Why is it that one of the greatest most memorable RPG series has a terrible installment like "Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter"? It's just a terribly awful game. Not because of the differences in game play (in which they made some really, really bad choices) because i can handle that. It's the fact that the game is just bad. It's not fun to play, the battle system is annoying and very slow paced for most of the game and when it does finally ramp up you'll find that it's WAY to hard. Not in a "oh well i'll just have to practice my skills and get better and stronger" way, no, in a "holy shit i just took a million and a half damage that i couldn't block in 1 second, wtf am i supposed to do?" way. Breath of Fire is known for it's thought invoking puzzles and having to talk to people that you wouldn't normally talk to to get information on where to go because the game doesn't always come out and tell you. But this is all gone with dragon quarter. The puzzles are mediocre at best and your mission objective is painfully obvious the entire time. It reminds me of Final Fantasy 7 where there is ONE story objective the entire game and not much story in between.
However, that does no mean that they did not make some interesting changes. The battle system is real time, which it seems all RPG series are doing now. And the main protagonist is not mute, or have blue hair. Which was the staple of the entire series. The fact he's not mute i can deal with because i find it slightly annoying that the main character has no personality besides the one that the other characters in the story portray. But getting rid of the blue hair is just retarded. It's not like i wouldn't play the game for that reason, believe me there are plenty more reasons, and it has no impact on anything dealing with the game. But i just don't feel like i'm playing a Breath of fire game, given the massive amount of changes that had already been done, don't you think it would be a good idea to keep a little of the familiarity? I've played plenty of games i didn't like just because they were part of a series that i liked, but Breath of Fire 5 might as well have not been given the name breath of fire and i wish it hadn't. The fact that this game did so bad hurts the chances of the series ever getting another installment. Although i have heard that capcom has gotten the old BOF team together and MIGHT be doing another someday.
If BoF 5 had been a hit, it would have been at the top of their list. And we wouldn't have to wait so long just because this trashy game had to stain the amazing name of Breath Of Fire.