Part 49: NG+ Update 21: The Final Challenge

NG+ Update 21: The Final Challenge



This is it - the final update. Beyond this door lies the lowest level of Kokon Horay. What could possibly be inside? Let’s find out.



Floor fifty is different from the others. It’s a large open space with no blocks or obstacles. It looks like there might be something curled up at the back though.





Uh…





Oh. Oh dear.

Music: Losing Sight of Tomorrow (The actual theme is Imminent Crisis, but I think this guy deserves better than the standard Danger Room music)



Meet Dover, Dragon Quarter’s optional superboss.



The first thing you need to know about Dover is that he isn’t a Genic. He’s a D-Construct, like Odjn and Chetyre. Unlike them, he happens to still be alive.





He’s not in great shape though. His tail has been hacked off, one of his eyes has been gouged out, he’s got a whole bunch of weapons shoved into his back and both his wings have been torn off. Poor guy looks like he’s about to keel over without your help.



But don’t let his mangled, broken body lull you into a false sense of security. Even with one foot in the grave Dover is the most powerful enemy in the game. His basic attacks are strong enough to kill Ryu and Lin in two hits and Nina in one, even when all three characters are at Level 45.





He also has Deamoned’s version of Depress, which deals massive damage and huge knockback along with halving the target character’s AP.



He has a small movement range, so you might think you can pull back and attack him a distance…





But that won’t work because Dover can cast both Inferno and Primus, and his effective range covers the entire arena.





He’s also tough as nails, with massive resistance to both physical and magical damage.





Even the mighty ‘Shatter!’ barely scratches him. To make matters worse Dover also has the most hit points of any enemy, topping out at a colossal 16,000 HP. To put that into perspective, Elyon had the most HP of all the story bosses and he only had 6,000.



With all this in mind your first instinct is probably to hit the nuclear button and wreck face in Dragon Mode. There’s just one tiny problem with that…





Dover has an anti-Dragon shield that activates when he gets hit by a Dragon attack. Once this happens he becomes immune to Dragon attacks for the rest of the turn. Vortex, Twister, D-Breath - all do precisely zero damage.





Worse still, all of Dover’s physical attacks deal Universal damage. This is the same type of damage Ryu’s own Dragon attacks inflict. This damage cuts through all defensive skills, to the point where it can actually inflict significant damage on Dragon Ryu himself.



To be fair, Hybrid Bosch could also damage Dragon Ryu. But Dover is much stronger and doesn’t need to get lucky to clobber him into submission.



But wait, we’re not done. If you manage to survive long enough to land roughly ten attacks, Dover decides to stop messing around.



On the next turn he will use all of his power to make you get off his lawn.





Permanently.



This isn’t Chetyre’s wimpy Dragonbreath. It’s a beam of pure annihilation that can hit multiple characters at once and deals damage based on Dover’s current HP. At maximum or near maximum it will always kill whoever he uses it on. No ifs, no buts.



So, with all that in mind, how do you win? Does Dover have an Achilles heel, some kind of weakness the player can exploit?



He does, although it involves doing something slightly counter-intuitive.



The trick is to attack Dover once while in Dragon mode. This activates his anti-Dragon shield, but doing so has a fairly significant side effect the game doesn’t tell you about.





If you immediately use Cooldown and hit Dover with a regular attack, you’ll discover that he now takes normal damage. Becoming immune to Dragon attacks lowers Dover’s resistance to normal damage for the rest of the turn. This is his fatal flaw - he can be immune to Dragon attacks or resistant to everything else, but never both at the same time. This is why I said to keep some of the D-Counter in reserve - you’ll need to D-Dive, use Vortex, then Cooldown on every single turn of the fight.









Even with the correct strategy it’s still tough to keep up with Dover’s massive damage output. He can attack twice per turn and Dragonbreath is a guaranteed kill until his health dips below about 40%.





This is why it’s so important to conserve your resources when going through Kokon Horay. If you reach Dover without any Tonics or with your healing items depleted, the fight can become unwinnable.





If you have any buffing items like 7th Senses and AP Charges I highly recommend using them here. This is the hardest fight in the game, so there’s no reason to hold them back.



In his anti-Dragon mode Dover is weak to ice but still partially resistant to fire, so making sure Nina has the relevant spells will also make the fight a little easier.



Occasionally Dover will use a skill called Spores. This…doesn’t seem to do anything. As far as I can tell it’s basically him skipping his turn. Perhaps a bit of mercy from the developers? Either way, make sure you take advantage of the lull to heal up and pile on the damage.



One semi-secret detail in this fight is that you can actually steal from Dover. Since his physical attacks all bypass defensive skills you can’t get it with the Steal or Snatch skills, but with Lin’s special steal combo you can obtain a very special item from him.



The Dragon Tear is an item that’s been in every Breath of Fire game since Breath of Fire II. In that game it was a keepsake from Ryu’s mother that changed colour to show how other characters felt about him. In Breath of Fire III it was an antique that could be sold for large amounts of money, while in Breath of Fire IV it was a powerful accessory that made the wearer immune to all negative status ailments.



In Dragon Quarter it’s the most valuable piece of vendor trash in the game. Kind of disappointing given how hard it is to obtain (and how little use money is at this point), but I suppose the precedent was set with Breath of Fire III.







Dover is an enemy who can destroy even a well-prepared team, but with enough patience and plenty of healing items he eventually joins Odjn and Chetyre in death. Considering the state he was in that’s probably a mercy.



He gives out a huge amount of experience. Not that it matters, since we’re going to lose all of it once we leave Kokon Horay.





Thankfully that’s not the only reward. Dover’s floor also has a chest, and inside is Ragnarok, the most powerful spell in the game.



Ragnarok is similar to the Karma spell Elyon uses in the final stage of his boss fight. Using it paints a target on a particular enemy, slaps them with a three turn timer and prevents Nina from moving or acting until the spell activates.











When the three turns are up it summons a weird egg…thing that smashes into the ground and sprays repulsive louse-like creatures everywhere, which crawl around for a few seconds before bursting messily. It’s kind of disgusting.

Unfortunately Ragnarok is one of those impractical and/or useless skills that are all too common in videogames. The damage is huge, but nowhere near as much as Nina could dish out in three whole turns. The one thing that might make Ragnarok situationally useful is the fact that it deals Universal damage, making it the only source of that damage type aside from Dragon Ryu.



And…that’s it! That’s all there is to Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. There’s nothing left to do other than finish off the story and watch the ending cutscene again.



Dragon Quarter is by no means a perfect game. It has some good ideas and innovative features, but doesn’t always implement them well. The decision to radically change the setting was a questionable one and certainly turned off a lot of fans, and features like the D-Counter and SOL system are poorly explained and difficult to get to grips with for those who aren’t into rougelikes or dislike time limits in their games.



I’m not sure why the developers chose to depart from the established formula of the series. The concept art seems to indicate that Dragon Quarter started out as another medieval fantasy title, but that seems to have changed fairly early on in its development cycle. The decision to switch to post-apocalyptic science fiction was a big risk and judging by the fan reaction and the lack of subsequent sequels (the Breath of Fire 6 mobile game notwithstanding), it doesn’t seem to have paid off.



Despite all of that, I really enjoyed Dragon Quarter. Part of that is because it’s so weird and different from the other games. It certainly turned a lot of people off, but I applaud the developers for being willing to take such a big risk with what was then Capcom’s core RPG franchise. In today’s world of endless remakes, cookie-cutter sequels and soft reboots, Dragon Quarter dared to do something different.



Another reason is that parts of the game are genuinely good. The atmosphere is fantastic, the music is amazing and the level design is far more varied and interesting than you might expect from a game set exclusively in an underground bunker. The game and battle mechanics are somewhat byzantine, but they actually work rather well once you get over the initial shock and start getting to grips with them.



So, would I recommend Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter? On reflection I would have to say yes. If you like roguelikes or other games where you have to carefully manage your resources, give it a try. If you’re a longtime Breath of Fire fan who was turned off by the setting change or intimidated by the byzantine mechanics, try giving it a go now that you know how everything works. Who knows, you might wind up appreciating it a little more.



With all that said, this is the end of the Let’s Play. It took me much longer than I thought it would, but we got there in the end. The Breath of Fire series is one of my favourite franchises, and it feels nice to have been able to show off three of its installments. Thanks for sticking with me, and as always, I hope you all had as much fun watching this LP as I did making it.

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Bonus Art: Early Dover Concept Art