Narrative: A stark departure from what most would consider a “Breath of Fire” game to be like, Dragon Quarter takes place in a dystopian future where humans are living underground after calamity struck the surface world and forced humans to retreat underneath the surface. Much of the world-building, lore and circumstances of characters are told through cutscenes seen as you traverse upwards from the underground world. Though most of the motives of secondary characters are told through cutscenes only seen through a second or more playthrough, the first playthrough itself is cohesive enough to keep you chasing to the end. The game's implementation of what essentially is a countdown to a game over gives further urgency of your mission as Ryu.

Art Direction: One of the high notes of the game, the character designers nail the and downtrodden atmosphere of the game’s setting, with many locales having industrial and dreary backdrops. Nina’s design in particular demonstrates the underground world’s draconian viewpoint of lower-class civilians with shackles on her hands and legs as well as her lack of proper clothing.

Gameplay: Though the game is considered to be more on the difficult side of JRPGs due to having a unique combat system with enemies that can 2~3 hit K.O. you, the system can be exploited to your favor and help overcome most battles with ease. Its mix of turn-based combat on a 3D realm in which your movement options using the same resource as your attacks make for a level of strategy required to succeed. Some later battles might seem a bit too brutal, especially on a first playthrough, but the game encourages you restart to carry over progress and ultimately overcome the more difficult challenges. In saying this though, you can complete the game on a first playthrough with some grinding and resource managing your consumables.

Overall: Dragon Quarter's bleak narrative and darker tone almost hit the highs that the title was going for, but the game’s production was rushed and thus some cutscenes further expanding the world’s lore and some mini-games were cut. Further clarification of some antagonistic characters’ motives would have been nice to have to further flesh out the world, but the game’s narrative and the gameplay mechanics that go in-hand with the narrative tools demonstrate a very unique game that is worth experiencing.