Breath of Fire III

"Wow this game is terrible"

To me if an rpg is good it should have you hooked within the first few hours of playing. Well I'm sorry to announce that Breath of Fire III does not do this. In fact you will never really get hooked. More like you get dragged through this game. With its lousy story, lame characters, recycled battle engine, plus many other little crappy game designs it barely passes as an rpg. Its not the worst out there, but its far from being good.

Story: 2/10

Man this story is so bad that I would groan everytime I had to listen to any dialouge. First of all you control Ryu who automatically is an unlikeable character. He is a silent hero which all in itself isn't bad, but the fact that he is a whiney little pansy kid. Just watch as he covers his eyes when he swings his sword. The rest of the cast is pretty bad too. These are the characters your stuck with a Cat man, another young brat kid who is annoying abnoxious, a lame brain princess with half of a persona, a kind of cool bird looking guy, a nerdy scientist, and an onion with feet. Say what? Yes an onion with feet, wow just the group of random losers I want to use to save whatever cause they are after. Oh wait a minute there is no cause at all! For the first part of the game there is no main objective, all you do is go around getting into annoyingly pointless minigames and asinine battles. There is barely a bit of character developement as if you cared for the characters in the first place. You won't!

Gameplay: 5/10

The gameplay is pretty pointless. The battle system is so basic I swear I'm playing a nintendo rpg menu battle. There is nothing that makes it stand out in any way. The random battles oh the random battles...Let me tell you that these are the most wretched I have ever saw. They happen very often and are super slow. Your characters will miss half of the time, so you will need to sit there taking needless turns until you hit them. Its maddening, and your characters are so weak that even some random enemies can kill them in one strike. Then you will revive that character and the enemy will attack the same character again. Its needless, at least they could have made it more original and fun, but no you get this lame battle system for 50 hours. The mini-games were made by satan and handed down to Capcom. All of it will make you very bored, and having you on the brink of insanity. However there is a couple decent points I will mention. You can turn Ryu into a dragon which is pretty sweet, but this game is unique because you can splice various dragon genes to make different kinds of dragons. Its really pretty cool and would be very welcomed on a much better game. Unfortunately it goes to waste since the rest of the game is so lackluster.

Graphics: 8/10

This was the games main saving grace the graphics where very good I thought. There is alot of color and the areas are pretty detailed. The enemies and characters in battle look pretty good as well. The spells were also not too shabby. That being said there also is nothing breath taking either. Good graphics but not great.

Sound: 5/10

The music was pretty lame, but it wasn't the worst I've heard. I'm not quite sure it fit into this game however. It felt quite a bit out of place. The sound effects were kinda annoying as well. The characters yelling everytime they attack is annoying, and when you choose to attack in battle it also makes an annoying sound. Its all pretty bad, but its there at least in some form.

Minigames: 5/10

The only reason I gave this a 5 instead of a 0 is because of the fishing minigame. It is actually pretty fun and you can get some good items that help you out.

Controls: 7/10

The game is 2D so you can only move in four directions. Its pretty easy, however your character only speed walks. There is no run button, put that with the constand random battles and you got a problem. At least the world map is easily navigated and you can easily go between places without having to deal with random battles.

Fun: 3/10

There is very little fun to be absorbed here. Any that you might have had is washed away with the rest of the game. I don't think Capcom really knows how to make an rpg. They are better at making fighters, and the excellent Resident Evil series. Other than that Capcom really hasn't got much.

Replayability: 2/10

Why anyone would replay this game is beyond my grasp of concept. It is hard enough to play through it the first time. Theres really nothing to push you to play through it again. I'm not saying I hated everything this game had to offer just most of it.

Overall this is just a very bad game. theres not much point in playing it. I bought the game, and I'm only hanging onto it for collection purposes. If your not a collector do not buy this game you will be disappointed in the overall experience.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/06