Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden

[Zargabaath]

Shortly after S-E approved FF IX to be released on the PSN - Japan so far - they said that they had another announcement later that week. Well, that announcement is that Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden (Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) will be released in the U.S at an undecided date as The 4 Heroes of Light.

Here is the article:The 4 Heroes Of Light Or Final Fantasy Gaiden Going International // Siliconera


I thought there was a thread for this title but after doing a bit of searching I came up with nothing.

[otomo]

Wow this looks like one of the most exciting things I've seen in a long time.

[vicks and wedge]

cool news to me!! i have been looking at this title on youtube and wondered if it would re-lease in the us!!! right up my alley

[Zargabaath]

In an article from VGchartz they went into more detail about the game. This game is where old-school meets new-school style and gameplay with there being no magic points. Spells are cast with the "Charge System". The longer the player waits the more the the player charges, and the stronger the spell the player can cast. The player can also save up "Charge Points" in one battle to save for another, allowing the player to fully charge up their characters before taking on a boss. This game uses a job system called, the "Crown System" that lets the player switch jobs and abilities just by putting on funny hats.


On a final note, the game is being directed by Takashi Tokita (lead designer of FF IV and director of Chrono Trigger)

[Treize]

This is awesome news! The game looks pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to its release. There haven't been many new video games lately that have caught my eye, but this looks like it will be pretty good.

[Jonathanx221]

That game looks amazing, and thank God I have a DS. I can't wait for that game, thanks for this! =]=]

[T.G. Oskar]

In an article from VGchartz they went into more detail about the game. This game is where old-school meets new-school style and gameplay with there being no magic points. Spells are cast with the "Charge System". The longer the player waits the more the the player charges, and the stronger the spell the player can cast. The player can also save up "Charge Points" in one battle to save for another, allowing the player to fully charge up their characters before taking on a boss. This game uses a job system called, the "Crown System" that lets the player switch jobs and abilities just by putting on funny hats.

I was giving a watchful eye at the game, but those two points make it a sell.

@Charge system: so they're using Focus as a mechanic, and making spells technically at-will? Certainly interesting.

@Crown/Job system: I've always liked job systems, specifically those where you can mix and match (or "multiclass", though appropriately it'd be main/sub classing). Even if it's not mix and match, it's still an interesting proposal.

Also, while there's no Paladins, I had a smile seeing that the Magic Swordsman makes a return from Final Fantasy V. They hadn't forgotten about the class, after all.

Though, I'm intrigued about Carouser/Player. Musician (the eponymous Bard) is there, along with the Dancer. Carouser seems to be also part of the idea of performance-based classes, apparently a blend of Bard (buffing) and Dancer (attack through performance).

[Zargabaath]

So I picked this game up a few days and have put some time into playing; I have not seen a time clock so I don't know for how long, but I'm still pretty early. So I'll give a short review of my time spent.

The menus are very intuitive being laid out nicely and easy to navigate. There is a 15 item limit on each character which does include equipment and spells for magick users. This shouldn't be too bad since I did play the Origins version of Final Fantasy II first - 32 item limit & Legend of the Dragoon which as a 32 or 36 item limit. This design makes it so the player must choose carefully which items he/she takes adding to the difficulty of what appears to be more challenging game.

The player can select "attack", "boost", "item", or any "abilities" the character has but for "attack", "item", and any "ability" the AI takes over which is very good so far and from what I've seen elsewhere online the reception is very positive about the AI. Heals are given to the character with the lowest HP at time of casting first from what I've gathered. Magick spells are naturally Rear attacks though can hit "front" row when there is no enemy in the "rear". This principle applies to any "rear" attacking weapon and "front" attacking weapon.
Sometimes, which I think some characters are boosted, they may combine in attack the enemy to dish out Uber damage!!

Music so far is good, especially battle music but music is very subjective so I'll leave it there. The composer is Naoshi Mizuata who did FFXI, SF: Alpha, & Parasite Eve II to name a few. The game switches between night and day and with that change the overworld music changes quite well. Another change in music is when a character gets in a critical health state the tune changes becoming more alerting.

Crowns can be upgraded through gems that are acquired through battle; each crown requires certain gems to upgrade. This is how the player gains new abilities from the crown. The crown upgrades are not universal, just like in Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy X-2 the upgrades are only for the character that upgraded his/her crown.

The one thing that I don't like about the game is the Magic Attack stat does not show on the character's bio. Some weapons offer magic attack, but I guess since they are using a type of "focus" for magicks, all characters have the same magick attack power. Though I would think that a Black Mage does more damage than a Wayfarer. Perhaps it is a hidden stat?

There is no quick-save feature, but the fella who does the saving for you appears, so far, pretty regularly. He has a fox that yips. I feel that Tokita & Yobuta (the directors) missed an opportunity to have the man who saves your game as comic relief, have him comment on the exploits of the heroes, the place he is currently at (like a scaaaaaaary dungeon), etc.

Oh, and T.G. Oskar there is a Paladin for your enjoyment. A list of all the crowns can be found here .

[otomo]

Great analysis Zarga. I picked this game up today because of your mini-review there, and am glad I did. I've only been through the first dungeon, and though it's simple so far, it's actually not terribly easy. The system's going to take a little bit to get used to.

I'm 2 1/2 dungeons from being done with Ring of Fates and this is distracting me lol.

[Gau]

Wow, looks like a pretty good game.