Information concerning the characters and battle system of Breath of Fire V was recently revealed by Capcom. As previously revealed, the main characters in BoF V will be Ryu and Nina, who meet during one of Ryu's rouine missions. Ryu is a security officer in the underground city of Shelter, part of the elite police faction Ranger. At 16 years old, he is a young officer, but his strong-willed, honest character has enabled him to be an effective officer. The truly obsessed BoF fan will be interested to hear he is 166 cm tall.

Nina is somewhat younger than her counterpart; at 12 or 13 years of age, she is also shorter than Ryu at 143 cm. She is quieter than Ryu, and doesn't speak unless she has to. Nonetheless, she quickly becomes entangled in unfolding events, and finds herself fighting alongside Ryu. As an absolutely fascinating sidenote, she has two red wings on her back.

Not content with providing images of its characters to dance about in peoples' heads, Capcom has also brought out some information about the battle system for BoF V. Battles will have a few main types of attacks: Combos, Magic, and Traps. Combos will be special attacks requiring the use of AP, much like Magic. Different button combinations can be used to execute Combos, presumably for each character. What exactly Traps are remains to be seen; given the long history of hunting and fishing mini-games in the BoF series, it is probably related to these diversions in some way.

Currently, Capcom has made no mention of when it expects to release Breath of Fire V in Japan, giving only the nebulous timeframe of this winter. No North American localization has been confirmed, either; however, as every previous entry in the series has found its way to North America, this title should be no exception.