Short but sweet, although you won't be too long in the game before realizing just why that "Give Up" option is
The storyline seems simple enough at first. You play as Ryu, a young, low ranking ranger in Deep Earth, whose inhabitants are forced to live underground due to a disaster that happened 1000 years or so ago. Shortly in the game, Ryu meets a girl called Nina and Lin, a member of the resistance group Trinity, and together they decide to try and get back to the surface, where the sky is. OK, so it doesn't sound too good, but that’s only a very brief recap of the beginning of the story. Soon enough, things get more complicated, and even slightly disturbing.
Unlike other RPG's out there, BOF5 does not give you any time to relax. For one thing, the game does not have any Inns, or anything that can restore your party to full health, nor can your characters learn any healing spells. The only way to recover your characters' health is by using items, and even these are limited in supply, and they also cost quite a bit in shops too. It's not like your characters have much health either, so you have to be careful about how you go about fighting even the weaker monsters.
The battle system in BOF5 is quite unique. Because you can see enemies wondering round on the map screen before fighting them (no random encounters here), you can set traps, and even get a free turn in battle before the fighting actually starts. Battles are turn based, and when you are in a battle, moving around the battlefield and attacking take up Action Points (AP), and your party will refill their AP bars every turn (and keep any AP left over from the previous turn). Using a mixture of weak, strong and very strong attacks (all of which take up different amounts of AP) you can make combos out of your attacks, which will damage enemies even more than just single attacks. Thankfully, using items does not take up AP. Being able to move around the battlefield allows you to plan attacks more carefully and let enemies run into traps too, so there is an element of strategy to the fighting in BOF5.
One of the main key features in BOF5 is Ryu's ability to turn into his dragon form. Unlike other BOF games, there is only one dragon form in this game, but it can inflict an insane amount of damage. One or two hits from the dragon forms most powerful attack will kill most bosses. However, there is a catch to this godlike power. Once Ryu gains his dragon powers, a percentage counter appears in the top right of the screen, and stays there for the rest of the game. This is called the D-Counter. When walking around outside of battle, 0.01% is added to the counter. One turn in battle takes up 0.01%. Turning into Ryu's dragon form takes up 1%, and all attacks in Dragon form take up 1-2% on the counter, depending on the move. Why is this a big deal? When that counter hits 100%, its game over, so don't abuse those dragon powers too much. This also gives you a sort of time limit to the game, adding to the sense of urgency that's already in the game.
Hard enough? It doesn't end there. Like in most Japanese RPG games, there are save points. I've heard people complain about them in other games, since not being able to save anywhere you want is a bit of a burden. But trust me, those games will seem like bliss after playing this game. Not only do save points appear less frequently then you might expect (meaning you cant save just before most of the boss battles unlike other RPG's), but the amount of times you can use them are limited. Now you have save tokens, you start out with 9 whenever you start a new game, or whenever you chose the "give up" option and start from a previous save point, which gives you five healing items, one reviving item and 9 save tokens. You can get more save tokens, only they are kinda rare, which adds even more challenge to an already very demanding game. The games story is dark, and epic, and the graphics represent this. The entire game is set underground, and almost all of the environments are gloomy, with hardly anything natural still living amongst the underground environment that people have to live in. People who've played Final Fantasy 7 might find BOF5's environments to be similar to the slums at the beginning of FF7, only more atmospheric and no sky. The battles look great, especially some of the more powerful magic attacks and Ryu's lethal dragon attacks, and the opening and ending FMV's are outstanding. The cell-shaded character designs fit in with the surroundings , and their anime-like facial expressions do a very good job of expressing their emotions, which is good due to the lack of voice-acting in almost all of the cut scenes. I know it seems weird to make such a big fuss about facial expressions, but I found them to be very good in setting the mood of the game, and I actually found the near-psychotic grin of Bosch, Ryu's friend turned rival, to be quite menacing.
But all of this could be ruined if the soundtrack was crap, and thankfully it isn't. Yasonori Mitsuda, the mastermind behind the soundtracks of Xenogears and Chrono Cross, directed the music of BOF5, and the soundtrack can even stand up to the likes of Xenogears and even the Final Fantasy series.
Capcom took a huge risk when making this game. The drastic changes from previous BOF games could have gone hideously wrong. However, in this case, Capcom did it right. While hardcore fans of traditional RPG's might hate this game, and RPG newbie’s will most likely find it frustrating, open minded gamers who are not intimidated by the steep learning curve or the high difficulty level should definitely consider buying this. Although the first playthrough only lasts about 20 hours tops, the presentation of the game make this first play through a great experience, and subsequent playthroughs can lead to unlocking new areas, new cut scenes which adds depth to an already solid cast of characters, and a particularly nasty hidden dungeon (if the main game wasn't enough for you). And you can't really go wrong when you can get it for about £8 these days - a must buy for those who are up to the challenge.