Breath of Fire IV

"The series become stronger!"

Breath of Fire 4 continues the series' trend of including Ryu and Nina as central characters but there is a little difference. Ryu is no longer shown up as a member of the Dragon Clan that were of key importance in all the previous games in the Breath of Fire series but does have an equally startling secret to his history and origin. Fou-Lou is a character that is incredibly important in this game that is mysterious and very interesting indeed as you are able to control his scenario at certain points of the game to give you, the player another side to the story. The good old traditional RPG is again used in this forth installment which is not a bad thing at all.

GAMEPLAY

Breath of Fire 4 is a game that has hugely all the aspects that has made this series so successful. Capcom have made just about everyone more accessible to both beginners and experts alike. The battle system now enables you to create and use combos which needless to say boosts the game in the playability aspect. You can create combos from just about any skill - Physical skills, enemy skills, magics skills, you name it. This combo system is very innovative. And the fact that you can be rewarded for achieving a certain number of combos gives additional incentive for using combos!

By pressing the SQUARE button in battle, you can now find additional info about a particular enemy. This is a helpful option because it may tell you which enemy skill you may learn and any tips to defeat the particular enemy.

Learning enemy skills has now been made simpler and fairer. They have rejected the Examine icon that was present in Breath of Fire 3, now all you have to do is guard or defend to be able to learn enemy skills. The skills option in the camp gives a list of all the skills (though unnamed) in the game which in itself is very useful in letting you keep track of how many more skills there is left to learn. (This is ideal for perfectionists like myself.)

The masters system returns also. Learning skills from masters no longer rely on leveling up but relies on performing certain tasks to earn the skill. The tasks set increases in difficulty and sets you an additional incentive to steer away from the main quest for a little bit to try and earn these tasks. The variety is incredible ranging from earning certain amounts of fishing points, reaching certain numbers of combos, meeting different typs of monsters and so on. You may also see cameos from Breath of Fire 3!

The fairy colony sub-game sees a very welcome return to Breath of Fire 4. Like the previous game, you can set the fairies to hunt for food, to build and clear and to set up shops in order to create a thriving fairy village or a failing village if you neglect it for long. There is more variety in this fairy game in that you can now set up houses in any suggested position you are presented, there are new mini-games that are pretty addictive and so on.

The fishing game from the past Breath of Fire returns yet again. It is just as addictive and the incentives for fishing is much more accessible in this game in that Manillo's trading shop can be found in various cities instead of having to fish him out.

GRAPHICS

Similar in a sense to Breath of Fire 3 in that there are no flashy, showy graphics in the game. (Except in the FMV intro) As always, I emphasise that graphics should not be a determining point in whether you play a game or not. The graphics and color are beautiful all the same and the atmosphere of the game is well defined within these graphics.

MUSIC/AUDIO

Capcom had decided to keep the original Japanese voices in the game in both the intro and the game battles. This is very nice because there are no English dubbing to ruin the game origins and atmosphere. There are some excellent town/battle music, most notably the Synesta town music and the Fou Continent battle music. Everyone should be able to find a piece of music that they can enjoy and you can listen to many of them in the fairy village's music shop if you wish.

LENGTH

Don't let the 1 disc mislead you. This is a very long game if you take your time and play it at your own pace. The mini-games such as fishing can get you hooked and time can fly by without you knowing. And because there's one story to tell from two different perspectives, this adds to the fun and value of what the game offers.

DIFFICULTY

This game is balanced between easy and hard. There are no particularly easy section but there are some really difficult bosses late in the game that really does test your gameplay flexibility and your skills overall. But it is good to say that overall, the difficulty lies in the centre and is not unfairly imbalanced.

RENT OR BUY

All Breath of Fire fans should automatically buy this game and the good news is that it is an excellent RPG. Capcom has successfully managed to keep the quality of this series consistantly high and this latest offering should not disappoint. New players would not be missing anything if they start on Breath of Fire 4 without playing the previous installments. Capcom has made this game much more user-friendly than Breath of Fire 3 so anyone is welcome. Cautious players may wish to rent the game first, but I recommend buying it because it is a game that presents a fair challenge to Squaresoft's Final Fantasy series.

Here is a breakdown of the Pros and cons:

PRO'S

Battle interface more user-friendly
Character rotation and combo system is unique and useful
Intertwining storyline between Ryu and Fou-Lou adds intrigue and suspense
Fairly strong character development
Music is pleasant and addictive on occasions
It is a long game...

CON'S

Camera rotation may annoy some people
Absence of the gene splicing system
The US and UK/PAL versions have censored scenes...
Not a difficult game in the hands of RPG experts

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/01, Updated 08/14/01