IMO it's one of the PS1's best RPGs, yet it did not take off and did not gain any recognition over the years. I find it shocking that Breath of Fire III gets more recognition (and also sold more) because imo IV is better in every way; it definitely looks and sounds better, the gameplay is revamped and enhanced over III and the story features actual character development unlike previous installments of the franchise.

What do you guys think of the game and the franchise as a whole? What do you think went wrong?

Ps. am I the only one who thinks that Grimes (the Canadian musician) was playing BoF II & III when she recorded her debut album Visions? I can't help but notice the similarities to those games' OSTs when I'm listening to the track Oblivion, for example. xD

Breath of Fire 3 is better imo, but Breath of Fire 4 is also a great game. The problem is that anything RPG fell off the map once Squaresoft became a lot more popular with the gaming fanbase. Instead of people broadening their horizons and purchasing other games, they'd just stick with Squaresoft games thinking that the company was the end all be all of companies when it came to RPGs.

*edit*

Squaresoft was popular before, but not to everyone.  When it comes to RPGs, a lot of gamers at that time that were new to them didn't play much outside of Squaresoft.  Now days, most people who have played JRPGs haven't played much outside of Squaresoft either. 

I don't think IV is better in every way given that they both felt like different games to me.

It has a lot more to do with taste, I think.

I agree with you that both are different, and therefore they appeal to different tastes. BUT, what I meant is that BoF IV improved on its predecessor on all technical aspects while the gameplay remained very similar yet improved (they kept the Masters system from III, for example, but they added the ability to switch characters in-and-out of combat and all that combo business, improved the fishing mini-game, etc...), so in theory those who liked III should have at least enjoyed IV... but there was a noticeable decline in sales between the two titles, why do you think that happened?

I see what you mean and perhaps you are right... but BoF was an established franchise whose fans had been familiar with the franchise for years, so I don't know just how much that may have affected the game's sales and the franchise overall...

Oh yeah, I forgot about this one... It was decent.

He means within the series.

Breath of Fire 3 is more popular because it has the best dragon system of the series. The master system is also agreed to be more involved in 3. BOF3 also has a very unique laid back tone to the game... Hell, Mikba and bouncers(balio and sunder) are closes thing to a bad guy in the game. I agree with you though I perfer BoF4 to 3 but I can definitely see why 3 is held as the pinnacle. Both are awesome fun games though.   

I actually agree with you that III had the best dragon system of the series, in my opinion it is the only thing it does better than IV.

I can't really say for sure what caused the decline in sales.  I played and enjoyed both, but there aren't any points where I can confidently say was the reason why more people bought BoF III over BoF IV.

i got this game years ago (when i played on my PS1) and i never completed it and this year i decided to finally give it another go, and so i was playing BOF 4 this year and got almost to the ending and then my save got corrupted... and all i can say is yeah even though i havent beat it yet, i did enjoyed it more than the 3rd one and i wish Breath of Fire would come back.

i also want a new Onimusha but Capcom seems to not care about its franchises