Each playable character is given a special "field skill" that can be used to destroy obstacles or solve puzzles outside of battles, which occur randomly in hostile areas or dungeons.

Under their guidance, these characters may gain new skills and special statistic increases by fulfilling certain tasks, such as participating in a certain number of battles, or finding specific items.

[5] New to Breath of Fire IV is the Combo System, which allows certain spells or skills to be cast in a specific order to gain bonus damage or other effects.

[6] The principal characters of Breath of Fire IV were designed by series artist Tatsuya Yoshikawa, and consist of Ryu and his companions, each with their own individual skills and personality traits carry the story forward.

[5] Primary supporting characters include Yohm, a general from the modern Fou Imperial Army with the ability to summon monsters to his aid who see Fou-Lu as a threat to the world; Rasso, an elitist company commander dispatched to the Eastern Kingdoms to search for Ryu, Fou-Lu's key to obtaining his lost godhood; Yuna, a cruel geneticist and occultist who participates in horrific acts of genetic manipulation with dark magic; and Kahn, a muscle-bound chauvinist and comic-relief villain who constantly encounters Ryu's party.

But due to the imperfect summoning Fou-Lu entered a sleeping state (sealed) and the empire lost its strike on the eastern continent keeping the war in a deadlock.

They are heading to the town Synesta for information on the whereabouts of Nina's older sister and Cray's love interest, Elina, who went missing several weeks earlier on a diplomatic mission.

Happening upon a crater left when a strange object landed from the sky, Nina confronts a large dragon who transforms before her eyes into a young man.

Meanwhile, across the world in the western Fou Empire, the ancient Emperor Fou-Lu rises from his burial tomb, declaring that it is now his time to regain his throne, as he promised over six centuries ago.

In his vulnerable, newly awakened state, he is attacked by Yohm, a general in the modern Fou army who is privy to Fou-Lu's long-prophesied resurrection, and aims to kill him before carrying out his plan.

Determined to clear their names and find Elina, they travel past a swamp and through a volcano to arrive in Wyndia, where after an audience with Nina's father, the king, the group continues west.

After regaining their composure, Ryu and his team travel to the Emperor's pagoda to stop him, and find Ursula's adopted grandfather, General Rhuh, holding off several monsters and A-Tur charging the palace area.

She agrees, and the group makes their way to the palace's inner sanctum, where Ryu personally confronts Fou-Lu and questions his motivation to destroy humanity after they have done so much for him in the past, recalling and comparing their memories.

The manga adaptation, Utsurowazaru Mono: Breath Of Fire IV, gives a third ending with Ryu refusing to fully absorb Fou-Lu as the gods disappear from the world.

In May 1999 industry rumors began speculating that the title would appear on the PlayStation 2 console when Capcom's Yoshiki Okamoto remarking that their next role-playing game would be a "giant project" that would make use of the system's network capabilities.

[14] The following July, however, it was confirmed that the game would instead be heading to the original PlayStation, with development having been underway for "some time" beforehand, and was officially unveiled in an issue of Japanese Weekly Famitsu magazine the same month.

[18] Exclusive to the Japanese version was also a hidden store area that was accessible only by using a save file on a CD distributed through an issue of the Dengeki PlayStation magazine.

[21] Aoki would also provide the vocals for the game's ending theme, "Yume no Sukoshi Ato" (ゆめのすこしあと, literally, "A Little After the Dream"), and would write an arrangement of Maurice Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante défunte" titled "Pavane for a Dead Princess", while composer Taro Iwashiro provides the game's opening theme song "Breath of Fire IV ~Opening Animation~".

[27] The game was the best-seller of July 2000,[36] and would go on to sell an estimated 334,000 copies in the region in 2000,[37] which would qualify it for Sony's "PlayStation the Best" label, allowing it to be re-released in September 2002 at a reduced price.

[29] Eurogamer conversely stated that "It may not have the looks and sheen of Final Fantasy, and it certainly doesn't equal it in tale," calling attention to the game's "predictable" plot, but concludes that Breath of Fire IV "remains an extremely compelling and often rewarding RPG".

[26] GameSpot called the title "as solid of a game as any of its predecessors" but found it to be lacking in innovation, claiming that "though it doesn't improve upon the standard RPG formula, it's hard to fault in any specific way.

[31] Francesca Reyes reviewed the PlayStation version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "A quirky but memorable RPG that fans of the series will immediately embrace.

[42] The Comic Blade Avarus manga adaptation, which is a pure "graphic novelisation" of the game, is still being published in serial format as of the September 2008 issue[43] and is officially being produced under supervision from Capcom.