Review: Niko and the Sword of Light

Niko and the Sword of Light is an interactive comic app for the iPad created by Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera (Imaginism Studios) and Jim Bryson and Adam Jeffcoat (Studio NX).

The story is of a boy who has lost his people and kingdom. He now travels in land inhabited by strange monsters and unseen dangers. With his magical sword of light, he wants to return his land to freedom.

The story is pretty straightforward. Niko meets monsters, Niko fights monsters, Niko finds out what's hidden in the monsters. Niko also meets weird characters. It reads like a children book but it's darker though with all the slaying (without blood of course). It's more scenario based rather than character building.

The presentation is a blend of animation and comic book. Every panel is animated. Each panel has a button you have to press for the animation to play. So if there are7 panels, you'll to press 7 times. That's a minor quibble for me, but for others it could be considered an interactive experience.

Art and design are great. Monster designs from Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera are fantastic as you can expect. The composition for the animation is also very good. While the plot is simple, the storytelling flows on nicely as more is discovered about the place Niko is in.

The story is told in a mixture of audio dialogue and captions. I felt that the voice acting is a bit theatrical.

So after finishing the story, my first thought was to wonder why it was presented as a comic with panels and not an animation? This presentation format puzzles me. Every panel is animated, so why not make an animation instead? But I guess it's still interesting to see how different scenes are animated in different aspect ratio panels.

The iPad app cost US$4 and was made possible because the funding came from the Kickstarter campaign. It was quite a successful campaign that's funded at almost 170%.

Overall, it's an enjoyable read. I probably spent half an hour or more to get to the end. There's a cliffhanger at the end so I'm expecting a sequel.

4 out of 5 stars.

This is the trailer.

You can find the Niko ant the Sword of Light on iTunes