Platform	PlayStation 2
Available	Nov. 14 (Japan)
Price	5,800 yen
Genre	RPG
Developer	Capcom
Publisher	Capcom

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter is Capcom's first attempt in the series to step outside the bounds of a 'classic' RPG, and in many ways it succeeds. The problem is that it's challenging - not only in the fact that the game is difficult in parts, but also in the fact that you really have to open your conception of what's acceptable in an RPG to enjoy it. In what ways, you ask? Death brings consequences. Dungeons are grueling endurance tests. Large portions of the game have been carefully arranged so that they can only be accessed after you're completed it - several times. It's 'hardcore'. The game blends elements from multiple genres and adds some things of its own. If this sounds interesting, read on, but beware: I'm going to describe several of the more interesting aspects of the game in detail; if you were planning on buying it, you may want to stop here so you can plumb the game's depths yourself. I've written this with those who will overlook the game in mind. Also, I'm going to leave the story out completely. Not that it's bad, I just don't need to tell you about it in order to point out the game's unique elements.

First, there are a few things that you need to know up front. 1) Your party accrues both standard per-character experience and 'party exp' in battles. Party experience is entered into a pool that you can spend on any character from the status screen, and persists over multiple tries (more on that later) if you don't spend it. 2) Save points are few and far between, and saves (which require a somewhat rare item) are precious indeed. For playability's sake, a suspend option is always available. You have exactly one save slot and one suspend slot for any given game (although multiple games can be stored on a single memory card for those with more than one gamer in the house). The save file cannot be copied.

The structure of the game itself is a fairly straightforward, linear 'city, dungeon, city, dungeon, etc.' structure with no world map. The game spices this up in several ways. First, the dungeons feature a small amount of randomness in the treasures found and creatures encountered each time you go in. Secondly, all equipment is useless until identified in a town. Third, there are no healing spells, only healing items. Finally, your inventory space is severely limited. This leads to an interesting but grueling blend of resource management strategies from Resident Evil (keeping yourself alive) and Phantasy Star Online (dragging as much treasure back with you to town as possible).

Despite these differences, BoFV is still identifiable as part of the series. The main character, still named Ryu, turns into a dragon. The leading lady, of course named Nina, has wings. Your third party member is a cat-girl. Those familiar with the previous BoF's will immediately recognize all of these key elements. However, the way the dragon power is handled is completely new: enter the 'D-counter'.

Once Ryu acquires his ability to change into dragon form, an icon appears in upper-right corner of the screen bearing a percentage. It starts at 0%. When you walk, it increases by (roughly) .01% per every 5 seconds. Every time you transform into a dragon, it increases by 2%. Every turn spent in dragon form? 2%. Every attack the dragon has adds to the D-counter. 'Now, that's not so innovative,' you say. What if I told you that there is no way to ever decrease your counter without starting the game over? Got your attention yet? What if I told you that when it reaches 100%, the game ends? To truly understand the consequences of the D-counter, let's talk about retrying.

When you die, or when you max your D-counter, you are given three choices:

1. Exit to the title screen. This allows you to load your game and continue from your last save point just as you would in most other RPG's.
   
2. Start from your last save point with your equipment and skills intact, but your inventory, levels, and D-counter revert to the state they were in when you saved. There's a party experience and monetary penalty.
   
3. Start over from the beginning of the game with all of your skills and equipment intact; the default initial inventory, experience, and money; and an empty D-counter. There's also a party experience penalty.
   

Any time that you're not in battle, you can choose the 'Give Up' option from the main menu to get to the the above choice. Doing so avoids any party experience or monetary penalties.

In addition, Capcom has invented several new 'systems' for this game, one of which is the Scenerio Overlay (SOL) System. SOL is an integral part of what makes this game unique. Each time you retry, you will see new cinemas explaining more of the game's story. Going into the game, I had mixed thoughts about this idea, but it turns out that most of my fears were unwarranted. It's obvious that a lot of thought and time went into organizing this system and making it operate as smoothly as possible. Every cinema in the game can be skipped (yes, even the first time through), and new cinemas that you've triggered through retries are clearly marked with a tone and an 'SOL' icon in the bottom of the screen as soon as they begin. The entire story feels fully fleshed out on the first time through, and yet the scenes you get on successive runs don't feel like filler, either. This not only serves to blunt the edge of dying/retrying by giving you new material, it also provides some of the incentive for playing through the game more than once - a task it shares with the 'D-ratio' system.

The D-ratio is Ryu's rank in the world's police force. It starts at 1/8192, and is re-evaluated every time you complete the game. Throughout your quest, you'll find various doors that are locked to those below a given D-ratio. Naturally, the first time through, they are all locked. Only by playing well can you raise your D-ratio and open the doors on successive plays. This not only gives you new areas to explore, but helps you increase your D-ratio the next time through, as area covered is one of the elements of acheiving a higher ratio. Overall, the system left me with a positive impression, although I feel they could have done more with it than just changing a bit of dialogue with those of higher position and opening a few doors.

Additionally, there are plenty of other interesting aspects of the game that I'm not going to go into detail about. For example, you can attack enemies on the field before you even enter the battle system, causing damage, status ailments, or even completely defeating them; you can raise an ant farm that persists through multiple plays; there's an item and equipment storage room you can use to carry items from one try to the next; the battles feature a massive, enjoyable combo system; the art direction is at once breathtaking and original, and the game also cooks and cleans your room when you're away (okay, not really). It all adds up to quite a package.

However, what's truly impressive about the game is that it assembles so many new ideas into a single RPG - and yet still has an overall feeling of solidity. All of the systems integrate and interrelate in ways you won't even realize until you've been playing for hours. The game's parts fit together like the lower bowels of the Titanic, with choices made in one section of the game cascading results into the next, until an early misstep forces you to do something you had saved as a last-last-last resort. You're relatively safe as long as you don't run into a boss - the escape option is unavailable for boss encounters. The first time you make it to a boss fight after an hour and a half of dungeon crawling, your last save a faint memory, and you use that last healing item ... you realize you'll have to use Ryu's dragon power, even though it's like playing with fire. The suspense mounts as you get to the point where you realize you're not going to make it to the end of the game this try because your D-counter is dangerously high. Your imminent self-destruction fights with your desire to eke as much money and party experience as possible out of your current try. The tension rises as you gamble. All it takes is one attack, one round, one step too many, and you've lost all your items and money as well as half of that precious party experience. Is the power of the dragon form really worth it? Yes. It's the ultimate power trip for the RPG fan. Spend enough of your D-counter and you can destroy anything, even the last boss, in one hit.

All of this aside, the game has some shortcomings. They should be mentioned so that you won't be pissed if one of them turns out to be a pet peeve after you've shelled out to buy the game. It's not terrifically friendly to those who are Japanese-challenged. A lot of the dialog is pretty complex (some military terms in there as well), and whoever wrote it loves kanji. Considering the relatively quick English version turn around, I'd recommend waiting if that's an option for you.

Also, I was shocked at the profusion of jaggies. I think it's directly related to the trademark lined-cell look, as the jagged edges persist even through depth-of-field and motion-blur effects. It just seems to be such a shame, as Dark Chronicle sports a very very similar look, but with practically none of the anti-aliasing issues.

Another thing that grated on me after some time with the game is that the combo system, excellent though it is in many respects, seems a little slow. I wish that it would shorten/combine the animations for the various attacks after the player becomes accustomed to the button patterns. The whirring sounds of my PS2 make me suspect that it's more of a hardware/software limitation (I believe it's reading the animations off the disk as necessary) than an actual design decision, but it still seems like wasted potential. What could have been super-stylish combos on the level of those found in fighting games ends up reduced to punching the buttons when prompted.

Finally, the game's pace seems just a bit slower than my tastes run - I would have liked to see the acquisition of new skills and equipment come more rapidly. The game's full depth is spread out over multiple plays, which is a lovely idea; but after being raised on Diablo II and Phantasy Star Online, BoFV's new toys seem to take a little too long between each new one.

All of this aside, I urge anyone who can handle this game to give it a shot. It's got longevity, tons of originality, and a great blend of 11 herbs and spices all rolled together into one solid package. It will give and give to those with open minds. Jaded gamers, assemble!

- Joseph Holley
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