REVIEW - Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light (Nintendo DS)

If there has ever been an inappropriately named franchise, then it has to be the Final Fantasy franchise.  Since the release of the first Final Fantasy back in 1987, there have been somewhere in the region of 65 various games, spin-offs and remakes.  However, the beauty of Final Fantasy is that (with the odd exception) the games are all stand alone titles, and you don't need to have grinded through the others to enjoy the latest installment.  So to enjoy Final Fantasy X, you don't need to have played the nine prequels; the same stands with the spin offs.

Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light - or FF:FHL as it will now be known - is one of the spin offs, and once again is a stand alone title, this time for the Nintendo DS.  You control main character Brandt, and his band of followers in their quest to first rescue a princess, and then save the world from the darkness that is spreading throughout the world.

Black and White

The plot is Final Fantasy by numbers, and is designed to be.  The game is set in the style of its retro predecessors, and fans of the series will recognise a great deal of the game as having been done before in previous titles.  This is not necessarily a bad thing - Final Fantasy games are popular for a reason - but don't come to FHL expecting stunning originality.  A darkness has set over the world, and your party must go around various towns and dungeons conversing with people, levelling up, fetching things for key NPCs, and defeating evil villains in order to restore the world back to light.  If you have played a Final Fantasy game before, you know the drill.

The Crown System works, but it isn't revolutionary.

The action side of the gameplay is also standard Final Fantasy fare, with random battles in the field with which to upgrade your characters, and plenty of dungeons to battle through in order to face the big boss that sits at the bottom of each dungeon or cave.  Yet this is not to say that FHL does not bring one or two new aspects to the table, such as the "crown" system that means that the player can change the classes of members of the party mid game, and then upgrade those skills with various gems that are collected on the way.  Although a mere rehash of the "job" system from some of the older titles, the crown system works nicely, even if many of the crowns that you are awarded are completely and utterly useless.  The hardcore fans of the series will probably settle down with the traditional classes of White and Black Mage and be done with it.  In my party of four for instance, I had one Black Mage, two White Mages and then picked an Elemental crown (that adds power to magic spells) to complete the party.  From there I never had the urge to change from that combination, especially as I had spent so much time upgrading those crowns to get the extra spells.  I imagine most hardcore players will go along similar lines.

Final Nightmare Mode

He is as difficult to fight as he looks.

Speaking of the hardcore RPG players, this is a game designed almost exclusively for those fans of the genre. Despite the cutesy looking graphics, this game is perilously hard at times, and this comes from a reviewer who knows his Final Fantasy inside and out.  If a gamer is looking at this as an opportunity to dip into the genre for the first time, I would recommend they try somewhere else.  FHL requires the gamer to be comfortable with long periods of grind and levelling up, while being able to deal with the party system and crown system from the very start.  If one attempts to try to defeat a boss (even early on) without a high level and without the correct equipment equipped in order to be able to counter the boss attacks, then it will not just be difficult, it will be entirely impossible.

Yet the difficulty is also one of the game's weak points.  Although a high difficulty is not necessarily a bad thing, considering its target audience, the difficulty is largely inconsistent.  I found the early parts of the game very tough, but then the middle sections a breeze that bordered on completely boring, only then to be faced with an almost impossible final dungeon.  I found that I was either being destroyed, or was waltzing through the dungeons like a demi-god - there seemed to be no comfortably challenging middle ground.

No More Ether...Almost!

Also, the game's aim at the hardcore Final Fantasy player seems inconsistent with the general design of the game.  The plot is so clichéd by Final Fantasy standards, the dungeons so generic, and the world so small that the game would only be able to impress those who had never experienced the franchise before; those of us who have will have seen it all before, and have seen it done better.  With the exception of the aforementioned crown system, and nice touches like the ability to "auto battle" and the replacement of MP points with regenerating Action Points, I struggled to see any real originality in this title whatsoever, which is a great shame.

Graphics are blotchy but pretty.

Additionally, although the game's length is solid for a handheld title, a lot of that time is spent revisiting old areas in the second half of the game.  There are a handful of villages/towns to go to, each with their own dungeon or cave, and the player will visit each of these once during the first half of the game.  Unfortunately, the second half simply involves revisiting those same areas, which quickly becomes tiresome.  Throw in a distinct lack of side quests and missions, and although FHL is by no means a short game, it lacks the immersive depth for which the franchise is known.

Final Fantasy: The Gospel of John Edition

From a Catholic perspective, FHL does everything right.  Although the appearance of a giant crystal early on that speaks to the party may worry Catholics that there is going to be some sort of weird new-age spirituality thrown at them, the plot is a classically Christian one of the struggle of good over evil.  Additionally, the game shows that the evil has been allowed into the world through cruelty, isolation and division.  The solution is the introduction of goodness through kindness, compassion, nobility, forgiveness and unity.  Although the picky amongst us might get a whiff of Pelagianism and maybe even Gnosticism from the title, there can be no doubt that the game promotes a tale of the triumph of virtue over evil.  When one is fighting bosses named "Satan" and "Lucifer", a Catholic gamer cannot moan too much!

Your four heroes of light.  Hmmm....

This is not to say that this positive moral message is not a little corny at times, but the sentiment is definitely in the right place.  Lines of dialogue such as "There is no beauty greater than life itself" and "...in their hearts lives a love, brave and true" sit in stark contrast to some of the macho marine stuff we gamers face on a day to day basis.

The plot is touching at times, and it is just a shame that the characters are so poorly formed.  I found it difficult to care too much about any of the main characters, and found them uninteresting.  This isn't helped by the game's blocky graphics.  Although the graphics are technically decent for a DS title, the character faces emote even less than those of Final Fantasy VII, and with a lack of cut scenes this makes it difficult to really get behind the characters, and consequently the plot as a whole.

FHL does certainly have its moments, such as turning into an animal in order to be able to converse with other animals in order to find out what is going on - the caped mouse who accompanied me through one particular dungeon was easily my favorite character of the game!  However, the few moments of inspiration don't conceal the fact that this is a solid, but rather uninspiring title.  FHL does nothing wrong, but yet does nothing to make it stand out as a title that one simply must buy.

Conclusion


From a technical perspective Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light is a title designed exclusively for hardcore fans of the series who simply cannot get enough Final Fantasy.  The game's difficulty makes it unsuitable for anyone who is not already well invested in the series, yet conversely those who are invested in the series will have seen all this done before.  If you are desperate to play a Final Fantasy or RPG title on your DS, then you cannot go too far wrong with FHL, but there are better titles on the market.

From a Catholic perspective, Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light impresses with its strong moral message about the triumph of good over evil, of hope over fear, and of light over darkness.  Although most of this message expresses itself in vague superlatives, there are a number of moments when the virtues of kindness, strength of character, friendship and forgiveness are expressed in meaningful and touching ways, and therefore collects a big thumbs up from a Catholic viewpoint.  Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light contains mild fantasy violence and a single reference to alcohol.  The death of a minor character in the middle of the game may distress very sensitive children.


The Technical rating for this title is 7/10

The Catholic rating for this title is A-I -- general patronage.