Breath of Fire

"Ryuu no Densetsu (The Legend of Ryu)"

It might be worth noting that I played this game as a downloaded file on my computer, after finding a SNES torrent with something like 300 games on it. Breath of Fire was the first one I went to. I had played Breath of Fire 3, 4, and Dragon Quarter, and liked them. Dragon Quarter was a bit weird, and too short, but, nonetheless, the Breath of Fire series attracted my interest by keeping threads throughout.

The main enemy is the Goddess Tyr. Upon first meeting her at the end of the game, she is benevolent. She heals the party if you ask her to grant a wish. However, she has a darker nature (this is paralleled in Breath of Fire 3), and quickly turns evil. The game itself is basically a journey from one event to the next, with no real cohesion presented. I thought the game would have been over before long, but it kept going. I must have played at least 30 hours before it ended. On the whole, I was satisfied, as the first game in the series revealed a lot more about the others.

Graphics: 7/10
For a game released in 1994, the graphics aren't bad. They reminded me of Chrono Trigger. The characters sometimes do odd things, just to liven things up. One character turns into a fish. Another turns into a bird. Then you have a character who digs in the ground, and a character who goes around punching things. I'm a fan of high-resolution graphics with the Playstation 2, but the graphics in this game are all right.

Music: 7/10
Suprisingly, there are a few good songs on this game. But most of them are too short. The song for the save chamber was very good, and I thought they could have used it elsewhere. The songs for the towns fit the mood of the town itself, which tells me that the makers of the game took into account their settings, rather than just throwing things together. The boss fight music is a little over the top, as most boss fights aren't all that hard. However, the music kept me entertained, and got me thinking about re-mixes.

Characterization: 5/10
With the exception of Bleu, who is called Deis in some of the other games, the characters aren't presented all that often. Sometimes characters will join the party and never speak a word for a long time after. Sometimes, the most eloquent person is one who has little bearing on the overall plot. This further compounded by the fact that Ryu actually has a few lines early on, and doesn't say anything afterwards. Seeing him hold up his sword and have lightning strike it wasn't enough to give Ryu depth of character, like he has in spades with Breath of Fire 3.

Plot: 7/10
Okay, so Emporer Zog and the Dark Dragons are going around messing things up and they have to be stopped. There's some mention of the Goddess Keys in the very first opening scene, but there's not really too much said about why they have to be retrieved. Moreover, most of the Dark Dragons you'll fight aren't really Dragons at all, but humans who transform themselves into semi-tough monsters. I was thinking the game would have me walking around in the wilderness for a long while until- surprise! You get to travel underwater! This is years before Kingdom Hearts, and finding a town on the bottom of the sea was a pleasant surprise. Once that happens, the game takes on a life of its own. I was hooked, even though I had to incubate a bug in a volcano. :P

Battle System: 10/10
I remember being frustrated with the layout of Final Fantasy II (re-named Final Fantasy IV, the one with Cecil). The battle system of that game was just lame. But this one is much better. There's elements of Breath of Fire 3 here: enemies have purple bars indicating their health, and Ryu has a few Dragon transformations, the most powerful of which takes up the entire battleground (and unlocks a different ending as well). Nina is basically your healer, and Bleu has a lot of strong attack magic. Keep those two together, and you can't lose. But, even if you do lose, in this game, you just get transported to the nearest save point. This happens even if you haven't saved, a nice feature. There's no game over screen until you beat the game.

Side Quests: 8/10
The side quests are almost impossible to pull off without a guide. The game doesn't give hints, or direct you as to where you need to go for non-plot stuff. They just put things in the game and expect you to know where it is. I'm sure that in 1994, this caused quite a few headaches. In the age of the internet, however, this is not so big a problem as I can just look the information up and find what I need to get. All of the Dragon transformations, except for the first one, require you to get dragon items, which means fishing on the world map. Ryu will use his rod, give a peace sign, and pull a sword out of a well. Ok, whatever. I guess he's got a magnet on his rod.

Beginning/Ending: 8/10
The unlockable ending (beat the final boss with your best dragon ability) shows Ryu mourning over his lost sister. He doesn't return home, but walks away form the sunset, with a picture of his sister there. Similar to the scene of the robot going into the volcano, the ending of the game implies, but doesn't tell. You're forced to draw your own conclusions as to what Ryu's feeling, and what is really going on. I would have liked a bit longer beginning, before it asks me to hit start, and that's the only reason it got 8 instead of 10.

Overall: 8/10
The only real problem I have with this game is the lack of inner direction, meaning the NPCs don't give you hints or commission you on jobs to do that don't deal with the plot. In Chrono Trigger, there's a whole messload of stuff to be done on the side to defeating Lavos, so I was kind of hoping for the same thing here. But that's not really the case. The only things you can do are get abilities for Ryu and Karn, and make sure you have the best items available. Other than that, there isn't much else to do is this game except advance the plot. The gameplay is strong enough, and creative enough (can you say spinning dungeons?) that the game is very much worth playing.

Here's to hoping that Square Enix or Capcom will re-release for the PSP, or the Game Boy Advance. This is certainly one to check out if you ever get the chance.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/06