Sky: Children of the Light to get new Guide feature allowing experienced players to easily help beginners

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-06-19 18:18 (JST)
Translated by. Braden Noyes

On June 19th, 2021 thatgamecompany revealed details about the new Guide feature being implemented in Sky: Children of the Light. The new feature will be enabled sometime after the 0.14.0 update and is meant to encourage cooperation between new and experienced players.

Sky: Children of the Light is a social adventure game which allows up to eight people to play together. Players take on the role of a “Child of the Light” on a journey to explore vast, open landscapes in search of fallen star Spirits in order to help restore them to their constellations overhead.

For first-time players, simply moving around such an expansive map can be quite time consuming, and finding all the Spirits is no simple task. While players are able to ask friends for directions and tips, this might seem a little overwhelming to new Children of the Light who haven’t yet made many in-game connections. This is where the new Guide feature comes in.

With the newly implemented button, beginners will be able to let players around them know they need help. Pressing the button will display a question mark above your head, allowing the more experienced adventurers nearby to easily tell who is in need of assistance.

Players who agree to help will see icons showing the locations of Spirits they themselves have already discovered but which the new player has not yet found. By following the on-screen cues, the experienced players are able to lead new players to help finish these quests.

Once the Spirit has been released, both players are informed that the quest has been completed and the Guide feature will end. The players are then free to do what they wish, whether that be going their separate ways, exchanging candles, or continuing to adventure together.

Sky: Children of the Light received its long-awaited Nintendo Switch release on June 29, 2021, so it makes sense they would also introduce this new feature alongside an expected influx of new players in order to help them in their adventure. This will give new players the ability to request help from the more experienced ones without the need to use any of their limited supply of candles to become friends first.

This feature is also nice from the experienced player’s point of view, allowing them to offer assistance only to the players who actually want it. If used well, this feature may prove to be useful for smoother communication between players.

However, some users have pointed out potential issues with this new feature. For example, what happens to a new player who is suddenly left alone in the event the guiding player is unexpectedly disconnected from the server? What about the risk of being forcibly led to a Dark Dragon by a malicious player in the Golden Wasteland? The pros and cons surrounding these and other concerns raised by players will most likely be addressed once the development team has been able to assess feedback regarding this new feature.

Sky: Children of the Light is now available for free for iOS, Android, and the Nintendo Switch.