FOUR HEROES OF LIGHT ~ IN SOVIET RUSSIA, BATTLES TARGET YOU

Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light, by Matrix Software (which created the FFIII/IV DS remakes), is both an attempt to capture the essence of the early Final Fantasy games and a departure from the series' norms. New music, style and battles make it different, yet still similar to, the games it tries to emulate.



The game takes place in a vibrant, storybook-esque setting with seven central cities. While there are still villages and towns as well, the cities define the tone of an area with its associated deadly sin (and appropriate demon). By saving the world one demon at a time, you'll earn new hats that let you change and upgrade your job. There are over twenty hats to be earned, including optional ones!

Similarities to Chromatose are probably not intended.



Battles take place using a point system, where MP is replaced by a cost of up to six (your total) points for an action. It is not dissimilar to FFXIII's ATB segments, except you start with the maximum total points and the game is turn-based.

One part of the game causing contention is that you can only lug fifteen items around on each character, including equipment and spellbooks. This is entirely on purpose and designed around, however, so it will hopefully not be as horrifying as modern jRPG enthusiasts believe it to be. Jobs like the Monk/Black Belt-type will certainly become appealing to balance out a black mage carrying Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga.

Another debated aspect is the fact that auto-targeting is used. Each action has a "rule," displayed on the action's button, that describes how it works. FRNT means that it attacks an enemy in the front row (meaning that if you want to take out that spellcaster in the back, you had better use a spell or archer of some kind).



Some cute art:


And some music:



I have Yunita as my wallpaper and $35 ready to shell out tomorrow.

What? You dislike that I will be pretty much absent for the next few days?

I would not mind it if every game looked like this game. To be honest, it took me a few minutes to get used to how abstract some stuff can seem, but now it's A+.

I'm traveling back to Horne after the second boss now.

Things I like:
-Art, duh; the atmosphere is pretty great
-The characters are pretty adorable and likable so far
-Dying is unbelievably cute
-I don't think any Gems drop on the first part of the world map or the cave, so dying has no real consequences
-Battles are really fast-paced, even the bosses
-It's generally fun
-There's a lot to explore and find in just the first town
-The music, especially the day/night shifts, is terrific
-The classes in the manual all sound really hella good (I'd say that it's balanced if everything is over-powered)

Things I dislike:
-I'm not really sure how I'm activating the items you find strewn around town; am I just running into them?
-Torches seem to be rather long-lasting, which is good for the sake of the item limit but loses the sense of immediacy I feel like they should present
-I wasn't able to play it all day yesterday :<

This game has the most ridiculous and utterly wonderful plot twists. Also, sequence breaking is a GO. Alsoalso, I found a mighty Hydraxe in a bathtub. Alsoalsoalso, it was useless after the dungeon it was godly in because every enemy there resisted Water damage, but that's why you get a Bolt Sword (Light-element (Thunder)) that can paralyze enemies, since bosses can be paralyzed (it works like in Pokemon; a % chance to lose your turn) which is cool but since I was so prepared I had anti-Water gear (accessory for Aire, shield for Jusqua) the monsters and boss only did half damage to me with most attacks anyway so yeah this game is pretty awesome.

Spell Focus + Fire = DIE (well, Spell Focus + Quake would be MOREDIE since Quake has a higher default magic attack, but in this dungeon there were a lot of vulnerable-to-fire enemies. For Jusqua, Wayfarin' it up, it was pure luck that I happened to give him the various Bomb Fragments I got from Hellhounds during my sequence breaking (if I had Bandit I could have stolen them as well, but alas) so basically this game is pure ownage and cute and adorable and HOW THE HELL IS THIS GAME SO ADORABLE asfnklsadnfklsanfklsanfklnsakflnsalkn so gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

Alsoalsoalso, the dungeons are pretty varied! You're thrown into a lot of different settings right off the bat.