“Child of Light” New Announcement
Ryan Smythe ’15 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Ubisoft’s turn-based RPG Child of Light has finally been given a release date of April 30, 2014. It will cost $14.99, and will be available for download via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 and One, the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and PS4, the eShop for the Wii U, and Steam for PC. It is rated “Everyone 10+”.
Players will take control of Aurora, a girl living in 1895 Austria. She contracts a physical ailment that causes her to fall asleep and awake in the mystical land of Lemuria. To return home, she must bring back the sun, the moon, and the stars held captive by the Queen of the Night.
This has not been confirmed, but it seems likely that Lemuria is at least based off of the mythical land of the same name. Originally thought of by 19th-century zoologist and biogeographer Philip Sclater, it was believed to be a lost land, much like Atlantis. Imagined to be somewhere in the Indian or Pacific Oceans, it was created to explain the presence of fossils found in Madagascar and India, but not in Africa or the Middle East.
Debunked as fiction once the theory of plate tectonics took hold in mainstream thought, the idea of a mystical land persisted. Some believed that the Lemurians were the ancestors of Atlanteans, while others added that the Lemurians were seven feet tall, hermaphroditic, laid eggs, and were mentally undeveloped. Upon the creation of humans, the Lemurians turned to beastiality. The gods, horrified at this turn of events, sunk Lemuria into the sea and created a new race, this time blessed with intellect, the Atlanteans.
It is not clear how much of this, if any, will feature in Child of Light. But taking into account the sheer size of these mythical “men” as well as the vague descriptions of their appearance, the possible character designs could be so much fun. On top of that, the idea that the gods themselves sunk the land beneath the sea could play into the stars, sun, and moon being stolen away.
All of this will be made clear on April 30.