4 Heroes of Light is one of my all-time favourite games and for good reason. It was pure, honest fun.
Modern games seem to have gotten this weird idea where they need to have some kind of deep philosophical message, or make a harsh deconstruction on the tropes and narratives in games we've come to accept. To be honest, its kind of wearisome and draws away from the core concept of a game. To have fun and enjoy playing.
The story is your standard "bunch of teenagers go on a quest to save the world from darkness" kind of thing, but with a twist: they can't stand each other. After valiantly coming together and beating the first boss, the descend into bickering and split up. They then proceed to leave after their hometown gets cursed and journey around the world, exploring distant places in a series of interconnecting plots that somehow weave seamlessly together. While you explore the world and try to find solutions to your problems, you find out the world is actually a lot more miserable than you thought, giving you just a little feeling that something is up. Then you get to the epic climax at the floating city of Spelvia where the heroes finally meet up again, having gone through some really satisfying character development that finally brings the team together to face the Darkness.
And the a time crash happens.
Really though, the game is really satisfying. Seeing the party overcome hardships and keep holding on just feels so brilliantly satisfying. Visually, the game looks gorgeous for a DS game. Special props to the final boss fight, which you really have to see to believe.
One thing though. This game is hard. I cannot tell you how many times I've died. The boss fights in the second half of the game are INSANE (f*ck you Asmodeus!) and to date, Chaos holds the dubious honour of being the only boss I've never been able to defeat. Seriously, I've beat Ninja Gaiden 1, but I can't defeat Chaos.
A rare gem
4 Heroes of Light is one of my all-time favourite games and for good reason. It was pure, honest fun.
Modern games seem to have gotten this weird idea where they need to have some kind of deep philosophical message, or make a harsh deconstruction on the tropes and narratives in games we've come to accept. To be honest, its kind of wearisome and draws away from the core concept of a game. To have fun and enjoy playing.
And that's the main thing I love about this game. It doesn't pretend to be this epic masterpiece, it doesn't bog itself down in morals and themes and doesn't try to make you rethink how you game. It's pure turn-based fantasy RPG at its finest. In fact, you could almost claim it to be a cliché. But I think that's the point. It's got this cheeky attitude towards the whole save-the-world-from-evil concept and its quite charming.
The story is your standard "bunch of teenagers go on a quest to save the world from darkness" kind of thing, but with a twist: they can't stand each other. After valiantly coming together and beating the first boss, the descend into bickering and split up. They then proceed to leave after their hometown gets cursed and journey around the world, exploring distant places in a series of interconnecting plots that somehow weave seamlessly together. While you explore the world and try to find solutions to your problems, you find out the world is actually a lot more miserable than you thought, giving you just a little feeling that something is up. Then you get to the epic climax at the floating city of Spelvia where the heroes finally meet up again, having gone through some really satisfying character development that finally brings the team together to face the Darkness.
And the a time crash happens.
Really though, the game is really satisfying. Seeing the party overcome hardships and keep holding on just feels so brilliantly satisfying. Visually, the game looks gorgeous for a DS game. Special props to the final boss fight, which you really have to see to believe.
One thing though. This game is hard. I cannot tell you how many times I've died. The boss fights in the second half of the game are INSANE (f*ck you Asmodeus!) and to date, Chaos holds the dubious honour of being the only boss I've never been able to defeat. Seriously, I've beat Ninja Gaiden 1, but I can't defeat Chaos.