4 Heroes of Light is an imperfect game, but if you love old school JRPGs, you will likely enjoy it.
The game begins with a young fourteen year old, Brandt, awakening in his hometown of Horne. Since he is "finally a man", and there is a very serious threat from a witch in the north, the king sends Brandt out to investigate why a battalion of soldiers haven't come back. Soon, he runs into another young man, Jusqua, and finds Yunita and Aire at the mansion up north. When they beat the witch, they go back to Horne only to find that everyone has been turned to stone! From there, they all go their separate ways to look for a reason behind the curse. For the first half of the game, they all supposedly overcome their own respective character flaws, and, finally, join up to fight evil together.
The story sounds a lot like basic RPG stories, because, well… It is. The story is extremely basic, and the characters are about as deep as a dried up kiddie pool. Additionally, for the first half of the game, the characters will meet up and randomly ditch each other for seemingly arbitrary reasons, and the story is constantly shifting perspectives between these four. Also, you will typically get a guest character that will leave your party, taking all the items you may have given them.
While the story is fairly shallow and basic, there's a certain element of charm to it, despite its really fractured storytelling. You won't likely care that much for it, but it's still entertaining enough so that you won't terribly mind when there's a story scene. There are a few interesting twists throughout, mainly at the halfway point, but they are rather poorly explained and confusing. Despite this, it's a decently fun story that doesn't require too much thought.
The simplicity of the story is part of the game's roots in the old school, and the story book atmosphere. Another part of the game that definitely shows this is with the graphics. The character designs are all fairly simple, but adorably so. They all have basic black eyes and super deformed models, but it looks really good in a cute kind of way. The various towns you explore also look simple, but charming. Each one typically has a different motif or element that sets it apart from the others. For instance, one is located in a hot desert, where everyone wears robes to cover themselves from the sun's scorching rays. In another, everyone sports winter gear, because it's in a frigid arctic. Despite the fact that there isn't much to differentiate the towns, they all have a distinct feeling to them because of the different "themes" for each.
This also extends to the various Crowns that you acquire throughout the game. Each one changes the headgear of the character whose wearing it, and it's worth trying out each crown just to see what the characters look like in them. Even if you don't think the Scholar crown is worth using, you have to admit that the characters looking freaking adorable wearing a graduation cap.
On the sound side of things, there isn't really much to talk about. Now, the music isn't bad by any means. However, it's not special, either. While the overworld theme is rather catchy, most of the themes for the towns are really just back ground filler. Again, nice to listen to, but you won't be humming any of them as you play. The dungeon music is easily the most disappointing, since it's so "subtle" that it may as well not even be there. The battle music remains the same throughout, and it's not too bad, but, like the rest, it's very basic and not that special. The traditional boss music is, on the other hand, pretty cool, mixing heavy electric guitar with old school bleeps and boops. There isn't much to the music, and what's here is serviceable, but hardly memorable, aside from one or two tunes.
But how does the gameplay hold up? Since this is an old school RPG, this is the part of the game that really matters. And old school, it is. You explore dungeons that are all rather bare bones, battling through randomly generated battles to gain experience and level up. At the end is a powerful boss that you must beat using all the tools you have at your disposal. However, despite its old school roots, there are some modern enhancements. For instance, almost all of the status ailments in the game are only for the battle you're in… So if you get paralyzed in battle, beat it and bam it's cured. This isn't true for all of them, but it definitely helps keep frustration to a minimum. However, one of the most noticeably different qualities of the battle system is with Action Points.
Each character can have up to five Action Points at a time. Performing actions in battle cost a certain number (attacking costs one point, casting more powerful spells can cost three, for, or with a few super powerful ones, all five points, etc.) This makes the Boost (defend command) actually a part of the strategy in battle. If you need to save up points to cast a powerful spell, you'll have to boost in order to gain enough points. This is actually quite a neat feature, as it means you could theoretically last forever out in the wild with the right strategy.
One feature that some will view as annoying is the inventory system. Each character can only hold up to fifteen items. This includes the equipment your character wears, so, if you have a piece of armor on, a sword, a shield and an accessory, that's four spaces in your inventory that you can't use. On top of this, any spells you use take up a space since, rather than learning spells, you use them by having the spell books with you. For a magic using character, this makes it so they can't have very many support items with them like potions and the like. Many would find this quite bothersome, but I rather liked it. It forces you to carefully consider what items you'll need. Additionally, as long as you don't constantly load up on items (which you shouldn't need to if you sport a versatile White Mage) then you shouldn't ever need to drop anything in order to make room for an item in a chest. Rather than just rushing out into the wild, it requires you to plan, which I think is neat.
One feature that will turn many people off is the lack of post battle money. Battles never ever give you currency to spend on equipment… Instead, enemies will occasionally drop Gems. These are, surprisingly, the backbone of upgrades to your party. On one hand, you can sell the gems to shop keepers for a profit and purchase more supplies and equipment, or you can use to upgrade your current armor. Additionally, you can use it to upgrade the Crowns, which is where the meat of the gameplay lies. This offers a nice system of consideration, since you'll always have to choose how to use the Gems you've acquired.
What are Crowns? They are, essentially, this game's version of the Job system from the main Final Fantasy series. There are twenty something different Crowns to choose from, all with different Abilities. You see, each crown has four "levels." Sing gems, you can upgrade the Crown to the next level, which grants a new Ability. For instance, the famous White Mage job starts out with an ability that makes healing spells work on everyone. The next level powers up that move, making it so healing spells are more effective AND works on the entire party. The next level allows the mage to Hide, avoiding physical attacks. The final one is a move that requires all five AP to be spent, because it fully heals everyone and gets rid of status ailments for the entire party. Not only that, but each job has an innate ability. To continue using the White Mage as an example, its use of White Magic costs one AP less than with other classes, so a spell that would cost three for a Ranger will only cost two. This system is simple, but deceptively so, because there is real depth to it.
This is because, in the latter half of the game, enemies scale with you. In the first half, enemies are at a fixed level, much like in other RPGs, but they level with you after the fifty percent marker. This makes it so you can't just power level and hope to wipe the floor with everyone later in the game. It forces you to use strategy and plan out what character will take up what role. It's a joy to find a combination that works for you. Not only that, but there is no penalty for switching roles. So, in one random battle, one character might be a Fighter. In the next, they may be a Beastmaster, with absolutely no penalty. This allows for a total change in the dynamics of your team on the go, making this one hell of a fun to use job system.
My one beef with the system is how essential the Elementalist class is in the last half of the game. You see, this game is focused on the elemental affinity of the monsters you fight. So, go up against an ice dragon with everyone armed with basic Steel shields and just try to attack to win, you will be goners a few rounds in, regardless of how many healing spells you have. However, equip everyone with an Ice Shield and a fire element weapon and you'll be pretty well prepared. However, throw in the ability of the Elementalist that amplify your party's elemental effects and another that lessens the severity of the dragons ice attacks, and you will be virtually unstoppable. While the other three characters can more or less be what you want (the best idea is to have each party member cover another's weaknesses) the Elementalist is more or less a required class, which is a bit disappointing. Despite this, the Crown system is a deceptively deep way to play, and a hell of a lot of fun to mess around with.
The battle system is even furthered pulled into the spotlight when, near the end of the game, you gain access to four super dungeons. Each one is a tower of sorts that sports one hundred randomized floors to fight your way through. After every ten, you can leave and go, rest up, gather more supplies, etc. while still retaining all the progress you have made in said tower. This is a blessing, because I have only played through the first one and it is tough. The tower was rated with a difficulty level of one, while the others ascend from there, all the way up to four. The enemies in the towers are all ones you'll likely have encountered before in the game, but with enhanced stats so that they can easily wipe out an unprepared player. However, the rewards for completing these are great, because you gain access to some truly powerful new Crowns. These Towers are also replayable, making them ideal for grinding for Gems and the like.
There are some problems present in the game. In the first half, you only ever have maybe three people in your party, and it's not long before they leave. This can lead to frustration when a guest character leaves and takes all the good equipment you gave them. Additionally, the first half discourages experimentation, since you have a very limited number of characters, and guest ones have pre assigned roles. Additionally, in the second half, most of the dungeons and all of the towns are entirely recycled from the first half. Treasure chests you opened up remain opened, so it's always pretty much about making a bee line to the boss. The only major difference in towns is that they sell different items and that characters will say different things. This leads to some serious déjà vu, and is rather disappointing overall, even though the bosses you fight are all different.
However, the game focuses on its old school roots, and it focuses on what is, arguably, the most important thing in the game, and that's the battle system. Sure, the fact that you can't select targets might be annoying, but the game generally does a good job of auto picking. Sure, the dungeons are repetitive, but it's alleviated by the fact that there is a strong boss waiting at the end just ready for the slaughter. The story may be incredibly basic, but the charming graphics and adorable character designs make up for it. The 4 Heroes of Light is far from a perfect game, but the good undoubtedly outweighs the bad. If you are looking for a somewhat different, but still decidedly old school, RPG, 4 Heroes of Light is a good choice. It should take around thirty hours to beat, and you can always come back to it to try out different party combinations and take on the uber challenging bonus towers in a true test of RPG mettle. The deep crown system makes this a journey worth taking, even if you get a sense that you've seen most of this before. So long, and thanks for reading.