Sky: Children of Light Nintendo Switch Review

User Rating: 9

Sky: Children of Light comes from the Thatgamecompany, creators of Journey, Flower, and Flow. Thatgamecompany has a knack for creating really atmospheric games that leads you on a journey of unknown and secrets. Sky has a sense of wonder and mystery about the world as I explored and dared to discover. I even dragged a few people random players along with me. This is our journey into Sky: Children of Light.

I did not get the chance to experience Journey fresh when it was released. I hear the experience was amazing and fun and running into other players. Sky: Children of Light being my first real foray into a Thatgamecompany game, I can say I get it. Sky has stunned me with its visuals and gameplay. Flying through the clouds surrounded by what I can only call light fish has been so fun and visually beautiful. Even better, dragging a random player along on that adventure.

Sky is an open-world social game in which we as players play children of light and spread hope throughout the land. As stated previously, I heard about Journey and the visuals, but never played it. Sky blew me away and pulled me in flying through the first cloud area. I wasn’t sure what to expect coming into Sky, except for a mysterious adventure and playing with other people.

As Children of Light, we bring hope to the world by helping the spirits and learning their stories. Sky has a lot of verticality to it, so in some cases, the tasks involve jumping puzzles. Sky combines so many good forms of gameplay. The tasks vary and are plentiful. There are jumping puzzles, stay in the light mechanics for parts, unlocking hidden areas. I was pretty taken aback by this. Whereas yes, in each area we find and help spirits, but I wondered how many ways can they really go about doing that.

Spirits are hidden and can be hard to find, but that is part of the game. This is also where the social aspect comes in. In Sky, there is a way to request a player to guide you to find spirits. The request doesn’t go to any specific person, it goes to any player in the current area. That is pretty cool to have as I’ve seen it pop up a few times and have actually helped a person. Then we became friends and I gave them a nickname. Through helping the spirits, I unlocked different emotes to use with that player and others I saw around.

Emotes aren’t the only thing that can be unlocked. By expending hearts and light, you can level up connections with spirits and unlock customization items. I enjoy the many options to make my child of light look unique. The unlocks range across capes, masks, hair, and clothing. At first other players are just gray, but upon interacting with them and becoming friends you reveal their character. It is a cool method of social interacting. Sky is meant to get expanded upon with more realms and seasonal events. That means more unlocks, probably, and I’m all for that. I can see the fun in adding more, as what’s already there is a good time.

The only downside I have found to Sky is after making friends with another player, I can’t seem to lose track of them. Whereas I made the friend, and we ran around for a bit, but when wanting to go back adventuring on my own, I found that hard to do. The friend we’ll call Nomad since we get to name them just kept coming back to grab my hand. Even after taking him to the top of a mountain, leaving him there, warping back home, and hoping into another realm, he still found me. It can be a little tough to adventure solo after doing that.

There are places one can sit to briefly chat, as mostly there is none in the game. You light the candle and can sit and chat until it burns out. A very cool way to do chat. That is one method to tell a person goodbye or emote, or lastly do what I did and decide I’m just going to take care of other daily things and put the Switch on the charger.

Sky: Children of Light is a very fun, relaxing, and beautiful experience of a game. I am enjoying the visuals and the journey, even if at points I’m not exactly sure what mystery I have solved. But darn if sometimes it isn’t stunning to see the results. Then it turns out I didn’t, but someone else in the area did, so a scene activates for everyone. When this happens, it can be a little confusing, but still nice to see.  I love at the moment I can be super casual playing it. Longevity-wise, if Thatgamecompany has ways of making that experience last, I can see players in the future still being able to experience Sky the way I have, with others populating the world and sharing the experience. Otherwise, it will be hard for a solo player to unlock areas that require two people.

If you as a gamer are looking for a fun and relaxing mysterious adventure experience with soothing music to go along with, take a look at Sky: Children of Light. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the expansions and seasonal events.

The review was completed using a code provided by PR.

Summary
Sky: Children of Light is an indie open world social game that has some stunning visuals. Flying in Sky is one of the most chill experiences I've had this year.
Good
  • Visually stunning
  • Great gameplay
  • Amazing shared experience
Bad
  • Cutscenes can be confusing when activated by another player
9
Amazing

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