Words cannot express my disgust.

I loved Capcom. I loved it to death, till they destroyed so many beautiful and great series in a few fell swoops. Breath of Fire,
Bastardization of good series seems to be a reoccuring theme in my blog, and Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is no exception.

I love the Breath of Fire series to death. 1-4 are probably all very high on my "Favorite Games of All Time" list. This is why Dragon Quarter cuts so deep into my nerve that I can hardly even think of properly express my sense of betrayal by Capcom.

One of the great things about Breath of Fire was it's expansive world, full of places to explore and people to meet. Capcom said fuck that, sticks you in an underground tower with two really bastardized iterations of Nina and Ryu (the Breath of Fire version of Zelda and Link). The whole task is to reach the surface from this underground hellhole, which has a very post-apocalyptic type feel which is VERY much non-canon for the series. I can understand trying to make something different, but turning the whole series on its ear is just retarded.
The only redeeming quality I can find in this game is the ability to set traps and run in real time during combat -- the problem with this is that your actions and movement are limited by your activity; walking and doing something both take up your "activity" gauge, and it's irritating to end up right next to an enemy and not be able to do anything. Your party is boring, the characters are difficult to empathize with, and the most interesting character is your rival, Bosch.
Perhaps the most infuriating thing is that in some cases, you HAVE to die in order to become strong enough to progress. You can die and keep all the experience you gained between save points, and they abuse this system to a bloody pulp by making you literally suicide until you're strong enough to kill bosses. Your most powerful abilities are limited by a countdown that still goes up, EVEN IF YOU DON'T USE THE ABILITIES. If the countdown reaches zero (sped up by using the dragon abilities), it's an instant gameover, which fucks over the save system and the EXP system that only appeals to masochists.
I honestly couldn't play more than a few hours of this. I was too infuriated to continue.