In this review, we work on improving our D Ratio in the Playstation 2 game Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. We find out how well this RPG game plays.
This game was released in 2003 and is the fifth instalment of the Breath of Fire series.
At this point in time, we pretty much know all there is to know about the classic series as officially seen in North America. We first played the original Breath of Fire. That game got a solid score here. Next up, we tried Breath of Fire II. That game also got a very solid score here. After that, we tried Breath of Fire III. That game disappointed with only a passable score. From there, we tried Breath of Fire IV. That game did improve on things, but only got a fairly mediocre score. So, we decided to give this fifth game a try to see if it continues the upward trend.
The story follows the main character (default Ryu, but can be renamed). Ryu is a low level grunt working as a ranger deep underground. Working with his superior, Bosche, they are tasked with watching over a train and its cargo. While the train is in transit, they are attacked. The train derails and Ryu and Bosche get separated. Ryu then meets Nina, a mysterious slave who is unable to speak. Ryu decides to rescue her and protect her from harm.
There is a lot that is different from the previous game. The first immediately obvious change is the fact that you are no longer in a sprawling overworld held in medieval times. Instead, you are actually in a futuristic setting deep underground. You still have swords as weapons, but other weapons include staffs and guns as well.
Another new aspect is the fact that you now have an extremely limited amount of inventory space. In fact, the inventory is about as limited as early Dragon Warrior games. This wound up being a criticism for that game and, of course, is going to be a criticism for this game as well. You start off with two pages, each containing about 6 item slots. With the way items are in this game, you can very easily soak up those spaces quickly. This does force you to micro-manage your inventory to the point of dropping the least valuable item as you go along. There is a small reprieve in that it’s possible to obtain a “backpack” which adds a page. Generally speaking, once you reach 5 pages, item management becomes easier, though this doesn’t really happen until you get about half way through the game.
Combat is also very different. It’s basically a cross between Quest 64, Hybrid Heaven, and a dash of Earthbound. When you are walking through normally, you can see your enemies moving around. If you attack the enemy prior to combat, you’ll gain an advantage of an extra round with the lead character. If the enemy attacks you first, then one of the enemies will get a turn on you. It really sets the tone for the whole battle from the beginning.
Once in battle, you have to work with the setting you are in for movement. The battles themselves hinder on the AP system. Moving around costs MP during your turn. You can use this to your advantage depending on what kind of enemy you are squaring off with.
Attacking also relies on AP. Between the circle, cross, and square buttons, you are given three different options for attacking. Each button opens up a sub-menu of up to three moves. There is the level 1 attacks which costs 10AP. The second level costs 20AP per attack. Finally, the third level costs 30AP per attack.
If you have enough AP, you can combo your attacks with one of your shoulder buttons. Generally, you’ll be looking at sticking to the same levels, but it’s also possible to move down a level. If you use the same attacks, you’ll just get a chain of the same attacks. However, if you use different moves, you can add an additional 10% damage for your combo. Keep in mind that some moves push enemies back. If that enemy gets out of range, you risk breaking the combo. When you are low on AP, you can then use the triangle button to end that characters turn.
Another element of battle is traps. Generally, they are used outside of battle for the most part, but can be used inside of battle as well. If you have bombs, for instance, you can lob them towards enemies outside of battle. If they hit, then you can cause damage before you even enter battle. Alternatively, if you miss and enter battle, you can use them in battle by standing over top of them. Once in position, you can look closely for faint red lines of where the bomb splash damage will reach. Get an enemy in that zone and you can set if off, dealing damage to your enemies.
Other traps involve bait. Fresh meat is a good example of this. Set the bait and enemies will go towards the bait to eat it instead of you. You have two options at that point: evade the enemies or strike the distracted enemy more easily. Generally, it’s a good idea to follow along with the latter strategy unless you are desperately low on HP and have no heal items. This is because it’s critical to build up your experience points for the purpose of levelling up.
On a side note about enemies, there is also a new feature called “Danger Rooms”. If you enter one, the music will change. All doors will be locked in the area, trapping you inside. To continue, you must defeat every enemy in the danger room. Something to keep in mind while exploring.
Experience points are also handled differently in this game. You get the general XP from general battling, but also, you can get “party XP”. Party XP operates like a secondary source of experience points in that you can distribute those points to your characters at any time in the menu system. You can build it up from battles. Additionally, it’s possible to collect a bunch from special item pickups. Note: It’s generally not advisable to distribute party XP to Bosche if he’s in the party as you won’t have him for very long.
How much experience you gain also depends on how well you strategically fight in battles. If you simply use a single attack in a chain, you won’t get much of a bonus. If, however, you use a variety of attacks or you use specific attacks to hit multiple enemies at once, you’ll be given a bonus. That bonus is basically a percentage at the end of battle. You get a base amount of experience points, then have a percentage of bonus points added on. This can really help you gain levels – especially earlier on in the game.
The simple items themselves are largely unchanged from previous games. You have healing items and status curing items. However, once you get into weapons and other items, that’s where things change.
One change is the fact that any equipment you find will need to be identified. This is definitely a throwback to earlier RPG games such as Mordor – The Depths of Dejenol among others. It’s quite primitive, though. Every piece of equipment is just a series of question marks. You’ll get to see the bonus and a rough idea of what it could be, but that’s it. Unlike a lot of other RPG games in the past, you can’t equip those items unless they are identified. That is for the appraiser to deal with for a small fee.
Also, special abilities can be obtained via items. This includes spells and special attacks. All you need is one item to learn for the ability. Otherwise, all you can do is sell that item for a small profit. Be warned that, unlike regular items, you can’t stack these items in the inventory. So, if you get 2 burn spells, that will soak up two item slots (which are already at a premium as it is for a good chunk of the game).
Another type of item is the valuable stat raising items. Some stat raising items will only temporarily raise certain stats during a single battle. Other items will permanently raise certain stats. One item is the HP plus which will raise your maximum HP by one point. It’s not much, but it can really help your characters become more successful in battle.
A final set of items of note is the “junk” items. These items have no purpose other than to sell. This includes junk and the zenny purse. It may not be much for some of these items, but since zenny is also at a premium in this game, every ounce of cash you can squeeze out of this game early on goes a long way.
Zenny, of course, is the currency for this game – just like past games. Some zenny can be obtained from battles, however, a lot more can be obtained from selling items and equipment as well as zenny drops from enemies.
As for shopping, there are three types of shops in this game: equipment, items, and appraisals. Equipment shops straight up sell you equipment. For the most part, this can be out of your price range without a whole bunch of buildup first. Still, these shops can be useful because you may find a slightly less powerful version of that equipment later on. Straight up selling it after an identification can help swell that hungry money purse of yours.
Item shops are pretty much exactly what you think they are. Though the stock may vary between shops, you can buy general purpose items and traps from them.
Appraisal shops are a bit of a novelty in this game. They identify unknown equipment eating up your inventory space. Once identified, you can equip the items, stuff them in the weapons locker (extra storage can always help), or sell what you find. It may require some menu shuffling to figure out what pieces of equipment are right for you, though. Weapons not only have straight up stats and abilities, but also “threading” slots that permit you to equip known moves onto your equipment. So, there are multiple things you need to keep an eye on in determining the right piece you want to use.
Along the way, you’ll have multiple opportunities to obtain items. One method is defeating enemies. Each enemy you defeat always carries a chance they will drop an item. A second method is to use your attack in non-battle mode on boxes. Bust them all open if you have slots to spare and are curious if you can find something of value (most of the time, you will).
A final method is through locked treasure chests. Along the way, you might encounter mini-bosses. You can get around them, but often, you might want to roll the dice to see if you can defeat them. If you defeat them, you can make a treasure key materialize. This key only unlocks the chest on that floor of the dungeon. Still, this is the important component for finding this treasure. You may also find yourself taking on a second mini-boss. Defeat that mini-boss and the message of a chest materializing can appear. After that, just use the key on the chest and get that often nice item. Mini-bosses are not always necessary, but be prepared for that possibility.
Another notable thing about this game is what is, well, not in this game: a way to recover. In previous games, you have inns that will restore your HP. In some RPGs, there are special locations that restore your HP. For others still, the way you recover HP is by resting in a safe location. How do you recover HP in this game? You don’t. The only way to recover HP that I saw was through items only. It’s really quite unusual and can be treated as a sign of difficulty in this game.
As you progress deeper into the game, you’ll unlock the D-Dive ability. This allows you to use your dragon ability that seems inherent in every single one of these games. Unfortunately, this comes at a huge cost this time around. Once you gain the ability, the clock starts ticking. You have a percentage indicator on the top right hand side of the screen. If it reaches 100%, then it’s game over. Using your dragon abilities, though super powerful in combat, permanently adds to your percentage. Using the running ability also adds to it. In fact, just walking is enough to add to this. So, using this ability as little as possible is key to your success.
Also, you’ll encounter the all too familiar fairy town building mini-game. Only difference this time around is the fact that you use ants to create a colony. You’ll be able to dig and build features along the way. Keep in mind that this will cost you money, but what you find can be worth it.
On a final note, there is also a D-ratio counter. This will never change on your first run through. however, your performance in the game dictates how high your D-ratio will be when you start a new game. This includes how often you save (the fewer times, the better), how long you took trying to beat the game (the shorter, the better), average party level, how much you explored, and more. Why would you want to replay the game? When you go through a second time with a higher D-ratio, you’ll be able to unlock new areas that you couldn’t otherwise explore.
One thing I do like about this game is the fact that this game does try and make use of the fact that games are generally 3D. This is in contrast to the previous games where they appear on a console capable of 3D graphics only to try and stick to quasi 3D or 2D top down style gaming because RPGs are always 2D. While it may be a whole console generation late, this is a long time coming.
A lot of the features found in the game – especially new features – actually utilizes the third dimension quite well. In fact, a lot of the mechanics such as the AP system of combat actually makes it feel like this RPG was meant for the third dimension rather than trying to fight the change from 2D to 3D. So, this game does get commended on that front even if these ideas aren’t exactly new or novel at this stage in game development.
Another aspect that I do like is the fact that there is a return of a feature I haven’t seen a whole lot since Earthbound, the ability to not only see enemies on screen outside of battle, but also an ability to shape a battle with this ability. It’s a feature that works incredibly well and it’s amazing that so few RPGs outside of action RPGs utilize this concept. So, it’s nice to see something other than a cheap video transition into a random encounter battle as it makes the game feel much more fluid and natural.
While there are good features to be had, one question is, with so many changes being made to try and make this game a unique experience, does it get the fundamentals right? Unfortunately, this is where the game collapses for me.
For one, the learning curve is steep. While this is not a unique problem for RPGs in general, that doesn’t change the fact that this game suffers from this. The game does try to tutor you through the more complex concepts such as the PETS system. Unfortunately, you are still stuck with the occasional wall of text where the game throws a chunk of an instruction manual at you. Even then, amazingly, it doesn’t explain all the critical features of the game. So, you will have to go through learning trial and error along the way.
A second problem with this game is the difficulty curve. Generally speaking, you are almost always one bout of bad luck away from dying off in the game. You’ll spend a good chunk of your early game having all of one or two healing items left in your inventory and still a good chunk of trekking to go through the dungeon. You can mitigate some of this with significant backtracking, but expect to fully loot half a dungeon only to have enough cash for one or two additional healing items in the process.
Loot and cash do eventually start to get better later on in the game, but I only had it to the point where I could afford maybe one or two pieces of expensive equipment after selling almost everything I could spare. After that, it still felt I was one or two unfortunate enemy hit combinations away from ruin. The enemies are generally fairly difficult and don’t seem to let up at all.
Now, some of you might be thinking that these are silly complaints because one can always grind your way out of these situation. Unfortunately, this is the other aspect of the game that only adds to the difficulty: there is a limited number of enemies to be had in the game. Once you kill off the enemies, everything I saw pointed to the fact that they don’t regenerate. I read that there are a few exceptions if you play it just right, but I never wound up encountering it myself.
Combine this with a seeming lack of an ability to naturally recover HP (no inns or resting feature that I could see) and you are looking at an RPG that forces you through areas that you’d rather spend some time prepping for.
Compounding the learning curve is the fact that the menu system is probably the most complex I’ve seen in the entire series. You can spend your party XP on you characters if you find that feature tucked away in the party menu within the pause menu. Then, there is the abilities system that may not be immediately obvious at first, but buried in with your equipment. If you’ve played Final Fantasy 7, then this might make more sense if you are familiar with the junction system. Otherwise, you may be initially puzzled as to where some of your new found abilities disappeared to even though you already “learned” it.
Ultimately, a number of the games features has all the fun of sifting through drop down menus in a program you aren’t yet familiar with. It can be annoying and frustrating at times.
With the way the game handles basic features like enemy respawn (re: none at all), lack of regeneration for your characters, and the semi-linear experience, this game might have been better off as an action game. Take away the numbers and turn-based system and you have a near fully formed action adventure game. Because of this, I’m left to wonder if this game was created by people who don’t know much about RPG games and more about action games instead. This is part because a lot of the basic fundamentals are either half developed or completely miss the mark.
Generally speaking, it’s actually great that this RPG game manages to introduce new features to not only the series, but to the genre as a whole. It’s as if the developers were able to say, “Hey, 3D is not the enemy of RPGs. We can embrace the third dimension and still offer a great turn-based RPG game.”
While this game has a lot of great ideas, it’s unfortunate that a lot of the basic fundamental features got left behind, leaving the game in a tech demo state more than a fully realized game. With a lack of resting and the steep learning and difficulty curve does kill off a lot of the enjoyment this game might otherwise have. It’s unfortunate that this is the outcome to a rather promising franchise as a whole, though not surprising that this marked the end of the series for North American audiences. Three successive weaker titles can kill the momentum of just about any franchise out there. For this game, it’s a rather mediocre effort in the end.
Graphically speaking, this game does start off somewhat respectable. It carries that rusty steam punk futuristic vibe that can really offer a unique look at RPG games in general. Unfortunately, after a while, the game gradually devolves into just running through a series of hallways with moderate variations. Changing the colour of fog is nothing new and the special effects are generally only passable. The character models are decent, but nothing huge. So, it’s OK, but nothing amazing.
As for the audio, this game paints a similar story. The music is generally interesting, though nothing spectacular. Sound effects are OK, though speech samples are almost on the same level of what is being accomplished on handheld devices at this stage – a grunt here, a squeal there, and even a scream or two to round things out. With a game with so many cut scenes, it’s surprising how so many rely on speech bubble text. An OK effort, but nothing to get excited over.
Overall, this is one of those games that disappoint more so because of lost potential more than anything else. There are a number of ideas that actually help the franchise finally adapt to a fully 3D environment. Unfortunately, lost in this transitions are keeping the more fundamental aspects strong. This includes leaning and difficulty curve. While the fresh ideas are a nice thing to see, the critical core problems overshadow these positive aspects. The graphics are OK and the audio is decent. For me, it’s a disappointing mediocre play.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Obtained the Violet Sword.
General gameplay: 13/25
Replay value: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 56%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
