Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light Review

Getting an adventure off the ground is hard work. There's the recruitment of stalwart companions, much roaming of the world, unsightly explosions of evil, and that magical moment when it all kicks into high gear and you ride off to a shining victory. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light labors a bit while getting all the pieces into place but finally manages to bring home a solid, satisfying jaunt through yet another land of swords and sorcery. There's plenty of character customization, an endless stream of townspeople to learn from and trade with, and a number of nasty monsters to challenge you.

The 4 Heroes of Light are pumped and ready to grind through some levels!

It all begins with a sleepy village, a kidnapped princess, and a curse. When a witch spirits away Aire, the only daughter of the regent of the kingdom of Horne, it's not enough for him to send troops to investigate. Because he's the impatient sort, he also sends Brandt, a local youth who fortuitously came of age at just the right moment to get drafted, and Jusqua, who's not exactly keen about his new mission. They soon join forces with the loyal Yunita, a palace knight with an overwrought sense of duty, and manage to save Aire, who is ungrateful and miffed about the whole thing. They defeat the witch and return to town only to find that everyone in Horne has been turned to stone. Some sort of curse has been activated, and they'll need to set out on a journey to make things right again.

This kicks off a whole mess of events that fragments your party as members head out into the world, repeatedly abandon each other for no apparent reason, have numerous visions of a talking crystal, and meet helpful allies who stay for a time (and then leave suddenly with all the items you gave them). They eventually regroup, discover that they've somehow cured their respective character flaws while leaving each other to rot in isolated lands and then join forces to smite darkness. It's a common convention in role-playing games to have these separate threads that tie your merry band of adventurers together, but here, it feels particularly contrived because your party splits up multiple times and you have to grind through a good deal of initial content solo. Leveling comes slowly, especially in those early hours, and you're likely to have to backtrack through dungeons a few times as you find your footing. But once your party finally comes together and things begin in earnest, the game starts to show off its true appeal.

You meet all manner of monsters as you traverse the world and trudge through its dungeons, and combat here is a twist on the turn-based system where you cannot select the target of your actions. You can choose to attack, and weapons attack the front or rear rows of opponents based on type (bows hit the back line, swords the front, and so on), but you cannot choose which individual monster to slay. It's the same if you're using a healing item or a beneficial spell--you can't choose who gets healed first, who gets buffed first, or who has a status ailment removed first. Attacks generally focus the same target in a given row (so you'll still efficiently take down foes), and healing spells top off whoever has the lowest percentage of health, but this broad stroke sort of approach means you want to play conservatively and heal often against tougher challenges. There isn't a set order of actions that allows you to predict when a particular attack will occur or when a spell will be cast. On the one hand, it keeps things exciting, but on the other, it means that your people can get wiped out before that awesome group cure gets cast.

Each action--whether it's a magic spell, weapon attack, or special ability--costs action points to use. You accrue one action point naturally per turn, or you can select the boost option and the character will defend and accrue two. Each character can store up to five action points at a time, and your more potent spells and attacks cost more action points to use. Combat is mastered when you manage the flow of incoming action points to your needs and are careful not to overextend yourself and spend all your points. It's a constantly renewable resource, but because you want more than one action point to perform most useful actions, you'll have to make the time to boost regularly while keeping your party safe. The action points you have carry over when you leave battle, and you can heal and cure status ailments outside of fights if you have the points saved. Managing action points intelligently means that if you're careful, you can wander the wilds as long as you like to pick off assailants without having to constantly visit towns to rest and recuperate--a great feature. This is especially true because enemies don't drop currency--only items and gems--and you need both goodies and cash. Items can be used or sold, and gems are good money but also an important resource. They allow you to upgrade weapons and armor at a special shop, and they let you upgrade your wonderful crowns.

Crowns aren't just fabulous hats, they're a way of life.

Crowns are pieces of headwear in a wide variety of designs that enable characters to change their classes, and they become available as you progress through the story, defeat certain bosses, and perform certain actions. When you put on the bandit mask, you can not only steal from enemies but your strength and health also increase. If you decide to become a white mage, all white magic becomes cheaper to use while your spirit stat goes up to increase the power of your healing. These effects are immediate and built into each crown, and you can change crowns any time you're not in battle by opening up the menu. It's an instant character-class swap, and each individual class has a specific advantage that makes it useful--whether you need to collect more items and gems or you'd like to bring a particular sort of attack to bear against a strong foe. Each crown can be upgraded via gems to offer even more powerful advantages in the form of new abilities, such as the ability to halve elemental damage or protect your white mage from enemy attacks. There are three upgrades available for each crown, with the final upgrade costing you a hefty number of gems, but the edge you gain is worth the investment. While there are certain abilities and crown distributions that provide optimal balance for certain encounters, the game is good about leaving the particulars up to you. As vital and cool as crowns are, however, they're matched in importance by your gear choices.