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This is the last time - I promise!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 41 / 69
Date: February 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have written and rewritten this review, and this is my final offer. Any would-be buyers of this game, PLEASE take this as a caveat; I really want to convey just how lousy this game is. Any comparison of this game to the rest of the series is ludicrous, but anyway...

As I said before, you play the game as the character Ryu, a government grunt. Mankind has been forced to live under the earth due to reasons lost in antiquity, and the citizens are placed into their positions via a rating system (a ratio - the closer the ratio is to 1, the more potential a person has, and thus the greater station this person is allowed to have). Surprisingly, the higher your ratio, the closer to the surface you are allowed to live, despite the conviction that the outside world is poisonous. Anyway, the purpose of the game is to climb out from the bowels of the earth in an attempt to reach the sky. This is the story. If you find it excellent, well, to each his own, but personally,I don't think this tale stands up to the likes of Xenosaga, .hack:infection, Suikoden III, FFX, etc.

However, complicating matters is the D-Hunger gauge, against which I have railed in the past. As you progress through the game, this gauge constantly rises (increasing about 1/100 of a percent every 2-3 seconds on its own). SHould your character transform into a dragon (or use other special abilities), the rate of increase rises dramatically. Assuming you never use ANY of these abilities, however, you essentially have 20000-30000 seconds to finish your game (or about 6-8 hours). Failing at this, it is game over. In fact, you have to restart your game from the beginning. There is NO carrying over of statistics; what CAN be carried over are the weapons and armor you have equipped, any items you have stored away, the skills you have learned and "party experience", which can be used to boost your characters upon the replay. Furthermore, if you are considering beating the game on your first go around, don't. It is physically impossible (I know, I tried it out). I have a lot of words to describe this atrocious system, but "realistic" isn't the first to come to mind.

I believe in innovation, when it makes a game more fun. However, this is absurd. You want the trick to beat the game? Simply play through as far as you go twice, remembering to store all of your acquired items and NEVER use party experience. That way, on your third time through, you can buff up your characters so much that they will destroy any enemy they come across (yes, I decided to go back and finish the game). Hence, an 8 hour game becomes a 24 hour game, since every scene is seen three times. The fact that you can't save often is a blessing in disguise - saving doesn't really help you anyway (the D-Hunger gauge isn't going anywhere). Oh, and for a more "realistic" gaming experience, notice that you have a "quit" command. This command essentially allows you to save at a certain spot, and then use you dragon abilities to try to acquire certain skills and items you might not otherwise be able to acquire. Oh sure, you'll die, but you can start over at the save spot, with all of the abililities now in your repertoire. In fact, the guide (which may be the most useless instruction guide in all of gaming, oftem times confusing me more than instructing me) tells you to use this strategically. The realism is overwhelming. The moral is: if you try to beat the game on one walkthrough, forget it! Instead, the system rewards ineptitude over ingenuity.

If you are one of those (sad to say many) people who simply cannot stand the mainstream, and would sooner gouge out their eyes than play a game everyone else is playing, this might be for you. To be sure, the system is innovative, and I am sure it will never rear its ugly head again. However, if you enjoy fun game, or if you simply don't want to waste fifty bucks on a stinker, stay the hell away from this abomination. Play Xenosaga (another innovative game), or .hack, or even Final Fantasy X for the nth time. This game reeks...

Not for the unadventurous

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I would have to say that this game was definitely a relief from the other breath of fire games. I was skeptical at first but the games ingenuity and innovation won me over in a short time. The game contains many innovations for the series and in general for all rpgs. It has a scenario overlay system where the more times that you beat the game the more additions to the story you get. The first time through however the story is not lacking. If you like to read through a game and not play it however it might not be for you. Most of the game is playing time now movie time like other recent games. For the skilled gamer, the game is not so hard the first time as long as you keep yourself stocked with items and using tactics instead of brute force. What adds to this need is the use of D-Counter which slowly raises throught the game. If you are conservative, you will beat the game with a little above 80% with the understanding that the difficulty level the first time around is such that you need to save the counter for the end of the game. It was definitely fun that towards the end of the game the counter is very close to 100%( the game ends when u reach 100% ) and it adds a lot of suspense in the end. The game also does not have random enemy encounters but a set amount of enemies so you cannot train your characters until lvl 99 to beat the game like all other rpgs which I found very refreshing to play a game with a set difficulty level.

The story is simple, no plot twists and hundreds of characters to keep your mind on, but enough to keep you playing and wondering what will happen. You start the game as Ryu, a low class grunt in the government. with a ranking of 1/8192 to start with, you are of the lowest kind. However, if you do a good job on your first time throught the game, the ranking raises dramatically. Additional plays through the game are not a hassle since you keep all of your equipment and abilities and your party experience to level the second time through.

The game was difinitely enjoyable and worth playing a few times through. It is one of the better games I have played in a long time. The difficulty level is alright,not too easy but definitely not hard either. If you are in for something new in a game then this game is for you. Any rpg fan should consider giving this game a try. The music is great on its own, the game is one that you start playing and have to play all of the way through.

Really Good But....

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: March 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok This game was not one of the best breath of fires' but It is my second favorite BoF. If you see these game and expect it to be anything like BoF 3 and BoF 4 then I suggest you rent this game before you buy it... Because this game may not be everyone's favorite. Two Major changes That I can think of and they are: Battle System and D-Counter. Battle System is awesome now the whole battle is based on AP. No more Magic Points. Only Nina can use magic. And the best part is that say your playing the game and you use slash(costs 10 AP) and you have say 150 AP that means you can hit the enemy 14 times including your first hit. D-counter, major problem to gamers unless they're very experienced... Ok well there are two things not to get mixed up D-Ratio and D-Counter. D-Ratio is kinda like a rank and Ryu's is 1/8192 (not sure if thats good or bad) and I'm not very sure if you can lower it... D-Counter everytime you take a certain amount of steps you use up .01% and if the D-Counter hits 100.00% You are dead. Everytime you transform I believe it is 2 or 3%. Everytime you use a Dragon move like Vortex, Hurricane, Twister, u use up 1% D-Counter. When your not in combat and you use D-Dash (Runs real fast knocks enemies outta the way) Your D-Counter goes up .01% real fast. So basically the D-Counter can decide whether you get stuck or you continue... (I'm yet to find out if there is a way to lower it) And I dunno if you can lower it. And if it gets to high your better of starting a new game or you just go out and buy a Codebreaker and then enter D-Counter Always at 0% code... The game is cel-shaded and there are still the Fairies from BoF 3. HINT: IF YOU EVER GET TO A DOOR AND IT SAYS YOU HEAR A VOICE OPEN THE DOOR ANYWAYS IT IS A FAIRY.

Great fun...but frustrating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: March 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This installment in the series plays very differently. Everyone complains about the new SOL system in the game. To put it bluntly it works something like this:
1) Make your way through a dungeon.
2) Either die or quit the game
3) Choose to either restart the dungeon with roughly 10% of you r
experience (i.e. "party xp") and all your earned cash,
or,
Restart the entire game with 10% experience and all your cash.
4) Repeat until strong enough to get to the next save point.
P.S. every time you transform into a dragon (Ryu) you consume energy that cannot be replenished unless you start the game over entirely!

The motivating factor compelling one to finish this game is the frustration of it being so darn difficult. On the plus side, the battle system is really fun and some of the attacks look super-cool. Plus, there's a mini-game where you build a fairy village (like in other bof games) which is totally fun as well.

Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I play alot of RPG's and was excited about getting my hands on the newest BOF game. Overall I was not that Impressed with the game. The lenght of the game is relativly short and It got rather boring towards the end. None the less It Is a very hard game, With no way to heal up other than getting potions, It makes It very challenging to stay alive! Dont get me wrong It Is a good game, But It could have been alot better. That's my 2 cents

This game was some ...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: April 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I never thought a breath of fire game could be this horrible.... all breath of fire games have been good except for this piece of ... I mean seriously... this game does not carry on ANY traditional qualities besides you being able to play ryu and turning into a dragon... Why the hell are there guns in this game.... what the hell does this have to do with Breath Of Fire.... the best thing about this game is the box... go to the store take your game back (if you already bought it) and buy something like Dynasty Warriors 4.

Rent before buy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: May 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I was a bit upset with the way this game turned out when I unfortunately bought the game before trying it out first. The battle system is turn based like a tactics game, and the game in my opinion is quite difficult if you are not used to it at all. If you are a saving fanatic, I would suggest you be aware, cause you are required to use tokens to save. This game takes special care, and needs to be sorta mastered before actually getting the hang of it. But the game still is kinda boring.

OMG I can't believe this...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 18
Date: June 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm sorry but this game just put a big tarnish on the BoF series it is the most horrible game I've ever played! I mean it steers completely away from what the old BoF was like and the whole system of having to restart your game countless times is nuts...more frustrating then fun...-4 stars out of 4

Not for everyone

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 28
Date: June 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've always loved the BoF series, and this is a rather drastic departure from it. About the only thing in commmon w/ the other BoF games is Ryu and Nina. Also this game is pretty hard and seems like it's always out to get you, as items are expensive and you need items to save. When i first played this game I hated it. I got 3 hrs into it and quit. Out of boredom i gave it another go and found it a very enjoyable game.

The battle system is one of the funnest I've played in an RPG in a long time. The story is great, and the ending is one of the best I've seen in a long time. And a New Game+ system doesn't hurt either. You can spend a hundred hours trying to get and do everything. (i've gone through it twice and still missing a lot)

Everyone says that you need to restart over and over again, when actually you don't. If your not very good (no offense) and use the dragon powers a lot, then yeah, you will. The dragon form is 'sposed to be a last resort, and should be used as little as possible. It's not that difficult to make it through in one run w/o restarting (although it does help).

Although this game has a steep learning curve, I'd recommend it to the hardcore RPG fans. People who are used to having their hands held through out a game should stay clear. Give it a try and try to learn it's systems and you should find a very enjoyable and rewarding game.

BoF finally gets good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: August 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In the past, this particular series of role-playing games has been very well known for being a pedestrian and rote affair; not really straying from what is expected and popular at the time. But this time around, for some unbeknownst reason to this reviewer, Capcom has wisened up and released a game that is astonishing in sheer depth of gameplay that it makes up tenfold for any faults to be found in story or length.

In case you did not know, this is a very unique rpg for the times. The combat system invokes nostalgiac memories of the early computer D&D rpgs which allowed movement upon a grid and an attack at the end of movement, if the movement was not too far. But BoF: DQ spices things up with a very detailed combo system which allows moves to be stringed up and in the case with a certain character, stringing up different moves in the same combo can add status effects, such as bind which allows the enemy to still attack, but not move for 3 turns. So basically, your character receives an amount of AP each turn and these can be used to move and to attack, with attacks taking from 10 to 30 ap depending on strength.

This combat system is fine and all, elevating what would be an otherwise boring and redundant game into one of the most enticingly captivating rpg experiences that I have had, certainly the best for the PS2. Furthermore, this game excels in its supreme difficulty. Healing is limited to usage of items which is further limited by a somewhat lack of funds, limited storage space, and relatively weak healing items. For instance, the weakest item only heals 50 hp, and it costs 60 zenny, which is a small fortune for the starting player. I didn't have a surplus of zenny until a good 4 hours into the game, and I spent that pretty quickly on better equipment. Basically, what this entails is a game that is very unforgiving due to weak healing and a save system which can easily derail your entire save, forcing you to start the game over, albeit a bit more powerfully than at the start.

This game also rewards replays far more than almost any game of its type. With a game that can be completed in under 10 hours, this is a very good thing. Replays open new areas of the dungeons, new speech from npcs, and new cutscenes which flesh out the story, so it is within your best interests to replay the game.

Overall, you can expect 40 - 80 hours out of this game, depending on your tastes. So, if you think this is a bit too short, you should probably buy Morrowind instead, which will take you 300+ hours to complete. As for me, I don't have enough free time and 40 hours is plenty for a game that costs less than the price of two dinners at a steakhouse, especially one that is this fun.

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