At the start of your adventure, you are on a small island which acts as the hub world. In this area you can change your child's appearance, see if there are any season events at the moment, accept your today's quests and visit the shop which will not be available at launch. Finally, in front of where you start, there will be seven gates that represent the seven regions where the story takes place. Each portal will become available after terminating the responsible area. Passing through the gate will bring you to the first point of the area you chose.
Each area in the game is a large sandbox that joins many others in various directions. Your goal in each area is to find the stars, follow their story and free them. This process consists of three stages: locating the NPCs who will either be hidden or placed in plain sight and will glow blue and light blue. Once you spot them, when you interact with them, they'll start showing you images of their lives playing out, and you just follow them until you reach a strange stone. This stone is not a random stone, but it is the character you have been following here that is now petrified. In the final stage, you must use the light from your candle to break the stone and free the NPC who, after thanking you, will give you an emote and leave to wait for you at the end of the area.
In addition to the main stars that you have to help, each area has little kids that have a golden-white glow. Similar to the main stars, these small children are located in various visible and hidden regions. When you spot them you have to approach them and interact with them. After doing this the kids will disappear and give you a “Winged Light” power point which you need to power up your cape which allows you to fly higher and longer. There are at least 113 children scattered throughout the kingdom. The last form of constellations you'll find are the purple stars which work similarly to the main stars with minor differences such as the fact that they represent side quests / seasonal quests and don't always give you an emote upon completion.
Finally, each area has red candles, wild vegetation, and maps that you'll need to find and give them some of your light to activate. The maps unlike every game, do not give you a mini-map but unlock the area on the “world map” so you know what the neighboring areas are. The wild vegetation you depict as black plants and the red candles will give you light/light piece which is a kind of in game currency. On rare occasions you will spot white candles that activate mechanisms in the area such as opening gates and revealing items. Sometimes you will need to be accompanied as there are manipulations that require two players to work at the same time. In areas where your child's light is weak, the flame from the candles will restore your strength.
Upon arrival in the world of Sky your "child" can't do much but walk and run. Every time you help another kid, he gives you a “Winged Light” power up which strengthens your cape. When your cape gets stronger you can fly higher in the world, and get around the area more pleasantly and faster. As you fly, the glow of your cape darkens until it is completely covered. The screen shows your energy so you know your limit. When you get tired, your child will slowly lower to the ground and your cape will slowly get stronger. If you are near candles or other players, your power will regenerate much faster. In addition to movement, your player can at the press of a button speak by making a strange sound like in Journey (2012) and Abzu (2016). This sound allows you to "communicate" with the world or with other players.
In the world of Journey players could meet other players randomly and continue their journey together. This “Co-op” experience was unique and something the creators wanted to develop and improve. The company often calls Sky a “social adventure” as the biggest part of the game is meeting other players and traveling together in the world they created. In each area you will find dark featureless people. These are other guys representing other players. When you share the flame from your candle, the child will take on the form (clothes, colors and customizations will be revealed) of the player. After sharing your light, you can take your friendship to the next stage.
Using light piece currency, you can spend points and create different bonds. For example, the first stage is creating a friendship and saving a player to your friend list. The second stage allows you to hold hands, the third to hug, etc. These small transactions are not necessary as they do not change the gameplay, but a developed friendship allows you to talk via in-game chat. Through the in-game chat you can write whatever you want and the only ones who will have access to your message are all your friends who have unlocked the chat. With those you are not friends with or friends with a fairly developed friendship, your text will replace each character with periods(.......).
The game knows that there are players who don't want to spend their light piece with strangers who may never speak to them again, so they have placed many areas where players can sit on benches, chairs or even dining tables where they can spend a light piece and to communicate via chat with anyone else or others who are in the vacant seats. The only problem with this method is that this one point (which anyone can sacrifice) lights a thick candle that is usually placed in the center which when the chat room goes out it goes off until someone else lights it again.
For the company it was important that players could socialize and work together. There are many areas that are side content that you can only access if you are with a group. Most areas require the cooperation of two players, but there are rare cases where you may need at least ten. It is not necessary to be friends with the other guys to open the area as if you meet a random player they may ask you to open the gate or wait there for a bystander to help. In case there is no player near you you can send an SOS signal to have someone random help you. These areas usually hide nice games (football, fishing, racing, etc.), easter eggs or references such as a building that represents the offices of thatgamecompany.
Each player can give a different skin to their character. In the hub-world as well as at the beginning of the areas you can visit your wardrobe where you can change your haircut, your cape, your pants, wear a mask or necklace and finally you can have an item on your back. Apart from the clothing, you can change the pose(stance) that your hero will have when he remains motionless, for example hands in his pocket, crossed, etc. Then you can give a different voice (call) for when you activate your voice. There are various options such as the child (the one you start with), the fish, the bird, etc. All these decorations as well as your emotes are accessible through the Spirits you helped. At the end of each area or at the beginning after you have items and completed the area at least once, you will find the spirits you helped who when you talk to them will give you a menu to buy clothes etc. The spirit outfit is what will be available to buy.
Last but not least are the emotes which give a different experience. The emotes don't offer anything new to the gameplay other than various animations that you can do alone or with friends. There are various animations such as music genres, where you can do beat-boxing, hip-hop dancing, etc. There are also group emotes which are activated between two friends such as group dance, piggyback rides, group handshake etc. Finally, there are some which are mini-games such as Hide'N'Seek which blackens the screen of the player who activated it and allows anyone to hide after joining-in. After the time has elapsed the player has a short window of time to find the players within the area.
Aside from the fact that Sky: Children of Light is the company's first attempt at a mulitplayer experience, it is also their first live service game. Live service games are games that are intended to be played for years after their release, where the creators through updates add new content at a rapid pace in order to keep players attached to their game and "give" others a reason to return to the game. This new project includes "seasonal content" and "season pass/events". "Seasonal content" is the content that reflects seasonal holidays such as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Sakura Blossom, etc. On the other hand seasonal content is a period where new content is added to the game with extra story, side content and decorations. Seasonal content is usually accompanied by the season pass which unlocks extra clothes, decorations, emotes and more to whoever buys it.
During these seasonal events, various areas are decorated to match the celebration. In some cases the creators will add trees or similar to different areas of the map to match the atmosphere. In larger celebrations, such as Chinese New Year, they added fireworks, flying dragons, traditional music, etc. These events are only available during the respective holidays. On the other hand, seasonal content lasts about nine to eleven weeks. During this period new spirits appear with their own quests and their own cosmetics that you can acquire. In December 2022, the company collaborated with the famous singer Aurora (Into the unknown (frozen 2)) creating a unique in-game experience in which the singer would take her place in the center of the dance floor while all the players would sit in the stands. During the concert various things happened that combined the gameplay with the song allowing the company and Aurora to take the players on a magical musical journey.
The definition of “hit or miss”
This game is not for everyone. As mentioned above the core of the game is your character's journey through the seven kingdoms in order to post the constellations. It doesn't provide as many action-packed moments as Journey, but there are very few areas where the game includes stealth sections. Black "dragons" fly high in the sky and you have to cross the area without being detected. There are red flags that you should avoid. If the dragon hits you, you will lose some winged light from your cape which will scatter for a few seconds in the area. You can collect them again but the risk of them attacking you again remains. Dragons and rain are the main dangers on your journey.
The game's party system is a little weird. To find your friend, you need to enter the hub-world, sit in the center and summon the spirit of your friend. If they're online, you can join this player, which will take you to the beginning of the area your friend is in, and you'll have to find him. After finding him, you may be together for most of the time, but after passing a loading zone (or rarely a cutscene), the game will split you up and you'll have to find each other again either through the hub-world or by waiting within the area for the game to rejoin you by itself.
