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4Story M

4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows was a free-to-play, 3D archery shooter RPG on mobile devices with colorful anime graphics, action bow gameplay with dodging and skills, numerous stages to play through, simple touch controls, many costumes and equipment to collect, and asynchronous aerial PVP.

Publisher: Zemi Interactive
Type: Mobile RPG
Release Date: July 9, 2015
Shut Down: 2018
Pros: +Unique arcade-like archery gameplay. +Easy to pick up and learn.
Cons: -Minimal multiplayer components. -Pay to win elements. -Repetitive gameplay.

Overview

4Story M Overview

4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows was a 3D arcade-like archery shooter based on the 4Story universe. Experience a modern shooter based off of the old Blood Bros arcade game with bows instead of guns. Test your aim as you draw your bow and fire away at oncoming enemies and bosses. The longer you draw your bow, the more damage you will deal. Dodge enemy attacks by jumping left and right at the right time to avoid getting hit. Collect dozens of weapons, armors, and accessories and upgrade them to become more powerful. Customize your character with many costumes to choose from. Ride a dragon and go head to head in aerial PVP against players from around the world. Defeat mighty enemies and return order to the land of 4Story.

4Story M Key Features:

  • Action gameplay - Arcade-like, action-based, archery gameplay with simple controls.
  • Anime inspired graphics - Colorful 3D anime graphics and environments with stage based progression.
  • Customize & Accessorize - Dozens of customizeable weapons, armor, and skill accessories to collect and upgrade.
  • PvP Options - Asynchronous PVP involving turn-based, aerial combat with dragons.

4Story M Screenshots

4Story M Featured Video

4Story M - Official Gameplay Trailer

Full Review

4Story M Review

By, Herman Y.

4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows is a free-to-play, casual action RPG developed and published by Zemi Interative, the same makers behind the old PC MMORPG, 4Story. 4Story M is the mobile version of 4Story but with completely different gameplay designed for mobile devices and was inspired by an old Japanese arcade game called Blood Bros. Although 4Story M takes place in the same universe as 4Story, it is an arcade-like archery RPG opposed to a MMORPG. It is mainly single player although there is also asynchronous PVP. Similar to Grand Chase M, 4Story M is another mobile title based off of an old MMORPG with single player gameplay oriented for casual gamers. Compared to the old 4Story MMORPG, 4Story M feels more like a standalone mini-game.

A New 4Story Experience

Unlike the PC MMORPG, 4Story, which was an open-world MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft, 4Story M is more of a casual, single-player shooter game with RPG elements. The world is stage-based and there are over 100 stages to go through. Each stage is fairly short, lasting 1-5 minutes, and has objectives such as defeating a certain number of enemies or defeating a boss. Players play as a female archer and shoot arrows at oncoming enemies who either run towards you or attack from a distance. Unfortunately, there is no initial appearance customization or even a male option, but it doesn’t really matter since all you can see is your character’s back during combat. Each stage has a time limit causing gameplay to become much more fast-paced and achieving a better score will result in better prizes via a lottery system.

Simple Controls with Skill Involved

4Story M is easy to pick up and play but although the controls are simple, the game requires quick reflexes and timing. The game is similar to a rail shooter in that your character stays in one spot and you don’t have to manually move around other than to dodge. Enemies appear and players can aim by holding down the attack button on the bottom right and holding that button also charges up the bow. When the bow is fully charged (indicated by a full circle outline), releasing the button will send out an arrow at the location of the crosshair. The button can also be released early for less damage. There are also 2 dodge buttons on the bottom left that allow players to dodge either to the left or to the right. Players also have three skills that they can activate by tapping on the respective icons and then shooting out an arrow which is replaced with the skill attack. Ultimately, the controls are easy to learn but knowing when to dodge and aiming require a bit of skill. Bosses can also get fairly tricky due to their high amounts of health and special abilities such as teleportation or summoning minions.

Colorful Anime Graphics

The graphics in 4Story M are quite good. The game has colorful anime graphics and a fantasy theme in its character, monster, item, and environmental designs. Players start off in a green, grassy forest and eventually move onto dry, rocky deserts, and fiery, volcanic pits, among other maps. The main character provides quite a bit of fan service to players with her short, wispy skirt and the enemies and bosses are all well-designed and differ in appearance. The game has flashy skills and realistic attack and death animations. The cartoony looking UI and text is also pleasing to look at. There are also many armors and costumes to collect with detailed and unique appearances, many of which, offer fan service for male players.

Upgrading Equipment and Costumes

4Story M has many different types of equipment to collect as the game progresses. While there aren’t nearly as much as most other RPGs/MMORPGs, there is still a good amount and upgrading equipment plays a large part in the game. The different types of equipment include armor, weapon, earrings, necklaces, and rings. Armor provides defense, weapons increase attack power, and the earrings, necklaces, and rings are basically the character’s three skills and affect the skill damage. Players have a chance of obtaining equipment from completing levels from the lottery that occurs at the end of each stage but it is very rare. Instead, players will more likely have to purchase equipment (which are gradually unlocked after completing chapters) with in-game gold or Odin (premium currency). There are also Costume armor and weapons that can be obtained from the lottery or with Odin, that give minor stat boosts.

Upgrading equipment is vital in order to complete harder levels. Weapon power, defense, and skill damage of equipment can be upgraded simply by spending gold (or Odin). As equipment is upgraded, the gold cost of upgrading goes up and the percentage of success goes down. Fortunately, equipment cannot break from failed upgrading and each failed upgrade increases the success percentage by 5% so everything can be upgraded eventually; it will just take a lot of gold. Upgrading with Odin uses the same system except the chance of success is greater with Odin. Equipment, unfortunately, can only be upgraded to +7 max with in-game gold and upgrading further will require Odin (this will be discussed more in-depth in the Cash Shop section). Due to the ever growing increase in difficulty of the stages, it is very important to upgrade equipment often and farming levels for gold is required as the game progresses.

Aerial PVP Battles with Dragons

4Story M offers unique, asynchronous PVP that is certainly distinct, but can feel quite repetitive. Players can collect dragons to fly on for PVP from the Shop or from the lottery after stages and the PVP involves flying battles in the air. Choosing the “Dragon” option in the stage menu activates the PVP mode and the game will automatically match players with other players of similar level. Once in a game, the player and their AI-controlled opponent take turns attacking each other in an 8-round turn-based system. When it is the player’s turn to attack, they have a short amount of time to unleash as much damage as they can with controls similar to the single-player mode except that they have to aim at the enemy flying on a moving dragon. Players can also use skills but one of the skills will be blocked (that will be explained why in the next 2 sentences). In the next round, the tables are turned and now it is the opponent’s turn to attack and the player’s turn to dodge, except players don’t actually have control of their movement. They can only choose a “skill dodge” area that allows them to dodge one of the opponent’s skills. Players go back and forth attacking and dodging until someone dies or after the 8 rounds are over and the player with more life wins. The PVP is fairly unique but lack of real-time PVP and the slow turn-based system with automatic dodging creates a not-so-engaging experience.

Cash Shop and In-App Purchases (IAP)

Although spending money may not be entirely necessary, it offers some useful advantages and can ultimately become game-breaking due to the upgrade system. Firstly, Odin (premium currency) can be used to purchase Costumes which give appearance customization and minor stat boosts, which are not overpowered in any way. For example, Costume armors give 25 extra health points (HP) which isn’t much considering players have 451 HP at level 6. Odin can also be used to purchase in-game gold, which is very useful for upgrading equipment, considering how often upgrading fails. The biggest problem is that Odin is required to upgrade equipment past +7, giving paying players significant advantages. The steep increase in difficulty in the game also hints that players may potentially hit a paywall in which they need to spend money in order to upgrade their equipment further. Odin can also purchase energy to play longer (the game has an energy system). Odin, however, cannot be used to purchase better equipment from the Shop before they are unlocked (via completing chapters) so low level players cannot have high level equipment no matter what. PVP is less pay-to-win due to this but paying players can have better upgraded equipment creating unfair advantages. Overall, 4Story M isn’t entirely pay-to-play, but the limited upgrade system with in-game gold hints of potential paywalls and spending money offers some advantages by allowing players to play longer (via energy) and provides convenience (less farming). Luckily, the game also has an Achievement system that gives out a good amount of Odin for free.

Final Verdict – Good

Despite the lack of online aspects, unengaging PVP, and potential paywalls, 4Story M still offers a fun arcade-like experience for casual players. With simple controls and action gameplay, 4Story M is easy to pick up and play and the game offers enough content to keep players playing this mini-game version of 4Story.

Screenshots

4Story M Screenshots

System Requirements

4Story M System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Operating System: Android 2.3 or later

Music

4Story M Music & Soundtrack

4Story M Music Coming Soon!

Additional Info

4Story M Additional Information

Developer: Zemi Interactive
Publisher: Zemi Interactive
Platforms: Android

Release Date (Android): July 9, 2015

Shut Down: 2018

4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows was developed by Zemi Interactive, an online game developer based in Seoul, South Korea. Most known for developing and publishing the PC MMORPGs 4Story and Erebus 2, they released their first mobile game, 4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows for Android on July 9, 2015. 4Story M: Flying Dragon Arrows is a mobile game based on their MMORPG, 4Story, but was more inspired by an old arcade game called Blood Bros. 4Story M reached over 1,000 downloads on Google Play. The game was shut down sometime after 2018.