Update. GOG has quietly launched Breath of Fire IV. It is available now exclusively on GOG and comes with a slew of quality-of-life features.
GOG just uploaded a cryptic post on its official BlueSky account and it has classic JRPG fans abuzz. The barebones post is made up of a darkened silhouette of an old-school character sprite accompanied with the simple question “And who might that be?”, but it didn’t take long for sharp-eyed Breath of Fire fans to point out the figure’s striking resemblance to a certain protagonist from their favorite JRPG franchise.
The specific sprite in question is Ryu’s back sprite when he’s looking directly away from the camera. Check it out below.
Yeah. That’s clearly a pixel-for-pixel recreation of Ryu. What isn’t so clear is what this means exactly for Breath of Fire. Most fans speculate that this is a sure sign that Breath of Fire 4 will finally be getting a PC port. Considering GOG’s mission statement is literally to ensure the playability of as many classic games as possible, preserving one of the PlayStation’s most beloved JRPG titles is definitely on brand for the company. Not many know this, but Breath of Fire IV actually released on PC back in 2003. GOG’s modus operandi involves tweaking with old games to make them run on modern hardware, and if that’s the case here, then that would imply a modern update to the original Windows version, rather than a full-blown remaster like we saw with Suikoden I & II HD Remaster. The timing is right too, with the 25th anniversary of Breath of Fire IV coming up on April 27.
