On October 7 The Lightbringer will release on the Nintendo Switch. Ahead of the game’s release, a demo has been released on the Nintendo eShop to give people an idea of what the game is all about.  Much like older releases like Ultra Age I have played The Lightbringer demo and am here to give some quick thoughts on my experience with the game.

The Lightbringer Demo Thoughts

Platforming

Platforming is one of my favorite game genres, as someone who grew up on games like Ratchet & Clank, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, and the Jak and Daxter series I am partial to any game with platforming elements. The Lightbringer has a lot of elements I like about old platforming games, there are multiple paths to explore and a lot of collectible items to keep your attention throughout the game.  The platforming itself is decent, I’ve certainly played better, but I’ve also played much worse.  Most importantly it doesn’t detract from the fun of the game at all which is a massive benefit.

Poor Combat & Story

The combat in the demo is a bit of a drag, the control scheme isn’t super intuitive and the aiming system is a bit too loose for my liking.  These issues can be worked around if you think ahead and use jumping to your advantage but it wouldn’t hurt if this was improved in the actual release.

The story is simple, you are bringing light to places infested by the slime, not just slime, THE slime, so you know it’s serious.  This itself isn’t bad but the way the demo portrays it is far from enthralling.  Your sister has tasked you with taking the mantel of Lightbringer and narrates your adventures. You may be thinking that this doesn’t sound too bad but the real kicker is that everything she says rhymes, and some of these rhymes are forced to say the least.  The delivery of the lines is also very flat and almost comes across as uninterested.

The Verdict

As always, the measure of a good demo is its ability to convince me to part with my money. Does The Lightbringer demo achieve this? I would lean towards yes! I think there are enough interesting elements to the game through its platforming and exploration capabilities alone to make this worth buying. The Lightbringer releases on October 7 so check out the demo while you can and play this one for yourself!