Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter review (PS2)

Capcom’s Breath of Fire series has been around since the days of the SNES and while I’ve only previously played the forth instalment of the franchise, I was still a little sceptical over the enhancements that would be made for this, the fifth and first to be released on the current generation of consoles. To the uninformed, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a role-playing game that sees you controlling Ryu (there’s a big surprise for Breath of Fire fans), a lowly grunt of an underground (quite literally) military establishment and his companions as they fight their way through various areas in the hope of reaching the surface.

While previous Breath of Fire games have been rather straightforward affairs, Dragon Quarter surprised me with a set of interesting gameplay twists and a plot that is much less focussed on the usual ‘save the world’ theme of console role-playing game and more on the characters themselves. A refreshing prospect indeed, it seems that the game gets more complex (and needless to say, better) as you learn more tricks and abilities.

The heart of a good RPG

Probably the most important feature of a RPG is its battle system; with a game full of enemies and bosses to kill, unless the battles are fun, non-repetitive and take more than hitting the attack button each turn to win, it will fall flat on its face. Fortunately, Dragon Quarter has a good combination of old and new systems that work very well. Doing away with random encounters that have plagued many gamer’s patience, all monsters are visible when simply walking around and a battle begins when either the monster or your characters launch an attack, giving the attacker a free turn.

Still turn based, your actions in battle are performed using AP (Ability Points) that are recharged each turn. Different actions and attacks cost different amounts of points and if you want to move around at all you will have to spend a hefty chunk of your points to evade enemies. This opens up a lot of tactical wizardry that certainly remains interesting, as new actions are unlocked throughout the game. Not only will you earn regular experience points from your victories but Party XP which can be stored up and allocated as you see fit. While random encounters are removed, with the clever traps system you can weaken enemies before battle or even avoid them altogether if you are running low on health.

More statistics than you can shake a D20 at

As if the gameplay itself wasn’t interesting enough already, Ryu’s chance encounter with a dragon unlocks his own dragon powers and a slowly rising percentage counter in the corner of the screen that moves faster if you use your more powerful attacks and abilities. The catch is that you must complete the game before it reaches 100% otherwise it will consume you entirely and end the game. Cleverly, if you realise that it is running too high to finish the game, you will not have to start a new game, but can use the SOL system that allows you to either return to your last save point or restart the entire game keeping much of your collected abilities and Party XP among other things.

I did originally think this was little more than a gimmick to add a point to the replayability meter, but used correctly, the SOL system is an incredible boost to the player’s arsenal, and shouldn’t be shied away from for fear of having to replay through the twenty odd hour long game. Interestingly, some cinematics aren’t viewable through the first run through, giving more incentive to keep replaying to improve your statistics and see more of the game. Ryu is also stuck with a ‘D-Counter’ which basically shows his social status and depending on how you perform in the game, on your next play through you will likely be rewarded by a raise in the counter that lets you access more areas and will no doubt boost your ego.

The flip side

As welcome as the departures from the norm are, it doesn’t stop the more frustrating features of the game, such as the rarity of save points and the save tokens you need to save at one. Normally, boss battles take place at the end of a long dungeon and you’ll have no save points nearby meaning that if you are unprepared, you’ll get into battle and be swiftly dispatched. As the game progresses, enemies do become quite stupidly difficult to beat, and incredibly powerful, leaving little margin for error in your attack strategy, although it makes the trap system even more important, especially if you do feel the need to avoid enemies.

Graphically the game is very pleasing. It is certainly dungeon-centric with a claustrophobic feel throughout, but in style all characters are well designed showing emotion well, especially with the stylish cell-shaded look. Visual effects such as blurring, magic and the particle system look great when used, and a consistently smooth frame rate should please everyone. Cinematics are presented within the game engine nicely but because there is no voice acting you must often skip through the text manually – in doing so the text bubbles seem rather small, often splitting sentences strangely, but perhaps I’m just being petty.

Some role-playing tonight, darling?

Although the aforementioned voice acting is absent, this could be seen either in a positive or a negative way. Having no set voices means that the player won’t hear characters sounding anything other than exactly as they imagine them. The guiltier among us will later admit to reading the text aloud while putting on strange voices, but we’ll leave that revelation to group sessions. Certain things have voices provided, such as casting magic (some sound effects that really are cringe worthy) and attacking, but we can forgive these little inconsistencies and just be thankful that full voicing wasn’t taken up if this is the standard we would have had to put up with.

Music within the game is strangely beautiful and while you’ll hear plenty of it repeated throughout, certain tracks almost made me waste time hanging around to listen more. As well as having atmospheric music, the sound effects are equally fitting and generally well made with the odd exception as always. Ultimately, the entire package of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter comes together to form an enjoyable and unique RPG. With extra gameplay tweaks and mini-games being constantly thrown in there is plenty to keep you occupied. It’s certainly not going to convert RPG nay sayers, but fans of the genre should find something new here.