Breath of Fire IV (Japanese: Breath of Fire IV: Utsurowazaru Mono) is a traditional role playing game developed by Capcom Development Studio 3 and is the fourth game in the series. It was originally released for Sony Playstation in April 2000 and later ported to Windows PC in May 2003 in Japan and North America.
The English version contains several censorship of certain scenes and suggestive animation during dialog or story sequences. While the PC version identical to the Playstation release, it has a filter for sprite smoothing on 2D visual and shorter load times.
After centuries of war, the two lands bordering an impenetrable swampland have finally reached an armistice. Mysteriously, the noble Princess Elena disappears somewhere near the war-ravaged front lines. Distraught, her sister Nina goes in search of the Princess alone and on her journey, meets a mysterious young warrior named Ryu. Their destinies soon entwine. The next chapter in the epic tale of magic and mystery now unfolds. The fate of what lies ahead rests in your control.
Breath of Fire IV’s visual probably are not the best in the genre. It may not have the looks and sheen of Square’s Final Fantasy. But the two dimensional graphics are simply one of the best, well-illustrated, colorful and cute. The game’s environment is rendered in full 3D with overhead isometric viewpoint. The game’s camera can be manually rotated up to full 360 degrees, but it was often seen as impractical.
There are two lines of combatants in player’s side. Three characters fight front up, dealing damage and healing. Three others wait in the back row as reserve. These characters can be switched between two lines at anytime when entering commands. Each character has their own special move that they do in back such healing, laying down or cover. Basically, the characters in the back row are unaffected by any attacks. But some enemy spells can target the entire six in the party. Fortunately, your healing spells can target someone in the front or back.
Breath of Fire IV has innovative battle system with combo attack. If two skills or spells of the same element are cast, the number of hits increases and stronger. Furthermore, two spells with different element can be combined into a more powerful spell. An explosion-based attack, for example, can be executed by fire spell followed by a wind spell. Combos can also automatically occur in single attack that have more than one effect.
Overall, the game is quite easy with most enemies can be defeated by just a sword swipe or two. Also, with plenty of items throughout the game makes player doesn’t have to make a large purchase. Breath of Fire IV has many side quest or mini games. With average trip the player spend around 30 hours to complete the game and another ten or several hours for adding on the side quests.