Breath of Fire 4
Reviewed by PWolfstien
Breath of Fire IV ... what can I say about this game? Well,
alot actually.
I was SO looking towards Breath of Fire III after playing
the great BoF 1, and particually 2. Breath of Fire 3
wasn't bad ... it was quite good actually but it just didn't
live up to MY high expectations.
Breath of Fire IV does and then some!
Lets start with the review eh!
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Graphics: 10/10
-The graphics in this game are the best on the PSX, easy.
The characters all look great and the backrounds are just as
wonderful. The 3-D backrounds just flow with the 2-D
characters so well. The bosses all look very cool, so do the
enemies. The battles scenes all look great as they are very
detailed. (They are pre-rendered) The magic's /combo's look
very cool also. Another thing that I really like are the
Dragon Breath spells (Think FF VII and VIII) They look very
cool and they are long. I bet your thinking great, I have to
sit and watch these things forever just like in FF VII and
FF VIII. Well, no. BoF IV gives YOU the choice of wheather
to watch the scenes or go straight to the damage (after you
watch the full version once). I really liked this option as
I have used it a few times. I mean yeah they look great and
all but after the tenth time it can get annoying to sit
through. The opening anime scene looks really cool, better
than Lunar's . I wish they could have made this game two
disc's and threw in a few more of those like when Ryu finds
a new dragon and gets his breath spell.
Anywho, the graphics in this game are the overall best ever
in an RPG IMO.
Music: 10/10
OH ... MY!!!! This game has probably the best music in
an RPG since FF VI. Maybe better ... It just seems that the
music is always in the right place at the right time. Also,
the battle music and boss music rock! The opening music is
also great (The opening anime scene) The ending theme just
kicks total butt! From everything to the fairy village, to
the fights, to the ending the music in this game is very
good to say the least. I would pick up the sound track!
Gameplay: 9. 5/10
The gameplay in BoF IV is very good, I would have given it a
10/10 but they need to make some better camera angles to
stop the player from having to switch the views so much. I
know that they do it for the challenge of searching and it
does play a part in this game but frankly it starts to annoy
me after a while. Thank for Nina's personal action LOL!
(That helps a lot) BoF IV also has a ton of really cool mini
games. Fishing is improved yet again (and more fun) Same
with the Fairy Village, it's a lot more complete than III's
was. The world map rocks and later in the game you can do
anywhere on the world map by pressing 's elect' and going
to an area that's dot is RED. (You have to explore it first
before this option is available, I THINK this option becomes
available around the second chapter of the game) You can
easily send 100+ hours of your life on this great game by
completing the fishing and working with the Fairy Village.
Not to mention the IMPROVED Lore Master system in BoF IV.
Lore Master's are back and much improved. How, well, first
off they are more balanced status wise and you can equip
more than one person on a LM at a time. Unlike BoF III where
only one person/one master. This really lets you decide how
you want your characters to be in battle. What I mean is ...
Well you can easily make Ryu the super strong magic user and
Nina the high HP hard hitting person she was ment to be :) !
Well, OK, so I didn't go that route but you could. Anyway it
really adds your own flavor to the game.
Story: 10/10
The story rules. I'm not going to spoil the whole game for
you but I'm telling you that it's very good. Ryu is
searching for his identity, Nina/Cray are searching for the
missing princess Elina. Nina finds Ryu early in the game and
helps her and Cray search for the princess while trying to
find out who he is in the process. You will meet many cool
characters in this game in your adventure. A classic story!
Overall: 10 out of 10
This game has it all. It's definitly worth picking up the
import even if you can't read Japanese. But if you want to
get the whole story I do suggest that you wait for the US
release. Overall a game I will definitly play more than
once, and twice.
