This Is Breath Of Fire? Wha?!

Yes, it's true this is much, MUCH different from every Breath of Fire before this one. This game takes the franchise in a totally different direction. It takes some getting used to at first, but eventually you should get the hang of it, and try to survive to the end of the game.

Now when I say survive, I don't mean that this games sucks so bad that you just won't make it through. I literally mean you have to survive, because your character is constantly dying. At a certain point in the game, you get the ability to transform into a demon-like thing, which is awesome. But along with that comes a D-Gauge which will always be displayed in the top right corner of the screen. Once that gauge reaches 100% you die, and it's game over. But don't worry, it doesn't fill up all the fast, unless you let it. Just walking around does fill it up, but not very quickly. That means you can't just run around in circles, or you'll end up dead. If you use the demon mode in battle and use attacks, that will use a lot of the D-Gauge. That's why it's recommended you save it for really tough boss fights.

This makes the gameplay seems more like a survival game intertwined with RPG gameplay. Battles are very interesting as well. You have a ring where you can walk a certain distance, and then you can attack a certain number of times if the enemy is in range. This proves to be very difficult, and you have to use a lot of strategy. You'll notice that the entire game is absent of voices except for in battle. But, even in battle your characters don't actually speak in English. They'll say something in Japanese during their attacks. Now, this isn't a bad thing, because it does sound pretty cool some times.

The story is dark most of the time, and keeps you guessing, and even afraid at some points. The entire game takes place underground, where you, are trying to get to the sky.