Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter Part #4

Part 4: Nina

Update 04: Nina

Welcome back. Last time we reached BioCorp, discovered the corpse of a truly monstrous creature and finally got around to performing our duty of guarding the lift.

We begin with a scene of the lift train racing through Sheldar’s cavernous underbelly.

: Ryu…

:…it must be special.

:…a lift guarded by Rangers.

The train grinds along, Bosch and Ryu utterly oblivious to the fact that they are being watched.

: What?!

: All I need now is the reputation. Then they’ll have to promote me.

: I have the qualifications, after all.

Despite Bosch’s vastly higher D-Ratio, it appears there are some aspects of being a Ranger that Ryu is actually better at. That, or Bosch has been coasting by on his reputation as a High-D up until now and doesn’t actually have a solid work record to go with it.

:…will be regent. I must.

That Bosch. What a dick.

Oh. Maybe he’s not such a dick after all.

: What do you say?

While blunt, Bosch does have a valid point. With such a low D-Ratio Ryu’s future prospects are pretty much zero. Helping out Bosch in exchange for a leg up further down the line is probably the only way he can escape being at the bottom of the totem pole for the rest of his life. As in the real world, it’s not what you know but who you know that’s really important.

Music: Formidable Foe

Ryu doesn’t get a chance to answer however, as the lift’s alarms suddenly blare to life!

The mysterious woman from earlier rides up on a genic and fires at the lift train!

: Trinity!

Ryu immediately returns fire with the lift train’s mounted machinegun.

Despite his efforts however their assailant manages to outpace them, racing ahead into the darkness.

By the way, when Bosch says ‘anything’…

He really does mean ‘anything’.

Bosch’s face is a picture, and every one of its thousand words is ‘Shit!’.

The rocket hits the lift train dead on, sending it plunging into the abyss beneath the tracks.

Bosch is left clinging to the wrecked rails. Ryu is nowhere to be seen.

Music: Origin

The scene shifts to a dark dreamscape.

A strange symbol shatters, and Ryu’s body is suddenly engulfed in flames!

The camera slowly pans up, revealing the lift train’s wreckage at the bottom of the chasm.

Ryu gets up and begins to inspect what’s left of the carriage.

We regain control shortly afterwards. Naturally we’ve lost Bosch as a party member.

We can walk around the wreckage of the lift train, but there’s really nothing there.

To the west we find a save point, as well as Leo and the tutorial girl.

Leo has her usual selection. If you’re running low on healing items now is an excellent time to stock up on more.

Music: Waste Shaft

Leaving the crash site takes us into one of Sheldar’s abandoned waste shafts.

Amidst the junk and festering garbage we find a golden crate and the treasure chest for this level. The golden crate contains a Footloose, which would be useful if we hadn’t just identified a set of armour that prevents Bind.

As soon as we head through this door another in-game scene plays out.

Ryu pauses, startled by a noise from close by.

It’s the war genic from the tunnels, and it has a young girl in its grasp. The girl is struggling and clearly in distress.

It’s not clear what’s going on, but one thing’s for sure.

Ryu’s not having any of it.

He jumps, springboards off a pile of junk, hangs in the air for a moment…

…then impales the creature with a single blow.

The genic thrashes, eventually managing to throw Ryu off.

The genic tries to crush Ryu, but a burning power surrounds him and gives him the speed to dodge past.

Ryu slices off the genic’s hand and grabs the girl before it can even react.

Ryu gently lets the girl down, then turns as the wounded genic stomps towards him.

Music: Formidable Foe

Welcome to the first boss battle of the game. Our enemy is the Cyclops, which is still alive despite Ryu’s best cutscene efforts.

The Cyclops is a fairly tough enemy, especially since he’s the first foe we’ve had to fight without Bosch’s help. Our main advantage is its relatively small movement range, but that can only help so much. Battles aren’t won by running away, after all.

As its size indicates the Cyclops is very strong, capable of knocking Ryu out with two or three good hits.

The Cyclops can also buff itself with Spiritcharge, which boosts the power of its next attack by x1.5. It likes to do this whenever Ryu is out of range.

With all that damage it’s important to keep Ryu healed up throughout the battle. If you don’t have enough Heal Kits or didn’t buy any from Leo you could be in for a rough time.

The best tactic is to save up as much AP as possible and then unleash it all in one giant combo.

The Cyclops has a fair amount of HP, but it can’t stand up to such a brutal assault for long.

If there’s any AP left at the end of the combo it’s a good idea to spend it on a hefty Kick to force the Cyclops to use up more of its meagre AP.

Once the Cyclops loses half its HP you’ll get a notice saying that its anger has exploded. After this point it loses access to Spiritcharge but gains the ability to attack twice per turn. It also gains access to Sledgehammer, a physical attack with a high critical chance, but I managed to kill it before it could use it on me.

The Cyclops is tough, but in the end it’s only the first boss. It has no special gimmicks other than hitting hard and having a lot of HP.

Music: A Small Journey

After dispatching the Cyclops Ryu walks off to check on the girl.

: Ah!

Naturally, she’s pretty frightened after everything that’s happened.

: It’s okay. I got him.

The girl nods.

: I’m Ryu. What’s your name.

: N…

: Ni…na? Your voice…you can’t…?

Longtime fans of the Breath of Fire series will understand the significance of Nina’s name. Just as the main character of each game has been a blue-haired young man with the default name of Ryu, every game in the series includes a female lead called Nina. In every game up until now each Nina, while being a completely different person, has had the same basic characteristics; a blonde-haired princess skilled in the arts of magic, with big fluffy wings usually capable of at least limited flight. She always has a major role in the plot, and there are usually sections where she temporarily becomes the party leader. Past Ninas looked something like this:

Of course, Dragon Quarter is a radical departure from the other games in the series, so it should be no surprise that its Nina is also different. This incarnation has the usual blonde hair, but she’s much younger than the others and it’s no spoilers to say that she’s not a princess. Her wings are also different, being thin and red and upside down. She is also, as the game has just revealed, practically mute.