Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (PS2, 2003)

(I finished this game several months ago and just now discovered that I never finished - or wrote, really - anything about it. Here's some shizzle jotting.)

This is an RPG that thinks outside the box, for better and worse. I typically have a serious aversion to dying in an RPG - I take it very personally on some level. Maybe it speaks to some sort of empathy or identification I feel with the characters I'm playing as, or maybe I'm just averse to even temporary setbacks or down moments in a game where I'd rather imagine myself on an inexorable upward trajectory toward mastery over everything the game could throw at me.

(I should say as a caveat that I only feel this way when I play an RPG. If I were playing Mario, for instance, I'd think nothing of dying as many times as I had lives as long as I got through a level, and I certainly wouldn't expect myself to clear a game without losing a life. Something about seeing that "GAME OVER" screen in an RPG, though, tells me I just failed at things I think of myself as somewhat good at: resource management, upkeep and maintenance, preparing adequately for tough situations.)

I am also, I have discovered, a story player where RPGs are concerned. I typically ignore the "% complete" display should a game attempt to taunt me with its not saying 100%, and I would rather hit up walkthroughs than scour every town looking for the one NPC who I need to talk to to get some door to open halfway across the world. And if I'm underleveled facing a tough boss but there's a sidequest that will get me an overpowered weapon to take him out so I don't have to grind, you'd best believe I'm going to go and complete that sidequest, walkthrough-assisted, so I can beat the boss and get the next bit of story. And once I've seen the canon ending, I don't play the game again or engage much in post-game challenges. Those are where the game reveals itself to be a bunch of numbers and dice-rolling and lose the plot completely. Not having it.

Dragon Quarter has very little use for either of these attitudes toward gaming. First, the game expects you to die, repeatedly, before you can level up enough to get through even the first part of the game. (Your experience and some items carry over each time you restart.) Second, additional bits and pieces of the story are revealed to you only after dying and restarting several times. Third, the game uses extremely rare items to limit how often you can save. There's a temporary save every time you quit, but you lose it when you load it. Fourth, and what pushes this game into the crazy/innovative area is the ultimate-kill attack: you can use it to beat any boss with only a few hits, but use it too often and the game is over. Like, you have to restart the game, over.

As I'm sure a reader can infer, I tend to see games as games, not challenges, so I was reduced around the halfway point to tiptoeing through each successive dungeon clinging to a walkthrough for dear life. The walkthroughs tell you where you need to be in the ultimate-kill meter and how much of it you need to use up with each boss. And I still had to backtrack (gahh!!! breaking the fourth wall!!) to get the meter back from a few boss fights that I squandered ultimate-kill points on.

Regardless, actually finishing games is something I've become very sure that I do, and I did "beat" the game, though it brought only the accomplishment of barely surviving an ordeal rather than mastering and savoring a great experience.

(Speaking of not savoring an experience, a quick note on the A/V. Post-apocalyptic underground steampunk environment leads to 1) soundtrack having some bad-ass electronic-orchestral hybrid music, but 2) an aggravatingly claustrophobic series of low-ceiling passageways and corridors that contributes to the unpleasantness.)