Breath of Fire

The Good
I liked the story. It had a fair depth to it. The characters were good also. I liked the depth of some of their stories. It was also nice that you didn't learn each character's total story right away but only as you played the game. And for some characters, you don't get their total story until much later in the game. It was cool that you can become a dragon in battle (later in the game). A dragon that you become near the end of the game is MAJOR powerful.

The Bad
The plot is rather linear, requiring you to complete certain steps before moving on. There are very few "Let me go explore here, first" options.. And towards the end of the game, the dragon you (and your party) can become is TOO powerful. It makes the last battle too easy. This dragon has 999 hit points! It was rather disconcerting to, at one point, fight what looked like a little girl. But I got over it.

The Bottom Line
Overall, a good game with a rather neat story. There are good characters and interesting castles, cities and dungeons. In this game, you, the main character, can learn to become a dragon! That is cool but a dragon near the end of the game is too powerful.

The Good
The 16-bit era was more than any other the golden age of Japanese RPGS. So many great titles. From Phantasy Star II, Final Fantasy IV, Shining Force, Lunar, and Chrono Trigger just to name a few. But for now I am to review one of the “forgotten” JRPGS of the era. Namely Breath Of Fire.

Released in 1993. Breath Of Fire, or BOF, is a turn based traditional RPG. From Capcom. And released in the west by Sqauresoft, the company now known as Square-Enix. Just how does BOF measure up in the pantheon of 16-bit JRPGS?

In Breath Of Fire, you are the blue haired hero Ryu.(Who thankfully can be renamed.-MM-) He is a member of the blue dragon clan. Who have long been at odds with the black dragon clan. When the black dragons attack his village, Ryu, is sent of a quest of vengeance, and of course to save the world.

Eventually other characters will join him on his quest. And the are quite varied and unique having both in and out of battle skills. There is Nina the winged princess. Bo who can hunt wild game. Carn is a thief who can disarm traps. And several others.

At one point in the game, Ryu, gains the ability to turn into a dragon. And cast deadly spells in battle. Which in 1993 was pretty damn cool. And this idea would be used in later BOF games, as well as other RPGS. (Including, the amazingly bland Legend Of The Dragoon , but that is another review for another day.-MM-)

The combat is turn based and pretty strait forward. With the exception of the turning into a dragon, as mentioned above. But still fun is that way that only old skool games are.

The graphics are good for the time. Very bright vibrant colors. And all the towns and dungeons you will visit look great.

What can I say? I love the music in BOF. The main theme is heroic and epic. While the world map music is pleasant. And the battle music does not make me want to kill myself. Unlike in some JRPGS I might have played.

The Bad
Some newer gamers will be turned off by the style of this old skool adventure. As the game has some of the staples of the time. Such as leveling or “level grinding”.

The controls are weird, but not in the way you might think. They work well, it is just that they are not pre-set. So every time you start a new game you must also set the control scheme. Which I found very odd, as this is one of the only RPGS I can think of that does this.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Breath Of Fire, is a very enjoyable romp through the golden age of JRPGS. And while it may not be of the caliber of Chrono Trigger, or Phantasy Star IV, it is still a solid game. Worthy of a place in your old skool collection, or ROM collection, anyhow.

The Good
Graphics are pretty cool, and music is very good. The environments are beautifully drawn and the enemies are nicely detailed.

Sometimes, the whole thing gets completely Epic.

And on a personal note, there's this wolf guy as one side character and the lead character can turn into a dragon. That's so cool.

The Bad
As far as games go, this thing is really straightforward what comes to method of operation and plot.

The paper-thin plot goes on linearly without any surprises. I was expecting a more twisty plot, but looks like the game doesn't really get complex at any point.

Puzzles aren't very challenging, unless you forget what you was supposed to do. (Don't know how intricate they get, I'm only half-way done right now.) Gameplay is uninspiring: Random encounter after random encounter. Walk two paces, kill monsters, repeat ad nauseam.

Squaresoft did a pretty nice work translating the game and it hasn't been revised much because there was no need, but still, I would have hoped some more adjustments on GBA age. Due to the frequency of random encounters, that "Mrbl3" thing sure is useful, but some further explanation might be helpful, as I still don't know what that thing is....

The Bottom Line
1993: Let's see. Ultima VII came out the earlier year. And here, the wacky Japanese come up with a game that has the plot "Blue-haired guy kills the forces of the bad guy and saves the world", with tried and true game mechanics from the NES era. Please excuse me while I yawn...

...now, thank you for waiting. The game is actually rather interesting, but not really the best possible concept - not the best of its era, not the best of what has ever been released. Yet, it is very playable, and while the plot is completely unsurprising the game can still keep me playing it. The game is more about fights with random very strange creatures (yep, there sure are a lot of fights!), seeing beautiful locations, and exploration without any rewards.

You control one character at the time, the party is limited to four other characters (though up to eight can hang around with you - you need to choose which characters are active). The fights are rather typical to JRPGs (fight moves, spells, item uses, the works...). You can save in towns, and I believe an instant save feature was not present in the original (nor was the ability to swap stuff between carts using link cable).

I'd definitely recommend this to everyone who likes cartoony fantasy stories and who don't find constant fighting irritating. GBA version has been a very nice filler for longer train trips for me..