Breath of Fire is not the first RPG that comes to my mind when I say "My favorite" but this is a game that really taught me how to tell a good and captivating story. Maybe this is not most bombastic RPG ever made, maybe it pales in visual comparison to such beasts like Final Fantasy VIII and IX, It may not have the deepest gameplay mechanics or the best spectacle, but instead it definitely has a soul. Breath of Fire IV has unique way of telling its story, allowing players to just hop back in to the world quickly and by playing first 10 minutes I realized one thing - man, this game is so cinematic without any pre-rendered CGI. Just by applying camera works and basic visual effects, Capcom managed to make beautifully looking game with impressive cutscenes. It's not about technology - it's about art-style and direction. And game excells at it. About the port - I have few issues, like character sprites clipping through objects and I am unsure if it's the port's fault or my Graphics card doesn't like this old game, or maybe it's a renderer issue? But to be honest, it's a very minor one. So minor in fact, I don't wanna even use it as excuse to reduce the score I give to it. It's not about issues after all - it's about preserving the game that many people missed for many reasons, but those who remember this game, remember it fondly. Because behind muted colors, slow burn start and lo-fi music, this game is something very, very special.
I do understand that game is big and glitchy. Been there, done that. Old issues are present - game is janky. Sometimes bad when it comes to technical performance. People have just rage wars around it already. Dunno. So, shooting. It's similar to Borderlands. It doesn't matter who is the best shot. Only thing that counts is who's numbers are more numbery. Don't like it but can live with it. It feels fun though and getting new guns is interesting. Combat in general is plagued by numbery number crunch. Most of your cool guns quickly turn to junk as you progress with game. At least thanks that we can upgrade weapons and make 'em better! Stealth feels half-baked. It's more janky and not as satisfying like in, lets say, Deus Ex Human Revolution. Hacking feels a bit... off. It's ok and powerful. But it's also kind of "Hold on, what am I doing here again?" Doesn't feel solid, again, a bit too much jank. Story. So far it's ok. Dunno, it's no Blade Runner or Jonny Mnemonic. It's... well, it's own thing. It's ok though. Characters - they are good. Some of them take time to get to know them better. Jackie is cool character. Others are at least interesting at places. Most are cliché's but hey, good cliché is still good, you know. I don't think I saw anybody truly super-memorable, but... well, it will do I guess. Judy is kinda cute. Side Quests are varied. Some are boring and some are... Let's put it this way, have you ever been a psychotherapist for a car with suicidal intensions? I guess, it's most bizzare moment I had with a game so far. Definitely loved it. Three classes feel more like basis for selecting dialogue options. Not much more. It's ok but I would have wanted a bit more from prologue, maybe make Great Heist happen differently? I don't know. It's ok though. Night city - 5/5, 100%, amazing, would never want to live there. Truly Cyberpunk city. Technical issues - Game is buggy. And slow. Waiting for patches. That's it.
I didn't really wait for this game to come out. I was afraid - Mighty No.9 left such bad taste for me that I expected this game to fail. Gladly I was wrong. When trailer with release date came out, I gave myself to the urge and preordered it. After ~5 days, 3 of which weren't longer than 3-4 hours (I mean, I worked entire week) I finished the game. Or at least finished it to 99.6%. I'm not a completionist, but at least I did all quests and did everything that mattered. So in general, how good is this game? It's pretty much excellent... As long as you don't go for that 100% completion. Thing is - that normally gameplay is smooth and nice and reminds of oldschool Castlevania games such as Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow and Down of Sorrow. My biggest complaint is the quest grind. In some quests you are required to get special ingridient for crafting. That's ok. That ingridient drops only from specific monsters in specific areas. That's also OK. What is NOT ok is the drop-rate. Some items drop with the chance of 1% or even lower. This means, that when you want to get the item, you have to go to room, kill the monster, check for drop. If it's not there, go away from the room and then back. Rince. Repeat. Until you get what you want. I swear that getting that piece of Flying Beef took me almost an hour of this samey procedure! And I topped my Luck stat with best Luck raising equipment I could find. And that's only one item for crafting. There's a ton of them. AND... Well, that's almost all negativity I have against the game. There's also questionable performance - sometimes it feels that framerate of the game drops while my PC's monitor doesn't show high load on either CPU, RAM, Videocard and disk. Also, there's a small bug with enemies sometimes not dropping items properly. And, that's it. Everything else in this game is nothing short of amazing, high quality Metroidvania game. If not for grind, I'd say, it's the best game in this genre... Probably.
