Customer Reviews

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light is the most recent installment into the Final Fantasy handheld market. While it's not a full fledge sequel to a numbered Final Fantasy game, it still contains a lot of the little nuances that we have all come to love from the series. Does this game deliver a profound handheld experience on the Nintendo DS or is the cutesy art more at home with a younger crowd? Read on to find out how I felt after a couple hours with the game.

The first thing you may notice when looking at the gameplay for Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light (FF4H from here on out) is that the artwork is very...different. Some may not like it, I know I didn't when I first saw it. I thought it looked a little childish. Don't be put off by it though. For starters, it grows on you and you will learn to appreciate the time and effort the artists no doubt put into making the art. Secondly, it's deceiving. You would think a game with graphics like this would be easy or child friendly. Wow, this couldn't be further from the truth. FF4H is one of the toughest handheld games I have played in a wild. It's not because the game is unfair, it's just old school. If you played Final Fantasy games back in the NES days and Super NES days, you'll know that something exists called "grinding." Grinding is the art of killing enemy after enemy with no direction only to gain levels. This is something you absolutely must do in this game and do it a lot you will.

The game begins with no tutorial. You wake up in your house as a 14 year old boy name Brandt (you can change the name) and are instructed to go to the castle to present yourself to the king, since today is your birthday and it's the day you become a man in the Kingdom's eyes. After making your way to the castle, you find out the princess was stolen by a witch and you much track her down and rescue her. With a sword and a smile, you set off to her lair to reclaim the princess for the King. And with that, the story begins. You are given a general direction to go and the lair isn't hard to find, but after your first fight you'll realize the game doesn't F' around.

The fights are tough and require you to constantly have a fresh supply of potions. Unlike in previous games though you can only carry 15 items on any character at any given time. With 4 max controllable characters, each with their own set of armor that counts as a spot, a weapon, accessory, and non stackable items...this becomes a bit of a meta-game. You are going to constantly be checking your inventory to make sure you only have the bare necessities for survival. You can drop off extra items at a range of "shops" across the land that hold your excess items. Think of these as ATMs for your items.

Fights are actually handled a little different as well in FF4H. Instead of mana, you are given 5 AP orbs. You begin with 1 filled in the beginning of the game and each turn you take awards you one more. Basic attacks use up 1 AP orb while magic usually takes 2. If you only have one orb and want to use magic, you can use the boost option which will give you an extra AP (along with the AP you get from the end of a turn) to give you 3 for the next turn. It sounds a lot more confusing than it is so if you are getting hung up on this don't. It's no biggie. The next way it's different is that you can't pick who to fight. You hit attack and the computer automatically picks an enemy to attack. It's a little odd that this happens but it speeds things up a bit and the computer usually does a good job of prioritizing enemies. This really helps with grinding too since you can just keep spamming attack and not worry about who to hit...the game will do that for you. The system is new, but it's not bad. It just takes a little time to get used to it.

One of the main new additions to the game is the way the game handles jobs. Instead of picking a class (like a thief, mage, etc.) you pick hats that you acquire over the course of the game. You begin with no hats but after defeating the witch you get your first. Each hat grants powers and stat benefits and can be upgraded using gems you find off of enemies. Think of the hats as a way to change your party on the go without having to go back to a town. You always have the hats on you and switching is as easy as going into a menu. As you upgrade, new abilities become available, but they aren't shared with other members. Each hat for each person must be upgraded separately. From what I can see, the system works fine with the non transferable upgrades being the only issue I have. But, it makes sense though. The person who is your white mage will probably also be your other magic classes in order to keep the equipment with one magic user. Switching to the warrior class doesn't make much sense since they don't have the weapons or armor.

The game is old school in style and technique and as such random battles are the norm. These used to be all we had back in the day so if you are like me and got spoiled by seeing enemies on the battlefield, you might be taken back by this. It's not so bad though and you'll be in your groove in no time.

The graphics, as mentioned earlier, is something that you will either like or not like. Hell, you may be like me and hate it to begin with but grow accustomed to it and even begin to appreciate it. The graphics are pretty good too for a DS game. Don't let this be a reason you don't try the game out if RPGs are your thing.

The only gripe with the game so far would be the difficulty. At times, it's frustratingly hard. The first boss I came to (the aforementioned witch) kicked my butt in a couple hits and sent me back to the town. I killed her the next time I saw her because I was better prepared and used fire spells, but I was taught a lesson...the game won't hold your hand. Another gripe is that the game never tells you where you need to go. This got so bad that I had to go out the next night after getting the game and buy the strategy guide. Remembering back to my youth and playing FF1 on the NES, I had my mother there to help me - holding a Nintendo Power as I traversed the world map. In almost the same fashion, here I am today with the TV of old now in the palm of my hands and that old Nintendo power held by my mom a strategy guide resting on my dog's back as he begs for attention.

Final thoughts on the game - if you are an RPG fan at heart and love a challenge and don't mind grinding, you'll really appreciate this game. It's a little short in the story department so far but most of these types of games are. They are meant to be simplistic. If, on the other hand, you don't like tough games or spending a lot of time grinding to increase your level to just survive the next boss battle, look elsewhere, because you will find a less than forgiving game in Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light.

I LOVE THIS GAME

I've only played it 3 or 4 times since I bought it, but each time it is a treat, and I just sink down into wherever I am sitting and get whisked away to a magical world of fantasy <3

There is so much freedom! Even though you're on a path and in a story, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want. I love going back and forth and everywhere that -I- want to go and when I want to do it. I can spend as long as I want doing things, and it really does feel like I'm in charge of my own adventure. :)

Everything about this game is so inspiring to me. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite games.

The music in this game stirs my brain and pokes at it in such an interesting way. It's really enjoyable and I always find myself humming the tunes when I'm doing other things in real life, and I even wrote some fan-made lyrics to the main theme. It's a great soundtrack. It's not IN YOUR FACE memorable but it certainly is lovely.

The graphics are so whimsical, they inspire me just as much as the music does. I think they work together very well. At night when I'm going to sleep I almost feel like I'm in that world... it's amazing.

I COMPLETELY RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A GOOD, ENGAGING AND INVOLVING STORY-QUEST :)

I suppose you should enjoy RPG's, Leveling up and customizing your characters, surprises, making your own way in the world instead of being led by the hand, and you should have an open mind. It's a terrific game, given the chance. <3

This is actually a pretty well done game.

Pros:

Unique Art Style - I found it to be highly enjoyable, even if their heads are boulders!

Music - Naoshi Mizuta continues to impress me with his fantastic music. Please be a composer for FFXV!

Crown System - Can change your class at the drop of a hat

Challenging - Don't let the art style fool you. This is a game for people who like a challenge. I personally got stuck on several bosses for quite a few hours. Good luck in the final dungeon folks!

Turn Based Battle System + Towns + Old School = WINNNN!!!

Cons:

Story - It's very basic. If you ever played any of the original FF games like I-III. Then expect something like that because your not going to find something amazing. However I personally would rank the story in this game as better than any of those.

Crown System Style - I thought it was slightly annoying that each character had to use gems (which are pretty scarce sometimes) to gain new abilities for the classes. I suppose I was hoping that it was universal for all characters.

Anyways, great game! Pick it up!

It's a challange game. It makes you have to think about strategy more then ever. There is no MP. Magic, regular, and abilitie attacks are all based off AP(Action Power). You only can have up to 5. If your low, you must use boost which then means you use a turn. Also you can't choose which enemie to attack. It's random. I would buy this game if you want a challange.

Graphics: 4 out of 5

Story: 1 out of 5

Gameplay: 1 out of 5

Music: 4 out of 5

Overall: 2 out of 5.

Surely you've heard the talk of this game being somewhat oldschool. It is, but not in a good way.

1. The characters are generic, trite, stereotypical RPG vanillas.

2. The plot is barely there, just enough to move the game along. A staple of oldschool RPGs, which I don't happen to miss. I like my RPGs to make characters and stories I care about. Not just fill in to get me from fight to fight.

3. I'll agree with other players in that the direction in the game is sorely lacking. At times, it's easy to be lost and have no clue where to go. You're left having to talk to each and every NPC, sometimes with different characters (or in different forms), along with traversing back and forth to different towns to accomplish this task.... just to find a miniscule hint where to go. Hello, oldschool staple! Can't say I'm happy to see you again!

4. The fighting system actually wasn't bad. I really liked the idea of eliminating Magic Points. This along with class choices allows you to actually USE your magicks routinely (as it should be with caster classes) without conservation fears. Limiting the character to 6 "ability" slots doesn't allow this system to fall out of balance. Attaching the spells to books that the character carries (thereby allowing you to use spells on any class, but choosing proper caster classes allow easier/effective use) wasn't a bad touch either.

Although this is turned into a major inconvenience by my next point.....

5. Your inventory is limited to 15 slots per character. Between armors/weapons/accessories... and 3-4 spell books (having to be carried) it really causes major problems of frustration in the game. I don't mind the limit per se, I mean carrying 99 potions is nonsense anyways (who's carrying the massive backpack for that? while fighting). But it causes MUCH backtracking in certain areas, particularly dealing in boss fights. Why?---- see my next point.

6. Boss fights in this game aren't difficult due to intelligence. They are flat out cheap. Another staple of "oldschool" that nobody missed.

Due to the limitations of inventory (mentioned above), you simply can't carry all the armor/weapons (with proper elemental affinities required) to be prepared for what's needed to win against a particular boss. Though you get save points right before most bosses, it doesn't help if you find yourself without the NECESSARY equipment (because it's back in town in your STORAGE). You'll have to traverse ALLLLL the way back to town, often out of a dungeon and across the world map, to get the right gear. AFTER having been thunderstomped in 3 rounds by some ridiculous boss abilities because you didn't have the proper resistance gear equipped.

It's not "challenging" in the least. It's cheap. And frustrating. And time consuming in a way that doesn't equate "fun" and so seems even more annoying.

Once you have the proper resistance gear, or have the proper spell books (out of your STORAGE because you don't have room to carry every elemental spell, up to 3 levels, for that Black Mage of yours), or proper weapon (hope you didn't guess wrong when you left out of town).... you'll have a ridiculously easy fight. Put on your ice resistance shields and laugh at the Ice Dragon.

But it ends up feeling less like you outwitted and intelligently strategized abilities and class choices in a magnificent stroke of Machiavellian brilliance to defeat your brilliant boss opponent, and more like you found the ace-card and turned a fight that was intentionally unbeatable any other way into a cheap time-wasting fight. Again, yet another "oldschool" staple that was never sorely missed.

At the end of the day, I can't say anything other than I was truly disappointed in this game. My first RPG was FF1 on the NES. While it was definitely oldschool (in bad ways as well as good), I have much fonder memories of it than I do of this game. I was excited to buy this game and it let me down in all the crucial points except the battle/job system.

If you're truly jonesing for some oldschool flavor, with newschool polish--- try Etrian Odyssey 3.

Overall: 3/5

Art Direction: 4/5

Sound: 4/5

Gameplay: 2/5

Story: 1/5

Multiplayer: 0/5

I regret to say that I didn't read any of the helpful reviews for this game before I decided to get it. It would have saved me a lot of time and frustration.

Art Direction:

The first thing you'll notice about this game is that it looks attractive, and it looks like it's for kids. (It's not for kids - more on that later.) After playing into the game somewhat you'll be able to tell that a decent amount of work was put into the art direction. Not everyone will like it, but its value can't be denied.

Sound:

The music in this game was done well. It makes the game feel very old-school. The fact that the sounds didn't annoy me at all is a very big plus in my book. I liked how the soundtrack changed with the day/night cycle.

Gameplay:

The gameplay for this game is a mixed bag:

- The job system is a nice change from the norm. With the right setup, you'll find you can get some very powerful combinations out of your party. The vast number of jobs allow for many different combinations.

-Action Points were a very good idea. In most rpgs, you would have to be very conservative with spells to make sure you didn't run out before the boss. In this game, you can use spells as much as you need to. This can allow some spells to be repeatedly spammed, which can trivialize some sections of the game.

-The inventory only holds 15 items per character. While this may seem interesting at first, this actually just makes the game more tedious. You'll find that you can only be prepared for one type of situation, and then you'll just have to deal with the rest. This can get to be a huge problem with certain bosses.

-This game is very hard. It is definitely NOT for kids, even though the art style may suggest differently. Many of the bosses are impossible without the right setup, and will require a trip back to town or dedicated grinding if you have the wrong setup. The first few hours in particular are very hard without grinding, regardless of your setup.

-The auto-target is terrible. This game features an auto-target in battles that you can't turn off, for some reason. You are unable to choose who you attack or heal during battle - you can only choose which action to take, and the game will choose a target for you. The game makes good decisions with the auto-target... usually. I find it makes the worst decisions when it matters most, however. The auto-target, in conjunction with the confusing turn-order, makes it almost impossible to plan out turns. When a party member dies, and you want to revive him and then heal him, the game will probably heal somebody else and leave him hanging with a couple of HPs left. Your healer will not heal them self if another character has lower hp, even if both are about to die. This can lead to some very frustrating situations that would be easily avoidable with manual target.

Story:

I'll have to admit, story matters to me a lot when it comes to video games. Sadly, the story for this game is extremely weak and generic. The main characters are generic and have no backstory. There isn't a lot of plot to the game - barely enough to take you from dungeon to dungeon. I often found myself questioning why I was even completing many of the dungeons in the first place, as there didn't seem to be adequate reason to do so. Much of the main story arc consists of borrowed story elements from Final Fantasy III (the one released as III in Japan). Don't expect much from this game's story.

Multiplayer:

The multiplayer was the reason I bought this game. I can honestly say, however, that the multiplayer is the worst thing about this game. My brother and I both got this game because we've been looking for a good RPG to play through on co-op. Some of the things we noticed about the multiplayer (feel free to comment if I missed anything):

-You can't see each other while in town

-Guest players cannot leave the room the host is in

-Guest players do not trigger random encounters

-Guest players get a copy of every item found in treasure chests

-Guest players cannot control cinematics, leaving battles, etc.

-Guest players cannot be given control of other ai controlled party members

-The game cannot be saved during multiplayer (only before and after)

-Guest players cannot change jobs

I want to emphasize that last one. Guest players are unable to change their job. Changing jobs is essential to the game. This means that to change jobs, the guest player has to disconnect, wait for the host to change the job, and reconnect once more. This gets very old very quickly.

I would also like to emphasize that *the game cannot be saved during multiplayer*. You have to go back to town if you want to save your progress. There's a nasty point near the beginning of the game where you have no access to multiplayer services for a few hours, and therefore cannot quit without losing progress.

We haven't tested whether guest players can shop in multiplayer.

I made a mistake in buying this game. I bought it for the multiplayer, but I also found the single-player unsatisfying. This isn't a bad game, but it isn't necessarily a very good game. I'd put it at just "decent". 3 out of 5 stars.

I want to share my first impressions of this game to hopefully help people make a decision about purchasing this game. You can take the things I am saying with a grain of salt if you are worried about the fact that I have not finished the game.

Basically, as others have said, this game drops you right into the action. You wake up, are told where to go, and you are quickly sent on a mission. For some, this could be a huge problem. The route I took was to go out and fight quite a bit to get used to how the game flows. I waited a while before actually making an effort at the first mission. Just get your feet wet before jumping into the big river that is Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.

The battle system is different with this game than past FF games. Enemies can't be targeted, but so far the "computer" knows what would be best targeted by each character. For example, if you cast a cure spell, it is going to help the character that needs it most. If I cast a fire spell, it is going to target the most efficient opponent possible that is weakened by fire. To do any kind of action at all, it is gonna take some AP points. This, in my opinion, is a very fun change from the standard run of the mill MP system. This adds a whole new dimension to what is possible in battle. It requires a lot of thinking to fully exploit the system.

One fun thing I did with this new system was to use cure spells to heal up my team. Since there is no mana, you don't have to worry about using it up to heal characters, which in turn helps with the problem of carrying a limited number of items like potions. All I had to do was wait until I had some easier opponents and then stall the battle out and make sure I could heal everyone up. Just keep on using cure when there are enough available AP points. There is a great deal that can be done with this battle system to make it a new and fun experiment for all who have played FF games in the past. Surely people would enjoy a slight change to make things interesting.

Like any good FF game, get ready to level grind. I know different people have different views about the fun factor of level grinding, but it isn't that bad when you have a fresh game like this that isn't just a remake. It really heightens my earnestness to get stronger and continue the story. On a plus side, I was playing FF IV recently and this game seems to have fewer random fights than the FFIV did. So at least you can go two steps without another fight.

Also, I am not sure if GIL is won in battles because I haven't won any yet. I don't know if that happens later in the game, but I am getting jewels aplenty. These can be sold for lots of Gil back in the shops. The crappiest one I found so far was worth 50 gil, and this does wonders when first starting the game. Sell a reasonable amount of them at first. It helps. I easily bought shields, potions, torches, and stays at the inn while leveling up at the beginning.

To conclude, this game has its hooks deep in me right now. I am not an avid RPG player. I have only tried final fanasy III a little bit, and have played FFIV. I also tried Dragon Quest 9 and have played through a lot of that. I am just someone wanting to get into the RPG genre, and I can tell this game is going to be a great challenge throughout. I want to encourage people to give it a shot. The music is great, the new look of this game grows on you (trust me on that one). I give it a four out of five because it could probably be a little bit better, but this one is a blast to play and really gives a new twist on an old genre. I don't think you will be sorry for trying this unless you are: very young and misled by the cover art, someone that doesn't like rpg's, easily distracted, or a very very very busy person with no time to play this awesome game.

This is the best Final Fantasy game in a long time! It's so much fun and it's easy to get absorbed into the game. The battle system is new and different, making it fun and challenging to beat bosses and random battles. I love that you get to explore an over-world, and the job system with the crowns is interesting and reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics (although it's not that complex). I really like the art style; it reminds me of Tactics as well but it's fresh and different. The music is beautiful, even though there are no classic themes. Playing wireless multiplayer is a lot of fun too, and an easy way to get lots of levels and gems for your crowns. I would recommend this to kids as well as adults--my husband and I both have a copy--even if you've never played any other games in the Final Fantasy series.

(I will refer to the game as FF4H)

*CONS

-Very flaws user interface (UI from now on) design. It is functional. But not very intuitive and often frustrating. It's as if the designer couldn't decide if the UI should be optimized for stylus or button based usage.

-Combining Equipment and Item carrying load. Some people are hating how the item you can carry is limited to 15. I actually don't mind this considering the balance of the game with the Crown system. I can see that the designers wanted you to constantly change your items and equipments depending on the situation. In this regard, I understand limiting the items you carry. I still would have liked if equipments were separate categories.

-Music is uninspiring

-Auto targeting during combat. Some tough enemies are very hard to deal with since you can't specifically assign attacks catering to that enemy if there are more than one. (there is an auto mode and it's supposed to be very smart. but I haven't really tired yet. What's the fun in letting the AI deal with combat?)

*PROS

-Interesting balance between casual and core JRPG (especially FF fans). There are things SquareEnix made it easy to deal with (ex: action point, not using MP, etc...). But the gameplay and strategy behind the whole game is very deep.

-Art style: I know a cartoony look can be a turn off for a lot of people. But considering the platform, I think it's a very smart choice to maximize the look and feel of the game. I still cant believe how much they populate the things you see in the screen. And it runs very smoothly too.

-Classic FF feel. Personally, I care less about a lot of pseudo sci-fi/fantasy world a lot of later FF series are in. There is something about more of classic fantasy setting

-Pacing of the game: Although there is fair amount of level grinding, it doesn't feel as bad as other JRPG games (including DQIX). Mainly due to the fact that things move on between events fairly quickly. I think the developer did a really good job balancing out amount of time and effort it takes between sub/main bosses and events. Also the fact that part of the strategy is constantly changing your equipment and crown to maximize for the situation (which can be annoying for some), it really adds the sense of having different things going on all the time.

-Sort of a continuing point from the previous one... But part of a fast pacing is also presented during the battle as well. Although auto targeting is mega lame. Action Point works really well. Both physical attacks and magic attacks rely on certain numbers of action points during the game. This is especially more interesting for magic based characters because you are not limited to certain numbers of magic points. Both physical and magic type characters can strategize between using those action points or charging it up by "boosting" which also works sort of as "guard".

I am not sure how much of these changes will be accepted by the hard core FF fans. But I personally found it very refreshing (except some of those annoying things mentioned above).

I have yet to try things like Multiplay. So I can't comment on it at this point. But from what I can tell, it feels more like a gimmick than a fully featured multiplayer experience.

If you are into JRPG, I still recommend it. It's a familiar game with interesting twists here and there.

I haven't finished this game by any means (I only started playing it this past Saturday), but I feel as though I have completed enough of it to have something of an opinion.

This game surpassed my expectations by a lot. I wasn't really sure about buying this game, but I'm so glad that I did! It's challenging, but not so much that it slows down game progression. I would say, game play-wise that it is like an older sibling version of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. I've only played a few Final Fantasy games (mostly from the Crystal Chronicle series), but this is by far my favorite Final Fantasy game ever. If your a fan of RPG games like the Etrian Odessey series, well, you might like this but you won't feel as challenged by any means. So far I haven't had the problem of feeling like I'm lost and don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, as I have read that some have. I've also read that some dislike the fact that you have to talk to people to get information...but that's just part of game-play. I personally like the crown system, as it makes it that much more customizable. The story is compelling (and sometimes humorous). The music is incredible (as is common in most FF games). I really hope that Square Enix makes a sequel to this game, I know I'm going to be really sad when I finish this one!