Renowned for its innovative gameplay mechanics, this latest incarnation redefines the Breath of Fire role-playing game. Breath of Fire series for the PlayStation 2 sports a whole new 3D-world look, an engrossing storyline, brand new stylized visuals and innovative gameplay features.

After ecological collapse, the human race went underground into Shelter where they've lived peacefully. Now a small party is ready to fight its way back to the surface and discover what lurks above!

As team leader Ryu, you'll lead a patrol through caverns and dungeons, and make your way through a maze of dangers

Battle against monsters and strange adversaries as you fight your way to the blue sky

Exciting adventures as you lead the human race to salvation!

Average Customer Review: ( 42 customer reviews )
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The battle system is one of the funnest I've played in an RPG in a long time. The story is great, and the ending is one of the best I've seen in a long time. And a New Game+ system doesn't hurt either. You can spend a hundred hours trying to get and do everything. (i've gone through it twice and still missing a lot)

Everyone says that you need to restart over and over again, when actually you don't. If your not very good (no offense) and use the dragon powers a lot, then yeah, you will. The dragon form is 'sposed to be a last resort, and should be used as little as possible. It's not that difficult to make it through in one run w/o restarting (although it does help).

Although this game has a steep learning curve, I'd recommend it to the hardcore RPG fans. People who are used to having their hands held through out a game should stay clear. Give it a try and try to learn it's systems and you should find a very enjoyable and rewarding game.

21 of 24 found the following review helpful:

Great but Complex RPGSep 12, 2004
By Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast"
Breath of Fire - Dragon Quarter is a challenging RPG that features gorgeous graphics, especially in the cut scenes. You also learn a lesson about power and consequences.

The game is very Final Fantasy-like with a character running around a map, solving quests and learning things as he builds up skills. Your party here contains up to three characters. This is a futuristic world where humanity is living underground. As in every story from Metropolis on forward, it's the dregs of humans which are living down at the lowest levels. They are so far from the surface that they don't believe there is a real "sky" up there.

Like many other RPGs, when you clear a dungeon, the enemies stay dead. That makes sense to me :) It does mean, though, that you can't "bulk up infinitely". You are given a certain number of potential XP and have to best develop your character based on that.

When you become advanced enough, you gain the ability to turn into an uber-dragon. You might think this would make the rest of the game easy. But with great power comes great responsibility, or so says Spiderman. The balance here is that using that power hastens the end of the game. If you wimp out and just use your dragon powers too much, the timer counts down and the game ends.

Some people complain because they get their hands on that dragon power and want to just use it to blast through the harder levels. But the whole point of the dragon power is that it is an ultimate power that should only be used for the final bosses. If you can't resist using that power all the time, then you pay the penalty. I think it's a brilliant lesson and find it fascinating that a number of gamers aren't understanding it.

The characters and plot are very well done, and really get you to understand how trapped and doomed the "lower classes" are. The cut scene graphics are great anime style, and the in-game graphics are quite nice too. The music varies from area to area and really gives a sense of the atmosphere in the game. I enjoyed both the roaming-around gameplay and the battle gameplay as easy to understand but full of strategy. Battle especially gives you a lot of customization so you can tweak your characters to best match your gameplay style.

Yes, this is NOT an easy RPG. People who try to take the 'easy way out' (i.e. dragon blasting everything) will not be able to finish the game. Players who try to race from start to finish will simply not finish. But players who put in the time to customize the characters, and who work on developing their skills, will find an amazingly fun RPG that is quite replayable. Each time you finish the game, you can restart with even more ability to explore the world.

Well recommended for serious RPGers!

23 of 28 found the following review helpful:

Why does it have to be this difficult!!??Dec 12, 2003
By A. Griffiths "Adrian"
Breath Of Fire Dragons Quarter has to be the most complex and difficult RPG I have ever played. It's the only game in the series I have tried, and I decided to play it as I am a fan of RPG's in general, but I wasn't prepared for such a steep learning curve. Maybe if you know the series you will find it easier, but I spent the whole first section of the game having no idea of what I was doing. It doesn't help that the game manual is very hard to understand, I was referring to it all the time, but seldom found answers to the questions that were confusing me.
Basically, the game plays like a standard RPG, with strings of dungeons, interpspaced with "towns". You only have three playable characters (except for the first mission) so you can concentrate your level building quite easily. The battle system itself is quite cool, as it requires that you take into account positioning and distance in all your strategies. Players can run around on the battlefield at will within a specified range, but it consumes points that would otherwise be put towards combat, so you will be playing very tactically a lot of the time, which I found a lot of fun. You have to learn different skills as the game progresses, and then attach them to your weapons and armour to use in battle (a bit like "Materia" in Final Fantasy 7). But the attacks that you dish out only prove really effective if you use the games "combo" system, and it was this that I really struggled with. In addition to this, the many different types of weapons and armour on offer have a bewildering range of benefits and drawbacks that make assembling a selection of "best" equipment impossible. Again, it's all really poorly explained in the manual, and highly confusing to understand. However, there is an even bigger drawback to the game, in my opinion, which is the Dragon Counter. Once you reach a certain point in the game, the lead character takes on the ability to assume a hugely powerful dragon form, which potentially makes every battle a pushover. The drawback? Once you get this ability, a timer appears in the corner of the screen for the rest of the game, counting towards 100. Any use of the dragon form speeds up the counter drastically, and the penalty for reaching 100 is Game Over-permanently. Yes thats right, if you use the power too freely or take too long to play, your characters will die and you have no choice but to restart the whole game from the beginning. There is no way to stop or reverse the counter, and once you get towards the last stage of the game where the final bosses can only be beaten with dragon form attacks, if you don't have a pretty large chunk of counter left over, you simply can't finish the game. Its a hugely unfair and crippling mechanism to have, and one that almost made me give up even after I had worked really hard to get a long way into the game. Think you can just do lots of levelling up to become invincible even without resorting to the dragon? Sorry, this is a linear game...there are no random encounters and no way of revisiting dungeons that have been cleared. Plus, saving is done by means of consumable save tokens, which are far too scarce, as are the save points themselves, so just making it through a lot of the stages is hard enough. To make the game so difficult and then make you scared to save because you are getting low on tokens is just plain mean.
I'm being very negative here, but let me add that I did enjoy some aspects of the game. The graphics look great, and the plot is intriguing, with characters that are very believable. Hmm...I've not left the game with many plus points there!
In conclusion then, a fine looking game with dynamic battles and a good storyline, crippled by a massive penalty for using the best skill in the game. I suppose in accordance with the plot, in which the dragon form is literally eating the players life away from within, it makes sense that there should be a steep price for using its power, but this is too much. There is a restart system to soften the blow in which you retain certain attributes and gain access to new areas when you restart (the instructions say you will get more out of the game by playing it over several times), but that's not good enough for me. I worked hard and replayed many sections to be able to make it to the end credits just once, and I don't feel much like going through it again. Be warned.

9 of 10 found the following review helpful:

A soon-to-be classic that snuck under the radar...Nov 14, 2005
By Corum Seth Smith
This is a fantastic game. It is one of the best games Capcom has made in the last five years. Now before I start telling you why I think it is good, you need to know that this is not like the other Breath of Fire Games. Although technically this is still a turn based RPG, there are some real interesting innovations that make this game unique.

First of all, the game is the most challenging Breath of Fire. I have played 1, 2, and 3, and this is definitely the most challenging. That is, until you figure out the system, and learn how to work the game in your favor. It is still the most challenging, but the challenge can eventually be managed.

The enemies appear on-screen and you lay traps to weaken them before battle! It is a new and creative system. Depending upon how well you fight, you get bonus experience, which is called Party XP. So if you fight cleverly, you can level up more quickly.

The Dragon Form has changed. There is no MP. Now you have a Dragon Counter. Every time you turn into the Dragon, 2% is added to the counter, that goes to 100%. If the counter reaches 100%, then it is automatically Game Over. You must figure a way to win without bringing him out too often. This in itself is a challenge. At first I resented it, but now I realize that it is a great additional challenge to the game as it is set up.

Also, the Dragon Form is obscenely strong in this game. You can kill even the end boss in Dragon Form with only 15-20% of the counter.

The music is good. The plot of the story is really good. You must escape from an underground nightmare, challenging every authority figure in an oppressive, subterranean world. You can restart the game over with your Party XP and acquired skills and beat the game more easily. You also have a great challenge ahead of you: earn the Dragon Quarter, the ultimate D-ratio.

Yes, this Breath of Fire is different from the others. However, in almost every instance that is a good thing. This is one of the best video games on PS2, period. Not only that, but in terms of price it's slipped under the radar and is selling at a low price. If you have the cash to spare, this is the one you want.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

Mixed FeelingsOct 14, 2003

Oh my, the 5th game of the series. If I do recall, the last two games were phenomenol, both expanding the RPG world as we know it. I can't really say the same for BOF5. Its got the goods, yet its missing some essentials.

Story- BOF5's story is very well done! It involves the character in all the BOF games, Ryu, but this time he is in an underground civilization. No one knows what the sky, nor the feeling of clean air is like. There seems to be no escape from deep tunnels and factories. All goes well until you meet an orphan girl Nina, who turns out to be a (*SPOILER*) created by a mad scientist. You are come face to face with henchman of the Biocorp, and they release a toxic gas that threatens the underground cities. You are forced to team up with Nina, and a thief girl, Rin, and try to escape to the surface before time runs out. (Don't worry, you have as much time as you like)

Characters- Unlike the other BOF games, 5 only contains 3 main characters. Not much conversing between them takes place, so this category is pretty weak. I was disapointed that there werent many characters.

Battle- Battles are exceptional! Capcom has added a new system, where you can move around wherever you desire in real time....well, sorta. As you move, you AP goes down. YOu need a certain amount of AP to do attacks, so the more you move, the less you attack. You can also set traps in battle for your enemies. And each character has there own weapon range. Very well done!

Graphics and sound- Graphics I give a big two thumbs up. They are strange yet awsome, where it looks as though you are looking at 3-d anime, with celshaded coloring. (I call it Ani-cel) There is never a moment where you will be disapointed. But the colors are bland, and no real brightness is here. Music is pretty repetitive as well.

Hard?- This game is very hard!!! I am warning you that you will hate this game if you can't stand these conditions. First, you must use an item called a Save token to save. These are very scarce, and sometimes you get mad where you are playing for 4 hours straight and you die, going all the way back to where you last saved.......OUCH! Second, once you reach a certain point in the game, you have to limit your use of special out of battle powers. The more of these you use, the higher this meter thing raises, and if it reaches 100% you get a gameover. Changing into dragons even raises the meter! (There is no way to reduce the meter) Thirdly, money is very hard to come by. Items and weapons cost way too much! So you might have trouble surviving

Replay- The game so far only offers few minigames. You can raise an ant colony to build your ideal underground town (much like the faerie colony in previous games). Also, if you beat the game and fill out certain conditions, you can raise your soldier rank, allowing you to unlock secret events and areas normally unattainable.

BOF5 is a very challenging game. I really wouldn't recomend it to newcomer RPG players, but rather for extreme people, in hope of the next best thing. Have fun conquering this doozy, I still ahve yet to beat it

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