- Developer: thatgamecompany
- Publisher: thatgamecompany
- Release Date: 06/29/2021
- Price: Free To Download, contains in-app purchases
[Warning: This game contains in-app/in-game purchases]
Video Review
Introducing: Sky Children of The Light Nintendo Switch Review
The developers of Flow, Flower, and Journey are at it once more in another alarmingly beautiful but soothingly quiet adventure in Sky: Children of The Light. You’ll solve mysteries, help lost spirits find their way, learn how to laugh, chirp a lot, and even communicate with other players if you choose to. Run, jump, and [chirp noise] your way through each of the desolate maps as you complete simple, but meaningful tasks in each of the 7 realms. Continue soaring down the page for the rest of our review for Sky Children of the Light on Nintendo Switch.
Constellation Constipation
A summary of this world’s story is presented toward the beginning of your adventure through these animated Hieroglyphs on this cave wall. You’ll learn that you, and the other children of the light, were chosen to free the spirits that had fallen to earth, so they could bring the constellations back to the sky! Upon meeting each spirit, you’ll be prompted to chase them. After which you’ll receive that spirit’s last few actions leading to their death, or where they got lost.
While it may be difficult to measure exactly just how much you impacted, or moved through the story, this small action of giving a spirit the ability to move on, gives you a new single unit of a currency to spend, and a new emotion to use to communicate with other players. It’s a unique system that pays for exploration, for the repetitive chase sequences, and for striving to gather every spirit in each area.
Running, With A Side of Jumping
Sky: Children of The Light has a surprisingly simple control scheme. After you virtually sign the End User License Agreement and find a stable internet connection, you can begin your Journey. You’ll use the left control stick to move, and the right one to control the camera and navigate the X-button Menu. B will make you jump, and holding it will make you fly when you unlock that ability. Your A button is your scream button. Tapping A will make you release a short tuned scream, and holding A will make you release a loud scream with a shockwave to accompany it. Pressing Y does a number of things from interacting with candles to interacting with other players who are denoted by ghostly outlines. When you activate your friendship with them, their outlines become filled in and they can interact with the same world you inhabit.
Sky is a rather empty game. There are very VERY large maps with great distances between points of interest, and those points of interest usually end up being spirits waiting to be chased to be set free. Or vantage points on which you can look on even greater distances. This is an incredible way of emphasizing how much world there is, how much you can benefit from looking to friends for help, and how much there may be to find out there. But this reviewer found the 7 realms rather empty, devoid of life, and only ever took advantage of asking one of the other friendly players for help. This person then proceeded to solve every nearby puzzle, grab every nearby collectible, and prove they had been playing for much longer than I by zipping around the map like superman. If there is a way to turn off the connection between 2 now friendly players, this reviewer never found it and elected to restart the application instead.
Final Thoughts
Sky: Children of the Light is a game that appears rather boring while actually playing it. There are too few things spread across wildly gigantic maps that are very easy to get lost in. Additionally, there are several confusing currencies all with their own specific uses and things they can purchase. But despite the gripes this reviewer has with the pacing, the spread, the pass system and in-app purchases, this game has two fine points it does well enough to make it stand out among the plethora of Free-to-start games. There is little to no danger, or requirement to complete tasks in a certain amount of time, meaning you can start and stop playing this game extremely easily. And it’s free. This is a free, high-quality-looking game from a developer with a long history of impeccably beautiful games. Truly, that is a package worth avoiding the in-app purchases to try.
Pros
- Easy to pick up/put down
- Interacting with other players is not a requirement
- Easy controls
- Sense of progression is slow but relaxing
Cons
- Rather boring and desolate
- In-app purchases
- Pass system
- Collectibles are too spread among huge maps
- Currencies with confusing uses
Verdict
thatgamecompany can create visually stunning experiences, even if Sky: Children of the Light is spread too far and are addled with microtransactions and in-app purchases.
