AbstractPrincess Elina is missing, and it is up to Nina and a ragtag crew of heroes to find her and save the world. Take control of a three-member party (there are six playable characters) and enter battle. When one of your troops gets hurt too much, just rotate them out of the active party and call another to action. Use strategies like transforming Ryu into a dragon to gain an advantage over your opponents. Only you can guide this group of adventurers to success in BREATH OF FIRE IV.
ESRB rating
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Mild Animated Violence, Suggestive Themes |
Full descriptionSimilar to, Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV is a menu-battle RPG that inherits many aspects of its predecessor, and creates new depths to gameplay via a variety of mini-games. When played, these mini-games enhance certain abilities, and add new skills that can be learned from training under masters as well as from enemies. These skills and ability enhancements, when combined with a new combo system, allows players to enhance the effects of attacks or create new spells. Breath of Fire IV features 3D backgrounds and 2D sprite-based characters.
Editorial reviewSource:
AmazonYou don't have to be a hard-core gamer to notice that innumerable--not to mention impressive--role-playing games (RPGs) have been released for the Sony PlayStation. Although the fourth installment in the Breath of Fire series is a fine RPG, it's doesn't quite hold a flame to the best of the aforementioned alternatives.
Breath of Fire IV is a single-player game that continues the story with these "dragon people," who gave their lives to eradicate the evil goddess and restore peace in their world. This time around, battle has broken out between two powerful continents, and the fair Princess Elena has disappeared during a tour of the war-torn region. The princess's sister, Nina, who reigns o'er the Windia Kingdom, vows to retrieve her missing sibling. She meets Ryu along the way, who joins the epic quest.
Breath of Fire IV's gameplay is refreshingly simple, with only a few minor additions to its predecessor's battle system. Most noticeably, a new combo system lets spells dish out more damage than when cast alone, by working in conjunction with other spells. As before, Ryu can transform into a dragon or hybrid half-human, half-dragon creature to gain special attack powers. The party will pick up other drifters throughout the game, some of whom have the power to transform.
Each town opens up a new set of subquests and minigames (yup--there's another fishing game here, folks), both of which add longevity and replayability to Breath of Fire IV, although not everyone will appreciate the mandatory nature of these diversions.
Like many Japanese-bred RPGs, the musical score and crisp sound effects are excellent, but there is very little voice talent in the game. In all, Breath of Fire IV is a solid, although not fantastic, RPG. --Todd Mowatt
Pros:
- Solid story
- Effective battle system
- Extraordinary musical score
Cons: - Average graphics
- Sometimes-awkward control and camera angles
Six playable characters; create a traveling party with three of the characters; characters can be rotated in and out of the main party at will; transform into a dragon; train under a master to improve skills
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