PlayStation 2

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Name: Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Brand: Capcom
Rating: 5.87 (562 reviews)

Released 2/20/03

Genre

: RPG

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Content Descriptors

Blood
Partial Nudity
Violence

Interactive Elements

No Interactive Elements

5.9

GameFly

from 562 users

metacritic

Based on 28 critics

In the future the surface of the Earth has been devastated. For many generations humanity has lived underground with no memory of the sky. Now the ranger hero Ryu has had a revelation and is seeking the surface. Leaving the subterranean city "Shelter" he sets out on his adventure. Based on the Breath of Fire role-playing game, this PS2 title features an engrossing story, detailed 3D graphics and dynamic gameplay elements. The Positive Encounter and Tactics System or PETS allows you to set traps and decoys for your enemies. An Ability Point System determines spells and attacks as you accrue more Ability Points. And central to Breath of Fire is the "Survival" focus: you must overcome hordes of monsters, avoid them when necessary and time your attacks with deadly accuracy. If you can survive, who knows what awaits you on the surface?

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Media (3)

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter Video Review

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter Intro

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter Movie 2

User Ratings (562)

5.9

9-10

7-8

5-6

3-4

1-2

User Reviews (17)

Most Helpful

Most Recent

The Most Depressing Game Ever

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.

Urganite (member since 2004)

reviewed on 5/20/06

11 agree

Excellent, under-appreciated due to divergence

Very different than the other BOF games, which at first turned me off too... but then I gave this game a real chance. I found I couldn't put the controller down and was red-eyed playing far into the morning. This is an exceptionally difficult somewhat strategy driven game compared to most. One difference in this game is that Ryu can only use his dragon powers so much without dying - this is represented by the D-counter. At first it looks daunting that you having a counter limiting how long you play the game.. but trust me.. you can beat this game and still only be in the 15% or less range on your D-counter. Another way this is made up for is the SOL system... it also seemed confusing at first but turned out to be incredibly simple too. you can restart the game anytime from any save you have... but with all the advanced equipment your characters have acquired - party exp (a shared backup exp you can apply to anyone), and any items you stored in your locker. So you may be thinking.... 'It sounds like this game is going to take forever and make me restart multiple times'. Again this is not true: you can theoretically explore 100% of all areas, get all treasure, kill all monsters, and beat the game in under 8 hours --- of course you would have to be uber powerful and on your second playthrough to do that :). The music was also interesting, story engaging(though short), and monsters interesting.. soo to summarize: This is an excellent, though under-appreciated game.

FreeTime (member since 2008)

reviewed on 6/9/08

3 agree

Its like punching yourself and ENJOYING IT

This is the 5th installment to the series and it takes a VERY dark turn. The world is now in ruins and you and everyone else lives underground. Status and work selection is determined by D-ratio and is never improvable in the story line. Here is the good news! You arent meant to beat this game on round one... round 5 sure. This is probably the most innovative idea for a game in a long while. First you have to get around the idea that the developers WANT you to die... alot. The story is solid, the handling is easy, the cell shading is awesome at adding to the dark and hopelessness. The only real flaw is the length that it takes to defeat enemies (early on anyways). But, if you can manage to get past the long battle for a few rounds and die... it gets MUCH easier and fun. The largest point of the game is the replay value. You have to replay it multiple time to get the full story... trust me, its a good one and you will thank yourself for actually putting effort into this game. So... start beating yourself against a wall and enjoy it because that is what the gist of this is. It rare to see a RPG that actually creates a difficultly level that is near impossible to complete and requires effort on part of the player (as opposed to nearly every linear RPG out there), for that I commend this game! Worth a long rent or a buy.

Zlash99 (member since 2007)

reviewed on 12/4/07

3 agree

An unconventional game.

I'm a big fan of any RPG. This is the hardest one I've ever played, ever. It's set in a futuristic world where people at one point in the past had hidden underground, and it's been so long no one knows that an above ground exists, the sky being something of fairy tales and legends. The unconventional part is in the game play. The game is made to be unbeatable, literally. It's designed so that you must play the game till you die/give up, then restart the story with certain things, such as equipment and skills and certain other elements. It's set up so that you can see the enemy, and single enemies out or lay traps. It takes a long time to beat. This is only for those who are really into rpgs.

dmagnet86 (member since 2007)

reviewed on 3/7/07

3 agree

Not for newbs

The game is exceedingly challenging, and it takes a long time. It's a strategy RPG, like Growlanser or Arc the Lad. It's one of those games where when you save, that's when you turn off the PS2, and when you reload your game, the save gets deleted. The graphics are weird but add to the unique feel of the game. Battles take a long time, and while they have a limited tutorial, much of the game is just trying to scrounge a victory from a bad situation. The bosses are nearly impossible. The gameplay is good if you like this kind of game, and the plot is good if you like fantasy/sci-fi/anime type plots, but I can see why most people wouldn't enjoy this. It takes a masochistic attitude towards gaming to enjoy Dragon Quarter, and if you don't know what masochistic means, you shouldn't play it either. Gameplay: 8 (Only for the hardcore) Plot: 9 Graphics: 7 Intangibles: 10 Don't just rent this game - if you really want to play it, buy it.

longwinded (member since 2006)

reviewed on 10/10/06

3 agree

Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarters

Breath of fire: Dragon Quarters is the best B.O.F. yet! Apocyliptic story-lines and very few remains of the modern-day cities are very interesting. What the makers of B.O.F. should do is make a part two,I can see it now,Breath Of Fire:Dragon Quarters,Fight for the surface. Leaving of where Dragon Quarters ended. And involve a new story-line like why humanity was forced under ground in the first place and start the game on surface battling man-sized, dragon-looking creatures in the ruins of Tokyo! (sigh...) I guess I should just continue looking for games with Apocyliptic story-lines like this one......I give it a 10!

wraith (member since 2006)

reviewed on 5/14/07

2 agree

Breath of Disappointment

This game fails to live up to the expectation of the series. If you're looking for hours of game play look somewhere else. Playing straight through anyone can beat this game within six hours. If you are looking for for numerous dragons to turn into like the other games in this series, you will be disappointed.

clsluder (member since 2007)

reviewed on 4/5/07

2 agree

Should have Been, Should not have Been?

Well what can be said about BoF: Dragon Quarter? Not alot really. Im a really good fan of the series and this one really let me down. I mean c'mon man. I felt like I was playing a PS1 game again. Gameplay: 3 Too hard at first, not for the casual gamer. Sound: 7 I give the sound the highest rating. Learning Curve: Medium It has a med. learning curve due to certain commands that I will not mention here because it will spoil it Replayablilty: 3 I would say that even though things change when you keep playing through, it still isnt worth it. Stomaching it once was bad enough. OVERALL: 4 Look the battle system will put you to sleep. The fact that there is NO speaking in this game period makes it hard to keep the pace going. I mean, dont get me wrong, some of the best RPGs in the world of gaming have NO VOICE overs, but they had good story to back it up, this game has nothing. They should have spent more time on it. UNLESS you are a DIE HARD BoF fan, dont get it. There are better things out there, like sticking pins in your eyes.

RPGJEY (member since 2006)

reviewed on 10/7/06

2 agree

A bit different than the normal RPGs

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.

PhantomZXV (member since 2010)

reviewed on 6/2/10

2 agree

A very below average RPG

I like the Breath of Fire, in fact BoF 3 for Playstation was one of the most underrated Rpg's in my opinion, but when I played Dragon Quarter I was dissappointed on almost every level. The futuristic setting and graphic style will annoy most fans of the series and likely cause them to stop playing soon after they start playing but the biggest draw and drawback to the game is the fighting system. They tried to make the system something different by having each player have a certain number of AP they could use per turn and whatever they didn't use would be transferred to the next turn, but the gamer can attack as many times as he wants as long as the AP doesn't run out. It seems like a pretty good system but it causes the battles to last way way too long. When the first couple of battles you fight take ten minutes or so to complete, something is wrong with the combat system. Another problem was that they did not charge any AP for using any items so you could hypothetically heal your whole party and use any damaging items on your enemy on one characters turn. Besides this, the story is certainly a dark and depressing one but the cel-shaded graphics just don't do it for me, making it hard for me to really want to invest any emotion into the game. Overall a very dissappointing Breath of Fire game and below average RPG for PS2.

Takerkain (member since 2006)

reviewed on 9/6/06

2 agree