The Final Fantasy You Never Played (But Wish You Had) [4 Heroes of Light]

Let's Plays
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#1

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Disclaimer: The original title of this thread was a reference to this game being “the good Final Fantasy game released in 2010” as a jab at FFXIII and the 1.0 version of FFXIV, and, while I do still think this, I still kinda regret going with that particular angle in hindsight. I won’t be changing the rest of this post as I still stand by most of what’s in it, but I have changed the title and want this disclaimer here for clarity’s sake as this was still written in reference to the old thread title.

I don’t believe you. Stop lying, you liar. I’m outta here.
Wait, no, don’t leave! I understand that it’s hard to believe. Trust me, I know. 2010 wasn’t a very good year for the Final Fantasy series. That was the year we saw both Final Fantasy XIII, a game so directionless even its own creators admit they didn’t know what they wanted to do with it, and Final Fantasy XIV, an MMORPG pre-alpha that Square wanted to pretend was a retail-ready product. (Bearing in mind I’m going by North American release date for FFXIII and there was an actual good version of XIV released in 2013, of course.)

It’s all really unfortunate, too, because amid all the hubbub surrounding the aforementioned games almost everyone overlooked an unassuming little Nintendo DS game by the name of Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light which, as it turns out, is a sort of ray of hope for the series.

4 Heroes was made to be a throwback of sorts to the Final Fantasy games for the NES, mostly drawing inspiration from III. The game runs on the Job system (in the form of hats referred to as Crowns) and has a turn-based battle system where all characters’ actions are chosen at the start of a turn. While the graphical style is more modern, the soundtrack is a sort of blend of chiptunes and more modern sounds (it’s also pretty damn great but we’ll cross that bridge when we reach it). All in all, it’s a pretty neat retro throwback JRPG.

Huh. So it’s a really great game, then?
Well, I will admit I was exaggerating a little when I described it as a ray of hope. The game is far from devoid of problems (some of which are uncomfortably similar to FFXIII’s worst faults, we’ll get to that), and I will freely admit it’s not for everyone.

Still, “not for everyone” is still better than I’d give either of the other offerings the franchise put out at around the same time.

Hey, I’ve heard of this! Wasn’t Bravely Default made to be a spiritual successor to this game?
That’s right! Bravely Default was originally intended to be a sequel to this game and was changed to a spiritual successor later in development, and it very much shows. The visual style and monster designs of BD are taken pretty much directly from 4 Heroes, and in fact the Brave/Default system is an evolution of this game’s own combat system. You could call this game Bravely Zero or something similar and you wouldn’t really be too far off.

So… should I just play Bravely Default instead, then?
To be 100% honest? If you could only choose one game or the other, yes, Bravely Default would be the best choice; where 4 Heroes draws from NES JRPGs, BD draws from SNES ones, and that includes aspects that have aged better, which makes BD, all things considered, the better game.

That said, I would recommend trying both, if you’re interested. The two games don’t quite fill the same niche, being based on two different eras of game, and 4 Heroes even has a leg up on BD in a few ways I’ll get to as the LP goes on.

The LP Itself
First and foremost, this is my first ever LP, so apologies in advance for any LP faux pas I might make. That being said:

Completion
Just a warning that this will probably not be a 100% LP, a lot of the bonus material is just too much of a pain. (And some of it requires the use of the now-defunct online services anyway.)

Spoilers
Obviously, anything we haven’t seen yet should be spoilered, please nothing that calls for paragraphs and paragraphs of spoilered text, etc., all the common sense stuff. Just remember to tag spoilers for Bravely Default/Second as well, since comparisons are pretty much inevitable.

Update Schedule
I’ll try to get up at least one update a week. I don’t entirely know when each week, due to my own somewhat erratic life schedule, but I will be aiming for at least once a week.

Forum Participation
Participation will come mostly in the form of choosing jobs for the individual characters, as there’s all manner of different combinations that can be used. That said, there are also some points of nonlinearity later in the game that will be up to the thread as well.

Updates:
Update 1
Update 2
Update 3
Update 4
Update 5
Update 6
Update 7
Update 8
Update 9
Update 10
Update 11
Update 12
Update 13
Update 14
Update 15
Update 16
Update 17
Intermission
Update 18
Update 19
Update 20
Update 21
Update 22
Update 23

4 Likes
#2

Update #0: The Main Characters:
What’s a JRPG without its characters? Not much! All hailing from the kingdom of Horne, there are four main characters in 4 Heroes of Light, and while they aren’t exactly the deepest game characters in the world, they actually get a surprising bit of development for who are basically NES protagonists.

Brandt:

Remember Bartz from FFV? Well, Brandt is basically… Actually, let me rephrase this: Remember how Tiz from Bravely default was basically Bartz from FFV? Well, that’s because Tiz was actually basically Brandt from this game, making him basically Bartz from FFV by extension. Brandt is… well, a pretty typical JRPG idiot hero: none-too-bright country boy, thrust into a quest to save the world, will always do the right thing when he can, everything you expect from your JRPG Idiot Hero.
We called him Paul.

Jusqua:

Jusqua is… well, kind of a prick. He’s the brains of the group, but he’s also quite irritable and will happily ditch his companions if he sees fit. Will he grow to be less of a prick? Only time will tell.
We called him John.

Yunita:

Yunita is a knight of Horne, sworn to protect princess Aire (see below). However, she is very insecure and suffers from a severe lack of confidence, meaning that when crisis strikes her most likely response is to fall into panic and depression rather than rise to the occasion. Will her companions help her gain courage? We’ll see.
We called her Ringo.

Aire:

Aire is the princess of Horne. A spoiled girl, she has no knowledge of the world outside of the castle and is more concerned with her needs than the problems at hand. It is her abduction that kicks off the plot.
We called her George.

(There may or may not be other playable characters as well, but I’ll leave them redacted from this post for the time being.)

All four main characters can be named at the start of a new playthrough, and that’s where you, the thread, come in. I’d like everyone to post suggestions for what to call these four and I’ll choose the ones I like the most for the first gameplay post (some time this weekend). Make 'em good, because if I don’t get anything I like I’ll just be using the default names.

Names have been chosen!

2 Likes
#3

Let’s go with the classics to keep the theme.

Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach for Brandt, Jusqua, Yunita and Aire respectively!

1 Like
#4

No opinions on names.

I’ve tried playing this but got stuck on a boss early on and gave up. The battle system is certainly interesting, though not sure in a good or bad way.

Anyway, looking forward to a proper SSLP of this game and to see what all I’ve missed.

#5

Oh man. I remember this game. Always meant to go back to it, but I heard horror stories about the endgame and decided to pass. It has some big problems, but I enjoyed most of the game, so I’ll be looking forward to the rest.

I have no opinion on names though.

#6

I’ve never even heard of this game before, looking forward to it!
Make the entire team healers, and name everyone after a character from Dora the Explora.

I can only assume that it being called, “4 Heroes of Light” that this will take place in the world of
Final Fantasy 1. That’s my guess.

#7

Hey, I’ve been waiting awhile for a quality LP of this! It’s one of my favorite DS games, mostly because it has a bunch of neat ideas and is the prequel-of-sorts to my favorite game, Bravely Default. The combat is pretty goofy, and I hate that you can’t target, but I love the way the classes and skills work. Here’s hoping for a great LP, and I’ll definitely be following this thread!

#8

I heard about this game only a couple of months ago and I’ve been pretty curious about it since. Especially since Bravely Second was a major disappointment for me. I’ll definitely be following this thread.

As for names, the first thing that came to mind was John, Paul, Ringo, and George. I don’t care about which character is named what.

#9

Actually, you know what? Yeah. lets go with The Beatles I don’t care much, except Ringo has to go to the Yunita

#10

This game! I remember always wanting this game but not being able to buy it because of lack of funds. At least I played Bravely Default later, so it’s fine.

I say go with Default names, cause I’m a stickler for things like that and can’t come up with anything good or funny.

#11

Yeah, this game rules. Made it all the way to the final dungeon, but I had to stop because I made a critical mistake regarding the game’s mechanics. Still, the music is lovely. I disagree that Bravely Default is the better choice, though. I devoured this game whereas BD bored me.

E: as an alternative to the Beatles naming scheme I propose Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham.

#12

I remember trying to play this a few times and not really liking it. Hopefully you can show me what I missed.

For names, I think Ernie, Bert, Betty and Veronica would fit.

1 Like
#13

Never got very far into this one. It seemed like a good game, but the difficulty got really weird for me and I got to a part where I needed to do some grinding against a boss. Definitely excited to see what is in store.

I am one of those boring people that always go for default names though, so I can’t offer anything fun here.

#14

Extremely good suggestions, everyone!
These are my favorites thus far:

I’ll be taking screenshots for update 1 tomorrow, so I suppose this is your 24-hour notice for name suggestions. (FWIW, I’m currently leaning toward Beatles since it’s slightly more popular than my other choices, but there’s still 24 hours for something better to come up so that’s hardly set in stone.)

#15

I like this a lot better than my original idea of naming the characters after The Beatles.

That being said, I’m here for the game, so ultimately it doesn’t matter much to me what the names end up being. I do like the idea of one of the ladies being named George, though.

#16

Update #1: (Just Like) Starting Over

Click for update 1!

Just a heads-up, this update is going to be considerably longer than the rest while I get tutorializing out of the way (the next might be the same way).
Anywho, we begin with…

…some logos. Matrix Software also made the DS remakes of FFIII and FFIV, for the curious.


One light becomes four…
(Insert obligatory Picard reference here)


The four lights unite…

…and give us a title screen!
:radio:YouTube link: Main Theme


If you say so, game. I always found this kind of odd considering the other DS FF games didn’t have this problem, but for all I know about DS architecture this could have been a perfectly sensible decision.

First things first, though, is naming our characters:

Hello, hello!


???: … …
???: Paul?

Paul, regrettably, does not have the luxury of a Millennial Fair to go to. The references to classic Square RPGs come early and they come often.

You know what? No. It’s the weekend and I can sleep in if I want.

What we see if we choose “Okay” instead:

This is all your choice changes there; all of a single text box. It will not be the first time.

:woman:: You have to go to the castle and pay your respects to the king!
That sounds like a raw deal for the king. Is he obligated to see every subject when they come of age or what?

:radio:YouTube Link: Horne: Daytime
And here is where we first gain control. If you’ve ever played a JRPG (which I’m assuming you have) the only thing that’s not self-explanatory here is the AP bar on the top screen, which I’ll get to when we first hit combat.
(Also, I forgot to take a screenshot of me pulling up the main menu; just imagine it letting me choose a character in the party and look at either their inventory or abilities.)

A look at the inventory screen. Every character has their own inventory 15 slots to play with, a la Final Fantasy I. It sounds more annoying than it actually is, but it can still be troublesome.
Looking at Paul’s inventory here, we can see that a. all he has is the clothes on his back and b. said clothes still take up a spot despite being equipped. Again, it sounds more annoying than it is but can still be troublesome.

The ability screen, on the other hand, gives us a whole lot of nothing. It’s honestly kind of strange they let you access it at this point but whatever, it’ll be important soon enough.

:woman:: You have to go to the castle and pay your respects to the king!
:woman:: Take the path straight through the back of the town to the castle. And no dilly-dallying on the way.
Obviously, there’s only one course of action: dilly-dally as much as humanly possible.

Starting with our pet bird. He even knows Paul’s name! Man, what a cool bird.

Our first steps outdoors! Something this game does that doesn’t really fit the pseudo-retro aesthetic: the scenery, at least in towns, is absolutely gorgeous. This is easily one of the best-looking games on the DS, at least in my opinion. The crops in the field even have little waves in them as if they were blowing in the wind!
Our effort to put off our responsibilities for as long as we can continues with some NPC chatter:


Magic is illegal, eh? And the castle might have some anyway, eh? Ah well, it’s probably nothing?
Inside the house on the right:

…is a tutorial!
And on the left:

We find our first hidden item! Yes, this game does the thing where you can check the scenery and find invisible items. There are a lot of them, and I probably won’t come close to finding all of them, but they’re always nice to get your hands on. (Especially our Dragon Wing here.)

And another tutorial!
(I won’t be showing every minor NPC dialog in the game, by the way, just here.)

:construction_worker:: At some point, you will want to save your game. Come talk to me when you do.
:construction_worker:: Hm. How about now? Do you want to save your game?

In front of the item shop, we meet our save point, who you might recognize if you’ve played either of the Bravely games. They wouldn’t pick up their item selling capabilities until BD, just a save point here.

If we choose not to continue our game after saving, we are treated to this screen:

:radio:YouTube link: Adventurous Friends
…which we see again upon loading a save game. Not really important, I just thought it was neat.
Going into the item shop:

Gem drops are what this game does in place of encounters just giving money. Gems have uses other than as vendor trash, but we’ll get into that later.


Shopkeep has all the options you expect from a typical JRPG shopkeep.

He sells potions, torches, dragon wings, steel swords, Horne’s Bow, and wood shields. Just the basics; unfortunately, we have no money to spend at the moment.

We’ll see the day and night cycle in action later. There will be points where it’ll need to be nighttime to do some things and, like this guy says, random encounters get somewhat tougher but it honestly doesn’t affect that much.

Inside the inn:

:man:: It’ll cost you 10 gil a night. Sound good?
As the previous NPC tutorialized, the inn fills HP, like you’d expect, but it also fills your entire party’s AP bars. (As before, more on AP when we first hit combat.) Since we have no money, and Paul’s house offers a free rest anyway, we politely decline the offer for now.
:man:: Come back anytime!
Making our way north:

Good thing we already found one for free!

A giant bull monster, you say? Well, I’m sure this won’t be important


Inside the building with the treasure chest on the sign:


The storage shop is… well, it’s a godsend, quite frankly, what with our limited inventory. In addition to the options seen here, when we buy items at a shop we have the option of having them sent to storage instead of a party member’s inventory.

East of the storage shop:

This is alluding to a mechanic we’ll be encountering a bit later.
In the house on the left:

A reference to the gems being useful as more than vendor trash. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

And on the right:

Doubtful!

John, y’say?
:man:: Young Paul, if you’re going to go adventuring, as I suspect you will, this little bottle could be a life saver…
He gives us a potion.
Inside the building with the wi-fi bars:


Needless to say, this… isn’t really doable anymore. You used to be able to fight monsters with other players and get points that can be exchanged for prizes, but Nintendo has since put the kibosh on that.
Moving further north:

Third, stroke the left flank.
Last, tug the tail…
That’s the way to handle sheep!

Interacting with the sheep like this doesn’t do anything, for the record.


Awful big padlock for a windmill, don’t you think?

Finally making our way to the castle. Remember what I said about this game having pretty swanky scenery?


Where does he find the time to even govern if he has to do this for absolutely every citizen ever? Regardless, we make our way into the castle.
:radio:YouTube Link: Royal Palace Melody

Again, I’ll explain this when we see our first battle.
(There’s another soldier I forgot to get a shot of, he mentions something to the effect of the new recruits not really being ready for action.)

At the north end of the room there are no less than three doors with which to continue disobeying our mother’s request to not dawdle. Starting from the left:

Why, I believe this is our first treasure chest! It’s not a particularly interesting one, but what are you gonna do?

…no comment.

Anyway, middle room!

…well obviously this treasure chest is wanted in across three different kingdoms. It’s doing 25 to life. Don’t get to close, it’ll shiv you without a second thought!

Oooh, that’s where the treasure chests on death row must be kept.

Alright, time for the last room on this floor.

That… doesn’t bode well at all.

(I missed my shot of the other chest, it’s another potion)

I suppose we can only put things off for so long.

…except for the fact that there are four other doors off to the side of this room.



:woman:: …Oh, it’s you, Paul. Gracious, you nearly gave me a heart attack.






(She just has the same lines as the other lady.)
No treasure, though, just information. Apparently, the queen is dead and the princess is named George! Hell of a name for a princess!




This sounds like a perfect thing for a random guy from town to take care of!
And, with that, we’ve completely exhausted all forms of dilly-dally available to us. Time to get to business.

:crown:: Ah, is that you, Paul? Good, good, I’m glad you’re here. The Witch of the North has carried my George away!
:crown:: Paul, will you please help your old king?
:crown:: Go to the Witch’s Mansion in the north and see what’s happening. I sent my soldiers, but none have returned.
I mean, the soldier downstairs stated they weren’t ready to see any action yet, I’m not sure what you were expecting.

Again, perfect job for some random kid from town!
If you say no:

Wow, this is so smart of Paul it’s almost out of character.
:crown:: Hmph. Very well. Do as you please.
And the conversation just ends there; if we talk to him again it starts over as if it never even happened. Let’s agree to the job instead:

Again, but thou must.
:crown:: Splendid! I knew I could count on you. Here, this might come in handy…
And he gives us a steel sword.

These caves are surely unrelated to the one the guy in town mentioned that apparently had a bull monster in it. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence they have the same name!

Gear is equipped to characters from their inventory and, as mentioned, continue to take inventory space when equipped.
Not much changes around town after seeing the king, but there are a few things:

A potion from the windmill guy.

A citizen brazenly encouraging us to break the law.

Another citizen just straight-up lying to us. Speaking of which, we should probably let Paul’s ma know what her kid’s off to do.

:woman:: Here. Take this ring with you. It used to belong to your father.
She gives us the Inherited Ring which raises HP by 10.

Paul’s bed is a free rest, which I take the opportunity to use to fill up my AP bar.

:radio:YouTube Link: Walking the Ground
:radio:YouTube Link: Walking the Ground (night)
:radio:YouTube Link: Horne (night)
And we have the world map! The day-night cycle kicks in here (Ocarina of Time style), as well as random encounters. Speaking of:

:radio:YouTube Link: Battle With Demons
(You might recognize this song from Bravely Default, it shows up when you fight nemeses in Norende.)
Our first battle! It’s… a guy with a pumpkin for a head. Hoo… ray?
The orange orbs represent action points, or AP. Actions, as seen above, have their AP cost shown in the upper left corners of their respective buttons. Technically, all actions except boost have some sort of AP cost; however, under normal circumstances all party members have a single AP restored to them at the start of each turn, meaning all AP costs are effectively one less than the game tells you. This means that attack and item, as shown, are basically free.
Boost is essentially your typical JRPG defend command; it has no AP cost so you end the turn with 1 more than you started and is the primary way to get more.
Additionally, AP totals are retained after battle and are fully charged upon resting at an inn.


:radio:YouTube Link: Victory
Paul makes short work of ol’ Jack Lantern.

:radio:YouTube Link: Crisis by a Hair
This is just me pointing out that there’s different music when you have party members at low hp. :V

Our first item drop; it’s a potion. You get to select which party member gets which item when it happens or just have the game do it automatically.


Here we get both our first level up and our first gem drop. As the practical use for gems has not yet been unlocked, I sell this one for some extra cash.

Anyway, off to the northern cave; we have ourselves a witch to kill!

:radio:YouTube Link: Cave of Wraiths
…and it’s pitch black and nigh-impossible to see anything. Luckily, I came prepared.


No problem. Torches aren’t really all that necessary, all things considered, and they take up inventory space, but I figured I’d show them off the first few times.


The world’s most useless guards!
There really isn’t much to the cave, it’s largely a linear path with some short branches containing treasure chests.




Our first fight with multiple opponents. I bring this up because this is where we see one of the game’s more annoying elements: the auto-target. Instead of being able to choose which enemy you attack, it’s all done automatically, and often stupidly. While it’s another thing that sounds worse than it actually is, it can get obnoxious when trying to, say, hit an elemental weakness of one enemy while the auto-target keeps going for another.


Anyway, making our way downstairs…

We see… a thing!
: Woah!

: I guess I’m going to have to help you out. I’ll just boost my AP and conjure up some spells!
John has access to some established-to-be-illegal magic, eh? I’m sure it’s not important.

:radio:YouTube Link: Strong Enemy
Oh, no! It seems the cave with the bull monster and the cave to the witch’s place… were the same cave!
The party starts this fight psyched up. Psych up increases attack power by 50% for a single turn, and if you get it on more than one member at once and they use the same action they perform a linked attack.

I don’t actually do the linked attack here, of course, instead having John boost for a turn.
You’ll notice he comes with two magic spells. You’ll also notice that these spells don’t appear to have an MP cost. That’s because they don’t! MP isn’t a thing in this game, it’s all AP.

Luckily, it seems our new party member comes equipped with the exact thing the boss is weak to. Somehow being lit on fire breaks off one of its horns. Man, I don’t know.

:radio:YouTube Link: A Desperate Situation
Depleting enough of the minotaur’s HP breaks off both its horns and it very literally turns red, as well as giving us a new musical theme. (I couldn’t get a screenshot of it but it starts using an attack that hits both party members at this point.)

But wait, John came equipped with a second magic spell!
…I don’t really have much to say about it, it’s just cure. Here is what Cure looks like in this game!

And soon enough, we have a win.
(Paul got a level and we got some rare gems out of the deal, I forgot to get a shot.)

I mean, if the soldiers never came back, you ain’t wrong about that.
Selecting “okay” gives is this gem:

…and Paul is suddenly an enormous wuss.
: Smart move. Now go straight home and stay out of trouble!
If we talk to John again the conversation just repeats as if it had never happened. If we say no:

John: * shrug * Okay. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

We get a little fanfare and a new party member!

John comes with a sword, shield, some clothes, and the magic books he used in the boss fight (the potions were supplied by me). Pretty well-equipped, all things considered.

Of course, the dungeon isn’t over yet, but this half is mostly the same as the first.

A cute little touch, your party members follow you around.

(this was a phoenix down)

A new weapon!

This is one better attack than the steel sword Paul was using but is slightly less accurate. Paul can keep it for the moment.

And we get a save point, right before the exit to the cave. Let’s save our game and…

We’re off to see the witch!

4 Likes
#17

Update #2: (Still Just Like) Starting Over

Click for update 2!

Note: Updates won’t be going up in as rapid succession as this, at least on a regular basis; I just wanted to get to a point where we’ve met all four party members and have at least dipped our toe into the job system. Hell, I was almost going to number this 1.5 before it turned out as long as it did. :V


Alrighty then, it’s witch time!

:radio:YouTube Link: The Witch’s Mansion
…and we’re off to one hell of a start.

:guardsman:: Cast s-spells… boost your AP… and use the Menu to recover your h-h-health…

You know, for a nation that outlawed magic they sure are blasé about using it for themselves. Oh well, I’m sure it’s no big deal.
:guardsman:: We knew the danger… Auto Mode is just s-sp easy… Press the X button, and that’s it…
:guardsman:: …Don’t make the same mistake we did. Just remember, touch controls w-won’t work when you’re in Auto Mode…


Ignoring that I never actually knew this was a thing until just now, Auto Mode… well, it’s like the guy says; press the x button, select commands for each character, and they do those commands every turn until you press x again to turn Auto Mode off. It’s handy for easier random encounters, at the very least.

Anyway, it looks like we can head either left or straight ahead…

…but straight ahead is just a locked door. Leftward it is!


We find ourselves in a room with a big ol’ chasm running through the middle. Heading off to the right:

: Reinforcements from Horne, reporting for duty!
:guardsman:: Er, great… but you’re too late… My while unit… wiped out… * sob *
:guardsman:: No one’s left… except… Lady George’s companion Ringo. She might still be alive.
: Sounds bad. We better do something, fast!
: Easy does it. I’m sure they’re still okay. Let’s look for the witch. We find her, we find our hostages…

Through the door to the right…

…a bunch of spooky windows…

…and another cure tome for Paul! Speaking of which:

Paul will need to equip Cure as an ability before he can actually use it. Just select the button in the main menu…


…and equip it as a command.

:guardsman:: Then you can use it any time you need it- as long as you have AP, that is.
I’m only really showing this because I find it amusing how they tutorialize as they lay on the ground dying. :V


The next room is pretty stark beyond the stairs to the next floor…



…while this is just a hallway with a Phoenix Down in.

Going downstairs brings us to the opposite side of the chasm in the second room.

We find a rather conspicuous and suspicious-looking candle, which we light, being at an impasse otherwise.

Fortunately, despite being located in the abode of an apparently malevolent witch, lighting the candle merely provides us with progress.
Unfortunately, we also have to make our way back to the other door manually.

But not before going through this one, which I missed the first time through like an idiot. :V

This brings us to the platform in the entrance room whose stairway was blocked off, netting us a potion…


…and a fight!

Of course, the mimic was only marginally stronger than the random monsters in the mansion and was easily dispatched, scoring us some sweet gear.

Seeking to make John look like less of a douchebag, I equip the armor on him.

Oh, did I never mention equipping armor actually changes your characters’ appearance? It does, which is a neat touch that I’m still kind of bitter they never carried over to Bravely Default.

Getting back on track, we see one of the soldiers being accosted!

…by the same weaksauce bullshit we’ve been running into the entire mansion.


Ringo gives us the most “But Thou Must” choice yet:

: …But wait! You can’t go on alone. You almost died just now.
: I’ts MY fault the princess was kidnapped. It wouldn’t be fair to allow anyone else to get involved.
: We’re already involved. The king sent us when you were late coming back.
: Oh. I’m sorry.
: Look, let’s team up and find the princess together, okay?
: Really? You would do that for me?
If we select “Wait!”, it just skips Paul’s “see ya” line and literally nothing else.

On the plus side, we get our third party member!

She comes with exactly what John came with… including the same magic tomes! What was even the point of outlawing them if they’re just going to be floating around like this, anyway? Ah well, it’s probably nothing to be concerned about.

I provide her with some of our extra restoratives… and, seeing as she’s the actual trained soldier of the group, the armor from earlier.

Anyway, with our little side adventures out of the way, back to the matter at hand.






The rest of the trek is pretty uneventful…

…until we pick this up from a lizardman!

Again, I decide to give it to the actual soldier of the group. It’s +1 attack better than the sword she was using and is wind-elemental!

How our save point friend made it here before we even lit the candle is beyond me but I ain’t complaining.
We enter the next room…

…and find our princess!


…is it too late to leave her here and tell the king she died before we got here?
: Look at the state I’m in! My dress is all dirty, I’m dying of thirst… Where HAVE you been?
: I’m sorry, my Lady! I’m so sorry!

This changes all of a single line.
If we answer “yes”:

And “no:”

But thou must!
: Wh-why, the impudence…!
: Shush, now. You’re upset, and it’s all my fault, Lady George. I take full responsibility.
: As well you should! I’ve had a TERRIBLE day, let me tell you, and I think I’m ready to go home now.

Oh well, at least it’s another body to throw at our enemies.

With that, we have our full party!

The princess comes with a sweet weapon and her own cure tome.
Even the princess has no fucks to give about the laws against magic, goddamn!

I take the liberty of providing her some spare curatives.

Anyway, that’s that. Time to-

…figures.

It was kind of suspicious that we’d spent all this time in the witch’s place without seeing the actual witch, I suppose.
:jack_o_lantern:: I cannot allow you to leave. The princess belongs to me.
: I beg your pardon!?
:jack_o_lantern:: So states the contract, little princess. And we witches do not enter into contracts lightly.



Welp.

For some reason, turning into a monster also changes Louhi’s name to Greaps.

Seeing as we have four party members and start all boss fights with Psych Up status, I take the opportunity to show off the link attack mechanic.
John and Ringo combine their fire spell (exploiting the boss’s weakness while they’re at it)…

…while Paul and George do a combined physical attack.

Greaps is also resistant to wind, so the fancy sword we found for Ringo isn’t going to do her any good; then again, she was better off exploiting that fire weakness anyway.


After awhile, Greaps flies into the air.


This reduces the effectiveness of physical attacks…

…but is no problem for magic. Luckily, the entire party is equipped with cure tomes, so Paul and George were still able to pull their weight while the boss was in the air.

While in flight Greaps is able to hit the entire party with this. It doesn’t hit for much so it’s not really a big deal.


Greaps goes down soon enough.

: Well done, Ringo!
: Lady George, are you unharmed!
: C’mon. Let’s get out of here.

Suddenly, a flash of light!

And… a crystal?


The nature of the crystal is never quite explained; it doesn’t seem to correspond to any element and it’s ambiguous how many there even are, if there’s even more than one.

:radio:YouTube Link: Main Theme
…and right into the opening credits.


(You get the idea; we don’t need to see the entire credits right now.)




:radio:YouTube Link: Guidance of the Crystal
: Er, yes. At least, I think I do…

:mount_fuji:: As the Dark flows from the hidden world within, our would-be savior stands helpless, bereft of power.
:mount_fuji:: O, children of hope!
:mount_fuji:: To thee I grant this gift of Light, upon thy head a crown of might.

And here we have our first job!

:mount_fuji:: With hearts indimitable, heroes stand tall and strong.
:mount_fuji:: Enter the magic circle now, and to safety you shall fly.
:mount_fuji:: Go forth, Heroes of Light, and seek your adventure!

Something the game does on occasion is give you the opportunity to speak to your party members:
: What good is a crown? Well, if you wear it (use the Menu), you’ll be granted new abilities.
Yeah, because it’s the job system. I’ll go over this in a bit.
: Why did the witch take Lady George? Who would agree to a contract with such a person?
A legitimate question! We should probably ask about it at the castle when we get the chance!
: If you want, you can make me the main character that you control.
: Press the X Button to open the Menu. Press the A Button, and then left or right to change characters.
This actually a pretty solid time to do just that, actually, since it gives us a chance to speak to Paul. (I forget to get a screen of it, just imagine me switching my party leader to John then talking to Paul; you can see me do it in the first screen of this post but I end up reloading and leaving Paul in front so I don’t bother to talk about it then.)
: A crown? Does this mean I’ll become even more super powerful?
…ever the conversationalist, Paul.

Anyway, we now have our first crown! All we have to do is go into the crown menu…


…equip our abilities…

…and we’re good!
Normally I’ll be asking the thread about what we should do with new crowns when we get them, but here I take the opportunity to equip everyone with Wayfarer because it is categorically better to have any crown over Freelancer since the crown you have equipped applies multipliers to the stats you’d have as a Freelancer. Additionally, any crown can use any piece of equipment or magic; however, certain crowns are obviously better suited for some things than others. This makes Wayfarer basically Freelancer 2.0, as it has well-balanced growths and equipment.
Speaking of, I’ll be talking briefly about each crown at the bottom of each update they’re introduced in, so that’s where to look if you want that particular bit of information.


Crowns can also be enhanced with gems, but it requires… well, the correct gems, which we currently do not have, so I’ll be talking about that at a more opportune moment.

Anyway, I think I’ve had about enough of the witch’s place.

We should probably tell someone about that contract the witch mentioned!

New Crowns:

Click for new crowns!

Freelancer

(I know it’s not new but it’s the first time we’ve had options so…)

Stat Multipliers:
HP: 1.0
Strength: 1.0
Intellect: 1.0
Spirit: 1.0

Literally the only thing Freelancer has going for it is negation of the penalty for a party wipe, and most of the time you’re better off reloading a save after that happens anyway, meaning Freelancer is pretty much immediately useless upon unlocking your first crown.

Wayfarer

Stat Multipliers:
HP: 1.0
Strength: 1.2
Intellect: 1.2
Spirit: 1.2

Wayfarer is slightly better than Freelancer at everything except recovery magic, hence why I called it Freelancer 2.0. It also boosts the effects of healing items and, most notably, is the only crown with the ability to escape from battle.

3 Likes
#18

I forgot how slowly they give you jobs in this game. They probably don’t have armor show up on your characters in Bravely Default because jobs are just hats in this game while in BD it’s a full on costume change.

#19

This game is very pretty for its resolution, and like many DS games, is actually still super pretty at higher ones:

Images



More at source

This game, I think holds up way better than III and IV for the DS. Which is a shame because those two got PC ports and The 4 Heroes of Light didn’t.

#20

Yeah, I understand why they did what they did and that it was probably the better choice anyway. I never said my bitterness was rational. :v

Oh yeah, 4 Heroes is one of the prettiest games for the DS. I’d love to show it off at a higher resolution myself but that would probably make my computer chug. :confused:
And I’d love a Steam version of this, it’d be an excellent way for more people to experience this game considering it flew under most people’s radar the first time (that’s the main reason I’m doing this LP in the first place, after all) while its own spiritual successors are getting all the acclaim, something I personally think is kind of unfair. A Steam version would also make this LP significantly easier on me, heh.