Breath of Fire IV PC Review – Dragons, Fairies, Shameful Steam Port & Why You Should Still Play It

I’ve played through the entire Breath of Fire series, from the first to the fourth, completely, beating everything. Both the third and the fourth games are my favorites; I spent hundreds of hours uncovering every secret, every boss, every dragon form. So believe me or not, I know what I’m talking about.

It’s hard to overstate the series’ contribution to the JRPG industry. While it may not be as great as the original Dragon Quest or the great Final Fantasy series, it’s certainly comparable to such celebrated series as Star Ocean, Phantasy Star, Lunar, and Tales of… Like all of them, Breath of Fire is original and distinctive, though it didn’t start out so well: the first game, released on SNES, was hardly striking or memorable, though it was quite decent for its time. The second game improved things a bit, the third took the series to a new level. Finally, the fourth cemented its success.

And now for something it’s often criticized for: the graphics. Is it deserved? Let’s try to figure it out. So, this game is fully 3D. And not everyone can make 3D look good. The developers of BoF4 have both succeeded and failed. On the one hand, the game’s appearance is unimpressive for 2000: the tones are muted, barely bright, and there are almost no polygons (from my observations, only a few dragons and bosses have them—but, it should be noted, they are very beautiful bosses). The characters look like chibis, and the entire video is limited to a mediocre anime cutscene at the very beginning.

Hmm, you’re probably starting to think BoF4’s graphics have no merit? First, the camera is super user-friendly – ​​you can move it around as you please, taking in cities, forests, and other locations from different angles. Secondly, these cities sometimes look very elegant and, I would even say, atmospheric. They capture certain details and nuances that help you immediately understand what you’re looking at: a desert oasis, a working town, a merchant hub, a major capital, a lowland settlement, a seaport, or a quiet village.

In this regard, Breath of Fire IV gives many other JRPGs a run for their money. Thirdly, all characters have their own portraits. NPCs sometimes have duplicates, but the main characters have several pictures expressing emotions (Nina has the most, by my count). This may seem like a small thing, but if you think about it, not many modern RPGs can boast this. And fourthly, overall, Breath of Fire 4’s appearance is quite decent and pleasing to the eye. I, for one, liked it much more than the colorful, polygon-filled Threads of Fate.

Okay, enough nostalgia. Let’s get down to business.

Breath of Fire IV is a JRPG developed and published by Capcom for PlayStation in 2000 (Japan and North America), and for Europe in 2001. Later, in 2003, a Windows version was released, but only in Japan and the PAL region. In 2011, the game was pushed to the PlayStation Network. And now, more than 20 years later, we’ve had two PC releases: first on GOG in 2025 (which was excellent, by the way), and then on Steam in 2026 (that’s where the circus began).

The game was developed by Capcom Development Studio 3—the same team that worked on Breath of Fire III. Makoto Ikehara directed the game, with character design by Tatsuya Yoshikawa. As early as May 1999, rumors circulated that the fourth game would be released on PS2 with online features, but Capcom quickly brought it down to earth: an announcement in Weekly Famitsu confirmed it was still a PS1 game. And thank goodness for that, because the game would have definitely been overloaded with unnecessary gimmicks on PS2.

In Japan, the game sold 334,000 copies in 2000—not The Witcher, but quite good for a niche JRPG. In the West, it was received warmly, but not with fanaticism.

The English version of Breath of Fire IV was heavily censored. Capcom apparently decided that Western players are delicate creatures, and cut out everything that could offend their fragile sensibilities.

What was removed:

• The scene where Fou-Lu beheads Emperor Soniel. In the English version, he’s simply killed offscreen. No blood, no severed head—ugh, how uncivilized.
• The scene where Nina and Ursula are swimming in a pond. There was nothing pornographic about it—just two characters relaxing after a battle.
• The scene where Ursula pulls down her pants to prove to skeptical sailors that she’s a woman. (Yes, there was such a moment in the game—and it was both funny and ridiculous.)
• Mentions of Scias’s alcoholism. In the original, he sometimes mumbled something drunkenly—in the localization, they simply made him a stutterer. Seriously? Stuttering instead of binge drinking?

As someone who played the Japanese version, I’m somewhat offended. Because these scenes weren’t vulgar for the sake of vulgarity—they added realism to the characters. Ursula, who is ready to take off her pants to prove the truth—that’s genius! And the deleted bathing scene showed that even in a bleak world, there’s room for simple human joy.

The events of the game take place in a fictional fantasy world reminiscent of ancient China or Japan. Two continents—the Western (the Fu Empire) and the Eastern (the Union of Kingdoms)—have just ended a grueling war and signed a truce. But then Princess Elena, who was traveling through the eastern cities, exploring the battlefields, disappears without a trace. Her sister, Nina, doesn’t expect help from the politicians (they’re afraid to break the truce) and sets out to search alone.

Along the way, she finds an unconscious boy named Ryu in the desert. He has amnesia, but he has the Dragon Eye and the ability to transform into a dragon. And then it all begins… It’s a very clever plot, the story will captivate you for dozens of hours of exciting twists and secrets.

But the coolest thing about the plot is the dual protagonist. Besides Ryu, you control Fou-Lu, an ancient dragon emperor who united the Western Continent several hundred years ago, then prophesied his own resurrection and “died.”

Now he’s awakened. To his horror, he discovers that the empire he built has devolved into a decaying bureaucratic machine, and the people he hoped to elevate have become greedy, cowardly, and cruel. You see the world through his eyes. You hear his thoughts. You understand why he’s slowly losing his mind and deciding that humanity deserves nothing but destruction.

That, my friends, is called deep narrative. In 2000, Capcom delivered a story that some modern AAA studios couldn’t replicate even for a hundred million dollars.

The characters in the game are extremely colorful and interesting, and each has their unique map-based abilities.

• Our protagonist is named Ryu, he is a taciturn young man with amnesia who can turn into a dragon, which is its own pleasure. Using his weapon, he can steal from NPCs. The end justifies the means, am I right?
• Nina is the princess of Vindia, the city of the Fae tribe. She’s a bit naive, but she wields healing magic and can fly above the map which allows her to see a part of the location.
• Cray is the young leader of the Voren tribe (cat people). A childhood friend of the missing princess Elena, he joins Nina in an effort to find her sister. He’s a tank with excellent defense and attack. Additionally, he can push crates and barrels out of the way.
• Scias is a mercenary hired by the Eastern Alliance. He’s quiet and aloof, but his double sword attack can take out enemies in droves. In the original, he’s also an alcoholic—this was cut in the localization. No special map abilities, just walking along and keeping quiet.
• Ershin is a creature in completely sealed armor. No one knows her face or past. But those who have played before know that it is an old friend who’d appeared in other games. Ershin can smash boulders with their head (yes, seriously).
• Ursula is a commander of the Fu Empire who came to the East in search of dragons. Raised in the army, she understands little about worldly life, but she’s an excellent attacker that wields both magic and weapons.
• Fou-Lu is the secondary protagonist and antagonist at the same time, and an ancient dragon emperor. His Kaiser form is the most powerful in the game, and it’s earned through the story, not evolved from Aura (this is important, as many people get it wrong).

You have six characters, but only three are in combat at a time. The rest sit in the back, regenerating mana and health. You can swap them out at any time without losing a turn. It’s brilliant, simple but graceful and effective.

Combo attacks are the main feature of combat. If your attacks aren’t interrupted by enemies and you use spells in the right order, they combine into a more powerful one. For example, using Fire + Wind leads to an Explosion (a fiery tornado). Or Wind and Ice create Thunder (electricity damage to all enemies).

Skills are learned through the “Guard” command. When an enemy attacks you while you’re on defense, you have a chance to learn their skill. An exclamation point appears to indicate you’ve learned it. If the text is blue, the spell can be learned; if it’s black, it can’t. There’s a maximum of 8 skills per character. Choose wisely, because your survival depends on it.

The problem with debuffs: they almost never work on enemies, especially bosses. You can spend 10 turns trying to poison Fou-Lu, and he’ll just spit it out. Forget it. In this game, debuffs are a waste of AP.

The Master system has migrated from Breath of Fire III. There are 12 Masters scattered throughout the world (one of them is Momo, a character from the third game). By assigning a character to a Master, you gain stat bonuses when leveling up—and penalties to other stats. First, the Master teaches you their signature skill, then sets a condition (for example, “deal 5000 damage in one go”), and upon completion, they grant the next skill. The customization system is really cool. For example, I made Cray a tank mage and Nina a combat healer.

I love Breath of Fire IV. But I can’t stand its minigames. The game is just overflowing with them from every direction. Why are they important? Because the points you earn in minigames reflect the power of your dragon forms. Without them, your Wyvern will never become a Weyr. So you have to farm and grind.

The most infuriating minigame is Kecak. It’s a 1500-point rhythm game. Sounds easy? Well, it’s not. You have to be SUPER PRECISE. One miss and you’ve broken your rhythm, and you have to start over. Over two hours of this minigame and I almost broke my controller.

Races. There are a total of six of them, and you can get a maximum of 10,000 points for each. The problem: the controls behave like a drunken pig. The car skids on every turn, the track is littered with bumps, and the time limit is extremely strict. If you miss the time limit, back to the start line with zero points. And in one of the races, you even have to catch a dragon—by flying off a ramp into a secret exit on the track.

Fishing. It’s relaxing, but also deadly boring. If you try to get all the fishing rods from the Master Fisherman, you need to earn 9,500 points. To determine the scope of your future harvest, you earn 10 to 100 points from each fish in sequence. The fishing technique involves moving the rod to the sound of drums playing in the background music. Four techniques, each with its own rhythm. And even the help menu displays musical notes instead of buttons. It’s a joke. But without this fishing, you won’t gain access to the final Master Fisherman, who requires training from all the previous ones.

Towards the middle of the game, you’ll be given a task of restoring a fairy village. It’s not difficult, but it’s quite enjoyable – unlike fishing and the rest of the games. At first, fairies can hunt, build houses, and grow plants. Then you’ll open a weapons shop, an inn, an art gallery. If you neglect them, some fairies will starve and die.

Sometimes, in between locations, you can hunt animals and bring the meat to the fairies. Or I’ll keep it for myself but don’t cry about the village dying out. Fairies can help you overcome the 99 combo and aid you in battle if you build barracks.

The original soundtrack was composed by Yoshino Aoki (who also worked on Breath of Fire III with Akari Kaida). Unlike the third game, which featured a lot of jazz and lounge, the music here is meditative and tinged with tragedy. The Fou-Lu theme is especially hair-raising.

And the credits track, “Yume no Sukoshi Ato” (A Little After the Dream), was performed by Aoki herself, along with pianist Ryoji. It’s one of those melodies that makes you want to sit and stare into space, digesting the ending.

The game has two endings—the choice is made in the final battle. I won’t spoil it, but I’ll say this: one is tragic, the other is bittersweet. Fans still debate which one is canon. Personally, I think the developers wanted to convey the message:

“Even if much of the world is greedy and corrupt, it can still be made better if there’s hope in the hearts of good people.”

And that’s damn fine.

Important and somewhat painful warning: The Steam version is a disgrace. If you are going to play the game on PC, get it on GOG. I’ve looked over player reviews on Steam (and checked the game out myself) – here’s what’s going on:

Based on all of the above, my advice is to purchase the game on GOG. Yes, it doesn’t have achievements, but who cares at this point? Boot it up, disable the bilinear filter, sit back, and prepare to be rapt to “Yume no Sukoshi Ato” by the end.

Breath of Fire IV is a classic that every fan of the genre should play. It’s not perfect. It can be annoying sometimes. But its soul, its music, its tragic story of Fou-Lu, and the hope that Ryu brings—these are worth suffering through the minigames and the poor port.

• Game rating: 9/10 (I’m deducting a point for the minigames and debuffs).
• Steam version rating: 4/10 (only because the game itself is good).