Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter Art
Jiff of Fire: Dragon Quarter isn't the "Dark Souls of JRPGs," though in that location are quite a few comparisons that can be made to From Software'southward recent work. Information technology is an incredibly aggressive title a decade or more ahead of its fourth dimension in numerous means. While many of its elements tin exist establish in modernistic games today — including the aforementioned Souls serial — Dragon Quarter itself is an inspired entry with many spiritual predecessors. Its influences range from traditional RPGs, strategy RPGs, dungeon crawlers, and fifty-fifty survival horror. For a game that's e'er grim, muddy, dark, and full of grimy locales, it certainly shines brightly. Yet that glimmer is dependent upon just how y'all look at it.
Having released in the West in 2003, in that location was a slew of JRPGs that came out shortly before or afterward Dragon Quarter. Hither are just a few that released around that time: Kingdom Hearts, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Wild Artillery 3, Disgaea, Fire Keepsake, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Xenosaga Episode 1, Grandia II, and Golden Lord's day. Many of these games are packed full of color with luscious sprites, served as high fantasy epics where yous interacted with numerous other races, and often offered g open worlds to explore. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, on the other hand, goes for a rather dreary and dismal look in its environments. The about colorful things in the room (almost e'er) are the characters themselves.
The art manner of Dragon Quarter is grimy. The characters are jail cell-shaded, but their await seems a bit unfamiliar. Information technology toes an odd line between anime and chibi/deformed, giving it a strange nonetheless welcoming look as if it once represented something nosotros knew long ago. Information technology'southward a flake off-putting, but information technology besides beckons one to look closer. Ryu's glaze should be a vivid and vibrant blueish, while Nina'southward white dress should practically glow. Instead, they're muddied. The colors are subdued, choked by the stagnant air and polluted lightning that casts its glow upon the walls of rock. This look is absolutely perfect for the setting of a game where you never run across the light of twenty-four hour period.
As a fan of RPGs, nosotros could exist doing anything. We could be running across the plains contesting kobolds, or we could exist soaring through the skies in airships. We could even be crossing the stars. Yet nosotros're underground instead, a one thousand meters from the surface, abroad from whatsoever freedom of take a chance. Rather than rushing rivers and flowing grass that shivers in the wind, we're meant to call countless tons of rock and cages of metal home. It's a dark and pitiful existence. It's claustrophobic and harsh, a sharp contrast to the myriad RPGs released around the same time. This is where Dragon Quarter begins to show 1 of its virtually notable influences: survival horror.
What does Dragon Quarter choose to contain from a completely unlike genre that has had so few crossovers in the past? Quite a chip, actually. While you won't notice many shambling corpses seeking to devour y'all or vengeful ghosts relentlessly pursuing you, you volition find some mechanics, themes, and an overall feeling that draws from survival horror. Starting time off, we have the atmosphere. There is no adventure, there is no saving the world, and in that location is no commemoration to be found. We're met with an incredibly oppressive atmosphere from minute one. From the showtime scene, you are told yous are naught. You only ever were nothing. All you'll ever be is nothing, so shut upwardly and get to work.
There is no ability fantasy here. Rather than dreaming of changing the world, you lot embark on a journeying that is both uncomplicated and personal. After crossing paths with Nina — a mute girl with strange wings and the ability to cast magic — your goal boils downward to one simple task: accept her to run across the surface before this oppressive underground ruin kills her. In the showtime hours, you're given some liberty to wander virtually and test your mettle against enemies. Presently, however, you're afflicted with the accursed fate of becoming a dragon. The setting was oppressive enough already, yet at present you are substantially on a timer. If it runs out, information technology's game over. Withal, getting a game over is a brute of its own.
All this time, you've been able to save your progress at the game's save points: Telecorders. This would be standard fare in any other game, and limitless. In Dragon Quarter, your saves are finite, a survival horror element showing itself again. Taking from games similar Resident Evil, your saves are limited by a consumable particular. You go i at the showtime of the game, and that'due south it until yous notice another or die. When you perish in battle, you're given a selection: Restore or Restart. To restore is to reload your last salve, yet you lot'll lose half your money and banked party experience while returning to the stats and level you had when you made the save. When you restart, you lot brainstorm the game anew with half your money and party experience. Oh, and all your items are gone. Harsh, isn't it?
In other RPGs, you usually have almost-limitless space for items. Hither, you've simply a few pages of inventory. Y'all can upgrade it throughout the game, assuasive you to carry more items throughout your journey., but all those items are gone if you cease up expressionless. The simply things that bear over are the weapons you lot accept equipped and the items in your locker. While you can eventually have over fifty items on your person, your locker can simply concord x unlike items total. Similar the storage boxes in Resident Evil, these lockers can be accessed through many game locations. Unlike that serial, however, your storage is severely constrained and will never be expanded. Now nosotros have to address inventory direction, decide what to shop for safekeeping should we fail, and what to take to ensure we don't neglect. Money is scarce as well, and y'all might think the penalty for failure is incredibly cruel, if not outright unfair. In a manner, however, failure tin exist its own reward.
Fans of horror games accept most certainly experienced this scenario earlier: traversing a hallway filled with enemies only to unload near all your ammunition into the undead. A few bites hither and there suck upwards the few consumables you had. It's been an hr since your concluding save and in that location are plentiful enemies simply waiting for you to try to run past them. You chance it. Y'all make a run for information technology, but that ane zombie catches you and sinks its disgusting teeth into your cervix. Earlier you know it, a bloody screen lets you know that you've died.
All that progress is gone, just at present you know how to get there. Yous know who you can contrivance, what you can skip, and how to get back without so much as firing a single shot. You know what's coming up and how you can meliorate set. Maybe y'all grab the shotgun this fourth dimension. You tackle the expanse again and come out ahead. Y'all barely fired a shot, you lot've more healing items than yous know what to do with, and you lot're in a much better position than before.
Dragon Quarter evokes a similar take on failure, letting y'all banking company the knowledge you gained and making you endeavor again. That new powerful sword you found an hour into your doomed trek? Continue it. Those new spells you got for Nina that are exactly what your enemies are weak against? All yours. Those new skills for Lin that let you push and pull the enemy equally you lot please? New tools for your arsenal. Apply them wisely. Now you lot're tackling the same area you just failed but with new tools and expanded knowledge. Now that terrifying expedition that took you the amend part of an hour is cleared in minutes. Y'all lost your traps, and peradventure a few adept healing items, but you've been given a few healing kits and the ever-coveted save token. Who knew that just outside the door where you lot died initially was a Telecorder? You're better prepared for what's ahead now, and all it took was a little failure.
Learning from failure can likewise grant one the foresight of recognizing your own mistakes. Maybe you wandered also far, used too many items, pushed your luck, or you simply don't have that cute token that lets you salve. From the menu is an ominous-looking choice: Emergency Give-Upwards. At any signal in the game, you can give up and give up all the items in your pocketbook and any actual progress you've fabricated in levels. The penalisation on your money and party experience is negated, allowing you to comport over all your cash and banked XP to a previous save. When things go dicey, it may be a adept idea to restore to an before indicate and take the hit. Equally with before, at present you lot know the way and you're better equipped for the journey ahead. Y'all may accept lost some levels on your character, simply the cognition and experience you've gained is irreplaceable.
In the Souls serial and the countless titles influenced by it, teaching through failure is practically synonymous with the genre. While the approach is different, it feels similar to streamlining the run to a boss as much equally possible by learning the paths and tactics. Circumspection and conviction are encouraged, while being reckless can lead to disaster. Skirting by a pack of enemies can get you lot overwhelmed in Souls games simply as hands as it can in Dragon Quarter. Carelessness is punished and can exist a harsh reminder for one to respect the rules of the game… which tin be bent in diverse ways.
At the time, Dragon Quarter dared to be different. It sought to do things many other RPGs weren't even considering at the fourth dimension. It's closest cousins are in a completely different genre, and it wears those ambitions and inspirations on its tattered sleeve. It was difficult, savage, and claustrophobic, yet highly rewarding for those who wanted to challenge their skills, tactical prowess, courage, and mindset. These days, roguelikes and horror games are a dime a dozen. In fact, From Software has created a new genre with endless developers trying to capture the magic introduced past the Souls serial. While I won't endeavor to convince anyone that Dragon Quarter is the "Dark Souls" of anything, I certainly believe that the game would experience right at home in today'due south world where challenge and difficulty are celebrated. I can only hope that Capcom considers an HD remaster anytime, equally this game deserves to see the light of 24-hour interval again.
Source: https://www.rpgfan.com/feature/to-see-the-sky-how-breath-of-fire-dragon-quarter-dared-to-be-different/
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