Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

"The fifth installment of the dismal series leaves you wondering why the bother."

The initial reaction to those preview screenshots of Breath Of Fire V would have put any OAP on a ventilator. They were quite hideously cheap looking, people reviling the graphics of the last two games would be thrown into torture. Not being one for cell shading, the graphics were putridly fuming off everything rotten looking about a game. Many had hoped the game would steer away from the cell shading brutality like Suikoden 3 decided against. Then again, the graphics, as disfiguring as they appeared, they distracted the main thing that should have been on people's minds - the actual being of Breath Of Fire pending an arrival on the Playstation 2.

Having never played the first two Breath Of Fire's, I have formed enough opinion from the grapevine, to say that the Playstation efforts have not competed so well and have drowned in controversy and a possible boycott of Capcom handling the series. Breath Of Fire III came across a pitiful and worthless entry to the striding series while the more slightly acclaimed Breath Of Fire IV was what many assumed to be the last lifeline of the series, and still accumulating nothing more than average conclusions from people. Now the Breath Of Fire series lies in a gutter, out of their heads and distinctly having a balanced audience - maybe the Playstation 2 could revitalise the whole product, but most likely it wouldn't (as people predicted). However, Capcom's first mistake was the actual graphics because sadly, they thwarted pre antipcation for the game, and led to slow comercial figures. The game did well in the brethren of RPG's - and reigned number one in the game charts.

In honesty, Breath Of Fire V is the boldest of the bunch. However, the courage doesn't match with confidence leading to yet another entry that will divide people's opinions rather than just stun people. The outcry and response to the sudden combination of unusual unorthodox gameplay (the battle system is unremarkable) and sunburning graphics is definetly something that is only brave, but also reckless. After around a hour of playing the game, you will be hit with a wave of insecurity....

....Of feeling either: Is Breath Of Fire V harmlessly different or an aimless waste of opportunity?. At best, Breath Of Fire V will have just around enough charm to lure in the odd gamer in stages, but never is the game ever standout or cutting edge definement of a modernised RPG. The production of the game flirts with the pretention that it was a deliberate move to make the game messy. There is a great feeling a loss contained in the game, as the potential of actually making a strike on the Playstation 2 could and probably would have done the saga the greatest benefit; acceptance. Personally, the bizarre and rather unwashed stance of this game leaves me with the impression that now Capcom would indeed be best to hand over the rights to maybe, Square-Enix?. After this attempt, the series is much indeed in the territory of against all odds.

At first, either consulting the manual or just reading into the first accounts of the game, the plot seems rather a good thing. Thousands of years ago, a natural catastrophe of a disaster descended onto the world resulting that the habitants had to sentence themselves to live underground. You play the everlasting Ryu, who is a ranger, with the task of hunting the underground monsters out to keep the people safe. Along with his partner, the ambitious Bosch, the main objective of Breath Of Fire V is to break out of the undergound suburbs by reaching the surface of the main world again. There is a efficiency called the "D Ratio", that is a serial ranking given to these rangers. Ryu is caught in a medium of rangers who have or haven't qualified for higher ranking. His partner Bosch, seems to be moving up swiftly though.

Introducing itself in a slow and unpredecented fashion, Ryu is firmly assigned to a mission of securing shipment that is undergoing transportation. Along with Bosch, you will come across some very early and mean enemies (that certainly gave me a run for my money). In traditional disaster terms of the RPG, the cargo is hijacked and Ryu and Bosch are split up. And this, begins the adventure of Breath Of Fire V. As normal as it may seem, there are many sidetrips to Breath Of Fire V's plot that stems into interesting territory - but nothing nowhere near mind blowing.

The plot does more than to touch up on a escape journey, there will be many hinderences stopping you from reaching the surface. Cue on the expected terrorism, illegal science experiments and the classic corruption and betrayal. The character of Ryu has a mild personality, giving him more dialogue than he has ever received. But in return, the Breath Of Fire love interest (or just ho, as some have given her) Nina, is now the "mute" one. Still, Bosch is the cliched "cool best friend" material, but a striking personality towards the dark game nontheless. But ultimately, for a game that will face many conflicts with the nature of the alternative gameplay, Capcom should have pulled out all the stops to make up for it. And sadly, they haven't here when it comes to character innovation.

This has been a long problem with any Breath Of Fire game. Strong heroes such as Cloud Strife and Squall Lionheart have stood out for their emotional impact in their titles, Ryu just does not seem afflicted by anything that goes in Breath Of Fire - and a lot does happen to him. What about the struggle to cope with knowing you're only half human, half dragon?. Five games and emotionally, Capcom have never exploited this weakness. Or the ongoing liason mistaken for a spiritual connection between the two characters of Ryu and Nina - why are they so important a fixture in the series?. Their personalities have both stayed the same throughout the whole course of the series, why?. Wouldn't it have been more interesting if we had saw them grow older, or grow to adapt to different stances in the world?. The cruel neglection of these two protaginists have been severe on the plots therefore equally being mean to gamers. Disappointingly, the game only has four characters. And three are only implicated as an important part of the story. And the showcase of Ryu's dragon self is only revealed once. This has something to do with D-System. And one minor problem with the fourth character, Lin, is that many found her a extremely difficult character to use in battle (considering she was supposed to be the dark horse character in battle).

We come to the pivatol moment of the game - the gameplay. Now, to the credit of Breath Of Fire V, it is a completely fresh idea. But people who have not played Final Fantasy Tactics, and from what I'm told, the Biohazzard series, then Breath Of Fire V may be a little misleading. Breath Of Fire V has become a strategy based game in terms of battle. The reinvention Capcom has obviously opted for doesn't work, and the repercussions on the game almost seem unfair.

The backgrounds are basically the caverns and mine shifts in the underground world that Ryu roams in. But now the monsters are on screen and will run into you when they see you, but unlike RPG's who have also used this aspect, Breath Of Fire V allows you to initiate who strikes first in battle. Therefore, with the trademark action given to a character, if you swing your sword and strike the enemy, you will have the first turn. To be honest, unless you do this, you could pretty much die - it makes all that difference. But also, which I do think is a good step (even though I prefer random battles) is that you can "trap" your enemies with a concept called the "PET" system. Basically you can acquire items to distract or hold off enemies. The items variate from meat to dynamite. Commendable at best, but it isn't enough to save the gameplay.

In battle, everything will be controlled by AP. When you engage combat, you can use the whole room, but you move via a circle area. Say you move to the end of a circle bubble, the circle will start over again from where you're standing. But now moving and attacking costs AP (in the fashion of Jagged Alliance). You can choose the type of attack with the controller buttons. The X, Square, Triangle and O buttons will have a different form of attack and there are three levels of different moves. If you have enough AP, you can combine attacks, which will increase the damage by a short percentage. Budgeting how you move and what you do is all very well related to the word strategy, but that doesn't mean that the battles won't get irritable.

The saving grace perhaps, is the fact that using items won't cost AP and you can learn new skills (as in any other strategy RPG game). You can gain them in many ways. By opening chests and stealing them from monsters (difficult ones). The abilities will help boost the D-Ratio, and build your acceptance or stance in the Breath Of Fire V society. Other than that, it's pretty fictitious. You D Ratio will graduate in progression, and if you die, it will be cut in half. And this is my main qualm about Breath Of Fire V - the bayed decision to restart and the D-System.

In this game, if you die, you have to restart at the beginning of the game. Yes, that's right. You will have to start from the be-ginn-ing. Capcom then tries to play fair in the fact that they give you the option to carry half of your experience and items over to the new game by loading from where you last saved. This is not good. Because the skills, items and levels you have acquired will be thrown out of the window accordingly and you have to get past those bothersome monsters for the hundreth time that you couldn't defeat a boss. So everytime you fight a major boss, it's more than the party's life at stake. Unfairness is what is is I'm afraid.

And the D-System is so unconventional that it will take forever to appreciate it. It states itself in the game after Ryu has awoken his dragon self within him and there will be a pulsing bar on the screen. This will very slowly increase during the course of the game (as long as you're playing, not by the events that happen). This becomes a percentage, and when the percentage reaches 100%, the game will end. Regardless of where you're at, if you haven't completed the game, it will just end. In any case, Breath Of Fire V has a time limit to complete the game. And what's more, if you use the traditional dragon powers of Ryu, you are charged with a 10% strike against the percentage bar. Unfair?. It has the rewards but yes, it is. Restarting will open more of the story, but the game is pushing to complete the game even faster, and by restricting free use of the dragon powers, they are throwing obstacles in doing so. Thus, it presents a thorough challenge, but the strange position you are put in is very unsavoury.

Another reason why this could be considered to be a bad move is that Capcom are shoving you to complete the game in shorter time that the game even consists of. The length of the game is very mediocre and the mere battle challenge of the game alone would have preserved decent length but the D-System can push you so far that the game (if experienced) will be completed in 10-20 hours.

As previously said, I had already decided that the graphics for the game were hideous. And that was only the character designs. All four main characters have shabby outfits, boring styles which makes them undistinctive. They are never able to stand out from generic characters either, which would be a problem in any RPG. But as you're playing in an underground world, everything is pretty much dark and dismal looking. This is understandable, but very dull to play in. The lighting is very bad, and the cell shading may outline the borders of characters, items and the environment - but nothing ever looks toned. To say the graphics are unique is true - but it is an acquired taste I find with any cell shading graphics. The movie sequences amazingly repent though, with decent and cell shading animation that pays off nicely. If only the in game graphics could have stressed the same. Unfortunately, Breath Of Fire V loses out tremendously.

Directed by Yasonori Mitsuda, who I am told has worked on games from Xenogears to Chrono Cross, the music is not an important factor by now. But as I listened to the music to give it a score, I found it very familliar. Technically, the music isn't bad - but it does sound dated. There are the music that fills in the scenes of happiness to sadness to spine tingling twists but nothing that ever really makes a scene that bit more memorable. But occassionally, there will be an infectious slice of music that just manages to get under your skin for the humming sessions. And the battle music is more of a soundtrack composition from a movie. Breath Of Fire V may not reign supreme next to the almighty sounds from Final Fantasy, but it holds it's own grounds at times. The next thing in line for improvement would be full on voice acting. It would certainly refresh the poor characters from feeling under developed.

All in all, Breath Of Fire V proposes mild fun in gameplay terms that would most likely suit the hardcore gamers of RPG's. There is a system called the Scenario Overlay which adds new cutscenes in the game after more plays. This contributes massively to the plot in general, but is it enough to guarantee more replayability?. After the dismal and frustrating adventure of the D-System, will you really want to put yourself through it again?. Hardcore gamers will relish in the fact that there is a reason to play again, but for the rest of us, it's pretty much dead in the water. In time to come, this is not how I personally want RPG's to be. It seems that the market of RPG's are striving to makes changes for the audience who are not exactly looking for them. I'm not one for calling Breath Of Fire, I've been a long sympathetic fan. I don't like seeing Breath Of Fire mauled by the press or the fans - but here, it very well could happen again. It misses out of the crunch, and the deluxity of the promise of using the Playstation 2. Breath Of Fire V has my respect in the sense that they went out with all guns and tried something new. It didn't strike a chord with me, but I'm sure it will have many fans lusting after it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/04