Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Yes, the 4 heroes of light. 4 of them, even.

To thee I grant this gift of Light,
 upon thy head a crown of might.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is a Gaiden Game or "spin-off" from the ball-throbbingly popular Final Fantasy series. It was released for the Nintendo DS console in Japan and was released in North America on October 5, 2010. The game is the second to be released with the Final Fantasy Gaiden subtitle in Japan, after Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, though the two games have no relations to each other. Character design was done by Akihiko Yoshida, and Matrix Software, developers of various titles such as Alundra and the DS remakes of Final Fantasy III and IV has returned to develop this title.

Like several titles of old, this game uses a Class and Level System, here called the Crown System, but its unique variation lies in the fact that every character is essentially an Onion Knight in that they can equip anything; the jobs instead affect their usable skillset. Powering up the crowns involves a unique form of leveling via the application of disposable gems.

Tropes used in Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light include:
  • Ability Required to Proceed: Abused frequently once you get the transform staff.
  • Anachronic Order: The party splits up and joins up in different pairs at times, with each separate group's adventures happening simultaneously, with the Book Ends of some chapters making more sense when you see what the other party was doing. (e.g. Brandt leaving Yunita to team up with a cat of all things ...who has a map ...because she's actually Aire.)
  • Animal Talk: You can talk to any animal in animal form.
  • Animorphism: Once you get the Transform Staff, go wild.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Targets are selected automatically (physical attacks target the first enemy on the left, magic on the right), instead of being chosen by the player. This can result in, for example, your Black Mage using a Quake spell, ignoring the enemy who's vulnerable to earth-based damage, and instead aiming at the flying enemy that's immune to the attack.
    • It can also result in your White Mage using Esuna to heal the other characters of any status ailment under the sun that still allows them to fight and gain experience, but ignoring the one who's been petrified.
  • Awesome but Impractical: A lot of the level 3 crown skills. For example, the Elementalist's Elemental casts a series of spells of every element. This sounds pretty cool, except (1) the bosses that really matter are going to be resistant to every element but one, maybe two, and (2) given the previous, the only seemingly practical use of the skill would be exposing those few elemental weaknesses, but who needs that when you can just look up a guide?
  • Baleful Polymorph: Aire, who is turned into a cat; and Brandt, who is turned into a plant.
  • Bladder of Steel: No quicksaving or saving on the world map. You're going to have to wait for the fedora guy just like everybody else. Thankfully, it's a portable title, and a DS one at that, so the game can be put into sleep mode if it needs to be put down at any time.
  • Bonus Boss: Along with the bosses in the towers, there is the Ogre Bear. Hope you brought an Energy Screen.
  • Bonus Dungeon: The towers, which are all randomized and contain Bonus Bosses.
  • Boss Rush: In the Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
  • Broken Bridge: All over the place in the first half of the game, that either only clear when you activate a certain event, or prevent you from going back.
  • Character Development: By the end of the game, Aire is no longer a spoiled, selfish brat, Jusqua actually cares about people other than himself, Yunita has stopped being a Failure Knight, and Brandt... Well, Brandt's still an Idiot Hero, but at least he's not abusing the "I must be stronger than everyone else!" cliché quite so hard anymore.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Remember that sign explaining how to handle sheep?
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Ankhel, Brandt's parrot.
  • Class and Level System
  • Clothes Make the Superman: By all appearances, wearing hats is the only reason the quartet have any powers beyond their spell tomes.
    • Not to mention the fact that good clothing -- not just armor, but also the stuff made of actual cloth -- gives higher base defense bonuses than the best shields.
  • Copy Protection: If you pirate the game, the enemies have infinite HP.
  • Crapsack World: Even if you discount the fact that demons are apparently running everything behind the scenes, and instead just take everything at face value, most of the places you visit aren't very inviting places to live. Horne doesn't seem so bad until everyone is turned to stone, and Liberte's pretty nice (except for the pirate kidnappings), but every other city? Hoo boy.
    • Guera: The residents are trapped by a vicious sand demon and no one has entered or left the city in years. Also, an entire race of people was wiped out save for a Sole Survivor. Arbor: The fairies dislike and distrust humans so much that any human who approaches Arbor, even if they mean no harm, is transformed into a plant. No, the fairies won't help you. You get to stay like that. Urbeth: A town obsessed with money, where the poor are barely dressed in rags, are barely able to eat, and are treated like second-class citizens. Invidia: It's constantly freezing, everyone is miserable, and it's ruled by a bitter man who is waiting on his son to finally come home to rule the world. Spelvia: Run by a misanthropic man who has been living with nothing but his hatred for hundreds of years. All of his robots are programmed to kill humans. Also, when the group finally manages to get him to let go of his hate, it turns out to be powerful enough to poison the rest of the world.
  • Credits Medley
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Crystal prefaces granting you the Dark Fencer crown with the rather ominous "To thee I grant this gift of might, upon thy head a crown of...forbidden might." Shortly afterward, King Horne presents you with the spell Desolator with similar gravitas.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Possibly. Dying strips you of half of any one category of gems -- which is devastating if the game randomly selects your Diamonds; not so much if it chooses the Rubies, or another lesser gem you have in low number. This trope is in full force if someone has equipped the Freelancer crown, which negates any penalty beyond being warped back to the last Adventurer.
  • Degraded Boss: Trollud, the Liberte boss, is a normal monster in the ice caves before Invidia. Later, Behugemoth is added to the same caves, except the trope is inverted and he's much harder than before.
    • In the second half of the game, palette-swapped Minotaur can be found in the Quicksand Castle.
  • Developer's Room: A limited and very obscure version: if you manage to make it to the northern part of Horne early in the game during nighttime when it's normally blocked by a sand whirlpool (either by dying in battle during nighttime before you save your game for the first time or using a Dragon Wing), the NPCs' dialogue changes to various messages from programmers.
  • Doomed Hometown: Everyone in Horne turn to stone after defeating the Witch of the North.
  • Dual Boss: Geri and Freki.
  • Dynamic Difficulty
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: How well you do in boss battles later on largely depends on how well you play their vulnerabilities and resistances.
  • Emergency Transformation: Of a sort. Brandt is transformed from a plant to a puppy, with the logic being that it's much easier to transform someone back to a human if they're already a conscious being.
  • Every Monster Has Its Price: The Merchant's Ransom ability allows a character to give up the gil equivalent to the damage s/he would have taken. With a full bank account[1], a Merchant with the Ransom ability, and the Shield of Light equipped, you could theoretically defeat the final boss without taking a single scratch.
  • Expy: Krinjh serves a similar purpose to Minwu, in that he serves as a Crutch Character early on, and also is a Spell Fencer (i.e. Mystic Knight). The costumes for male Mystic Knights in FF5 were based on Minwu.
  • Failure Knight: Yunita. And how.
  • Fallen Hero: Rolan, initially.
  • Faux Symbolism: While it's not directly mentioned, each town represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and in the second half of the game is haunted by a demon also representing the sin.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: Rather differently from the Final Fantasy norm, however; Thunder is Light-elemental and Blizzard is of the Water element.
  • Fisher King: Rolan, almost literally. Helping him regain his confidence inadvertently released the darkness from his heart, putting the world in a time loop.
  • Floating Continent: Spelvia.
  • George Lucas Throwback: To the 8-bit era of RPGs and their Nintendo Hardness. You can't save anywhere you want, inventory space is limited, and don't expect help if you ask "Now Where Was I Going Again??"
  • Global Airship: A dragon hatched from the egg in Invidia.
  • Good Morning Brandt: Nearly verbatim.
  • Guest Star Party Member: Krinjh the Spell Fencer in Guera, Torte the Sage in Arbor, Rekoteh the Dancer in Invidia, and Rolan the Hero in Spelvia. Note that these are all Crowns that you won't have yet when they're in your party.
  • Guide Dang It: So much. Let's put it this way, you won't know a lot of things about the game without a guide.
  • Hello, Insert Name Here: All four heroes are nameable.
  • High-Class Glass: Comes pre-packaged with the Salve-Maker crown.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Cat Aire VS Ogre Bear.
  • Idiot Hero: Brandt is Bartz 2.0.
  • Inventory Management Puzzle: Each character can only hold 15 non-stackable items, including equipment and spells, though key items are separate. The storage can hold up to 99 of any item, of course.
    • Don't forget abilities - there are only 6 slots for spells and Crown abilities.
  • Jack of All Stats, Master of None: Jusqua, whose Strength, Intellect, and Spirit stats all max out at 65.
  • Jerkass: Jusqua, at first.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: Rolan's heart has been festering in resentment and self-hatred for hundreds of years; in order for him to help the party, they must enter his heart and cleanse him of his demons.
  • Karl Marx Hates Your Guts: Oh-so-averted in Urbeth's shopkeeping minigame, where the wealthy locals will pay several times the going rate for something you bought in the next street, or even the same shop. Unlimited profits, here we come.
  • Lethal Joke Character: The game seems to revel in kicking the shit out of the concept of Useless Useful Spells, since most of the crowns are extremely purpose-built but manage to be absolute game breakers, such as the seamstress, salve-maker, and merchant. The typical "I like swords" classes from the mainline Final Fantasy series, on the other hand, are average at best.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: While it's possible to kill just about every enemy you come across with physical attacks, you will need to rely on magic spells and Crown abilities, especially in the second half of the game where the enemy's levels scale to match yours.
  • Lost Forever: Lots of items. Talk to everyone before and after certain plot flags, such as Kuore after being entrusted with the mission to go to the Witch's Mansion to rescue Aire.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: While the defense boosts on these aren't as large as those you get from clothing, it's the elemental resistances that will really come in handy.
  • Magikarp Power: Remember that King's Shortsword Aire was carrying at the start of the game? Don't sell it. It's the strongest weapon in the game if you upgrade it, as it grows in effectiveness twice as much as regular equipment - including the Light set of equipment.
  • Meaningful Name
    • Horne is known for its wind. It's also known for its agriculture, making the name a probable horn of plenty reference. Also a visual pun - the 'r' and 'n' in 'Horne' together look like an 'm', thus making the name of the village 'Home.' As in, literally, your 'Home Town.' Which is then doomed.
    • Liberte is Latin for "freedman". The local pirates go on about freedom a lot.
    • Vulpes (Urbeth) may refer to the fox-like cunning necessary to make it in a city full of hard-playing merchants.
    • Arbor is housed in the Great Tree. Its Japanese name, "Elva", is obvious.
    • Invidia is Latin for "envy", and the locals are rightfully envious of the fact that other people get the occasional sunny day and they don't.
    • Superbia (Spelvia) is Latin for "pride"--befitting of a floating city meant to enslave the world below and ruled by a hero who regards himself as above humanity.
  • Mini Game: Two - a shopping mini-game in Urbeth which is used to grind for so much money, and a maths game in Invidia.
  • Miniature Senior Citizens: King Horne is half Aire's size.
  • Money Spider: Averted, enemies drop Vendor Trash rather than straight-up gil. Double averted, in the fact that the Vendor Trash are gems, which you need for character and item leveling, and are impossible to get outside of combat.
  • Mythology Gag: The plot of the game initially concerns saving a princess at the beginning, and later on breaking a Stable Time Loop.
  • Nice Hat: Every class has one. Except the Freelancer.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Heroes: By saving Rolan from the darkness in his heart, the heroes manage to unleash that same darkness across the entire world. Bravo. Somewhat subverted by the fact that this sets them on the road to turning a previously Crapsack World into a much nicer place by destroying many great forces of evil, but still.
  • The Night That Never Ends: After darkness spreads across the world, the world looks like it's in the middle of one of these.
  • Nintendo Hard: "This game is so hardcore it doesn't even include a tutorial."
  • No Cure for Evil: Averted in a few cases.
  • No Respect Gal: Yunita. Aire makes a comment that Yunita can't handle things when left to herself. Nice job, boys.
  • Now Where Was I Going Again?: Averted with gusto until you get the Transform Staff, after which you can ask the Adventurer's fox for direction.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: Rolan.
  • Plot Device: The key items.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: Female monsters with "Entice" have no trouble affecting Aire or Yunita.
  • Qurac: Guera.
  • Retraux: Nearly everything. This game could have easily been done in 8 bit or 16 bit, and it would have fit in perfectly.
  • Royal Brat: Aire. In an aversion, one of the party members tells her off and leaves her, and she actually has to suffer for her stupidity -- which includes the devastating punishment of getting someone killed because of her greed and stubbornness, even if it's prevented later on. Thank you, Square Enix, thank you!
  • Save Point: In the form of the Adventurer, who appears in every town and in front of every boss room.
  • Scratch Damage: Averted in the second half, where the enemy's levels scale to match yours.
  • Scenery Porn: The art style's more notable points are its Wind Waker-esque vivid colors and lack of outlines, resulting in very pretty visuals more or less everywhere. Arbor is a strong example of out-and-out scenery porn.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money: With Ransom and Money Talks, the Merchant crown is made of this trope.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: See Faux Symbolism. But it gets weird, since some towns and their demons don't match the sins they were given.
  • Shout-Out: The Claustrum staff rather resembles a Keyblade.
    • The Metal Flan is reminiscent of the Metal Slime -- it's not immune to magic, but gives amazing XP and is highly resistant to everything. And it has bigger, angrier brothers.
    • Urbeth is the name of a city in Forgotten Realms.
    • Louhi is named after the main antagonist of The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, who is also a shapeshifting witch from the Grim Up North.
  • So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: NPCs come with unique equipment, and when they leave, they take everything with them. Your party also does not have a universal inventory, although the storage and money system is universal -- so make sure to drop off some gear in the storage unit between bosses.
    • You can also invert this by taking THEIR unique gear, letting you get better weapons and armor than you might have had.
  • Songs in the Key of Panic: The music gains a bell/siren and changes tempo when you are at critical HP. Interestingly, one is used when bosses are at critical health, as well.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Data on the Japanese ROM give different spellings for almost all the towns' names: Horn vs. Horne, Gula vs. Guera, Elva vs. Arbor, Vulpes vs. Urbeth, and Superbia vs. Spelvia. The Japanese website also calls Krinjh 'Kirinjyu'.
  • Taken for Granite: Whatever contract King Horne had with Louhi, he broke it, and everyone in Horne is turned to stone as a result.
    • Also the result of being petrified, which is considered by game mechanics to be an almost identical condition to death. Just as curable, though.
  • This Cannot Be!: Satan, Chaos, and Mammon upon death.
  • Turns Red: The very first boss (Minotaur) when in critical health.
  • Vendor Trash: The eight kinds of Gems (in order of sell value): Ruby, Emerald, Topaz, Sapphire, Lapis, Aquamarine, Amethyst and Diamond.
  • Very Definitely Final Dungeon: A world of darkness rising up out of the ocean, which will eventually encroach upon the real world if not stopped.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Eventually, once you get the Transform Staff. Oddly, neither Jusqua nor Yunita are at all alarmed to find themselves suddenly turned into animals with no real explanation.
  • Wasted Song: The (very good) dragon riding tune is much longer than necessary, considering how small the game world is, and how quick it takes to ride from one place to another.
  • Where It All Began: Horne is the last town to be liberated from its demon in the second half.
  • Wide Open Sandbox: The second half of the game.
  • With This Herring: For someone so desperate to have his daughter rescued, the King of Horne is a rather insidious penny pincher. Despite having an entire armory stocked with weapons and armor, he sends Brandt on his merry way with little more than a Steel Sword and a firm pat on the shoulder.
  • Womb Level: The whirlpool at Liberte.
  • World Tree: The Great Tree, from which all magic originates.
  1. ↑ Have fun abusing that Urbeth minigame.
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