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Breath Of Fire IV Review
Mark Simons
00/12/0000
Finally a European release for this latest in the RPG series FROM Capcom.
Breath of Fire IV is the latest in the fairly long running series that now spans two consoles â“ the first two games coming out on the SNES. Whilst made by a high profile developer the series never managed to gain as much cachet as the Final Fantasy or Dragonâs Quest series. Perhaps due to Capcom not really being associated with RPGs or the fact that compared to Square and Enixâs series Breath of Fire was relatively young. Whatever the reason it is not necessarily a series that is widely known about.
Unlike the Final Fantasy series the main protagonist in the Breath of Fire games remains the same each time. Ryu is the name of this sprightly chap, and in Japanese âryuâ means dragon, this is quite lucky as Ryu is capable of transforming into a dragon for battles and what have you. However at the start of the game Ryu is not a dragon, he is naked, and he has lost his memory. He is found by Nina, who is looking for her older sister, Elina, with the help of man-tiger creature Cray. They embark on the search for Elina, but soon it ends up being a quest to save the world, funny how these things turn out.
For the most part the game plays like a traditional RPG, wandering around searching for items, getting weapons, learning magic, improving your amour, increasing your experience points via the random battles you face. It is the battles, which actually start to set Breath of Fire IV out from the crown. Firstly there is the fact that although there may be up to six characters available to you, only three can be used in your battles. This means you need to select your groups tactically with a range of abilities to quell any scenario. When characters are not in your primary party they rest and recover, and as you can switch during fights this certainly adds an extra strategic level to encounters. On top of this a master can teach your characters so they can learn new special moves as their ability levels increase.
Graphically this is not the most stunning RPG around, it is coming out on the PlayStation and weâve just seen the graphic bars raised considerably by Final Fantasy X. However, Breath of Fire is not Final Fantasy, and anyway every RPG fan knows that graphics do not make an RPG. However Breath of Fire IV does look rather nice, Capcomâs use of 2D sprites â“ their forte you might say â“ gives all of the characters a great deal of personality that you donât always get with polygons. The battle graphics are a little more impressive but never give way to the excesses of the Final Fantasy battle sequences.
