Breath of Fire V: Opinions?

Peregrine

Peregrine

Genkai Conqueror
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Ballsiest RPG ever made, by far. Best in the series, and a top 10 RPG of all-time. No, I'm not kidding, this game was a ****ing masterpiece of a disaster.
 
I enjoyed Dragon Quarter, was just something that wasn't like past Breath of Fires, and I loved it for that, I'd love to see BoFVI be something akin to it, if there will be one, but Dragon Quarter didn't do so well, so may not see another.
 
Dragon Quarter was absurdly hard at parts, and had a lot of really cheap elements... but I liked it a lot, it was one of the first PS2 games I bought.
 
Watched my friend play it for a couple hours, wasn't all that impressed. The replayability with the D-level or whatever it was called was a nice feature, but I didn't care much about the gameplay.
 
Dragon Quarter was far and away the best installment of the series, but whether or not that's damning with faint praise is a whole other discussion. It WAS really good, and more importantly was one of the only RPGs I've played that was not wholly derivative, but it was a little too easy to game imo.
 
I didn't really get into Dragon Quarter. I REALLY REALLY REALLY loved IV, and III though. They were awesome. The he playable characters in quarter is a big part of the reason i didn't like it.

Nina in that game was by far the worst.
 
I think it was fine the first two games, but after ff7 got released, Capcom didn't step up. They set the series on coast through the entire PSX era and for that, people stopped buying the BoF series by the fourth one. They tried to sell BoF as the classic RPG, and it burned them.

I really think Capcom grew to hate the BoF series. It has such a perfect premise, but they could never capitalize on that like they wanted to. In the end, for this one, it seems that they stripped everything back but that premise.

In no other BoF did Capcom truly capture the nature of their hero though. In other BoF's the plot merely tells you about a hero that has to cope with being a god. This is the only one where you actually play that struggle. If you use it, you're invincible, but if you use it you're ****ed like game-over ****ed. But you have to use it. They MAKE you. You get your ass kicked if you don't. That little anorexic girl with bad lungs dies if you don't. You don't have time to explore nooks and crannies, you have something to do before you get consumed, because honestly---when you put a god in a human the human SHOULD be majorly screwed up and unable to handle it.

The gameplay was herecy for a RPG, and that's what BoF needed. DQ tells the other 4 BoF's to go **** themselves, and in doing so perfectly captures the essence of the best series premise ever conceived.

As far as Nina goes, Mr. Football protecting the homecoming queen is old. Nina was like his little sister here, which by far is a better match for the series.
 
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I still liked BoF3 best, tho 5 was alright in it's own ways. >.> i had to use the exp trick to beat it tho :I
 
My friend loved the plot of the game and I didn't see enough of it get a feel for the plot, so I'll have to take your word on that. I just didn't like a bunch of the gameplay aspects so I never cared to play the game. I enjoyed 3 and 4 though, I didn't see much of a need to completely overhaul the entire series with 5. Definitely a graphics upgrade, but the rest of the gameplay mechanics were fine and I didn't like those changes.
 
I've heard some bad things about 5 yet you all are saying its good. Guess I'm going to have to find out for myself sometime if I get around to buying and playing it. I agree with Forte though, 3 is my favorite in the serious. I really enjoyed the story in that game and how it progressed. I loved how it started with something simple as him being simple boy getting into trouble to a more dramatic complicated story about a war between the dragons, "brood" i think it was, and the goddess with her guardians. Though I still hated that desert part. Got stuck there for the longest time.
 
Sorrowfulturnip said:
I've heard some bad things about 5 yet you all are saying its good. Guess I'm going to have to find out for myself sometime if I get around to buying and playing it. I agree with Forte though, 3 is my favorite in the serious. I really enjoyed the story in that game and how it progressed. I loved how it started with something simple as him being simple boy getting into trouble to a more dramatic complicated story about a war between the dragons, "brood" i think it was, and the goddess with her guardians. Though I still hated that desert part. Got stuck there for the longest time.
Click to expand...


amen ;3
 
I thought 3 and 4 were just kinda there, being decent, but not improving on II. I thought BoF's performance on the PSX was mediocre compared to what it was on the SNES.

If you like the other BoF's as far as how they play, you'll hate the 5th. There is one dragon formation. One. It doesn't have armor, the weapons don't get much better, it penalizes wandering around, your inventory is nonexistant, you have to appraise every new piece of equipment you find if you want to use it, it's set in a cave, and it's what...12 hours long or so.

The game is hard though, which is why it's so good. In some places, you try to duke it out in human form because you want to protect your hero. But in others you get clobbered, and your only choice is to protect your party. And among the best things is that it's not even in blatantly obvious situations half the time. Sometimes you come across a normal fight, you haven't saved in a long time if at all, and you find yourself losing.

Go through a RPG without items, healing, and saving. Feel the sense of urgency that you *can't* afford to die. You can hit the invincibility button at any time and make it go away, but after the fight is over you have to live with the fact that you just burned 12% of your life. You'd best be sure you didn't have a choice. If you didn't do your best before you called the dragon, it's Game Over eventually.

The game simply does a superb job of balancing the fact that you are an invincible god and vulnerable group of mortals who are out of their league,at the same time. That's BoF.
 
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Best thing i loved bout BoF5, was how you looked as your have dragon form. :3 Coolist thing ever, i guess that's why i have a huge fetish over dragons ( /,\);
 
Bof 1 got me hooked, 2 was astounding, 3 was a bit of a letdown, but fun and involving enough... 4 almost killed it.

5... well let's see. I liked it somewhat... I liked the way the game played, but the character art was atrocious, and could have been so much better. The monsters were goofy, which, really isn't that big of a deal. The plot was damn good though, and refreshing for the BoF series. The battle engine was quirky and abuseable.

My verdict? Meh. Not the overall best. (i'd save that one for #2 for sure), but one of the better ones.
 
I agree with Peregrine 100%. DQ's sense of "oh my god, this is impossible but I'm supposed to win?!" is completely unmatched in any other game.
 
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