Breath of Fire II

"One of the Best SNES games ever!"

After enjoying the first Breath of Fire game, I went out and got the second one. This one was even better and in my opinion, is the best one in the whole series (even better than the Playstation ones). The Breath of Fire series by Capcom revolves around a young boy named Ryu who can turn into a dragon, though every game in the series deals with a different Ryu.

Graphics: 10/10
These graphics are awesome. They have the same feel of the first Breath of Fire, but there are a huge improvements. All the characters look very well done. The enemies and the battles look very clear and detailed. Ryu's dragon transformations and the magic spells are just great to look at. Capcom did an excellent job in this area.

Story: 10/10
You will love the story in this game! Most of the story at the beginning is a mystery, but as you play the game, you learn more and more. I was never bored at any times with this story. There are eight very unique playable characters and one secret one. Each character gets their own quest dealing with them. I found it very hard to chose who to be in my party because they were all useful. The story is also funny at many times.

Music/Sound: 10/10
This game has got some the best music I have ever heard in any RPG. It is as good as Final Fantasy VI's music. At times, I find myself humming the themes. The overworld map themes, the dungeon and town themes, and the boss themes are all prefect. I loved the music in this game so much, I even went and got the soundtrack for it. The sound in this game is great as well such as the impacts of your hits on the enemies.

Gameplay: 10/10
The most important part of a game is it's gameplay and this game has it down perfect. Breath of Fire is your traditional random encounter, turn-based RPG but it has some innovations. Every character has their own special abilities and the characters can even fuse with ''shamans'' to increase their stats. There are minigames in Breath of Fire II such as hunting and fishing. The battles in this game are VERY fast and thus, very fun to play.

Buy or Rent?
Breath of Fire II is positively a buy. It will take you about 40-50 hours to do everything in this game. This is a very long game. There are three different endings as well, so even after beating this game, there is replayibility value here.

Overall:10/10
This is one of the best RPGs ever made for the SNES (or possibly for any platform). I put this game right up there with Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/01, Updated 03/19/01