Finally done with school so I created this because of tons of free time now. Dragon Quarters is an interesting game as the game itself is only a Breath of Fire in name, and other than having a Ryu and a Nina it is completely different from the rest of the series. Dragon Quarters is as similar to the Breath of Fire 1-4 as much as Final Fantasy 12 and 13 is to 1-10.
The first thing that is notable about the game is that even from the start it feels completely different from of RPG from the era, there is a survivor horror feel from it. Another huge difference is that there are limited amount of times you can create a permanent save in this game. A simple synopsis of the game is that Ryu finds and rescues Nina and to save her she needs to be taken to the surface of the world. Though there is a minor problem, they are over 1000 meters underground. As you travel closer to the surface, the cities you pass are higher class. And of course it wouldn't be a RPG if there wasn't enemies and organization trying to stop you from reaching your goal.
Pros
- I found the battle system to be very enjoyable. It's kind of like FF12 battle system and instead of atb it uses Skies of Arcadia turn based, except per party member.
-The game is also decently challenging when you first get into it, this could just be lack of knowledge of the system but it has a nice difficulty for playing it blind.
-One nice thing about this game is that you should never get lost as it always marks on the map where you are supposed to be headed. No being stuck in a world map wondering where to go cause you missed a line of text in this game.
Neutral
-Music wasn't really memorable or bad, it was just there nothing outstanding.
-Graphics was pretty standard for the time that it came out, nothing wow worthy.
-Limited saves, one thing about the game system is that there is only a limited amount of permanent save available which cost a save token each time. The other part is the you can only make a single save per save file so no having a back up save either. Temporary saves are available but gets erased once loaded. This may bother some people, but didn't bother me that much.
Con
-The main thing that bothered me about this game was that you can make the game unbeatable if you didn't know about the system. This happened to me where I was able to get to the last series of bosses but couldn't finish the game. The game has a system where Ryu can turn into a dragon (big surprise >.>)however you have a limited amount of access to those powers, and once you reach 100% it's an instant game over. Only problem is that there are a bunch of bosses, especially near the end that are impossible to beat without his dragon form, so it is pretty easy to lock yourself out of beating the game.
-The other downside is that a lot of places of the game you have no access to the 1st playthrough, as they are unlocked through having a good score on finished the game.
Overall a fun game to pick up if you wanted something different in a ps2 RPG, though definitely not a must play for most people.
7.5/10
