That is WHAT she is, but there is nothing that describes WHO she is. She's generic in every way, with no change from beginning to end. It would be insulting to consider a blank slate to be "empowering" in any way.
Well, the point with Hearthstone is that it was created by a very small team for Blizzard (I think it was about 10). It's certainly not at the level of their marquee IPs. I'm happy with the idea of big developers taking a chance on smaller teams instead of trying to push for constant AAA titles. Especially when they're not focuses solely on designing freemium mobile games.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Wait... You USE the Stardusts? I just had them sat in my inventory thinking when I picked them up they applied to everyone. I finished the game without using a single one.
Now I feel dumb.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Game just got a little hard with interrupt drawbacks.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Oengus and Robert are the top-tier party members. Finn is good when you need to nuke stuff with magic but not much outside of it.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Interrupt drawbacks don't penalize me for making use of the timeline. Just makes me use it differently.
Once I got Oengus, it was all Oengus all the time for me. Oengus and Aurora; I only rotated other party member in to buff/debuff for a turn if it was needed. Oengus+haste+elevate damage+spinels for attack and speed.
Not interrupting enemies? Is that what you suggest?
BTW,
EDIT: So much.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
not realizing that you can only have one file! (on the Wii U at least)
whooooops!
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
I disagree there. It's just Grandia-lite to me.
An extra party member would help a lot.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Does he have his own profile on the Wii U? I know that's how Pikmin manages save files. 360 and PS3 games work the same way
Huh, I expected a lot out of Oengus, but I was disappointed.. Aurora was a glass cannon, so I was very glad to have a tank. However, I felt he wasn't sturdy enough to survive without buffs, and not fast enough survive while he raised his defenses. Were you on hard?
Seems a bit redundant with Norah around, though.
Haha
You'll see why he's useful soon enough.
For those interested. I should go back to this. Got stuck with a boss fight.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA
Older Aurora is gonna take some getting used to.
Oh, and now I have Gen. I am so glad I now have Gen. Her wide-angle Slow Strike is a massively welcome thing after losing Norah and her Lull All.
Actually, I'm pretty sure she's even better at hindering enemy speed than Norah was, what with Backward Slam, and helping my party with Jump-Forward Jig. Basically, she's gonna be a major feature in my party, with her only competition being Robert. Tristis is also boss, with his Haste and Armor spells.[/spoilr]
Though, I hear there's a NG+ which carries levels over and makes everything harder.
its the part where (character spoilers)
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
But you do get to control Igniculus via the touch screen, if you so choose.
Also, off-screen play in general.
"We have years of struggle ahead, mostly within ourselves." - Made in USA