Yeah, I liked how Masters were handled better in the fourth game, where you do tasks instead of having to level up. Although in 3 I did mostly use Peco as a skill slave and then just used Skill Inks to transfer skills over to other characters.

About the writing, I kinda think it was a learning experience for Capcom. Previously the only RPGs they had under their belt were the Destiny of an Emperor games, and Sweet Home (Sweet Home stayed a Japan only game). With the Japanese versions of the BoF games they had some awesome stories going.

But when it came to them being translated, the first two games suffered a lot. Especially 2 where the translation is so bad it actually stifled the impact of the game's plot twists. Most people would have never believed that 2 was one of the darkest games in the series, and a lot of them still don't.

By the time 4 rolled around they were better getting the hang of writing decent translated scripts and nearly perfected that in 5 IMO.

I forgot just how polarizing 5 was, but that's a subject for later.