Guide Adorable Princess up a Magical Tower in Light Tracer
Concerned for her people afflicted with a serious sickness, the Princess much reach the top of a mysterious tower to restore them. As the player, you’ll exercise the powers of a god as you wield your powerful Light Staff in one hand to guide the Princess on a path that you make safe by interacting with the tower world with the other hand.
The player’s point of view is crucial for solving the puzzles in Light Tracer. Interacting with the environment, you can spin and twist the environment to reveal new paths, while clicking on doors and portals to open them. Meanwhile, with the Light Staff in the other hand, the godlike player directs the Princess’ movement including jumping over obstacles or slashing her sword against foes. Juggling actions between both hands may be a challenge, but hey, no one ever said being a god was easy!
The Princess’s journey will span eight very different chapters, each with their own type of environment (such as ice or mechanical and new puzzle elements (like gravity manipulation). The game has a very cute toy box feel to it, but each chapter ends in a tough boss fight where you have to figure out the boss’s patterns to defeat them.
I had the opportunity to get hands on with Light Tracer at PAX West and I was struck by several things:
The controls were intuitive.
One hand controls the Princess, wherever you point the scepter, she will walk to in a straight line. On the same hand, one button will make her jump and another attack. The other hand interacts with the environment, spinning it for a better perspective or zooming in or out. A button on this hand lets the player interact with objects in the environment such as pulling switches or raising platforms. I found the controls very intuitive, and that is not always the case in VR games!
The Princess is cute.
She’s really adorable. She’s drawn in a chibi, childlike style, and she absolutely trusts you…which leads to my next observation…
I am a horrible, horrible deity.
Sometimes when I missed a jump and fell down to a platform below, it was quicker to make the Princess walk off a cliff and respawn than to walk all the way back. I’m a bad god.
The game is designed well for those prone to motion sickness.
There is a lot of turning and zooming in this game, and if the framerate had been choppy, would have induced that sinking, stomach churning sensation seasoned VR players have run into many times before. I’m pleased to report that Light Tracer handles the turns in a gentle way, and I completed a half hour demo, standing, with no discomfort.
Light Tracer launches for PS VR this September.
