Sky: Children of the Light

Jade Roth, Staff Writer

Sky: Children of the Light is a free game on the mobile app store, but it might as well be an expensive computer game. It has beautiful graphics, topping other mobile games in terms of its visuals. It has large, open vistas that absolutely amaze the eye. You can traverse these large, beautiful areas, which leads to the main exploration gameplay. Each nook and cranny usually contains a prize to help you continue on your adventure, and when you reach the end of your adventure, you start again, able to unlock even more than before.

The graphics of this mobile game are amazing. Throughout my time playing, I have always stopped and stared in awe at when entering a new area. Staring out at the sunset horizon, looking beyond the cliffside that I managed to ascend, gliding through the caverns, and gazing down between the rocks and focusing on the glowing plants, I was enthralled. Every level and every general area is packed with secrets and enhance the experience of this app.

 

Sky: Children of the Light has exploration gameplay. The game is built upon the willingness to explore. This exploration often leads to progress. Although you might expect this progress to be limited to reaching new areas, that simply isn’t the case. Your main movement kit allows you to fly, float, and glide. The flying, however, has a set duration that is dependent on your level. You have to explore in order to increase your flight; in turn, if you increase your flight, you can get to new places.

Flying around and increasing your flight isn’t the only thing to do. The biggest goal (and important plot point) is to help Spirits. In each land, there are interactable Spirits. You follow their memories and help reunite them with their statues, “unlocking” them. These Spirits have a friendship web of sorts that allows you to trade the items you’ve collected along your travels and turn them into cosmetics, actions, sheet music, and even spells. Collecting Spirits and taking them to their zone’s shrine (which is where they’ll automatically go after being unlocked) will show you a cutscene of a much larger Spirit, belonging to the more massive statues in their respective shrines.

After going through all of the main vistas, you unlock the trials. These are extremely difficult to get to and even more difficult to complete. But the reward can ultimately make it worth the sacrifice. Being able to expand on your connection with the Spirits and walking through the ending can feel so calming and beautiful.

In short: this game is great. Although there are points of criticism (movement can often be tricky), I believe that this game is worth checking out. The best part? It’s free. You can find it in both the Apple and Android stores, download it, and play it at no cost. It’s hours of entertainment, and it has a good bit of replay value. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of exploration, heed my word when I say that this game is fantastic.