Finding Light is a retro style JRPG that has just become available on Steam as of October 15th for less than ten bucks. Visually the game is a blown up version of a classic Game Boy game made to fit your computer screen. Finding Light has the classic monotone coloring, pixel sprites and 8 bit sound like a handheld game.
Finding Light was created and designed by Joshua Keith. It is amazing that one person can make a game that works so well. It is reminiscent of other great RPGs on the Gameboy like the Final Fantasy titles. The bonus is you don’t have to keep moving the screen around for the right light so you can actually see what’s on the screen. Plus your computer screen is hopefully a lot larger!
The heroine of the game is Mari. She is a forest nymph is trying to figure out how the appearance of a huge tower called Heaven’s Door that reaches all the way into the sky from the ocean is connected to the disappearance of her soulmate Abbie. As time goes on the world is slowly being engulfed in darkness. So it is up to Mari, and her Spirit Fox Roxie to solve the mystery of this massive tower. Along the way you will meet up with other characters like Keller the wizard and Stray the dragon trailer that help you on your journey.
So Many Thing Done Right
There are a lot of things to appreciate in Finding Light. Right off the bat if you go into the options menu you can turn on auto dash so your characters move at a faster speed. It’s always frustrating starting off on an RPG when you are moving so slow it almost feels like slow motion. There is a choice of 3 difficulty modes depending on how much of a challenge you would like. Instead of just using the keyboard to control your character, it supports the use of controllers. At any point in the game you can save, you don’t have to worry about making it back to town to get to the save point or anything like that. Just open the menu and save, this is definitely a nice feature to help cut down on the amount of backtracking.
Yay A Boat!
The pacing in this game is quite fast. As soon as you leave the first town you already have access to a boat! This is awesome since in other RPGs it normally happens a lot later in the game. In other games you spend a ton of walking everywhere. With a boat, Mari now has the ability to travel to multiple other islands and other towns to explore. Within an hour of game play your party size is already at 4. This helps a lot with battling any enemies you come across.
Leveling up at the beginning happens fast so it won’t take too much grinding to get stronger. Each character has Magic and a Skill that they can use in fights. Spells can purchased at the store or found in treasure chests. Spells equip automatically, so you don’t have to figure out who can learn what. They will be available for the appropriate character to access immediately.
Clearly Joshua Keith is a big fan of JRPGs. It really shows in Finding Light. He makes improvements to a lot of issues present in RPGs. It is a must play for anyone who loves retro games or JRPG’s. With the option to save anytime you want, having a lot of free time isn’t a requirement. Head on over to Steam and be sure to check it out!
