Final Fantasy: Heroes of Light is a role playing game made by Square Enix for the DS. The game centres around four heroes who go from saving a princess to trying to save the world.

You begin playing as Brandt, a youth who lives in a scenic and idyllic town called the Kingdom of Horne. He is told by his mother to go see the King  but upon reaching the castle  he finds the king in distress for the king’s daughter has been captured by a wicked witch. Valiantly, or perhaps mindlessly, Brandt decides to save the princess. He is joined by other valiant/mindless companions and together they successfully rescue the girl. Feeling victorious they return back to the Kingdom of Horne, to find that every inhabitant (including the sheep) have turned into stone. 

Fooled by its cutesy graphics, reminiscent of old Japanese role playing games of the 1990s, I was lulled into a false sense of security. As simple as it starts, it gradually appears that these heroes have bitten off more than they can chew but they still battle on with an almost baffling resilience.

The player takes control of four heroes that adhere to the usual stereotypes featured in the JRPG genre. This is so you know, as a player, that this game is old-school.  It is reminiscent of the days of yore when JRPGs were still fresh and new : there is the uninspiring protagonist (who has no personality whatsoever) , the initially selfish but kind hearted princess ( because dual personalities often exist in rich brats) , the somewhat aloof other male character (who deep down contains a squidgy heart because it turns out, he’s actually human)  and finally there’s that other female character, the one that no one really cares about but she exists because they needed a fourth character in battle.

Waltzing into battle unprepared will result in an instant ticket to heaven. Being a high level doesn’t matter; the most important thing is to have levelled up the right items and equip the right skills. If you do things right then the boss battle will still be long, dehydrating and rage-inducing, but at least it will lead to victory. 

The battle system is turn based and each action/skill is determined by action points. After the party’s turn, one action point is usually refreshed, but if that is not enough, there is also a Boost skill. The Boost skill skips the character’s turn, but gives you one additional point to help you in the battle. Additional actions which can’t be bought through buying magic books in towns can be acquired by wearing and levelling up nifty fashionable items known as Crowns.

The Crown system is essentially a really trendy class system that gives specialised skills to the character that wears them. Unfortunately the only way to level up these glorified magic hats is to gather up gems from killing enemies in certain areas. This lessens the need for money, but greatly increases the need to spend time mindlessly farming gems.

Disappointingly the multiplayer aspect of the game is highly restrictive. It all depends where the player is at during the game that determines whether another player can join in. If the player is at a point where there is just himself/herself and an additional character, then only one person may join the game. If four people want to play together, then they must play near the end or after the ending, in order to get the full multiplayer capabilities that this game has to offer.

Final Fantasy : Heroes of Light was an enjoyable, but overwhelmingly frustrating game. Being killed by the first boss twice was a burning sign that to come ill-prepared will certify that all your efforts will be wasted. Even levelling up to ninety nine will prove worthless if you fight ill-prepared.

All the frustration aside, the most depressing aspect of Heroes of Light was its lack of multiplayer. I was determined to play with three additional players, but this was not possible during the beginning or the middle of the game and by the time I had reached the end there was no-one to play with. This left me feeling a little bitter, since this game is all about friendship and not being alone. Most of the time, these heroes are usually travelling alone, although sometimes, for what seems like a fleeting moment, will be joined by a comrade. For all four of them to be able to think that their each other’s BFF seems implausible, and in my book this does not constitute the drivel of their stronger than steel friendship that is pounded into you while nearing the end of the game.

So a word of advice: This game is not for the impatient or the short tempered, it is not for those who want an easy hack ‘n’ slash game and it is definitely not for role playing game novices. The battles are long and they are tough and for the best part of it, you are alone to struggle through it.

Which is ironic.