Friday, October 22, 2010

Review : Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light

Ugh... another spin-off... again... why? Well that would normally be me when it comes to spin-offs since the first DS Final Fantasy. Believe it or not this Final Fantasy looks like a repellent but if you put the time in, it shows it's true colours. To be honest I came into this game as a sceptic but it's actually made me have a little more faith in the franchise. Well here's my review of Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes Of Light it a cutesy looking game. Everything about it seems to be a repellent to fans of the main numbered franchise(that's all but X-2 and XII Revenant Wings) but it grows on you. The story is about 4 unlikely heroes from the town of Horne. Brandt has just become a man and went to pay his respects to the king only to be given a quest to save his daughter from a witch. Along his quest he meets Jusqua who is on the same quest, Yunita who is the princesses bodyguard and caretaker and Aire, the princess of Horne. After Rescuing the princess and defeating the witch who kidnapped her the town of Horne becomes cursed and the 4 of them are now on a quest to save Horne and get dragged into saving the world from the upcoming threat... you know like every Final Fantasy. Also during the first 15-20 hours of the story you're going to have the characters split up and re-unite over and over again.
The game uses the traditional JRPG game type of turn-based combat with an interesting method of doing it. The game uses an AP system where instead of MP from previous games each ability uses a set amount of AP, even the basic attack command and it can be restored in battle with ether's and using the boost command. You only get 5 AP but it makes combat strategies more strategic. The game also brings back the Job Class system, with it each job is a crown for the characters to equip and a lot the basic jobs from previous games make a return. You can power up the crowns using jewels you find in battle. These jewels can also be sold, especially since enemies don't drop Gil at all. Spells are also handled differently too. The spells are in books that you give each character and equip them like the abilities. Unfortunately the game only has 1 save slot and each character only holds 15 items each and none are stackable which makes life difficult in the game but adds to the strategy, plus you can't select an attack target which makes life miserable in battle especially when back row enemies can do heavy damage or an enemy on the right is powerful and you're stuck attacking the left enemy. When you die in the game you will be transported back to the last town you visited or saved at lose half the amount of jewels of one type of jewels you earned. This is both a good thing and a bad thing because the game usually takes away the jewels you either have the least of or worse the rarest but on the plus side all of your levels and items you collected will be retained so it's not all bad.

Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes Of Light is a great addition to the Final Fantasy stable. Even though it has a whole bunch of things that make it unappealing to the average FF fan, the game has a good story and likable characters with a well designed battle system. It is a little slow in getting there but it's well worth the time of any JRPG fan and gives hope to fans waiting for the next numbered Final Fantasy. I give it a 4/5 because it's has a good story and has a lot to offer.

Score 4/5

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