Before a year ago, I had never played a Breath of Fire game. I stopped playing BoF III, but I completed the sequel. I have to say, "Great experience."
But I suck, so what else sucks?
The camera. Many reviewers agree that controlling the camera in BoF IV is terrible. Not only does it stop your momentum while moving, but it barely helps to see more. Looking down hallways isn't dependent on angle, and peaking in confined spaces is a lesson in futility. There are only a handful of terrible experiences, but chasing that kid in Synestia shouldn't have been that annoying.
I was down on several portions of the battle system. Depending on where you're at in the game, there was only one tactic. Early on, it was to spam basic attacks. By the late game, though, you'll be casting spells every turn. But, for reasons I'll get to in a moment, you'll be using the same handful of combos every time. It's a bit boring.
And I never felt rewarded. Drop rates are garbage, and it emphasizes the downsides of combat. Level ups also felt few and far between. Ultimately, it worked out in the end as I leaned the final spells just before the last boss, and I only did a level grind once for forty minutes.
Overall, I liked the characters, but some felt lacking. Sticking with the battle system for the moment, Cray sucks. His speed is pathetic, so you can't trust him to set up combos. It's why you'll be using fire+wind spells the whole game. And he serves no other purpose besides his earth magic. But his magic stat is so bad that it's not worth it! Ershin is a better tank, and everyone else has better DPS.
But that's in combat. Scias, though, is lacking in two areas. One: a character arc. The moment he shows up, he shadows the group to tattle on them. And then instantly pulls the double agent card. But why? After this, he disappears from relevancy. Two: he doesn't even have a field skill.
I don't like masters. I found all their negatives to outweigh their positives. Stoll could have been great for Cray, but forcing a steal on every attack made our tiger king even more useless.
Why did they cut Yuna's comeuppance?
But that's all the negatives. I'm about to say some positive things about them, so I'm confused.
I liked the characters. Yes, Scias has no value, and Cray sucks in combat. But Scias is great in a fight, and Cray is a driving force for the group. He seems to be the leader, but Nina gets all the credit. As she should. Strong willed female mages are my thing. Who knew? Ursula has plot relevance as a representative of the enemy, but she also offers some low-key humor. Ershin is all over the board, and I'm here for it.
Fou-lu might be one of the best main antagonists in the genre. It's rare we see the inciting incident of the BBG, and it's even rarer that someone else kills the early game target. But he does it. The way BoF IV showcases him is one of the best things I've seen. At the very least, BoF IV has a large number of gods we get to kill.
As much as I disliked portions of the battle system, I liked the basics. If for no other reason than because it's a rudimentary version of Final Fantasy X. Switching party members in combat is just the best. More games need it!
Oh my goodness, the music. Every note on every song fills me with the perfect tinge of emotion. There are so many unique sounds, sections, and loops that I found myself engrossed in with so many tracks. For some reason, though, it's not on Spotify, so I can't add the dozen songs to my playlist. Are any of them magic, though?
I enjoyed the plot. It takes a while to get into gear because we're looking for a person for thirty hours. It is only the final dungeon where there's a clear finality and goal to our actions. It helps that we can view Fou as a playable character for a long time, so there are a number of side plots adjacent to Elina. But Ryu and crew have plenty of reasons to go to Chedo. I was expecting more political intrigue between The Alliance, but that went nowhere, unfortunately.
So Breath of Fire IV has all the important things working for it that more than makeup for the negatives. I had a lot of fun playing the game, but I wasn't wowed by it. It's still worth playing.
Plot: nearly perfect. Honestly, I could agree if someone did find this perfect. The Empire is missing a few things because our party barely interacts with them, but Fou is such a cool antagonist. Despite the flaws, the playable cast is a lot of fun. Who knew you could make a competent silent protagonist? 9/10
Gameplay: missing pieces. There are too many useless techniques and only a few spamable spells. And bosses just boil down to breath attacks. But the basics are here, except in dungeons. The dungeon design was amazing. 8/10
Art: color swaps. Ignoring the camera issues, all the cities, dungeons, and NPCs are unique and variable. There are a lot of animations to see, but the mob variety is filled with paint swatch differences. 8/10
Sound: on repeat. Listening to the OST on YouTube inspired me to play the game on the basis of that alone. It was worth it. 10/10
Charm: utterly disappointing. There are no long term NPCs we get to know, and the world feels really disconnected. I also don't see a reason to pick it up again. 6/10
The only negative is the terrible, awful camera controls. Breath of Fire IV gets a solid 39/50.
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