Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Review


Final Fantasy the 4 Heroes of Light is another game in the Final Fantasy Series. This game is a spin-off as sticking to traditional RPG elements as much as possible. Random encounters when walking in the field, equipping armor, swords, shields with various effects, and letting the player choose the character’s fighting style, like a monk or a mage with the “crown system” this game introduces.

The Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy is a role-playing video game developed by Matrix Software and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS.






Story

The story starts with the main protagonist Brandt (Player) waking up from his bed to only hear his mother telling him he must meet the king to be known as a man. Oddly enough he is only 14 years old, but hey, it is culture.

As Brandt walks around his home village of Horne, it just seems another typical day in an average boy’s life.
But atlas, this would not be a RPG if something horrible does not happen.

Once Brandt makes it to the castle, the king mentions that his daughter, Princess Aire, (who is considered rather selfish and only cares for her own desires that I called her Insular) was kidnapped by the evil witch of the north. He sent a rescue team beforehand, but they never returned. The king decides this is a perfect opportunity for Brandt to show his manliness by bringing back his daughter. Not to be rude, but Brandt looks like a peasant and he does not look like he can even afford any armor, but at least they gave you a sword. Luckily, you are not alone! Your friend (I called him Cacophony) decides to help you, only because the king commands him to go with you. Not the person I would trust in a dungeon. After the Princess is saved, you soon realize that the citizens of Horne are all stone! You quickly go to the Throne room and realize there is only one person who can help uplift the curse. This is where the adventure begins


The story is a straightforward Cliché. Four Heroes are chosen by the god (in this case, a crystal) to save the world from the evil that the world is going to face. Throughout the adventure, you will team up with other allies, solving the problems each individual areas are going through and solve it. In each town, a player can get more armor, weapon, magic, and so on. In each town, there is a adventurer who wears red and is the only way a person can save. Talk to him, and he will save your game.

Combat System

The combat system is indeed different from the original final fantasy games. The Magic Point (or MP for short) is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the characters use an AP system (Attack Points) the character can attack boost, item, and use six types of magic if they have some equip. This is where the AP system comes in. The AP is represented by yellow orbs. Each character can only stock to the maximum of 5. Each action in battle will cost AP. For example, an attack will cost one AP, a specific magic attack or healing will take 3 and so on. If a person wants to use the stronger attacks, but need more AP, then the Boost option will help the person get 2 instead of one AP per turn in exchange for not attacking.
This system prevents people from spamming certain moves over and over again like in all previous FF. this really makes players think what moves they should use and what time should they boost. This game is actually hard if the person is not careful with their AP.

Another big difference is the amount of magic one person can use. Each individual character can only use up to six types of magic. This system is a major downgrade for the fact in the other final fantasy games each mage can learn up to 30 or more spells. But nevertheless it makes the game interesting since players are now forced to figure out which magic you really need to keep and think about which magic should sit out.





Crown System

The Crown System is pretty much the class system from previous final fantasy games. In older games, each class gave the character effects that can be used in battle. These classes change the outcome of battles ahead if the person knows what they are doing. The problem with the crown system is that they feel really underpowered. One example would be the freelancer. Back then, as long as the character mastered a class, pick the freelancer and they will gain the abilities of the specific class. So a character can combine being good with medicine and can kill enemies with a single blow. In this game, freelancer has no real benefit. The only benefit it has is to keep gems the player may have collected during the adventure. This really baffles the mind if they either tried to experiment how people would react to this or they think the freelancer class was overpowered in some sense, which I can understand, but at times I wish I could make the characters master the way of alchemist to make better potions while being good with swords.
Not only that but each Crown only learns four moves, which is a mix bag since certain classes I know learn more than just six moves, but others learn less than six moves. This only hurts the ones who know what they know about the class and are sadden that a specific move or skill did not make it into the game.
You can power-up the crowns. Remember the gems I mention earlier? Use those to power-up the crowns. Some take a few while other take a ton. Expect to go fight monsters for these gems.





Impression
Leveling up in this game is a must. Unless you know the dungeon by heart and know what elemental shields to put against players, new players will mostly find themselves getting their butt handed to them. This would not be a negative since it is expected for people to level grind, but dang do they show no mercy on the beginning.

I like the idea that each character has their own personality, but all 4 of them have the characteristics of either being a hero or just playing mean. Then again, all of them are just kids round the ages of forth teen and sixteen so this understandable in a pre-teen mindset.

This game does remind me of the past since this game does not give a player any direction on where to go next. Talking to the people in villages can put the person on the right track, but most of the time it feels a person must guess where to go next. I am surprised I made it this far in the game without using a guide on where to go or how to beat a specific enemy. This game felt as if it was a trial and error type of game. Could not beat that dungeon? Look in the nearby town to find out the type of enemies you might face. Need a stronger weapon because you feel under powered? Explore and you will find items that will help you. I know it sounds “well of course” but this game tells you by its game play. This is not a game that will hold a person’s hand, you got to learn what it is to be an old-school RPG.

Despite what I said, I believe this game was a good experience. If a person has the time to level grind and actually gather information from village to village, you should be fine, if not, then expect a painful experience.

8/10