BoF: Dragon Quarter offers both an engaging story and addictive gameplay that surpasses that of more recent games.
The game starts with Ryu, a ranger with a low D-Ratio (a number that represents a person's identity, as well as his latent abilities), going on a routine cargo mission with his partner, Bosch. However, their transport is suddenly ambushed, and the two of them are separated. Sounds clichéd, right? Well, that's when it stops. As Ryu, you'll meet up with two more characters-Nina, a mute girl who's dying because of the polluted air, and Rin, a member of the anti-government group Trinity. Together, you'll have to travel across their subterranean world and reach the sky in order to save Nina. In terms of story, this all sounds pretty basic at first, but the story throws so many curve balls and plot twists that it won't disappoint, and will probably be remembered for a long time.
Of course, a good story doesn't always drive an entire game (Final Fantasy VII aside), so it's a good thing that it's backed up with excellent gameplay. The game starts with a simple to learn-yet hard to master-strategic combat system, mixing combos and real-time combat with turn-based strategy. There are no random battles here-instead, all enemies are shown on screen, giving you the chance to avoid them, set traps or attacking them and getting an extra turn. Once you engage an enemy in combat, the screen switches, putting all of your party members on screen as you engage any enemies nearby. This is where the fun begins. You're still on the same exact map, so you can move anywhere you want during your turn. However, your movement is restricted to a certain radius, and every step you take will slowly reduce your AP. AP are basically the points that allow you to do anything in battle-move, attack, use magic, etc., and you can perform as many things as you want in your turn, provided your AP doesn't run out. Items don't cost any AP, though, so you may use as many items as you want on your turn (which is convenient, since you don't have any healing spells). Also, if you set any traps before the battle, you can activate them for extra damage during battle, so basically it's a good idea to prepare yourself for every battle. All these elements give the game a more strategic feel, but there's one element that really puts all your strategies and skills to the test: the D-Counter.
Right near the beginning of the game, Ryu acquires his dragonized form, which is basically strong enough to defeat every single boss in the game in one turn. However, this power comes with a price: As soon as you acquire it, a marker known as the D-Counter appears on the upper-right corner of the screen. This counter keeps rising slowly throughout the game-whether you're walking through a dungeon, fighting enemies or simply hanging around town, it will always rise slowly by a small percentage, and when it reaches 100%, it's an instant game over where you have to start from the beginning. This element keeps you on track, as you must manage your time efficiently throughout each level in order to reach the ending. This also raises the tension in the middle of every battle-the enemies are all really tough, and there's always the temptation of transforming into Ryu's dragonized form and clearing each fight quickly, even though every time you use it, the counter's level will rise tremendously fast. One's first reaction after reading this would be something like "I'll just save it before using it and restart if something goes wrong." Well, those people are in for a shocker when they read this, because there are very few save points scattered throughout the game, and they are very far apart from each other. To make matters worse, you also have a limited amount of saves per game-in order to save, you need a Save Token, which are also some of the rarest items in the game. Most of the times you save will be with the Temporary Save feature, which will erase the file as soon as you load the game. These two elements will have you managing your time and-more often than not-make you take some big risks, by which I mean "fail and you'll restart both this whole dungeon and the one before." Beginners, stay away from this one!
I suggest you start enjoying that game over screen, 'cause you're going to be seeing it a lot of times throughout the game. Capcom evens it out, though, by introducing a system called "Scenario Overlay" (SOL for short). What this does is that it unlocks even more cutscenes throughout the game every time you either clear the game or lose. This gives the player even more reason to invest in Dragon Quarter, because most of these cutscenes end up revealing parts of the story that change your entire perspective of things. I didn't clear the game until my 11th playthrough, and even in that last one I ended up unlocking scenes I had never seen before in my other ten playthroughs.
Okay, let's take a break from the gameplay and head straight for the graphics. At first, they might seem a bit dirty and underpolished (if such a word exists), even for old-school cel-shading, but after a few minutes you start noticing the uniqueness of these graphics. The environments are unique, the characters are well detailed and animated, and the anime-inspired cel-shaded look actually gives it a darker tone than the rest. The cutscenes are well made, and you can actually see the emotion behind each and every character, even though they don't have any voices (with the exception of the end cutscene).
…Which brings us to sound. In all my years of gaming I have hardly ever heard this much ear candy. Hitoshi Sakimoto-who is also responsible for the music in Odin Sphere, Grim Grimoire and Final Fantasy XII-outdoes himself in Dragon Quarter. The music is often emotional, and always matches the mood for each situation. I personally liked the songs "Middle Layer Area" (the one from MidSector) and "Calling From A Distance" (a haunting song that appears on some of the final cutscenes-the organ is amazing on that one). As for the sound effects, they do their job at making the game feel even more realistic.
All in all, Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter is an extremely challenging yet rewarding experience. The difficulty sort of makes the game a "love it or hate it" case, but those who manage to clear it will no doubt want to play it again, if for the sake of unlocking the full story.
Graphics: 7.5/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Story: 9/10
Score (not overall): 8.5/10