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Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter: Difference between revisions
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'''''Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter''''' is the fifth and currently{{when}} final entry in the ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' series, released for the Playstation 2 in 2003 to generally positive reviews. It's a considerable [[Base Breaker|departure]] from the previous entries, which were much more traditional eastern RPGs.
An unspecified amount of time [[Cyberpunk|in the future]], humanity has fled the barren, polluted surface world [[After the End|after a catastrophe]] to live [[Beneath the Earth|underground]]. However, the world below is [[Crapsack World|just as miserable]]
Our lead character
''Dragon Quarter'' has some very interesting gameplay mechanics. The SOL (Scenario Overlay) system encourages you to restart the game from the beginning of the story while retaining items and experience and raising your D-ratio, which allows you to access new cutscenes. The [[Deadly Upgrade|dangers]] of morphing into a dragon are reflected in the D-Counter, which goes up in percentage every time you use those abilites (and even outside of battle, when you aren't) and can only be lowered through restarting the game through the SOL system. While you're allowed to suspend your game through quicksaves that are deleted once you resume, permanent save files could only be created through rare save tokens, making the game quite [[Nintendo Hard|a challenge]].
Here's the [[Breath of Fire/Characters|character sheet]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[After the End]]: The story takes place 1000 years [[After the End]], when humanity is driven underground by a [[Hopeless War]] that renders the surface uninhabitable.
* [[Alternate Universe]]: From the rest of the series.
* [[And Now for Something Completely Different]]: While the other games in the series are more of a traditional [[Eastern RPG]], this is a game with [[Survival Horror]]
* [[Beneath the Earth]]: Pretty much the entire plot and background of ''Dragon Quarter''.
* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: In addition to the [[You Are Number Six|dragon names]], the entire game intro is recited [http://www.dragon-tear.net/forum/printthread.php?t=7402&pp=40 in Russian]. In a second variant of this, only in German and obscured via the use of [[Cypher Language|Cypher Font]] in the game's opening animation.<ref>Specifically, it appears to be [http://www.dragon-tear.net/forum/showthread.php?t=7402&page=2 a bad German translation of the Bible verse Matthew 19:30]: "(Many of) the first shall be last, and the last shall be first
* [[Blood From the Mouth]]: Happens to Bosch when {{spoiler|he is defeated by Ryu for the last time (with both sides fighting as [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]]); Bosch asks Ryu to perform a [[Mercy Kill]] on him, and spews blood when Ryu runs him through with his own claw
** Also happens to Ryu when {{spoiler|Bosch stabs him in the throat with his rapier, full with blanked eyes
* [[Body Horror]]: Nina in ''Dragon Quarter'' is not a princess. She is
**
** Also, the entire process of how Bosch got his own [[Deadly Upgrade]].
** In the [[Nonstandard Game Over]],
* [[Bonus Dungeon]]: Kokon Horay. In order to reach it, the fairy colony must be at maximum level.
* [[Crapsack World]]: ''Dragon Quarter'
* [[Critical Status Buff]]: The "Soul" class of shields boost the wearer's Defense as their HP decreases.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: It LOOKS like Bosch has just issued you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]
▲* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: It LOOKS like Bosch has just issued you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]- and then [[Deadly Upgrade|D-Dive]] activates. Cue extremely justified [[Oh Crap]] from Bosch.
* [[Cypher Language]]: ''Dragon Quarter'' invented an entire pseudo-Cyrillic script. It turns out [http://www.dragon-tear.net/forum/printthread.php?t=7402&pp=40 the writers hid many an Easter Egg and even some downright spoileriffic material] in the artwork and even in-game, even though the script was never used in the game mechanics.
** And at least one Japanese fan [https://web.archive.org/web/20060512234419/http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~nanpoo/dq/img/font/dragonquarter_font.zip made an unofficial Truetype font] based on the documented character set in the artbook.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' games tended to be, overall, lighthearted, even if they had occasional dark spots. This one, not so much.
* [[Deadly Upgrade]]: The entire process of linking with D-Constructs.
* [[Dynamic Entry]]: Chetyre.
{{quote|'''''Does it hate?'''''}}
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]:
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: In successive playthroughs of the game, it's possible to raise Ryu's D-ratio to 1/4, but in-story, he's still treated as a low-D grunt.▼
* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]: A major theme of the backstory of ''Dragon Quarter''. {{spoiler|Genetic Engineering is such an effective [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]], in fact, that scientists in the past managed to create ''[[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]]'' as weapons which proceeded to cause [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. What's left of humanity is still living underground ''over a millenium later''
▲* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: In successive playthroughs of the game, it's possible to raise Ryu's D-ratio to 1/4, but in-story he's still treated as a low-D grunt.
* [[My Greatest Failure]]:▼
▲* [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke]]: A major theme of the backstory of ''Dragon Quarter''. {{spoiler|Genetic Engineering is such an effective [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]], in fact, that scientists in the past managed to create ''[[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]]'' as weapons which proceeded to cause [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. What's left of humanity is still living underground ''over a millenium later''.}}
** Elyon: {{spoiler|
** Bosch: {{spoiler|
* [[La Résistance]]
* [[Power Levels]]: D-Ratios in ''Dragon Quarter'' determine a person's potential in life and are therefore used as criteria for determining social status and prospects. 1/8192 means you're stuck as a grunt for life, 1/64 makes you a super-elite, while 1/4 more or less marks you as a [[Physical God]].
▲* [[My Greatest Failure]]:
* [[Puzzle Boss]]: Hortensia is one: she uses her ability to turn the floor colors, and one of her spells will either hurt or heal the person standing on it depending on the color (she floats, and is immune to either effect).
▲** Elyon: {{spoiler|Refusing to open the door to the sky when he was a Chosen of Odjn. He feared that it wasn't his own decision, and this resulted in Odjn breaking his link with Elyon.}}
* [[Shielded Core Boss]]: The final bosses and some end-game enemies have what is known as "Absolute Defense", where you have to deal a minimum amount of damage (in the form of a negative damage number) in a single turn before you actually hurt them.
▲** Bosch: {{spoiler|Being defeated by Ryu. Much of this is because Bosch is a [["Well Done, Son" Guy]] who was pressured to excel and he just can't handle being defeated by a low-D; this leads to a descent from being [[The Rival]] to a full-blown [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}
▲* [[Power Levels]]: D-Ratios in ''Dragon Quarter'' determine a person's potential in life and are therefore used as criteria for determining social status and prospects. 1/8192 means you're stuck as a grunt for life, 1/64 makes you a super-elite, while 1/4 more or less marks you as a [[Physical God]]. {{spoiler|The more accurate description of the D-Ratios is the likelihood of a successful linkup with a D-Construct, but exactly what they base this on is never elaborated on, and while you can raise your Ratio up to 1/4 in a [[New Game+]] by playing through the game quickly, opening as many treasure chests as possible, killing a lot of enemies and getting first strikes on the majority of them, finishing the [[Bonus Dungeon]], saving as little as possible and having your characters leveled up as high as possible, it doesn't effect the storyline and only allows you to explore a few bonus areas and allows you to get a better version of the game's [[Infinity+1 Sword]].}}
* [[Theme Naming]]: Mostly ties into [[You Are Number Six]], but there are some additional examples; the Regents mostly have names that are theological references:
** Elyon is traditionally a Hebrew epithet for God.<ref>
** Jezuit is a reference to the Jesuit religious order.
** Deamoned is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]
** Tantra is a reference to a specific estatic Buddhist religious school, and Cupid is the Greek god of love.
** The Regents and major characters not named after theological references, Russian numbers, or direct shout-outs to the earlier games in the series are named after Greco-Roman philosophers and orators. Zeno shares a name with a famous Greek philosopher who (per the [[wikipedia:Zenochr(27)s paradoxes|Other Wiki]]) wrote extensively about paradoxes and the nature of reality, and Hortensia shares a name with an orator who (again, per the [[wikipedia:Hortensia (orator)|OtherWiki]]) led the Roman Senate to partially repeal taxes on female nobles.
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* [[You Are Number Six]]: Everyone, save for people who are fugitives from justice (Lin and the rest of Trinity), the Regents, or those unfortunates so low on the totem pole as to be legally considered experimental animals (hello, Nina) have a D-ratio officially as part of their name.
** Elyon has a number-nickname of Origin, a mathematical term for 1.
** Every single dragon in the game has literal numbers (in Russian) as names, based on powers of two. Yes, even Odjn; technically, 2 to the zeroth power is 1.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Eastern RPG]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:Capcom]]
[[Category:Video Games of the 2000s]]
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