"The best of the Breath of Fire series, and one of the best RPG experiences ever."

I have been a fan of the Breath of Fire series since Breath of Fire 3. Slowly with the more Breath of Fire games I play it is becoming one of most favorite RPG series of all time. This game pushed that further - a lot. This is defiantly one of the hardest games I have ever played, and I died many times in it. But it was worth every second I spent playing it.

My first topic is gameplay, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter boasts one of the best battle systems I have ever encountered in an RPG along with fine tuned gameplay out of combat. I loved every moment of the gameplay here; it was incredibly hard to stop playing. The outside world, the battle system, and any other aspect of the game is perfect in every way. Outside of battles run like most RPGs. You encounter random enemies to fight, solve puzzles, talk to NPCs, and so on. The battle system however, is where the game really shines.

The battles system simply put is a fast-paced strategy game along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and so on, where positioning your units is one of the most crucial parts of fighting. Some of the battles can be incredibly short, while others can take a while to get through. The combat though never feels slow and drawn out, as there is action taking place at any given time. A combo system of sorts allows you to be much more involved with the fighting thus adding to the pacing of the battle system.

The game also strays from traditional RPG standpoint of character roles. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter has no sort of primary healing character at all. You will find little to no way to heal yourself in combat without the use of items. It makes the game all the more challenging, but at the same time somewhat easy as long as you stock up on plenty healing items.

Other aspects of the game include the save system and the SOL system. The save system is one that can alone make a casual RPG gamer not want to play the game. You can only save with the use of save tokens found at random times throughout the game. They are very hard to come by. My first time fully clearing the game I only found three of these items. This adds great stress on the player, yet it is a great challenge I am glad they added to the game. This is a great way to test your management skills, and a wonderful way to make sure you don't get to soft while playing easy RPGs which seem to grow more and more popular.

Now the SOL system is quite unique among games in general. While most games encourage you to keep going and beat the game each time you die with things such as continues or even easy to use save points, Dragon Quarter twists this. You get the option to SOL restart your game upon death, which will allow you to restart your game with certain items and XP to give your party, you also can see extra scenes that enhance your understanding of the story much more. It is a very nice addition and a weird change from most games.

Dragon Quarter is one of the best looking games I have seen in a long time. It uses crisp and clean cel-shaded graphics for everything in the game from characters to the environment. Also unlike most cel shaded games that look bright and cheery, this game manages to pull off a very depressing, dark atmosphere, which is something you do not see often with this style of graphics. There are a few anime-ish style cut scenes, which an anime fan such as myself am really happy they put into the game seeing as it is cel-shaded. As far as the world goes, more thumbs up. The world of Dragon Quarter is split up by social classes and it clearly shows in this game. You start at the bottom and eventually make your way to the top of the world and the world changes drastically on the way. The broken pipes of sewers dripping water in the middle of busy streets, and brown ragged clothes on people's backs are replaced with well constructed buildings and aristocratic looking people, which leads me to my next topic.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter has one of the best stories ever told in any sort of media. While the games focus of saving someone you care for is note entirely new in books, movies, or even video games, Dragon Quarter tells this story in a very unique way for a video game.

Long ago humans had to flee under ground in order to continue living for some reason or another. The world today is in a less then wonderful state. The land is basically split based on social class, the rich living closer to the surface and the "clean air" and the poorer living further down. The world is a polluted mess where you play as none other than Ryu who is a low level citizen trying to survive in the world. You start the game with a blond hair boy named Bosch who acts superior to Ryu simply because of the D-Ratios, a system that classifies the abilities of someone. After a short run through a quick mission Bosch leaves the party for good.

The next major character is of course Nina, which begins the game's main focus. She was operated on to become a purifying system for the air of down under, but she can not survive in it and will die if she stays down much longer. Ryu takes it upon himself to transport her to the surface no matter what, nothing will stop him. Along the way the two meet a slew of great characters and find themselves fighting the social and political system just to escape to the surface. There is nice character development between those in and out of your party and the story is told at a steady pace.

Something I find amazing however is how well the gameplay meshes with the story, like any Breath of Fire game you eventually find yourself with the power of an ancient powerful dragon. The dragon form while not really dragon-like in a sense of visuals it gives Ryu amazing power as he can easily destroy a tough enemy or boss in a few quick hits. This comes with a price though. The more you play through the game and the more you use the dragon form the higher a meter counts. Once this meter reaches 100% you see a game over screen. If this meter goes up to quickly and you save your progress with it high, you will find yourself restarting the entire game later down the road. Why I think this meshes the story and gameplay together well is simply this, the more you yourself use the dragon form the more Ryu's meter will go up, one his main goals is to not use up this as it will lead to his death, thus stopping the story. It fits nicely and as hard as it makes the game it just adds to the many things you find yourself managing throughout the experience as I said earlier.

Anyone who considers themselves an RPG or Breath of Fire fan absolutely has to buy this game; it is the best Breath of Fire game to date, and one of the best RPGs of all time. I am really sad it never reached the high status of RPGs such as Final Fantasy, Tales of Symphonia, Golden Sun, and so on. I enjoyed myself with this game more then I have enjoyed myself with many games to date. The storyline is superb compared to other RPGs, the graphics are wonderful, and the gameplay is absolutely astounding.

Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 8/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 10/10
End Result - 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/07, Updated 09/24/07

Game Release: Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (US, 02/16/03)