Breath of Fire

"Could this be? I like an RPG game?"

I'm basically a person who is a casual gamer. But recently, I've gotten more serious in gaming, and I started playing more games on my Xbox 360 and PSP. I've always had sort of a dislike for RPG games. They've seemed too boring. You don't see anyone in the Iraq war just standing in front of each other, and patiently letting one of them kill them and drinking potions. I only sometimes played RPG games, but didn't beat them. I enjoy shooter games more. I can move around more, and I can see an enemy before it or she or he attacks me. The closest an RPG game has to that is Final Fantasy Tactics. I decided to beat an RPG game. It was a goal I've always wanted to do, and I saw that my big brother owned Breath of Fire, but wouldn't let me play it. So I decided to download a ROM because this meant I owned the game. I don't regret it one bit.

The plot is very great. Probably the second best part of this game. There's no seven orbs or anything like that like you see in Final Fantasy for the NES. The story is that there was a goddess named Tyr, and she had the power to grant wishes. Because of this, people took advantage of that and that separated a clan called the Dragon Clan in to two. They were now the Light Dragon and Dark Dragons. This resulted in "Goddess War". The Light Dragon hero and his seven allies won by sealing Tyr way using six keys. Now this is where Ryu, if that's what you chose the name of your character to be, comes in. Ryu was living peacefully with his sister in a town, and the game starts with him awaking from a fire. The Dark Dragon Clan was attempting to destroy the Light Dragons, thinking that the townspeople still had the power of the Dragon. Ryu's sister, Sara, turned everyone in the room people were hiding in to stone, because that would protect them from the fire and they wouldn't have to attempt to fight and lose.

Okay, let me get to the Gameplay. The gampleay is a lot of fun, I really enjoy the battle scene. It make take a while to get used to, because there is no text such as "Attack, Magic", whatever. There is a line of squares with pictures, and you have to memorize which ones are which. When you start the game, a way to memorize them is to try each of them. You start the game without any magic, which really sucks.

This is the typical gameplay in an RPG game. For example, after the fire, you go to a village where a castle is being taken over by monsters. You go through all the monsters to get to the leader which is a giant Frog. You buy herbs, etc when you need it. Enemies may drop items and gold. One thing that may be a downfall is the names of the items. There are abbreviations for a lot of items. Such as Wdn Swrd. You may not know what something means and you may know what something means. I think this is a way to fit text in one box, but it's not working out so well.

The graphics are pretty great for a Super Nintendo. It's not that great, but it's decent 2d graphics. The battlescenes and the monsters look carefully drawn and colored, and that's just great, so you can know who you are fighting.

The sound may get a little repetitive, but I got used to it. It's pretty nice music.

Overall, this is a very great game. I suggest you playing the game, no matter what it takes. If you have played a game in the Breath of Fire series besides this one and enjoyed it, this is a game you need to play.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/08

Game Release: Breath of Fire (US, 10/10/94)