Another game that I have discovered years late, thanks to the Playstation Plus back catalogue, "Child of Light" was a fantastically well-made role-playing game, that despite not usually being a big fan of the genre, I played through until the end.
Princess Aurora is transported to a mystical land, Lemuria, when she begins a quest to find a series of temples and to locate a mirror that will allow her to return home. Along the way she meets a number of inhabitants of Lemuria, each of whom have a problem that Aurora helps them overcome. Having earned their gratitude, they join her on her quest.
Traditionally, turn based combat hasn't really been my thing. I played a bit of "Persona" over the years and completed a game called "Enchanted Arms" on the Xbox 360 but that's about it. I did like the way that "Child of Light" varied the mechanic though. It's adds a time bar element for each battle, as a representative of each character travels across that bar until they reach a certain threshold at which point they can chose their action. Defence, for example, may then be immediately instigated, whereas casting an attack spell might take a while to come into effect - during which time your opponent may set up their own defence, or even worse, undertake a quicker attack that can thwart yours entirely. The characters in the party can be switched out dynamically, each have various strengths and weaknesses and can be levelled up as you progress through the game. I found it a lot of fun to play and (key for me) was able to make progress each time I played.
I did find myself skipping a lot of the script, as in places the four-line poetry form started to drag, but I managed to keep up with the story despite of that. The art style is pretty and navigating the overworld maps, trying to get a drop on the roaming characters (so you begin each fight with the advantage) was easy and fun. The game probably took me 15-20 hours to complete, but I worked quite hard on revisiting areas with weaker enemies to try and over level my characters, so I could always make progress - I feel like you could realistically do it in around half the time, if you were smarter with some of the games other mechanics and more willing to risk your self in battle (the save points are very forgiving).
I doubt I'll ever find the need to come back to it, but during the play through I found an engaging and beautiful experience that (certainly at no additional cost, if you have it on PS+) I would recommend.
