Soundtrack Saturday: Child of Light

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Child of Light by Ubisoft Montreal.

THE STATS

Name: Child of Light
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: April 30, 2014
Genres: Platformer, role-playing
Composer(s): Cœur de pirate (Béatrice Martin)

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

Pilgrims on a Long Journey
This song, like the other 17 tracks of the album, is both sad yet optimistic in sound. It's so beautiful that it was even used in the first part of a pairs' free dance piece in figure skating. Fittingly, the pair was from Canada and this soundtrack was composed by a Canadian artist.

Aurora's Theme
This is the song everyone thinks of when the game is mentioned. Not only is it the theme for the main character, Aurora, but it is the song most-used in trailers and promotional videos for the game. Coming directly after the Pilgrims track, this piece opens up the musical narrative in a spectacular way. We are given the sense of adventure and hope.

Dark Creatures
This is the first battle music players encounter in the game, and it aptly sets the tone of an intense meeting and the epic fight held by a little girl and her allies against dangerous and dark creatures.

Leave Your Castle
This. Is. My. Favorite. Track.
Writers everywhere are scolding me for that broken sentence, but I truly feel the emphasis was needed. Maybe it's the flute. Maybe it's the moving piano. Maybe it's the subtle guitar in the background, or the strings that broaden the sound a third of the way in. I'm not entirely sure why it's my favorite. It feels like I'm a kid again, riding my bike recklessly down the streets of my hometown, wind in my face, and I'm having the best day of my life.

Metal Gleamed in the Twilight
There is no mistaking that this is another battle piece. The intensity has increased with some percussion and rather anxious strings. I love how it expands at :54 and keeps building... and then at 1:30 it changes rhythm entirely with some added brass. The theme at that point sounds like some kind of pirate theme, and that tickles me because of the composer's stage name -- Pirate's Heart. For an even more intense ride through this piece that almost makes you think of the Souls games, try the version with full choir support.

Woods Darker than Night
This one reminds me of a quasi-waltz (though it's not written in the right time measure for that). This piece accompanies one of the early parts of the game where you are wandering through woods and very uncertain about where you are -- or what may be in the woods around you. So there is a level of elegance but a great measure of uncertainty that is portrayed through the music.

Off to Sleep
"And I'll be waiting for the light/ That guides us through the worst of nights..."
This is my second-favorite track, mostly because of the lyrics, but also because of the guitar -- it reminds me of a lot of 90's songs I adored (and still adore). 

You can listen to the full soundtrack on Cœur de pirate's Bandcamp page: 

Child of Light OST

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

As far as game soundtracks go, this one is easily one of the greats. Honestly, if you listen to this soundtrack it really speaks for itself -- though only one track has lyrics. The rest is a beautiful journey through emotion-laden musical themes. 

THE COMPOSER: BÉATRICE MARTIN

Better known by her stage name, Cœur de pirate (French: Pirate's Heart), she is a singer-songwriter and pianist from Montreal, Canada. I honestly don't know much else about her. She's certainly an active singer-songwriter and pianist, but she largely sings in French and is praised for it. (The Quebec province in Canada is like that -- I grew up just south of it in Vermont.) I think if I understood and liked the sound of the French language then I would probably listen to more of her work. I may still explore it based solely on the instrumental composition of this soundtrack!

I know that you've seen the worst 

Your heart's been torn before

Those creatures won't let you go

So hang onto what you know

So sail on you golden girl

And fight against those fears

Walking Into Mordor and Other Likely Diversions

You can, in fact, simply walk into Mordor -- you just have to finish Epic Quest Vol. IV, Book IX first. Then you can stroll on down through the broken Black Gate and start some extremely tedious questing in Udûn...

Um, hi. It's me again. No, this certainly isn't a blog entry about Darkest Dungeon or Child of Light. Nor is it about the $200 Milestone Incentive game, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel...

I can explain!

Darkest Dungeon on the PS4

So, I only took my little adventurers on the very first expedition before I needed to take a break. The controls for the game on the PS4 are very... non-intuitive. I lost my momentum quickly and kept telling myself I'd get back to it in time. But then I also needed to let my husband play his games (Dark Souls Remastered and Fallout 4, among others). I gave in to the little voice that told me to play something else. It whispered sweet nothings about festivals and Rohirrim. I have no shame.

However, I do feel vindicated. This past weekend my husband decided to sit down and play Darkest Dungeon. He soon suffered the same aggravation I did with the controls -- so much so that he went and repurchased the game on Steam to play on his laptop. So, I will eventually post that blog entry about it (the June Feature Entry: PTSD Awareness Month)... but you have to understand what this hurdle was like.

Child of Light vs. x360ce

When Child of Light first came out, I quickly discovered it was much easier to use a controller. At the time, I only had a nice little Steelseries controller meant for PC. It was easy enough to set up the x360ce application to make my games think it was an Xbox controller. When I intended to play Child of Light again for my blog entry, I went to set up x360ce files in the game's folder like usual... but something just didn't work right. I tried every configuration I could, even following other people's directions via Google search. Nothing stuck. I became so frustrated that I just... stopped trying to solve the issue and ignored it instead. 

But this past weekend I apologized to my Steelseries controller and fired up DS4windows, plugging in my PS4 controller. It works, so I'll be able to play more and get that blog entry (the July Feature Entry: World Watercolor Month) taken care of.

Birle Harmon, the Wise

My level 115 lore-master in LOTRO made it through all of Gondor (I LOVED everything about the battle to save Minas Tirith!), and I began my foray into Mordor as mentioned above.

Spoiler alert: So far, I really think it sucks...

Granted, I'm only in the first region of five, and I've been questing by myself when the area is meant for groups. I don't mind running group content with other players now and again, but I enjoy questing by myself through areas. Mordor is really going to cramp my style. In fact, it's tempting to not do it and just jump ship to Strongholds of the North. I probably shouldn't, though.

I haven't even imbued Birle's legendary items. I've never imbued anything, actually -- not even on my main on Arkenstone. I don't understand the process and don't want to make a mistake when you can't just say "lawl, jk, reset them points and lemme try again!" Now it's more like taking a deep breath, cringing, then screaming "YOLO!" and hope you did it right. I don't understand how people wanted this permanency with the legendaries when Moria was first released. Flexibility lets you figure out what works and to also adapt your play style. But I guess if I want to actually do any worthwhile damage I'll have to bite the bullet with imbuement.

On the positive side, my husband is checking out LOTRO again and learning to play without me just dragging him around like I did last time. Yay!

Okami

Been plugging away at the HD version for PS4 for an hour or so at a time. I'm currently hunting down the missing canine warriors for Princess Fuse. It sure is awesome that I started collecting demon fangs from the start of the game, too -- I was able to pick up the handful of special items as soon as the Fang Trader became available in the forest (Lucky Cat, Peace Bell, and Wood Mat).

I'm determined to finish everything in the game -- especially collecting all of the Stray Beads!

My Secret... of the Magic Crystals

When I didn't feel like doing any of the above recently, I reinstalled a guilty pleasure game. It's one I only play for the DLC, because it's silly fun. Don't judge me. I have a lot of fun winning the horse races in Secret of the Magic Crystals.

So, yeah. I know I'm behind... but I've got plans to get caught up! And hey, if you guys start donating on my Extra Life page... I'll have no choice but to catch up or feel eternally guilty! I can't stand feeling guilty! You can motivate me and help me be a hero for kids at the same time!

The Oliphant in the Room

"Mister Frodo! Look! It's an Oliphant! No one at home will believe this."
-Samwise Gamgee

Pretend this is an elephant and it's in the room with you. You know what I'm talking about: I missed June's Feature Blog -- and I'm super sorry about it! 

I was playing Darkest Dungeon on the PS4 and I just didn't get a chance to play enough of it to make a worthwhile post. I'm planning to fix that by the end of this month. I'm hoping you can wait until then! The July Feature Blog may be tardy as well, but should be up by the end of this week. (It helps that I have played Child of Light before.) 

In the meantime, celebrate! Birle the lore-master finally reached the level 115 level cap... which is the only way I was able to get the screenshot of the Mûmak in the first place!