The 4 Heroes of Light

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Yeah, those 20-somethings couldn't tie their shoes if it weren't for those 14 year-olds helping them.

[Firewind]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Has there been an FF game with a main character older than 20 since FFIV? There wasn't really a main character in FFVI and Cloud doesn't count because he has the emotional maturity of a 14 year old unless the plot demands that he does something cool/get mind raped/tell a really bad joke or allegory.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Well Basch and Ashe are technically the real leads of FFXII, Basch is in his 30s and Ashe is 19.

The cast of FFVI was all over the map, though I'd argue Terra and Celes are your strongest lead characters there.

Nah, not really, most of the time its some kid that's the lead.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Has there been an FF game with a main character older than 20 since FFIV? There wasn't really a main character in FFVI and Cloud doesn't count because he has the emotional maturity of a 14 year old unless the plot demands that he does something cool/get mind raped/tell a really bad joke or allegory.

Well Basch and Ashe are technically the real leads of FFXII, Basch is in his 30s and Ashe is 19.

The cast of FFVI was all over the map, though I'd argue Terra and Celes are your strongest lead characters there.

Nah, not really, most of the time its some kid that's the lead.

You know, after thinking about this, Dissidia starts looking a bit . . . weirder.

[Firewind]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

*nods* I actually found FFXII refreshing due to Basch being around. I'm normally not one to complain about the ages of video game protagonists (Final Fantasy X, Persona 3 and Persona 4 are three of my favourite JRPGs and all of those games have an average party member age of 15-16) but it is difficult to find a JRPG now with a protagonist that is an adult.

I guess Lightning in FFXIII counts when she stops channelling Cloud Strife and acts more emotionally mature, though it is in a similar situation to VI, X and XII where it's arguable as to who the lead character actually is.

[Raydeus]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Just because they are in their teens on paper that doesn't mean they are teens.

I thought most JRPG fans would've figured that out by now.

Their attitudes and situations are waaaay above that age range. They are a representation of how older guys would've liked to be back then, instead of the hormonal retarded mess we become during that period.

Just another example of the good old "youth is wasted on the young" situation.

So yes, they are that young on the outside, and no, they are definitely not that young on the inside. Just take a look at most kids in those games or in anime, when the heck would you see a little youngster giving you the wise advice a 50 year old would give and be as aware of life, all while being able to articulate it in such clear ways? Exactly.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

I picked it up a couple hours back.

For whatever reason (possibly SE's halfhearted server support for games like this), there's no online play, which was supposed to be a feature. Local Multiplayer Only (sigh).

That aside, its quite a lovely-looking game. The screens online really don't do it justice, you have to see it in motion. It goes for a muted pastel color scheme, giving that watercolor look people previewing the game spoke of. The towns "roll" toward and away from you in a fashion similar to Animal Crossing, which is kinda cute.

They were not kidding about the plot though.Its bare-bones, old text adventure kinda stuff. Possibly even more bare than that.

Your mother wakes you, as it is well into the morning.
It is your 14th birthday.
If you wish to be recognized as an adult, you must have an audience with the king
King: A witch kidnapped my daughter, here's a sword, go fetch her for me.

And that's really it.

And so I'm off to slay a witch beyond a cave to the north. Thus begins the adventure.

[Malacite]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Nah, not really, most of the time its some kid that's the lead.

Well, at least Squall had a sense of maturity about him and actually grew up as a person. You're right though, that Cecil was by far the most adult hero in the series (FF6 was actually pretty mature on the whole, only Edge was kinda silly.)

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

I slay the witch.
I return to my village.
Apparently killing the witch at a drawback, that bitch!
Everyone's turned to stone because she died
I'm to travel east to find a cure for this curse.
I meet some sort of Mystic Knight, named Krijah or something.
He tells me to find the city with a cure I must search Moonlight Castle to find some magic dust that will reveal it on my map.
He joins my party. Awesome. Don't give him anything.
I go to the castle. I find the stuff.
Now I am at the city with the cure... but I know they'll send me out on some errand, so I'd better prepare.

So far, aside from the job system, this isn't really feeling like a Final Fantasy game, but then, this was dubbed "Final Fantasy Gaiden: The 4 Heroes of LIght" in Japan. The last time "Final Fantasy Gaiden" was used it was as a subtitle for the first Mana game.

And while it does have a lot of elements to make it a throwback, so far its not nearly as brutal as Etrian Odyssey. All in all, though, I think this is one of the better FF spin-offs SE has done in recent years. Maybe they'll take something away from going back to basics or, at the very least, Matrix will (it is a good recovery from Nostalgia, which didn't seem to fare so well).

I like how the jobs are leveled, you just insert gems into your current crown" to get new skills and you'll find these gems as you slay enemies over the course of the adventure. I wouldn't invest any in guest characters, they kinda come and go as they please, leaving with your shit if you give it to them.

[Firewind]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

One bit of advice I would give anyone playing this game is to always have at LEAST two Spellbooks and 2-3 potions equipped on all of your characters regardless of class. Magic is potent in this game and it will make your life much easier.

Oh and always talk to any guy wearing a red fedora. He's a save point. Talk to them often.

Job levelling is nice as bbqkitten said. The vendor trash gems you pick up can be slotted into the crowns to level them up.

The only complaint about the game I have is that it's a handheld game with no ability to save where you want (which was what stopped FFIII and FFIV from being perfect handheld ports). Sorry but if I want to play the game while on the train to college I want to at the very LEAST have a quick save function so I don't have to either lost my progress or y'know, miss my stop. IMO this would have worked far better as a console game available on PSN or XBL for that very reason.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

FFIII and FFIV DS let you save anywhere on the overworld and had save points in dungeons as well.

4 Heroes of Light lacks them because, well, it can't be a throwback if it has every modern creature comfort. This is supposed to be rather retro, though it could have been remedied by dungeon escape spells and such.There aren't very long stretches between the save points anyway.

[Firewind]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

I know, I just find it frustrating when a handheld game has no real ability to let you save it if you only have half an hour or so to play. I personally tend to judge handheld games on how easy it is to hop into the action, save and pick it up again later. FF 4 Heroes can be quite frustrating at times because it's not always obvious where the next town or objective (Elder Scrolls 1-3 showed how frustrating this can be in huge game worlds) or next Fedora man is.

It's why IMO, P3P is a perfect handheld port of P3 as not only does it add the Square button for fast travel but you can hop out of Tartarus at any time, pay to heal up at the save point and save without losing your floor progress. It was really nice to be able to clear a couple of floors while on the train or in odd bits of free time I get (which is really lacking at the moment due to my college course).

That being said I love this game. I picked it up for cheap and it's a charming and fun little game. If anyone wants a throwback to the old Final Fantasy games then it's worth picking up. It's clear that it's a retro JRPG with a Final Fantasy nametag on and I would recommend anyone thinking of buying to just ignore that really because it is a genuinely fun game full of throwbacks to console RPGs from the 1980's. I tend not to use the Nostalgia Filter when playing games but in this case, pandering to nostalgia really does work.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Sad thing is I've seen reviewers for this and Etrian Odyssey III ignore the fact that both title are intended to be throwbacks, one of them citing that "RPGs are about story" for EOIII (when all the press releases say you just make it up as you go along, like people used to do) while I've seen Game Informer scream up and down that "RPGs have evolved."

Makes me wonder if these people do their homework before they start playing and reviewing games.

I mean, to be fair, 4 Heros of Light sort of compromised FFXIII's CP system with classic Wizardry. And the original version of Final Fantasy was about as harsh as Wizardry when it came to magic. You got three spell charges and that was it. 4 Heroes of Light has a great magic system by contrast.

[Firewind]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

Most reviewers also play a buggy beta build of the game or literally only have an hour or so to play the game. They also have absolutely no idea as to how you actually review something. Listing what they personally like and dislike about something then adding an arbitrary number at the end of the article does not make a review.

Off topic but relevant: as a historian I find myself reviewing new history books a lot though you seriously need to do your homework about what a book is about and the historiography of the subject material and you need to stay analytical and not let personal feelings about a book effect how good or bad you say it is (though you are allowed to say if you liked it or not). It's always obvious when someone hasn't done this and it's damn near impossible to get anyone to take your article seriously if you haven't done the research.

It's relevant because it makes me cry inside when I read a review that takes a game on it's own, has no comparison to other games and ends up being a rant about why a game "sucks" because the reviewer didn't like it. For that reason I tend to take "professional" game reviews with a heap of salt then just watch the Zero Punctuation review because at least Yahtzee's funny entertaining in rant mode.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: The 4 Heroes of Light

The funny thing about the EOIII review is the chick at IGN (I know, easy prey) wrote like she had read half of the press release and then pretended to cite changes from the previous two games she hadn't played. She said that saving your map data on death was new, but that had been there in the first game.

Then she complained about the grinding, lack of story and lack of enemy animations. This is game that was quite clearly before her time. I know why IGN hired her, she's clearly eye candy for the fanboys and played a few RPGs, but that doesn't mean you just let them review it for posterity. That's why I pretty much just read Craig Harris' reviews only - he's been around, been gaming at least as long as I have and can appreciate these things.

I prefer Destructiod's reviews overall, as an indie site they're not really a priority to be paid-off by big publishers (an from the Gamespot Kane and Lynch fiasco, we can't deny this happens). Hell, I don't even trust metacritic. For example, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has numerous mixed reviews and yet even tall the sites that post them and typically show up on Metacritic just aren't there. Nothing but lavish praise appears there right now. Its despicable.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic

Same thing with Gamerankings. Anything that's south of a 7.5 just magically doesn't show up, even if they exist and the sites the come from are commonly recognized by these sites.

So yeah, this is why I stick with reviewers I just like rather than trust these sites or big gaming sites, its all paid off these days, at least by the third parties that can afford it.

EDIT:

Interesting, the PS3 reviews do nothing but gush, but it seems the 360 version (which is for all intents and purposes is exactly the same) is getting the mixed reviews.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Critic Reviews for Xbox 360 at Metacritic.com

Interesting to note that none of the complaints have to do with platform, just the game itself.