I have no idea how to approach this game. On the one hand, it's leaps and bounds better than any Final Fantasy game released in the last… five years? Which isn't something to scoff at. While there have been real duds like Final Fantasy XIII and The Crystal Bearers, for example, games like Echoes of Time have been quietly carrying the torch for the brand. Four Heroes of Light is a real throwback, feeling like a Super Nintendo game and playing like Final Fantasy III on the DS. The question, then, is whether its very strict adherence to formula ends up paying off, and the answer is… unclear.
This is a game I want to love so much. I absolutely adore the art style, first of all, which is intricately detailed and pastel, and does really neat things in creating the world of the game. I'm almost certain that this game is running off of the same engine as Dragon Quest IX, and while it doesn't look quite as good as that game, adhering as it does to a rigorous brown/blue/black/green/pink colour scheme, it's certainly one of the best looking games this year.
And when I said that Four Heroes of Light is probably the best game since, I don't know, Final Fantasy XII? I meant it. This game is an intentional throwback to "simpler" times. You play as Brandt (or whatever you want to call him), who for pretty arbitrary reasons, has to Save the World (TM) in a very straightfoward, old-school Final Fantasy sort of way. Along the way, you meet up with the other Heroes of Light: Jusqua, Aire and Yunita. They don't have as much personality as, say, the cast of Final Fantasy VI, but they get the job done, I suppose.
The reason why anyone plays an RPG, though, is for the story, and despite the fact that this is a game that's coming out in 2010, the storyline is overly simplistic and, perhaps even worse, the NPCs in the game only spout the most prosaic, "go here and do this thing" kind of dialogue. I don't want the pretentiously "deep" storytelling of something like Final Fantasy XIII, but this type of slapdash effort in the story department feels less like a throwback and more like laziness. None of the charm of Dragon Quest IX, and none of the epicness of the Final Fantasy series in its heyday leaves the story feeling like it's just there.
Part of the problem with the game stems, I think, from the developers' inability to decide whether to completely follow the old template, just giving it a new coat of paint, or to make significant changes in the formula. So rather than a true retro throwback or a new entry in the Final Fantasy series, we're getting this weird in between game that doesn't ever feel quite right. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the game's random battles.
Exploring dungeons and running into invisible enemies is the same as it's ever been. I'd steeled myself to the idea of random battles, as I've played so many old-school JRPGs in the last year that I've become quite accustomed to it. And at first, the battles went pleasingly fast (as with most DS RPGs). But Square Enix made a really bizarre move in an effort to "simplify" the experience: you can't choose who you want to attack. Seriously. The AI chooses it for you. As well, you never know who's going to attack next, meaning that you can't strategize at all. Sure, the AI is pretty good about knowing what you'd want to do, but every so often it gets it wrong, and you just want to kick your DS across the room when it does. This game's system is so simplified that it makes battling a chore, rather than a battle of wits, or at the very least, something that you can feel comfortable level-grinding with.
This "simplicity" is something that has been carried over to nearly every element of the game. While I appreciate not having to dig through tons of menus, there's no way that this is the first JRPG that someone has ever played. And if it is, it would make a really bad one, as the game leans on a ton of old-school JRPG conventions to push the game along.
One early example of this, and one that had me frustrated to no end, is a battle in the Quicksand Castle, where you have to battle a giant sand monster. You make your way all the way through, only to have the boss instantly kill you. Why? Because you haven't leveled up, for one, but also because you didn't get the Water Tome. Where can you get the Water Tome? At a store? Nope! It's hidden in the town's castle that you have to sneak into at night so as not to get caught by the guards. The only way you'd figure this out is, well, either by reading this review, or by asking literally every person in town what to do, which is what I resigned to doing. Sure, maybe you'll get lucky, but it's frustrating to have the way forward so obscured for no good reason.
Wait, I said this game was good at the start, didn't I? Well, it's really only because even though a lot of these conventions are old and somewhat baffling for modern gamers, I still feel as though they're intrinsically better than the complicated schemes that Squeenix have been cooking up lately. I don't think there's anything wrong with leaning on the good old-school RPG conventions for modern JRPGs, as those SNES JRPGs are still some of the most fantastic examples in the genre. A good JRPG should really be a story-delivery vehicle where the mechanics mostly stay out of the way, and Four Heroes of Light is better at that than most recent Final Fantasy games for sure.
Where the game pales in comparison is with its historic brethren, certainly; but also with games like Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IX, or Earthbound. Those are mighty games to live up to, sure, but the JRPG genre is so old and (some would say) so worn out that unless you're going to try to challenge the greats, there's no real reason to try at all. That's maybe an unfair request to make on what amounts to a pretty, quick and fun nostalgia throwback, but that disappointment can't help but creep in. At least we have the fantastic art style (one that I hope more developers will ape in the future) and the UNBELIVEABLE MUSIC.
That last paragraph would be where I would normally end a review, but Four Heroes of Light's music deserves one more paragraph. It's one of the best scores ever. It captures the chiptune-y essence of old school Final Fantasy games and makes it catchy, memorable, and amazing without being cloying or derivative. I loved every second of it, and just hearing that score made me want to play the game even more. It doesn't reach the heights of Uematsu's score for FFVII or Mitsuda's score for Chrono Trigger, but it's one of the best scores in years. If Super Mario Galaxy 2 hadn't come out this year, it would certainly be my favourite this year.