The Lightbringer Review - Light The Way, Sister
I won’t be the only one who’ll be looking at The Lightbringer saying, “Is this a Zelda game?”. A massive compliment, no doubt, but aside from the crispy visuals and elfin garb our hero sports, any further comparisons are coincidental.
From Rock Square Thunder and Zordix Publishing, you play the Lightbringer of the title – a silent type who must travel the lands filled with corruption, bringing light to it once more. It’s all rather pleasant, and apart from some slimy tar-like stuff, it’s not all that bad.
There’s a history to the role, though, and it was your sister tasked with being the protector. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and the torch has fallen to you. Fortunately, her spirit follows you around, giving you some pointers and with the nasty habit of rhyming everything she says.
The Lightbringer Game Review
Harnessing pure light from the air isn’t as magical as it may seem, as light is represented by some collectable gem-like shapes scattered through the lands. It’s a bit like collecting coins; then, once you come to the corrupted monolith, you bank your light as well as actual crystals and any other story elements.
The Lightbringer appears to be relatively easy at first, and that’s a good thing as we don’t all have 20+ hours a day to invest in one title. With that in mind, I’d happily play this for hours at a time as the challenge does ramp up accordingly, but it’s the overall atmosphere of the game that is just… well, lovely.
Presented in 3D, we follow our hero from an isometric viewpoint and duly swing around with the camera to ensure we haven’t underestimated the distance of a jump. If anything, that was what was killing me in the opening stages, but 95% carelessness.
If you don’t stay on top of the camera, it can be easy to fall, as mentioned, and you’ll lose health points each time. When you run out, you have to restart the level again. This will seldom happen initially, but in later levels, you’ll have to locate all the objects again without any checkpoint.
Right Back Atcha
Still, health is in abundance with health potions along the way. While we’re on the topic of camera angles, you can’t adjust it vertically – at least, I couldn’t – so you can’t always see ahead of you. This isn’t as bad as it would seem, but other than a few conveniently placed viewpoints to give you a guide on where you should be heading, you’ll just have to get used to spinning around the Lightbringer and get your bearings that way.
The usual puzzles exist, such as pressure pads, switches and devices you manually push to rotate a bridge. In some cases, you’ll need to locate and carry missing machinery before a device can be operated. If you fall off the edge while carrying these, they’ll respawn back at their origin point. This only happened to me a couple of times but was a pain in the derrière.
Before long, you’ll be dealing with enemies too, such as the slimes that resemble those from Dragon Quest without looking like a turd, so perhaps more like those found in Nioh 2. There will be a boomerang you can equip, and I have to say, this was absolutely brilliant to use.
No doubt I don’t need to explain the concept of this bent piece of wood, but it’s so much fun when you’re in a space-restricted platform being chased, and you throw the boomerang, run around the enemies, then the boomerang returns to you, clipping them at the back of the head. I got a bit cocky with this technique and took some unnecessary damage, but it was so satisfying.
Puzzling?
The Lightbringer is a straightforward puzzle adventure that may not have you retracting your jaw from the floor, but pleasantly surprised at how nice this game is. Nice isn’t usually a power word, but I use it with respect.
There’s something about the pacing, storytelling and non-disruptive music that feels so good when you stop to pay attention to it, but equally, it’s not epic blasting horns at the wrong time. I’d go as far as to say that it’s one of the best scores I’ve heard in a game this year.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for your sister. Not your sister, but the Lightbringer’s. She speaks in rhyming couplets, and it just didn’t work for me. I was a big fan of A Juggler’s Tale, but that might have been the exception as rhyming each word eventually sounds forced and loses its meaning. It’s a preference thing, but rhyming slime with crime was a bit paint-by-numbers for me.
What do I think then? Well, hopefully, a few key sentences in all that gumpf above gave an indicator: I love The Lightbringer. It’s refreshing to play a game that borders more on casual than challenging, but it doesn’t shy away from a challenge, either. For the completionists, there’s plenty of secrets to find, but there’s something enchanting about the game where you’d rather just take your time a bit. Those needing a rescue can wait a bit – I’m soaking up the vibes.