Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

The title really says it all for the plot of this, the fifth installment of the Breath of Fire series. If you're at all into getting yourself into the plot and the feel of the game, you'll get the impression that the entire game seems to be setting you up to die. In fact, while playing the game, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the game can even have a happy ending. The game itself seems to follow from the tone set by BoF4, in that the surface world has apparently been laid waste, and now humanity lives in a kind of 'Logan's Run'esque subterrainian facility. The similarities to the movie end there however, the setting is extremely dystopian, humanity is categorized and subdivided by an individual potential score, called D-Ratio, where low scoring individuals, or Low-D's are forced to live in the bottom of the facility where the air quality is the worst. On top of the setting are the characters of course, and almost from the very start, two of them are living on borrowed time. The main character himself comes complete with a countdown timer to his death that is constantly in the corner of the screen and ticks up even when you aren't doing anything.

Of course, this all sounds very bad, however in a kind of masochistic way, this is the draw of the game. Even though all signs point toward a sad ending, you'll keep playing it just to see how bad it will be, sort of like a lot of the great literary classics of our time. The rest of the game is very lackluster however, the graphics are par for the course and the sound is good and sets the mood correctly, with some good scores here and there. The gameplay is decent at first, but sadly quickly devolves into boredom and repetition. Playing through the game almost requires at least one restart, and while they throw in extra plot elements the second time through, the extremely boring battle system makes playing the game feel like a chore. You'll only want to play this game for the plot, which is very good.

This game is a bit different than most RPGs, like FFX, FFXII, or Rogue Galaxy. This game has a good setting and a good flowing storyline but the training levels part is a bit of a hassle. From the getgo you cannot play through the game straight, without a gameshark or something like that. And the storyline doesn't show much in-depth until you increase the number of retries. Everytime you retry, the party EXP is saved over and reusable, but your levels reset. Depending on which retry you do you may or not keep your items. That's a major downer from the normal RPGs I'm used to.

Yet, since its a bit different I spent more time on the game and found its unique charm. Money is important and if you cannot get the battle format or gameflow after several attempts, you will most likely just drop it and never play it again. But if you can get the hang of things and progress through the storyline, the game is really good and its impressive. For a sci-fi RPG game I enjoy it so I give it a 5 and I recommend it for a good rental try.