While some critics praised the game's two dimensional graphics as "visually breathtaking", and "the most arresting of any game in the series", others such as IGN found them too stale and grainy, yet still a marked improvement over "Breath of Fire III". The return of series mainstays such as the fishing minigame and dragon transformations was seen as a welcome recurrence, and though the title brought many new changes to the series, it did nothing to change the standard role-playing game formula. The game's camera, while able to be rotated at any time, was often seen as cumbersome given the tight spaces most environments were rendered in.