Breath of Fire IV

"Capcom delivers a solid RPG, even though it has a strong similarity to all the other BoF's"

Capcom's BoF series has always been a solid one. The first two BoF's came out on the Super Nintendo, three and four came out on the PSX. Each BoF has a turned based engine, interesting characters, and an interesting storyline, like any good RPG should have. However, the series suffers from a huge problem, repetitiveness. Each BoF is almost indistinguishable from each other. All have a similar plot, a similar battle system, and a mute hero named Ryu. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves the player unsatisfied. When I beat BoF 3, and went on to four, It was almost as if nothing had changed very much, it was almost a replica of the game before it. Except for a few minor adjustments in the battle system, BoF 4 is not much different from 3 at all. Instead of going on to a new plot with different types of characters, BoF 4 continues the repetitiveness. Still, the story is a lot better than 3's, but this can leave the player under whelmed.

The game starts off introducing Nina and Cray, telling that they are on a quest to find Nina's missing sister (If anyone has every played BoF 3, they should know that Nina was the princess from there, and Cray looks stunningly like Rei, way to go for originality points Capcom). The duo is flying on a sand flier. When something goes wrong with the sand flier’s parts, it crashes to the ground, leaving them stranded in the desert. Nina goes out to find help, while Cray stays with the sand flier. In another stunningly reminiscent scene from BoF 3, Nina meets up with Ryu, who is suffering from amnesia once again. She explains the situation to him, and he agrees to help her on her quest.

This is just laziness from Capcom's writers. The game starts off practically the same as BoF 3 does, with Ryu butt naked and unconscious, not knowing who he is. Come on Capcom, for the next BoF, I want to see some originality.

The game also has another storyline mixed in about a man named Fou-Lu, who shares a similarity with Ryu. The both stories intertwine as the game unfolds.

However, as the game goes along, the story does progress and kick's BoF 3's story in the butt. Still, the similarities are a little upsetting, but the overall story is interesting enough to keep you interested.

Well, I do have to say with all the ranting about the story aside, Capcom made a solid, fun RPG. The battle system has been improved, and is more fun then it was in 3.

The battles allow you to have parties of 6, but only 3 can attack at a time. This is quite useful, if one of your characters gets offed by a baddie, you can swap him with another one in the back of your row. However, there's still enemies from the previous BoF's still put into here (why won't these stupid Eye-goos just leave me alone!). Another nice feature is that you can learn magic from people you meet during the game. Sadly, the gene splicing from BoF 3 is gone. Instead, now you can only turn into 1 dragon, instead of making combinations like you could in 3. Still, the overall battle system has been overhauled, so it's still good.

Like mini-games? You better, in BoF 4, there's tons. Almost every time you enter a town, you're playing a mini-game. Most of the games are fun, however, they get repetitive like crazy.

Another thing that got to me was the annoying control problems. Nothing too serious, but still, it's enough to frustrate the player.

Like the previous BoF, the world is in 3D, however, in this installment, you can rotate the camera a full 360 degrees, unlike in 3.

The music in the game is also a bit disappointing. I liked 3's outrageously weird music. This music isn't as fun. Except for the mini game music, i didn't really love any of the songs in it.

So, in the end, Capcom makes another solid BoF. Even if it does have repetitiveness problems, it still is a pretty good game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/01, Updated 08/08/01