Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

"Dragon Quarter brings Breath of Fire to a whole new, unprecedented level of challenge and complexity."

In my opinion, the Breath of Fire series is one of the greatest overlooked series in the RPG world. Now, I don’t know about the original Breath of Fires 1 and 2 for the SNES in terms of popularity and hype (that was before I hit the gaming scene), but I do know that the first modern Playstation installments were overshadowed by the ever growing, ever popular Final Fantasy series. But hey, that’s just my opinion. This first PS2 game of the Breath of Fire series takes on a whole new level of challenge and complexity, unprecedented by all the other games in the series (and most RPG’s in general).

Story:

If you’re reading this review, then you’ve probably already heard the game’s general storyline: you live underground, you get dragon powers, and you’re trying to get to the surface. Sound’s boring right? Wrong. Capcom has made this seemingly simple plot into an exciting story of Ryu’s (the main character) growing determination to save his new friend, Nina, from a dieing world. This is really how Ryu develops throughout the story as his determination becomes stronger and stronger. All through the game, Ryu is able to accomplish astounding feats to protect his friends despite his low class status because of his dragon abilities, given to him near the beginning of the game. Once word of a dragon appearing gets out, it brings concern to even the most elite group in all of society. But why is Ryu’s power so important to them? You’ll have to play to find out. This is the second half of the two fold storyline. I think Capcom really made the best of a story that could have potentially been bland.

Gameplay:

This is the aspect of the game that completely diverts from what would be considered “the norm” of a typical RPG. First of all, there’s no world map (you’re underground after all). The layout of the game is really just one huge dungeon with different sectors and environments for you to explore. At times this can seem overwhelming, because you’re literally going from one mission to the next with hardly any breaks in between (if you want to call them breaks). But don’t worry, even if you’ve never played a so called “dungeon crawler” type game before, you’ll get used to it (I know I have), and you may even find it enjoyably challenging (as I have).

The next thing is that there’re no inns. Yes I know. This was a turn off for me at first as well, but once again, this is something you just get used to. This whole game runs on checks and balances, so to counter this, the game made healing items quite affordable; and the shops to buy them in, plentiful. Excluding the hard times you may have at the beginning of the game your first time through, you’ll find healing to be one of the least of your problems. It can be somewhat difficult at times to survive purely on healing items, but that just adds to the overall challenge of the game.

Probably the most ranted on aspect of the gameplay is the saving system. Dragon Quarter brings back the old concept of “hard and soft” saving. You can make a “soft” save anytime during the game (except while in a battle), which creates a temporary save file separate from your hard save file. Once you open a soft save, the file is deleted, so its main purpose to save quickly went you need to suddenly stop playing. A “hard” save can only be made at a save point called a Telecorder. This is the kind of save you’re probably used to. But the catch is that you must use a Save Token to make a hard save. At first this seems harsh, but once you learn to conserve your Save Tokens, you will have no problems with this system.

Another thing that’s been looked down upon by some is the dragon system. Basically, whenever you use your dragon powers (inside of battle or out). Your D-Counter goes up. When it hits 100%, your party is wiped out and you get a game over. Yes, this may anger all you BoF fans who enjoyed using dragon form freely, but the good part is that dragon form in this game redefines power. Let’s just say if you use dragon form in 99% of the fights in the game, including the games final bosses, it is impossible to lose unless to do so on purpose. I’m one of those guys who liked being liberal with dragon form, so when I first heard of this system I was skeptical too, but I don’t mind it now. It’s definitely not wise to shun this game because of the limited dragon system; you should at least give it a chance first.

As far as side quests go, I can’t say too much about them. Along with the Fairy Colony (yes, they’ve brought back the Fairy Village), there is only one side area and a secret dungeon to explore as far as I know. Sorry, no fishing… yes, it makes me sad too, because fishing was a great mini-game in the previous installments.

Finally, the most innovative aspect of Dragon Quarter’s gameplay is the Scenario Overlay system (SOL). SOL allows you to either restart from your last hard save point or restart the game from the beginning if you get wiped out or choose to give up, carrying over your stored and equipped items, skills, party experience points, and zenny. So, if you get killed by a tough boss, or your D-Counter reaches 100%, you can utilize SOL to continue your game and become stronger than you were before. When you restart, you also get to see cut scenes that you weren’t able to see before, therefore, revealing mysteries that couldn’t be answered before. This also applies (in a big way may add) to clearing the game. When you beat the game, you can start a new game with all the above items you had at the end of your last game. Not only that, but your D-ratio gets higher each time you complete the game and start over. What’s D-ratio? Your D-ratio is your potential rating. It starts off very low and gets higher and higher every time you beat the game. The higher your D-ratio, the more areas you can explore and the more items you can get. This redefines replay value, as you cannot fully explore this game your first time through.

Encounter/Battle System:

In a typical RPG, encountering enemies is something you don’t even have to think about. Well, that all changes here. In this game, the way you encounter enemies in the field is one of the most crucial factors in determining the battle’s outcome. This new encounter system adds a whole new challenge to everyday random battles. This unique system is called the Positive Encounter and Tactics System (PETS). As in games like Lunar and Grandia, you can see and interact with your enemies on the field before going into battle. If you attack the enemy on the field, you’ll get an extra turn at the beginning of the battle, but this works the opposite way as well. You can also set many different kinds of traps to distract, damage, or induce status changes to the enemy on the field. The game forces you to use out of battle tactics right from the get go, or else random battles will seem overwhelmingly difficult.

Now for the battle system. This was, in my opinion, the best battle system in the whole series. It is a turn based system that incorporates many aspects of real time battle. Basically, it’s as close to real time as turn based systems can get. To me it’s like Grandia’s and Chrono Cross’s battle systems combined. You fight in the same environment you were in on the field (like in BoF3) and you must move within your weapon’s range of the enemy in order to attack. Everything you do in battle costs AP: moving, attacking, ect. The good thing is that you regenerate one full AP gauge per turn, which you can use to your advantage. You attack using you equipped skills which fall into three levels according to their power or effect (level 1 being the lowest and three being the highest. If you’ve ever played Chrono Cross, you’ll find this to be very similar to its stamina system, except more powerful attacks aren’t necessarily less accurate. It’s also really cool because you can use different skills in succession of each other to create powerful combos.

The experience points system in this game is initially the same as in most RPG’s: you gain experience to level up. In Dragon Quarter, not only do you get regular experience points, but you also get Party Experience Points as well. The amount of Party XP you receive depends on how well you conduct yourself in the battle and how well you employ the PETS system. You can get big Party XP by defeating large enemy groups quickly and killing powerful enemies without taking damage. You accumulate Party XP as you would money (zenny). You can then distribute Party XP outside of battle to your characters.

Graphics:

Definitely the most criticized aspect of this game before it even hit the U.S. are the graphics. Just mentioning that they are cell shaded is enough to turn people away from this game, but I think what really did Dragon Quarter in were the screen shots. DO NOT TRUST THE SCREEN SHOTS, or any image you see outside of the actual game for that matter. When you’re actually playing the game, the graphics look excellent as far as cell shaded goes. Although the characters don’t appear to be up to standard, the environments and scenery look awesome and are just as good as in any other game out there. And you haven’t seen cool looking graphics until you’ve seen the big anime scene at the end. Then again, I certainly don’t nit pick when it comes to graphics.

Music/Sounds:

I’m really big on music in RPG’s, just because it’s usually impressive, and Dragon Quarter’s no different. Even though some of the music can be deemed as average, most of the songs have a grandeur that rivals that of the ever so impacting and grand melodies found in the Final Fantasy games. I like the fact that there are two different random battle themes and several different boss battle themes. The music also seems to always fit the setting and mood, whether you’re in a lonely borough sector or an upbeat techno style power plant. The sound effects in the game are also outstanding. From the terrific voice acting to the sword slashes and gun shots in battle, it’s all great.

Overall:

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter is definitely in contention of being the best game in the series. Although BoF3 is still my favorite, this game comes in a very close second. The seemingly simplistic story is exciting, enjoyable, and has more to offer than what meets the eye. Despite the aspects of gameplay that may make this game seem too challenging, there is enough fun factor to balance things out to make this game “enjoyably challenging”. The battle system is by far the best and most innovative one in the series, being enhanced in complexity and challenge by the new encounter system. Dragon Quarter has the best replay value of any RPG you’ll ever play because of its short length (I believe the definitive time is 15-20 hours) and the unprecedented SOL system. The graphics are good despite the cell shaded design, and the music is elevated in terms of style and grandeur compared to the previous installments. However, in spite of how I feel about the game’s fun difficulty, Dragon Quarter might be too hard for the casual gamer to handle. So to put it simply, if you’re a casual RPG player, rent this game. If you’re more serious about RPG’s or you’re a fan of the BoF series, then buy this game.

On a closing note, I’d just like to say I hope that Dragon Quarter gives the BoF series some U.S. popularity (although it doesn’t look like it so far). Then maybe Capcom will be motivated to put out new games for in this great series more often.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/03, Updated 07/31/03