The Lightbringer review

Reviewed by Ian Matties

The Lightbringer sees you going on an adventure to cleanse a world that has become infected with a vile corruption. This adventure puzzle platformer finds you navigating your way as the Lightbringer through numerous stages and fighting enemies and bosses along your way.

I’ll be honest, platformers just might be my favourite gaming genre. I love jumping my way though stages. The puzzle solving within The Lightbringer combines that platforming with adventure and puzzle elements that feel reminiscent of early games found in the Legend of Zelda series.

The Lightbringer Details:

  • Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Steam
  • Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch
  • Developer: Rock Square Thunder
  • Publisher: Zordix
  • Genre(s): Adventure, Puzzle, Platformer
  • Mode: Single-player
  • ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

A Beautiful World

You begin The Lightbringer by learning that your sister has failed to in her quest to clear the corruption from the world, but she knows that you will succeed. Your sister will often provide you with information as you progress through the story. Your sister’s dialogue is voice acted, but additional information and lore is not. You may also find that sometimes the voice acting does not quite match the text on the screen.

Each stage in The Lightbringer is beautifully constructed and filled with secrets for you to find. Within the stages you will find green light, red crystals, and life potions to collect, as well as additional lore to help flesh out the story. When you complete each stage you will also receive your clear time, giving you the challenge to collect everything and try to beat your best time!

You begin each stage with 5 hearts and each life potion that you find in a level will grant you an additional heart to help you make it through. You have unlimited lives, but running out of hearts will require you to restart your current level from the beginning.

The camera feels locked at what I want to call a 35 – 40 degree angle. While you do have the full ability to rotate the camera all around you I have often found myself going the wrong way because I was unable to see far enough through the stage to know that I wanted to go another way first. There were also moments where the angle I wanted the camera at was not available to me due to other obstacles on the screen.

Battling with Slime

Progressing though each stage will find you having to battle the corruption facing the world. This corruption takes the appearance of slime. Initially these enemies have no protection from your attacks, but you will quickly discover that some have armour or other abilities that you have to watch out for.

Within the first level you will receive a boomerang, your weapon of choice. When surrounded by slimes I would occasionally have trouble lining up my boomerang throws correctly, but when you have more time there is the option to use the aim function to get your shots just right. This aim will lock on to some targets, but if it doesn’t lock on you will be unable to change the direction of your throw unless you release the aim, adjust and try again. You are able to move your character around though to try and get yourself set up correctly for your shot.

Final Verdict

Rock Square Thunder have created a great game in The Lightbringer. I have enjoyed my time with it, and want to go back and play more. It brings a challenge and a story that will keep you coming back. 

Their team has built a fun game, and I’m interested to see what they will create next!

Pros:

  • Beautiful graphics
  • A fun and engaging world to explore
  • Well crafted music

Cons:

  • Locked camera perspective
  • Some of the action could get repetitive

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