Let's play Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light! (Done, yay!)

DISCLAIMER: Imageshack has some issues with the RPGCodex, and so hotlinking isn't working now. That's why, in some of this LP's updates, images may not be visible. Hopefully the issue will be resolved eventually, but for now there's a solution for those using Firefox or Opera.

SOLUTION FOR FIREFOX (kudos to Antihero):
1. Type about:config in the address bar.
2. In the "filter" line, type "referer".
3. Set the value to 1 and reload.
4. If that doesn't work, set the value to 0.
5. Set it back to 2 later if you want.

SOLUTION FOR OPERA (kudos to Merkwürdigliebe):
Menu -> Settings -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Uncheck the "Send referrer information" box -> Profit!!

Hope that helps. I hope to reupload all the images to the Codex gallery eventually, but that's a lot of work, so it won't happen soon.

A Blind LP of Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light (2010) for Nintendo DS

ENDORSEMENTS!

Andyman Messiah said:

I'm Andyman Messiah, and this is my favorite LP on the Codex.

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Azira said:

I do follow this LP. Didn't really want to at first, as the final fantasy series haven't ever caught my interest, but I found myself intrigued despite that.

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Black Cat said:

Uhm, cool LP and cool game, at least when you are not turning me into a local meme, but even those times are somewhat cute and funny. I'll keep following it, if you don't mind.

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Cenobyte said:

Never thought a SquareEnix game would be that interesting.

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Clockwork Knight said:

I, Clockwork Knight, am also fololwing this LP. So, uh, you should feel honored and shit.

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GarfunkeL said:

At first I dismissed this LP but on a second look, I actually read through of it. Good work, Bee. ... Surprisingly fun looking game.

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ghostdog said:

Thanks for your efforts CB, that was an excellent LP.

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Jasede said:

I am playing this game right now, intrigued by its difficulty. It's almost brutal, compared to newer games like this. ... It's amazingly difficult for this type of game.

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KalosKagathos said:

This already looks better than the entire Holy Trinity put together.

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Krash said:

This actually looks like a p. fun game.

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Kz3r0 said:

Great LP by the way.

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lightbane said:

This game seems to be more complex than I thought... I find it strange to find a "recent" Final Fantasy game that actually requires to use your brain a bit.

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lightbane said:

Well done Bee! Truly an incredible game (and lp), I'm still surprised that Enix-square made this game.

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Mrowak said:

This LP shall be forever remembered as one of the Codex's finest. :greenwithenvy:

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Lord Rocket said:

My favourite thing about this LP is the way no-one seems to give a shit about the fact there's a challenging, party- and turn based RPG out there that they haven't played. But then it's wap and on a handheld so it must be consoletarded right? Right?...
...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8K87H3T1UU

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Rod Rodderson said:

I've been reading through this for the past few days (on a whim at first, and just in time for the conclusion, it seems), and I must say that it was not a waste of time. The game might actually be worth playing at some point in the future, after I forget most of it. Nice work on this.

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spekkio said:

I am really surprised that Enix-Square still can into good games...

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spekkio said:

Jesus, Enix-Square creating a good game in 2010 is something like Bioware making a proper sequel to Boulders Gate in 2015...

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Vendince said:

Really fascinating LP, got me to dig out my own copy of the game just to see how I'd do. (Not to mention register just to comment on how much I like this LP)

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Mrowak said:

:Delurk mode on: :Delurk mode off:

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TABLE OF CONTENTS!

ACT I: MAKING THINGS WORSE
Part 0. A Sundry Lot, or, Character creation: see this post below.
Part 1. Maturity Ahoy! or, Sweet Mother Death
Part 1: A Retrospective (with pics, yay!)
Part 2. Of Kidnapped Pretty Princesses, or, How (Not) to Take Care of Sheep
Part 3. Minotaur on Fire, or, O BROther, Where Art Thou?
Part 4. Of BROs and Blood Bats, or, A Bit of Tactics Wouldn�t Hurt
Part 5. Burn the Witch! Or, Meeting SMA and Volly
Part 6. What gain with Odysseus, or, A curse of stone
Part 7. Enter Sandman
Part 8. Tower Crawlers
Part 9. A Curse of Sand, or, As Luck Would Have it
Part 10. Of Puzzles, Quicksands, and Secret Dungeons
Part 11. Of Long-Dead Lovers and White Cats
Part 12. Of Pirates and Pretty Princesses, or, Too Young to Die
Part 12, Continued. As Good as Dead
Part 13. Ahoy, Mateys! Or, I'm Gonna Kill You, Cap'n Drake!
Part 14. The Greedy Princess, or, A Fairy Assumes Control
Part 15. The History and Adventures of a Cat
Part 15, Continued. White Cat Blues
Part 16. Black and White
Part 17. In Which the Mystery Remains Unsolved
Part 18. The Devil is a Puppeteer
Part 19. In for a Pound
Part 20. ITZ!! or, Of Cats, Gold, and Demonic Puppets
Part 21. Animal Farm
Part 22. You Will Believe a Demon Can Fly
Part 23. Thin Ice
Part 24. Wild Cat Chase
Part 25. Imma Pokemon!
Part 26. Dragon Age: Skyrim
Part 27: Up!
Part 28: Reunion! or, A Hero That Failed

ACT II: MAKING THINGS BETTER
Part 29: Belphegor: Sloth
Part 30: Asmodeus: Lust
Part 31: Mammon: Greed
Part 32: Leviathan: Envy
Part 33: Beelzebub: Gluttony
Part 34: Lucifer: Pride
Part 35: Doppelgänger, or, Back in Horne
Part 36: Satan: Wrath

INTERLUDE: BONUS TOWERS
Part 37: Moonsand Ruins
Part 38: Holy Tree Tower
Part 39: Mysterious Lighthouse
Part 40: Trial Tower

Part 41: How It All Began: A Retrospective

ACT III: THE GRAND FINALE
Part 42: Stripped
Part 43: Getting the Crowns Back
Part 44: The Dark Lord
Part 45: Epilogue

Dear Codex,
I chose to do a blind run of this recent (released in 2009 in Japan, in 2010 in US and EU) Final Fantasy spin-off for Nintendo DS, to indulge the light-hearted and feeble-minded weaboo inside. Why this game, you ask? Well, it's supposed to be a 'spiritual successor' to the early Final Fantasy titles (on NES), not the later emo/storyfaggish ones. And I remember liking the early Final Fantasies. So the reasons for this LP are mostly nostalgic.

Apart from that, this game's supposed to have some potentially fun features, such as:

1. Limited inventory capacity: each character is limited to carrying just 15 items. And yes, each item counts, including your equipment and skillbooks/spellbooks (1 spell = 1 spellbook). And no, several items of the same type (say, antidote) don't count as one. So it's not just 15 *slots*, it's 15 *items*, pure and simple.

2. Supposedly, status ailments, such as poison, are really frequent in this game, meaning you have to plan your inventory ahead, given its limited capacity.

3. Turn-based combat without, it seems, any kind of real-time elements. To make it more challenging frustrating, all attacks are auto-targeted. You don't know beforehand who a character will attack or heal or resurrect or whatever. Fun or a pain in the ass? Who knows.

4. Action points system. Again, supposedly, each character has 5 action points. A basic attack costs 1 point, a special attack or spell, 2 to 5 points. Each turn a character recovers 1 point if he takes an action; and 2 points if he chooses to defend. The points left at the end of the battle are the *only* ones (supposedly) you can spend out of battle (e.g., to cast a healing spell) and at the beginning of the next battle, meaning it is really important to end the battle with as many action points left as possible: a strong foe, supposedly, can cause you a lot of trouble during the first couple of rounds while you recover the action points you foolishly spent in the previous battle.

3. A character isn't limited to just one type of weapons. Standard feature in WRPGs, but not in JRPGs afaik. E.g., you *can* equip a character who is initially a swordsman with a bow or a spellbook. Watch out for stats, though; naturally, some characters are more apt to be mages than others. A character's stats are fixed, it seems, but can be slightly modified by changing the character's class (see next point).

4. Class system (classes are called 'crowns' here for some reason) in which you can change a character's class 'on the fly'. Character stats are also (slightly) modified depending on the 'crown' you equip. Crowns become available as you defeat bosses (?). I'm pretty sure this system is broken; simply a gut feeling.

4a. Most importantly: your character's appearance is modified by his/her class & equipment; ain't that swell!? This alone makes this game a most worthy RPG, right?

4b. Oh, and weapons and crowns are upgradeable with 'gems' (of which there are several types) you get upon defeating enemies.

5. The story is minimal, (self-consciously?) clichéd and non-intrusive, involving pretty princesses, witches and curses. Nya.

We'll see if all this is true and if it actually works or makes the game in any way challenging. I doubt that, really. It's probably all bullshit. But we'll see.

Here's a quick look at this game's classes:



This is a blind run, meaning I'm still very early in the game and will post updates as I make progress with the story. So yeah, I still don't know what I don't know. If you want to spoil something, please use the spoiler tags. On a technical note, I'm not even sure my emulator will let me finish this game; I haven't been able to find any definitive info on this. Also, the update process will most likely be slow, *very* slow as I'm up to my neck with work commitments.
A final word of warning: if this game turns out to be unbearable shit, this LP will most surely be abandoned. I proceed at my own risk, and so should you.

Here's the game's cover:


Now, to provoke a heart attack in some readers, I will post some pieces of "art" for this game.

Here're the main characters, the four heroes of light no less:


Here they are again:

OMG HOW CUTE!!11

Some in-game models, representing different classes:


And finally, some kind of town I haven't yet been to:


Ladies and gentlemen, let us begin.

...

Part 0. A Sundry Lot, or, Character creation



1.
OK, here's our first character, our Codexer:



"Doesn't know much about etiquette" and yet "knows right from wrong"?
A Codexer does all that, sure thing; his and his hateful speech are always just. And we do enjoy his enthusiasm, don't we?

2. The second one, the Codexer's BRO:



Hmm, "pragmatic", "sharp", yet "childish" and "a pain in the neck"? Who might that be? I know: a true BRO.

3. BRO's "lady" friend, SMA:



Hmm, "stresses too much over the small stuff"? This will be our local tranny sis. We'll name her SMA.
(Not sure if this game has romances. If it does, though, it's gonna be a tranny one -- in a true Codexian fashion.)

4. And finally, Volly:



A self-centered princess? This must be our Pretty Princess, the Codex's darling, Volly! R00fles!

So our party is set, dear audience, and ready to kick some monster ass. Prepare for some castles, witches, kings, and curses in the next update! End of line.



WAKE UP, CODEXER!!

EDIT: Fluff removed.

Thread bookmark'd.

But stop hotlinking images, you fag!

Also: 10/10 for the way you named characters.

spekkio said:

But stop hotlinking images, you fag!

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Fixed, sorry.

I am intrigued. You may proceed.

Jo, looks rather painful from the concept art, but perhaps the inner values of the game can redeem that, hmm?

OH GOD!!! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT UNHOLY LOLI ABOMINATION???? PURGE IT WITH FIRE!!!!


... Just kidding, I'll wait for an update, my curiosity demands it.

Re: Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light for Nintendo DS: A Blin





Do continue.

KalosKagathos said:

I am intrigued. You may proceed.

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lightbane said:

I'll wait for an update

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anus_pounder said:

Do continue.

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Thank you, kind sirs! I will, I hope.

Cenobyte said:

Jo, looks rather painful from the concept art, but perhaps the inner values of the game can redeem that, hmm?

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Not sure about that... We'll see.
Hopefully it'll at least be able to provide some entertainment for a little while.

OK, here comes the first part. It's 99% non-combat (and even this 1% is totally voluntary), kinda introductorish.

Part 1. Maturity Ahoy! or, Sweet Mother Death



This is Codexer's dear mother, I assume.

Come on, lazy bones. It's time you were up and about!



Since it is a Codexer we're roleplaying, naturally we choose the "Not yet" option. As if that mattered.



Tsk. Today's the day you officially become a grown-up. Or have you forgotten?

So, today's the day of Codexer's maturity? Great! About time!

You have to go to the castle and pay your respects to the king!

Ooooh, the king. So Final Fantasy-ish. Lord British, I'm coming!!


Well, nevermind.
And so our Codexer wakes up, if reluctantly. Codexer is awake - and alone for now.

Meet Codexer:

A fairly accurate representation of your average codexer, I'd say.



OK, now let's check our stats and stuffies and thingies.
Pressing the "Menu" button, we find we have only two options for now: "Items" and "Abilities".



Let's choose "Abilities"; I wonder what we've got there.



It's empty! Codexer has no abilities!! This is an outrage!!!

OK, let's note our stats.
This here is your Lvl.1 Codexer. Pfft. A horrible creature, verily! And extremely frail and vulnerable to boot. Well, really, no surprises here. His strength is greater than his intellect. His spirit is weak. His defense is lacking. And his attack is ... well, zero.

Moving on. Let's cast a brief glance at our inventory.



Well, looks like we ain't got nothing except ... the Codexer's Togs! Ay, a uniform all newfag codexers wear I assume. I mean, I should know, shouldn't I?

As y'all know, no Codexer can do without a parrot. In this game, the parrot's called Ankhel. What kind of name is that!? Alas, we can't be choosers here. Otherwise, I'd name him Andhaira.


Talking to our mother again.

What are you waiting for? Today's the day you officially become a grown-up. You have to go the castle and pay your respects to the king. (Reiterates the mother.)

Take the path straight through the back of the town to the castle. And no dilly-dallying on the way!

Thanks for the handholding, mother! I mean, that's what mothers are for, right?

In a house nearby, we find a potion hidden! Nice.



Naturally, we aren't told the exact amount of HP a potion restores. Trial and error, man, trial and error!

Time to explore the village. As a true Codexer, our hero talks to every NPC he meets. I won't document all the NPC talk here, just the more or less informative bits and pieces.

We find out that magic is forbidden around here. Still, it looks like someone at the castle does practice magic arts, at least in secret.



Due to magic being banned, Horne (that's what the kingdom's called) couldn't but become a centre of agriculture.



Poking around, not only are we told that inns are good for you...



but we also find a very useful item, Dragon Wing:



We even stumble upon an Adventurer with a fox (huh?) who says we can save our game with him.




We do, of course. Yay, game saved.
(I think I'm not gonna use the emulator's savestates; at least I don't feel like right now.)

Here's another useful piece of advice our Codexer comes across:



Equip weapons, you say? But we ain't got no weapons yet. (Our inventory is empty, remember?) I wonder if we can slay monsters without a weapon... Unarmed, that is, like in Fallout New Vegas, the new shit! Good idea, actually. Let's see if this game is as unforgiving as it pretends to be.

We meet a funny-looking guard near the exit from the village.



He warns us of monsters and hands us a Phoenix Down. Ha, we're gonna need that, I guess?



OK, let's get to some unarmed monster-slaying, New Vegas-style. With attack=0!! Still, I bet our Codexer can do that.

We foolishly walk out on the world map, all alone and without a weapon, clad only in Codexer's Togs. Our Codexer is foolish yet courageous. Let us salute him!



Naturally, it doesn't take us long to be attacked by two goblins. Time to prove Codexer's worth, amirite?

In combat, given that we lack any abilities, we have just three options available: Attack (aka standard attack, unarmed ), Boost (aka defend & recover 2 action points) and Item.



We have just 1 action point, and our attack, despite being zero-ish, does in fact cause 1 point of damage. Great! The enemies' attack, however, deals at least 2-4 points. Not so great after all. Also, without abilities, Boost is almost useless. At most, it increases our chance of landing a critical or slightly stronger hit (still unsure about that, though); it takes two turns, however, to bring our AP to the max, and without a weapon it's (obviously!) not worth it and doesn't influence much.



That's why we're quickly running out of HP. We finally manage to slay 1 goblin (yeah! take it, monster!), but it looks like we're left with just 2 HP. Who would've thought.



The outcome is logical - and ghostly:



Oh. OK, I see, you can actually die in this game. Oldschool indeed.
We'll try to actually get a sword next time! And probably some abilities! Promise!

That's it for now. Nothing inspiring in this update, as is to be expected from a prologue, I guess. The combat system in this game is supposed to get more complex as we progress, as our abilities become more varied, our party larger than just one character, and our enemies stronger.
It's all taking up a bit more space (and time) than planned, so witches and curses, nya, get postponed to the next update. Sorry, dear readers, and sorry, Lord British! We'll get to your castle eventually. Word.

Crooked Bee said:

Oh. OK, I see, you can actually die in this game. Oldschool indeed.

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Looks bland & uninspired so far - good job as always Enix-Square...

You go, girl!

Truth be told, I actually kinda hoped you'd deal 0 damage with your attack being 0. That'd be fun, even if it's logical you can still deal some damage while unarmed.

The game is indeed bland so far; we'll see if it picks up later. The story is actually designed as bland (oldschool, man); the combat is allegedly "hardcore", however.

The "mother" avatar or whatever looks familiar. Is it from Spirited Away?

Also,

anus_pounder said:

The "mother" avatar or whatever looks familiar. Is it from Spirited Away?

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Yup, right.

On a side note, to make matters more "hardcore" there's only 1 save slot in this game. Meaning there ain't no turning back if things go awry.

Ultima 1 has better and much less eye-gouging graphics than this FFS!

Crooked Bee said:

On a side note, to make matters more "hardcore" there's only 1 save slot in this game. Meaning there ain't no turning back if things go awry

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That's all you ever need, I say

I always use just one save slot in games (usually the quicksave slot).

Crooked Bee said:

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Great LP! MOAR!

Crooked Bee said:

On a side note, to make matters more "hardcore" there's only 1 save slot in this game. Meaning there ain't no turning back if things go awry.

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I think it's just a limitation of the DS cart. Atlus said there wasn't enough room for 2 save slots and a quicksave (they decided a 2nd savefile is better than a quicksave due to the multiple endings) in Strange Journey and any game that saves anything beyond level number and a few binary "found this item" has only had such.

Cassidy said:

Ultima 1 has better and much less eye-gouging graphics than this FFS!

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Graphixxwhore detected
Not that I don't agree.

deuxhero said:

Crooked Bee said:

On a side note, to make matters more "hardcore" there's only 1 save slot in this game. Meaning there ain't no turning back if things go awry.

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I think it's just a limitation of the DS cart. Atlus said there wasn't enough room for 2 save slots and a quicksave (they decided a 2nd savefile is better than a quicksave due to the multiple endings) in Strange Journey and any game that saves anything beyond level number and a few binary "found this item" has only had such.

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You're probably right, thanks for clarification. It's just that, e.g., the recent DS remake of Final Fantasy IV has 3 (!) save slots AND a quicksave one. Not that you need that many slots in a Final Fantasy game (except perhaps X-2).

Bump.

Update incoming soon.

Now, a brief retrospective to warm you up for the next update.

PREVIOUSLY ON THIS LP

Remember our Codexer?


Upon waking up in his comfy bed…



…he was told by his mother to go have an audience with the king.

“What are you waiting for? Today's the day you officially become a grown-up. You have to go the castle and pay your respects to the king.”
"Sure thing, mummy! I love Ultima 1!"

On his way, Codexer met a village guard who warned him of monsters:

This is what he said:
(Sarcastic) “You leaving town? Well, take good care. There are monsters out there!”
“Why do you lie? FFS”
“Ha ha! You don’t even know what you don’t know, Codexer!”
He even presented Codexer with a Phoenix down --- an ominous gift indeed.

Too bad our hero didn’t heed his warning.
Instead, our Codexer – despite being told by a helpful NPC, very nicely, not to go dilly-dallying around the world map without a weapon equipped – died valiantly in an attempt to battle goblins alone and with his bare hands.

Some goblins for ya, o reader:

True goblins wear pink, as you surely know.
Horrible creatures.

"I'll be more careful next time."
Think you stand a chance, Codexer?

...

OK, now we’re all set for the incoming update. Moar today.

P.S. HELP!! me bump this thread to the next page, or else … I’ll help myself.

Bumpity bump.

Here's a trailer for ya:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVYasHsudQE

LPesda proudly presents --- the most ridiculous class ever:

Cat Herder

You were p. good sometimes, Squaresoft.
Back in the day I mean.

What happened?