Breath of Fire IV

"This should be Breath Of Fire's final attempt to grab fans"

The story so far..

Buying into the Breath Of Fire series and walking away a happy customer has always been a precautious and precarious decision for both critics and fans. Since it's first ever release for the SNES, the BOF series has installed itself to it's fifth game, spanning on two other consoles. But more importantly, the license has also swung back and forth from average gaming to underrated RPG genius. The last game was a clear examply of this - I happened to like the game and would have written a review for it, if it would still work but alas - but I also know many people who hated the game fullfillingly also. But from mere specualtion onto Breath Of Fire IV, there is signs of reinvention and an uplift in graphics, look and the whole feel of the series. So it begs, literally, that this has to be the time for the uprise of Breath Of Fire. There has to be a pedigree that differenciates the perception of good and bad and mixed opinions.

But as likeable as Breath Of Fire IV is, the pedigree hasn't been achieved yet. But in consolation, this game is by far the strongest I've played and critically it has surpassed prior games also.

Maybe this is the fact that Breath Of Fire IV is basically harmless and somewhat feels different to BOF III. The introductary plot, or mission, seems slow and takes it's time to gradually swing into the game story but this isn't exactly a bad thing - just exceptionally boring to gamers who are used to fast paced action. It puts the gamer in their own pace and walks them through the storyline without resorting to complicated twists and turns. But as the game progresses, the plot, well, doesn't. And in times, it's vague as to what you're supposed to be doing with no keylines therefore leaving you with mere assumptions of where to go and what to do next.

The perfect example of this, and I've noticed that other people agree, is that at the very beginning of the game, you have to acquire a sandflier to move to another continent. This takes literally hours off the gameplay, with hardly any plot being covered, just side tracks and trips that complicate the way instead. I'm not sure if Capcom were deliberately trying to achieve a certain effect with this, but it's definetly not appealing.

Ryu, his halloween costume, the princess, the talking robot and the sandflier.

The main storyline is the disappearance of the trademark Nina's sister, Elina. Nina encounters Ryu and takes a liking to him as she has done before and they travel together, with her friend Cray, they embark to search for Elina, but also discovering more valid reasons for Ryu being mysterious and ahem asifwedidn'tknow cough, a dragon. What basically starts out as a simple rescue mission, there are various hinderences that occur in their way, such as war and corruption which ties in to what happened to Elina. It's cliched, but very interesting all the same. And it does lead up into a satisfying dramatic conclusion too, concerning Elina.

But, even if the plot was somehow extrodinary and spectactular like Final Fantasy VII, for instance, it would remain cliched in all attempts. Why?. Because in every BOF game, their trademark of having the same main character, Ryu is always a dragon who doesn't really understand his powers. Why can't Ryu get pissed off and angry at certain scenes the way support characters can? (But I can confirm that the characters ARE definetly Norweigan wood). Why is it that aside from battles, Ryu is virtually inadequate to the support characters?. Why are we being treated to simple expressions as his dialogue?. And why is Nina still a Wyndian Princess who pretends she has never met Ryu before?. Why for the love of God?!. Why?!.

The fact of the matter is that Ryu is as much active in the game as a batteried chicken. He's boring, bland and seen it all before (How literall is that?). The other characters mother him like he cannot talk and practically serves as an invalid, being comatose for the whole course of the game. He seems ironically inferior to everyone else. I was disappointed with some of the characters of this game. Nina remains boring and smiley as always and as the love interest (or maybe not in this case?). Scias the dog mercenary (I mean literally, a mutt) remains aloof and silent and uninvolved with the characters or anything that is happening either. Nina's friend Cray is also too serious while Ursula joins too late and for mild purposes in the first place.

But then there is Ershin, the clumsy robot. Funny that a robot generates more character than the other characters or even the MAIN one. But aha!. That's because Ershin is actually the most developed character I've seen in an RPG. She is more than a robot and unveils herself around some very shocking and suprising twists in the game. Underneath that hard armour of tin lies an undiscovered species muwha- you get the idea. Ershin is one of those characters who may even make some people roll around with laughter and tissues to wipe their tears - ambiguous as some of the twists are indeed sad. But it just goes to show what a developed character she is in general.

Then there is Fou Lou, who isn't part of the group but the main baddie. You play him in segments to illustrate his own ressurection and journey whilst being on the boring and longlasting missions with Ryu and co. His journey collaborates his rise to power, his entrance to being the offical end boss and shows his journey and Ryu's. This way, you don't really have to face in him the game until the very end and can see his uprise to becoming the nemesis, which is non cliched from other bosses. Hurray. BOF finally does something original. My little sick joke of course (which some would say Breath Of Fire has been).

Less excruiating puzzles, more mini games and an extravanganza of fun.

Most people seem to think Breath Of Fire IV had a completely renewed gameplay system, I thought the battle system hadn't changed much from the last game but everyone seemed to, and taking a huge like to it so I'm not bothered. My criticism, which is indeed personal, is that the world wap is no longer something you can directly have control in. It is route and pointer based, meaning you can only travel to locations you have been given, this in my opinion, wrecks havoc on people's prefference to explore. But you can fight the random battles by stopping and entering small dungeon areas when a question mark appears. Again, this is a personal flaw. And minor to the perception of Breath Of Fire IV as a whole.

And for the battle system, some consider it to be the strongest point of the game. This is true. Despite the heavy criticism, I enjoyed Breath Of Fire III's battle system too, if they did get a tad repetitive. Here, the facelift of the game structure is continued, but very lightly. You can have a party of three in a battle who each can make their commands before an enemy attacks and then, regarding the stats, you'll see who attacks first out of the party and the enemies. I suppose, as small as it is, it gives a turn based format to it. But nothing compared to Vandal Hearts here.

All six characters you can collect do participate in battles, in a turn, you can swap a character to one of the left out characters in the back row. So for instance, if Ryu was getting his ass whipped you could replace him for Cray to take his place while Ryu took a backseat out of the battle (Out of game would be better). This has been used before I'm sure, but for me, it destroys a lot of the difficulty in the game but it is a neat concept in the first place.

One feature I particularily didn't understand or utilise well was the combo system. Which basically combines "hits" you have unleashed on an enemy. It doubles the damage but only when you use special or learned attacks and abilities and finally, magic. A small box in the upper section on the battle screen will apear when you use magic or an ability, the more enemies, the more combos. It co-ordinates to using magic, where fire and wind can combine to give a united magic spell using two characters which would defaultly be Nina and Ursula. It also deploys some extra strategy to using the right characters in certain battles. It's quite good, but not something I have grasped yet. Nevertheless, I'm sure there are fans out there who will indefinetly like this.

A quick note would be that the fishing game and many other mini games are included in the game. One I found um, bizarre, to say the least was the Faeries world. It's where the faeries....live. Basically you transport there using the camp (I love that aspect also, so fresh and cosy for an RPG to sit around a fire and share hearty tales with your comrades...ah..). The faeries will provide you with a selection of mini games for fun and items, they also have their own shops. Their world or houses can upgrade the amount of battles you've been in and how many you're doing. But faeries....jeez.

But in general, when going from town to town, discovering what you're doing or just losing interest can be a common thing. Some of the scenarios feel the exact same as the previous one, and the one after that. And sometimes in a certain scenario, you could be halfway through a dungeon and think "What the HELL am I doing?". There is no indication sometimes and well, poo to that.

My opinion is that the gameplay is a decent and enjoyable aspect of the game that should silence some of the critics for the series. And hey, the camera angle is no longer a bother, with the rotation being active at the press of a button.

You know, Ryu's transformation sequence into the dragon looks very similiar to Pokemon.

The graphics are something of a divided thing also. When I first played the game, my eyes seemed to be fixed on the cell shaded sprite characters of Nina and Cray, which I thought "bloody hell!". It looked amazing. But the world is pseudo 3D, marginally bigger graphics but exceptionally the same to that of Grandia. This is clever and effective because it banishes the mistake of characters and locations blending in too well, with great graphical detail in the locations. Thus being a 3D environment, unlike the responsive Final Fantasy camera angles, Breath Of Fire IV simply makes you move it yourself when you need to. I didn't mind, but many others did.

In battle the graphics seem to adapt more to the sprites. I think in battle, you'll see the highlight effect of the new graphic system which shines. The summon ability is very neat and cool but long, and if you have those kind of long sequences, at least make them worthy like the GF's of Final Fantasy. But, as I recently discovered, you can in fact, ahem, skip them. Okay okay, who's perfect then?. Huh?. Yeah, what's I thought.

The game is alive with the sound of music.

Musicality!. Is a new word I've just discovered. Ha. Anyway, the music in this game has a crisp ethnic Japanese and Indian feel to it. Especially in Fou Lou's battle theme music, which the sitar improvises neatly. The other music, as in town music resembles most ambiences in RPG towns; happy go lucky until monsters start to parade. Not my thing at all. But as it's a personalised thing, the music is something that can and mostly does illustrate so, well, I can't complain. For sound affects, there isn't a great deal, there is a tinge of voice acting. And when I say tinge, I mean prick-le. Ha, I get away with lot's. Anyway, the voice acting is words like "Hurgh!" "Yaaa" "Aaah" and Nina's apparent squealing to finding out she's been drugged which made her lose her memory and shackle up with someone who can't even say her name. I liked this touch as it added just something to the feel of the game. I don't know what it is, but there you go. Spice!. That's it. It added spice....whew.

Breath Of Fire IV remains to be seen and heard of - it's bloody impressive!.

The biggest blow to Breath Of Fire is when an angry fan smashes it up with a baseball bat or throws it out of the window. Sorry, I'm sure I took something this morning. What the problem is with Breath Of Fire IV is that it's too mellow and unspectacular than it has to be. I can just about guarantee you that once you complete it and rewarded the, shameful but I'll use ambiguity, controversial (believe me, you'll have opinions) ending, you'll just tick off Breath Of Fire IV as a conquest.

That is because for the most part, Breath Of Fire IV's challenge remain unremarkable and unconventional, even to that of the prior game. And the bosses in which I did lose at, were in my second time playing because I took them for granted in the infinity degree. Shows you what happens to smart asses. You could even call some of the final bosses in the last dungeon pathetic in their A.I. If you had the simplest strategy, you could win. It's that easy. But one thing that could keep you occupied is learning the skills, differently and independently from the various masters around the world. I didn't because I saw no need for it but I'm clutching at straws you can see, can't you?.

Dans ensemble mon amis, Breath Of Fire IV isn't a must, a need or an exclusive game. It's just a normal, plain and time killing RPG. It will suprise you, it offers that much and maybe most people will enjoy it compulsively, but it won't convert the fanbase it really needs to survive or even rival to that of Final Fantasy. The replayability and lack of explosive plotline and gameplay (despite how good they are) assure this. But for what it is, I liked Breath Of Fire IV and considered it to be worth the budget I rated it previous to when I wanted it (£20, and I got it for £19.99, so I beat the budget...).

Expect better from Breath Of Fire III but not universal proportions, and this game is for you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/04, Updated 07/30/04