Tengo que decir que el problema principal del juego es que tiene de nombre "Breath of fire" cuando no tiene mucho que ver.
La historia y la ambientación me parecen muy buenas dando un giro diferente, que cambiaran el sistema de combate no me pareció tan malo porque era estratégico y entrenido.
Los principales problemas y por los que deje el juego son los siguientes:
-sistema SOL que consiste en que cada vez que inicias juegos vas subiendo de rango, hay más escenas y cambia cosas. Idea buena, pero muy pesada.
-Tiempo límite, a partir de cierto punto vas a tener una barra de porcentaje que se irá rellenando incluso por el simple hecho de andar. Lo que hace que en vez de investigar te pongas de los nervios en avanzar porque si llega el contador al máximo a empezar de 0 (y ahí entra en juego el sistema SOL)
-Mecánica dragón, aquí la mecánica dragón es ser invencible a cambio de rellenarte de manera exagerada la barra de porcentaje. Lo que me gustaba de los otros juegos es la posibilidad de transformate en diversos dragones, aquí solo hay una forma y te penalizan mucho por usarla.
La historia y la ambientación me parecen muy buenas dando un giro diferente, que cambiaran el sistema de combate no me pareció tan malo porque era estratégico y entrenido.
Los principales problemas y por los que deje el juego son los siguientes:
-sistema SOL que consiste en que cada vez que inicias juegos vas subiendo de rango, hay más escenas y cambia cosas. Idea buena, pero muy pesada.
-Tiempo límite, a partir de cierto punto vas a tener una barra de porcentaje que se irá rellenando incluso por el simple hecho de andar. Lo que hace que en vez de investigar te pongas de los nervios en avanzar porque si llega el contador al máximo a empezar de 0 (y ahí entra en juego el sistema SOL)
-Mecánica dragón, aquí la mecánica dragón es ser invencible a cambio de rellenarte de manera exagerada la barra de porcentaje. Lo que me gustaba de los otros juegos es la posibilidad de transformate en diversos dragones, aquí solo hay una forma y te penalizan mucho por usarla.
Back when I was a kid my older brother got this game after seeing me struggle so much trying to play BoF IV. He didn't really like it that much, we were big JRPG heads and anything that didn't look or play like Final Fantasy was discarded as a waste of time. I thought it looked pretty cool tho so it always hovered somewhere in the back of my mind.
Over the years i've only heard this game mentioned as the "bad one", "the one that's plays badly", etc etc.
After my BoF IV replay I was willing to give it a shot cause I was always fascinated by the concept of "you're stuck underground and your journey is to make it to the outside world." Turns out I shouldn't ever trust other people's opinion on video games because it was one of the most enjoyable game I've played in the recent years. The combat system is phenomenal, and the constant anxiety of trying to outrun the constantly ticking time limit is something I've never seen in a game before, nor since.
I'm a big sucker for metanarratives, and I get what they were shooting for here. Stumbling through these longs dungeons that have no checkpoints, that constant doomsday clock ticking over your head, the lack of safe area where you can just relax and heal up. You get none of that, you have to spend every little ressources trying to move forward and get no chance to catch your breath. Why would you anyway? The air is disgustingly polluted so there is no reason to stop until the end of your journey.
But by far the best part about this game is those extremely hard and unfair boss fights at the end of each dungeons. I was annoyed at first, but then Bosch said "Protect your friends or save yourself, you can't do both !" and suddenly I understood. They are meant to be unfair because the game gives you a choice every single time: will you start over from a previous save so you can be stronger and more efficient (saving your friends by hurting yourself), or will your be selfish and summon the Dragon to make the boss easy? (Saving yourself by hurting Nina). After struggling for so long I decided Nina shouldn't be the one to suffer for my dumb mistakes, and I replayed the entire game without using the Dragon form until the very end, and I'm so glad I did.
I want to save Nina. TO THE SKY!
Over the years i've only heard this game mentioned as the "bad one", "the one that's plays badly", etc etc.
After my BoF IV replay I was willing to give it a shot cause I was always fascinated by the concept of "you're stuck underground and your journey is to make it to the outside world." Turns out I shouldn't ever trust other people's opinion on video games because it was one of the most enjoyable game I've played in the recent years. The combat system is phenomenal, and the constant anxiety of trying to outrun the constantly ticking time limit is something I've never seen in a game before, nor since.
I'm a big sucker for metanarratives, and I get what they were shooting for here. Stumbling through these longs dungeons that have no checkpoints, that constant doomsday clock ticking over your head, the lack of safe area where you can just relax and heal up. You get none of that, you have to spend every little ressources trying to move forward and get no chance to catch your breath. Why would you anyway? The air is disgustingly polluted so there is no reason to stop until the end of your journey.
But by far the best part about this game is those extremely hard and unfair boss fights at the end of each dungeons. I was annoyed at first, but then Bosch said "Protect your friends or save yourself, you can't do both !" and suddenly I understood. They are meant to be unfair because the game gives you a choice every single time: will you start over from a previous save so you can be stronger and more efficient (saving your friends by hurting yourself), or will your be selfish and summon the Dragon to make the boss easy? (Saving yourself by hurting Nina). After struggling for so long I decided Nina shouldn't be the one to suffer for my dumb mistakes, and I replayed the entire game without using the Dragon form until the very end, and I'm so glad I did.
I want to save Nina. TO THE SKY!
Finally wrapped up the game after dropping it earlier this year. I managed to get through the whole thing only restarting once towards the beginning of the game, which made for an interesting experience where I spent its entire twenty-odd hours anticipating needing to do it all over again and ultimately being just fine. The other side effect of that though is that I never got the pay-off of restarting and having all of the skills and banked EXP giving me the power trip of blowing through the once difficult earlier game. In any case!
The game has so much personality. There are so many bizarre design decisions and weird quirks to the game that you need to slowly figure out yourself, and even now I couldn't tell you with certainty what you do and don't lose when you do the different kind of SOLs, but it's so strange and compelling.
The Regent fights at the end are impressively tough, and each time I was convinced that this would be the boss that sent me back to the beginning only to come out ahead. Absolute Defense is a crazy mechanic, but it really does a lot to crank up the tension in the end game.
The game has so much personality. There are so many bizarre design decisions and weird quirks to the game that you need to slowly figure out yourself, and even now I couldn't tell you with certainty what you do and don't lose when you do the different kind of SOLs, but it's so strange and compelling.
The Regent fights at the end are impressively tough, and each time I was convinced that this would be the boss that sent me back to the beginning only to come out ahead. Absolute Defense is a crazy mechanic, but it really does a lot to crank up the tension in the end game.
Cool setting, great cutscene direction, and innovative mechanics, but I found the actual experience of playing the game agonizing. I think it was the combination of the very long battles, the strict resource management, and the looming threat of having to replay the entire game; I only made it as far as the ice caves.
Very different from the previous games, but still great. The best depiction of an industrial, futuristic world I've seen in a video game. Very intriguing story and a cool new take on Ryu's dragon powers.
I've loved the Breath of Fire series since I first played the GBA port of the first game as a kid, back when it was new. I unfortunately missed III and IV until I was in high school, but I got Dragon Quarter in middle school and I ADORED it, despite its very obvious antagonism toward the player. It reminded me of Chrono Cross, which I had also fallen in love with at the time.
Dragon Quarter is VASTLY different to every other game in the series, to an almost ludicrous degree. It's honestly vastly different to most games I can think of. It uses semi-roguelike mechanics (if the D% reaches 100%, then the game is over, gotta restart the whole thing- carrying over stats and items and D-Ratio improvements, but still) and an SRPG movement and action point system, and the former is even directly woven into the themes of the narrative.
All in all, if you like extremely punishing games, games with New Game+ (in this game, it's kind of mandatory), and roguelike-ish experiences, Dragon Quarter is worth at least TRYING. There is a really great game here and it has a history of being very unfairly maligned.
Dragon Quarter is VASTLY different to every other game in the series, to an almost ludicrous degree. It's honestly vastly different to most games I can think of. It uses semi-roguelike mechanics (if the D% reaches 100%, then the game is over, gotta restart the whole thing- carrying over stats and items and D-Ratio improvements, but still) and an SRPG movement and action point system, and the former is even directly woven into the themes of the narrative.
All in all, if you like extremely punishing games, games with New Game+ (in this game, it's kind of mandatory), and roguelike-ish experiences, Dragon Quarter is worth at least TRYING. There is a really great game here and it has a history of being very unfairly maligned.
I have really strong emotions about the concept art for this game. The game itself, eh. It's interesting, but hard for me to actually get through.
This might be a 5 star game. If you wish vagrant story was a bit more accessible this is what u get.
Me entristese que este videojuego fuera tan mal recibido cuando es tremenda obra. Definitivamente tiene un par de cosas que no me gustan, como que sean necesarias monedas para guardar, que necesites guardar cierta cantidad de D-Counter o si no, es imposible completar el juego, que para alguien que no lo usaba mucho como yo no es mayor problema pero para quien jugará usandolo seguro fue una patada. Igual, la música es excelente, el tema de batalla contra jefe es sencillamente sobresaliente y quedará grabado en mi memoria, el sistema de combate es muy bueno y la conclusión de la historia junto a sus personajes es espectacular. Uno de los mejores RPG de PS2, uno que disfrute demasiado, un clásico y una experiencia más que recomendable.