Ubisoft Montreal has released a new trailer for its upcoming RPG Child of Light, giving players a glance upon its beautifully crafted hand drawn and watercolour visual style in the fairy tale world of Lemuria. The game is due for release in just a fortnight's time, on 30th April.
The trailer shows off a world packed with dream-like imagery and unspoiled environments, with many shards of light and child-like wonder. The developers incorporate elements such as eastern European fairy tales and Japanese role-playing games as they create a pretty amazing visual atmosphere, all whilst maintaining the watercolour style.
The storyline of Child of Light centres around Aurora, a child who is on a quest to take back the sun, moon and stars from the mysterious Queen of the Night. Many challenges stand in Aurora's way during her search for the stolen luminous godly bodies across the kingdom of Lemuria. However she can get help by the likes of Igniculus the firefly, Finn the Capilli and many more during her journey.
Beside the astonishing visual style, giving the game a whimsical look on the surface, Child of Light is said to contain "hardcore" J-RPG elements which are immersed within the platformer-styled side-scrolling action.
"Child of Light is a J-RPG, meaning that Aurora gains experience and levels up, working with partners in battle area to take on enemies as well as an epic world that she moves through," the game's writer Jeffrey Yohalem said in an interview with Polaris. "The game is [playable] in co-op… on the couch co-op, so you're talking to the person next to you and interfacing. For me this is a game about growing up, Aurora gains experience, gains levels, so she herself grows up over the course of the game and will become a fully-grown woman by the end."
Yohalem described the game's conception; "Also, we wanted to simplify some of the complex J-RPG structures in order to allow people who are not fans of J-RPGs to play. After playing [the game] a lot, I really love the depth to the system. I think that if you play without understanding the depth, you can still win, especially on normal – but if you play on hard, it's a hardcore J-RPG."
In an interview with Polygon Yohalem explained that it is entirely possibly to complete the game solo, where the player has the option to pick up a number of partners along the way. If solo players decide not to interact with any of the side characters however, they'll skip around one-third of the game. Yohalem believes that most publishers would never allow developers to design an AAA title this way but having a player's choice affect the story and the gameplay so strongly is, in his mind, the way it should be.
Child of Light will launch at the end of the month priced at $14.99 on PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U.
