In Breath of Fire you take on the role of Ryu, a ranger in the buried world of Deep Earth. As it stands, Dragon Quarter remains a broken attempt at changing the RPG rules. If only all of these elements could migrate over to a normal, more-fun RPG, I'd be in heaven.

It's a shame that the game is so damned tough, because I genuinely like every other aspect of it: The attractive cel-shaded visuals are car-toony yet dark and edgy, the soundtrack rocks, the bleak plot unfolds nicely, and the strategy-heavy battle system is among the best I've ever experienced. You even get rewarded with extra cut-scenes when you replay via SOL! In my opinion, it's a cheap trick that ekes extra replayability out of a fairly short (less than 20 hours) RPG. The game doesn't force you to SOL, but realistically, you'll have to do it in order to beat the game. Chalk it up to the blasted Scenario Overlay System (SOL), wherein you restart the game from scratch and keep all your experience and items after you die. Normal enemies will overpower you, healing items are a scarce commodity, restorative spells are nonexistent, and even saving your game is an arduous prospect. Be prepared-this game is insanely and unfairly difficult by design. Well, Dragon Quarter did just that, throwing me for a loop and leaving me for dead with its obscene difficulty and whacked-out gameplay innovations. I've played through a lot of RPGs over the years, so it's awfully hard for anything in the genre to surprise me.

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