Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a 2002 role-playing game by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It is the fifth entry in the Breath of Fire series.
Gameplay
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a role-playing video game that deviates drastically from previous games in the series, and is the first using fully three-dimensional graphics for characters and environments. Players must travel upward through a network of tunnels while battling enemies and collecting keys. A map system alerts players to nearby doors, treasures, and enemies. Using the Scenario Overlay (SOL) System, specific plot points and game areas are only accessible if the player's D-Ratio number is high enough. Players' D-Ratio is initially 1/8192 and can only be raised by restarting the game and using the SOL: Restore function, which allows the player to begin a new game while carrying over all accumulated items, equipment, and skills previously acquired.
At a certain point in the game, the player can use dragon abilities and a D-Counter appears on screen. A battle begins when a character encounters an on-screen enemy, and the player can employ a pre-emptive strike. Combat can be avoided by setting traps or leaving food. In combat each character takes action according to their "agility" statistic. The participant has free movement in the battle area during their turn. Characters are allocated Active Points (AP) at the start of their turn with the number decreasing with each step and attack they make. There are three levels of attack with higher levels costing more AP but doing more damage. Attacks may be strung together into combination attacks. The project was headed by series veteran Makoto Ikehara, who was inspired to create the game's dystopian setting by the 1994 alternate history novel Gofungo no Sekai (五分後の世界, lit. The World Five Minutes From Now) by Ryū Murakami. The unique gameplay and high challenge were to differentiate it from previous entries in the series, which Ikehara felt were too easy compared to other role-playing titles. The level of difficulty increased as development progressed. This version appeared at the 2003 Capcom Gamers' Day under its official English title that excluded the numeral "V". The game was released in Europe in November 2003 featuring changes to the game's mechanics. The soft save function was removed so the only way to save the game was to create hard saves using save tokens. To compensate, there are roughly twice as many save tokens throughout the game.
On February 16, 2016, Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter was released on the Japanese PlayStation Store as a "PS2 Archives" digital title for PlayStation 3. The title was delisted from the store in early 2019.
Audio
The music was composed by series newcomer Hitoshi Sakimoto, who had contributed soundtracks for other role-playing titles such as Final Fantasy Tactics and the Ogre Battle series, along with sound producer Yasunori Mitsuda who oversaw the development of each track. A five-song promotional album called the Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter Mini Image Soundtrack was given away to attendees of the 2002 Tokyo Game Show and sold on Capcom's online store. A full soundtrack on two discs was released in December 2002 by Capcom's music label Suleputer. In 2006, the soundtrack was included on the 11-disc Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box, containing music from every game in the series.
Reception
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was the top-selling game in Japan during the week of its release in November 2002 at 80,059 copies. It went on to sell 140,073 copies by the end of that year, qualifying it for a re-release in July 2003 under Sony's "PlayStation the Best" label at a lower price. The game was given an 8.5 out of 10 average by Japanese Hyper PlayStation 2 magazine, and a 32 out of 40 score by Weekly Famitsu, earning it the magazine's silver award.
Many North American reviewers commented on the changes made between Dragon Quarter and earlier games in the Breath of Fire series, with Game Informer claiming that "If anything, Dragon Quarter will likely tear the Breath of Fire fan base apart...it's unlike anything you've experienced before"
European reviewers similarly commented on the deviation from role-playing game standards. Play magazine found most of the changes beneficial, stating "[we] wanted something different too, but what [we] got instead is marvelous." and in 2004, IGN ranked the game 6th on its list of the "Top 12 Hidden Gems for the PlayStation 2", which included games that sold less than 135,000 copies in North America, or less than half of one percent of the console's user base, stating that "For one of the most popular role-playing franchises in the entire 32-bit era, the lackluster performance of Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is nothing short of surprising."