| Ryu himself can morph into a dragon as always but sadly they aren't as useful as in BOF3 as most enemies including bosses can be defeated by just using combos (see next paragraph to read about that new feature) and physical skills, in fact BOF4 is just too easy I was expecting quite a challenge after facing some almost impossible bosses on BOF3 but on this they are a bit like the regular enemies only with more hit points, to me this was the main down point. One of BOF4's best new features is the combo system which allows you to combine magic together to perform mass damage, for example if Ryu uses a fire spell followed by a wind spell from Nina, that spell will then become fire wind. Most skills can work as combos and if your like me you will make many attempts throughout the game to workout how to mix the magic properly and create some devastating spells, apparently you can do as much as up to a 100 hit combo! Although I don't know if this is true as the highest I have done is about 35 hits, but anyway the combo system is an excellent idea and well executed. The BOF series still has quite a journey to travel to be level with the FF series (although it does beat the flawed FF8) but its a great game with some down points which range from minor to major, but it still manages to be one of the best of its kind, if only it had been more of a challenge.Simon Wigham 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Opinions Round-Up "It improves on the 3rd instalments failings, and fails in other ways, gone is the amazing Dragon Gene Splicing, and is replaced by a somewhat stale system, thank god it has the combos and the magic, improvements include the cleverly put together story, which is viewed from 2 sides of a coin, BOF4 is a great game, but has mass failure in certain areas, which could have been avoided!" Chris Wigham |