Finding Light

Finding Light has no interest in being the biggest role-playing game of the year. It's also not going to raise the bar for graphics, sound and depth. In fact, developer Joshua Keith has seemingly gone as far out of his way as possible to buck all the modern trappings we've come to expect from the genre and instead created the kind of role-playing games we used to get on the old black and white Game Boy. It's a simple yet endearing adventure that certainly won't be for everybody, but I kind of loved the throwback feel and tight pacing.

Finding Light wastes no time setting things up. You take control of Mari, a young girl who learns that her partner, Abbie, has gone missing and the rest of her small village hopes she'll save the day. It won't take long before Mari runs into other heroic characters that have all experienced loss and heartbreak, leading them to band together to find the missing people and solve the mystery of Heaven's Door.

This is the kind of role-playing game where you get most of the story and lore from talking to townspeople in between random battles. It's the kind of adventure where the map is small and the story beats are real close together. This game is not going to be accused of being a massive 50 hour epic, but rather tries to cover a lot of ground at a rapid pace. In that sense, it really does remind me of what Square did with their early Final Fantasy Legend games. It's just big enough to feel substantial, but never so ambitious that it oversteps its original vision.

If you've played an 8-bit RPG, then you're going to feel right at home in Finding Light. A lot of the game involves simply walking around and getting into random fights to level up. The battles are turn-based and allow you to choose between regular attacks, magic spells and a number of special skills. There's nothing fancy here, because what you see is what you get. And that's something I really liked. For as much as I dig modern RPGs, there's something about the simplicity of the old school adventures that I can't help but love. With the exception of a few boss battles, the combat is quick and uncomplicated, and that's great.

I also like how the game expands the map in different ways. We get a boat early in the game that goes a long way to confirm how small the world is, but there's more than meets the eyes. Mari will fight through caves, into castles, under water and even in the sky. Finding Light hits all of the beats you would want from this era of RPG, all without making it feel like these different locations are shoehorned in.

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Unfortunately, Finding Light falls victim to a lot of the same problems that plagued many old RPGs. Getting into a random battle every few steps may feel nostalgic and bring back memories, but there's no question that it quickly grows tiresome. This is especially true late in the game, where we're constantly seeing the same bad guys over and over. It also doesn't help that there's an intense difficulty spike with at least one of the bosses. These bits generally force us to spend way too much time grinding for levels, money and items. This definitely feels like an old school role-playing game, in ways that are both good and bad.

It's also worth noting that there are still a bunch of bugs that need to be squashed. For example, there's a maze trial where it's possible to get stuck in the wall if you take the wrong turn. You can still open up treasure chests and get into random fights, but getting out of the wall is impossible without restarting from a previous save. There's also a problem where the game will freeze up in certain battles. I suppose the good news is that these are isolated instances, but they can cause a lot of trouble if you're not saving regularly.

The truth is, the minor nitpicks don't matter all that much. This is one of those games where you probably already know if you want to play it based on the graphics. If what you see reminds you of the old school role-playing games you grew up with, then this is going to give you exactly the experience you want. If you're used to modern graphics and epic stories with tons of side quests, then Finding Light probably won't be for you. For what it is, it's a lot of fun and executed well.