Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

"Thank you! ...for playing the game to the end!"

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter (PAL version)

Introduction

I've been playing BoF series for quite sometimes. Before BoF:DQ, BoF IV is my favourite because of its battle system where you can combo attacks from party members to create a new attack. From my point of view, Breath of Fire is about the story of Dragon-powered Ryu and Wyndian Nina. There are some alterations in various parts in BoF:DQ, which upset some people.

This is a review for PAL version of BoF: DQ. I've just finished the game (40 hours) at the time this review was written. So, my memory still fresh and excitement level is still high and this is what I expect the gamers to find from playing and complete this game.

The fist impression of the game (5 hours), you can see that this is a very hard game. You don't have much money to spend on healing items and there is no Inns or camps to rest to refill your depleted HP. If you play the game by taking groups of enemies head on, it's likely that you could be dead or come out of the battle barely alive. Hang in there! Exploit the baits and traps and take advantage of extra turn as well as gaining more Exp for levelling up using Party Exp you gained from playing the game intelligently and effectively.

Once you get to know the game system and got more experiences and party members, you will feel great that you didn't give up on BoF: DQ in the beginning. I think you can use SOL system to gain some advantage, but I don't think you should do that unless...no...you shouldn't do that at all :-)

Story 10/10

Granted, I've only beaten the game once without SOL, so I don't know much of the story that got hidden by SOL system. They might as well be spoiler anyway. BoF:DQ story is simple. Ryu is a low ranking ranger. I believe he usually pair with Bosch on the mission. Today is no different, apart from the mission is to guard something to somewhere. Ryu met Nina later on. Nina was in trouble and Ryu jumped to help her (as usual). It is a race against time to get Nina to the surface, to the sky as soon as possible!

Help Nina reach the sky, simple as that. The game is so linear and you won't get lost anywhere in the mission. There is not much freedom in the game in the main story, but you might feel that you got to play to next part as soon as possible because you want to know what will happen next to the party (for the first time through the game, anyway). You've got the ability to skip the cut scenes as well if you have seen it before and want to get on with the game play.

Gameplay 10/10

This section has to be detailed because there are great things about them. It could as well help people to decide whether they should buy or rent or not touch the game.

Characters: Bosch joined with Ryu early in the game, then you will be playing with Nina and Lin. Just three characters. From my first time through the game, I don't think there was much in character development. However, the emotion and excitement were high enough as it is. I bet that you will learn more from SOL scenes. Without SOL scenes though, you believe that you will have good experience with the characters.

Exploring: You played the game in underground world. Most of time you will be in the building of some sorts. Tunnels, laboratories, office, some icy cave and some sort of mansion. No more beautiful world of BoF that you might have seen from other BoF games in the series. No forest, no grassland. No rivers, lakes or ocean to fish. Yeah, there are some flooding areas if you could count them. Water effect is quite nice, I might add. You can control the camera in non-living quarter. Camera was fixed in living quarter, but that shouldn't be a problem while running in town. They are all small anyway. It could take you minutes to run through area (without fighting). Early dungeons could take something like 2 hours to beat (with fighting almost every enemies on the way). Later the figure could be something like 3-4 hours to beat a single dungeon. Time might be vary, but that what happen in my game.

Battle system: This is really really big aspects in the game. Some say it a total rip-off from various games. I don't care. I think it's great. The fact that you can't combo with other party members worried me when I've heard about the battle system because I'm a fan of BoF IV system. I can't get a hang of it for a while. I don't understand the concept of combo in this game. If you can't get this down to your second nature, the battle will be very hard indeed. The battle is turn-based with AP points control almost everything. You can manually move in the battlefield (which is your actual game world, no warping to some fighting arena or something like that). You can assign skills to your weapons and shields where applicable and each face button (except triangle) assigned to each skill/move. You can press R2 to activate the combo system. If you have enough APs and that move is not an ending move (i.e. Ryu's X-Blade), you can string moves together and every time the effectiveness of each combo increase by 10%. This is essential for later fight where combo is needed. I can't employ traps that were on the battlefield for some reasons, but that's just me and it's not necessary. I think.

Dragon system: BoF games have got something to do with Dragon power. Fan's favourite might be gene-splicing system in BoF III. BoF:DQ has only one Dragon form to use. A cooler version of warrior dragon/ hybrids form. BoF:DQ is so powerful that its power has to be limited by D-Counter. Using it and you will face certain consequences. Probably the best dragon system in my opinion. It gave me the feeling of great power as well as how dangerous it is to use this power. I've got my full satisfaction from conserving dragon power until the very end of the game. I suggest you try it too. The feeling that you can blast away those bosses like nobody's business is so great. One or two hits from your pumped up dragon from and you will be watching your deserved ending sequence! One of the best endings!!! IMO.

Fairy colony: I've heard it was turned into Ant colony. I was relieved to discover that fairy still run the place :-) This is also getting better and better. I have been using colony to make money. Too bad, you can't buy healing items or rest in the colony like it used to be, but that could ruin the game set up. However, you might want to keep skill shop where you can sell junk stuff you pick up without going back to town, so keep this suggestion in mind even if you were done with the skill shop. I don't think you can master colony in one play through. I sill have a lot of work to do from excavating etc etc. Good thing that you can save money in the Bank that you can have in the colony, so you can withdraw from it in your next game, after clearing the game. You can sill manage the same colony from your previous game. This is great IMO.

Fishing: It's gone! Sadly. But, then, you should be fishing while Nina needing help!

Save system: PAL version be warned, Capcom removed Temporary Save from PAL version for some reasons and gave us 9 save token at the start as well as more save slots. The fact remains that you still have play through the dungeon before getting to new save point (via telecoder thingy). I was able to complete it with 14 saves in 40 hours (thanks for colony review board for information :-) So, there should be no problem playing the game. It was reported that you can get more 9 save token if you do SOL restart or restore and it might not effect your D-Ratio evaluation (but I don't know much about this). My suggestion is that you've got to plan your playing time. Something likes 2 hours per dungeon early in the game and 3-4 hours per dungeon later in the game.

SOL: Scenario OverLay system... I have absolutely no idea at first. If you play the game without SOL restart or continue, you might just able to see one SOL scene in one of the side quest. It really shines if you clear the game without SOL and replay it from your clear game save. You will have experience with SOL that you will see from that replay. It also gives you better game play experience, IMO. Let's see you might want to get on with the game the first time you play the game and you don't want to play a cinema game where there might be cut scenes every hour or so. The first game is well presented without SOL, but SOL make this game even better for replay value...and, of course, it could help you to gain more level and skills.

PETs: I don't like random battles of Japanese RPG ever since I played Chrono Trigger (I mean that you see almost enemies on the map and fight them on the map in CT, and I like that). BoF:DQ did better by allowing you to gain advantage (extra turn) in battle by attacking it/them on the map as they seeing/approaching you or busy eating your baits. Great system. I'm sure you will enjoy it. If you don't like battle, you can employ your baits/trap and get pass them without fighting as well.

Graphic 10/10

Many games are cel-shaded these days. BoF: DQ did well with its graphic. The characters and game world blend together quite beautifully. One of the good-looking games on PS2. Spells and attack effect is quite nice. Characters might look weird, but monsters were design nicely. I like the wobbling Goos that have been one of a trademark for BoF monsters.

Sound 8/10

Music is great in this game. I don't care much about game music really, unless it's really annoying one. You can have a concert hall (look like music shop to me) in colony like the last two previous games in the series. I've heard that big name people work on music used in this game, so I don't think you would be disappointed with the music part. The sound effect is nice as well. You got different sound according to the surface you are running on. The game has no voice-over like most games on the market. However, the ending movie is fully voiced ..er..in Japanese. To tell you the truth, the voice acting sound funny. I don't understand Japanese, but the emotion or something doesn't feel right.

Replay 10/10

Great great great replay value. I can play the game strait away after I finish it. You will be treated for your hard work with SOL scene that can be seen only by clearing the game and play from that save. If you play RPG for the story, it will be worth it to play through the game again (and again) to learn more about story. Why don't they include all the scenes in the first play? I don't know. Probably, they want gamers to have an incentive to replay the game again. It also makes the game less boring during the replay. You can play the game with your end game equipments (those that were equipped and stored in the locker). You might have some Party EXP to level up your character from the start as well (my Party EXP can level Ryu up to level 30 or something in my replay). Colony is also carried over to a new game, so you don't have to start from zero with your beloved fairy/ant colony.

Conclusion 10/10

It's hard to tell people to buy the game because it's quite hard to get into. Renting it might be a good investment. Fans of the series might want to try it that way as well because it was changed a lot from the previous instalment. However, BoF: DQ is really a gem if you can see it from my experience with the game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/03