Breath of Fire II

"Game Fun - Grammar Strange"

Firstly, I would like to say to anyone who has any liking for the proper use of the English language that you have my heartfelt sympathies with this the translation on this game. That being said, let's get down to business.

Story: 8/10. The second chapter in the continuing saga of the Dragon Clan is a worthy sequel to the original. Again, the hero is a young man named Ryu (well, he's supposed to be...), who must start out on a long and epic journey to end up saving the world. It's nothing new, but it's well done. Ryu, Nina, Katt, Ray, Claris... Whether good or evil or caught in the middle, they are all wonderfully done, with obvious polishing, despite how large or small their roles are, and, more amazingly still, despite the translation of the text and it's efforts to make it nonsensical. The story is long enough so that one can truly enjoy it for a good length of time, and manages to be entertaining throughout.

Graphics: 6/10. They aren't the highest quality graphic you'll see, but they get the job done. Still, the sprites are clean and nicely done, the backgrounds are colorful, and the animation is fluid and sometimes beautiful.

Sound: 8/10. Once again, the series delivers with wonderful music. The soundtrack is a beautiful thing to listen to, with filler tracks few and far between, and the tunes always suit the mood of the area. And the sound effects fit in seamlessly, accentuating the actions going on at the time instead of being overdone and detracting.

Gameplay: 8/10. The battles are well done. That's all that I can say. They merge difficulty and skill almost perfectly, and spit out an excellent experience that can be enjoyed from the very beginning. With the characters having different innate skills and strengths, it falls to the player to weigh them to their own style and choose the party thusly, unlike games such as FF VII, where the customizability ended up making it a matter of which character one liked the most. Still, it makes things more interesting, and gives the characters a bit more personality, rather than letting the player mix and match skills.

Replay: 6/10. Like most traditional RPGs, BoF's story will not change dramatically on a second playthrough. As well, it is possible to get all the endings through one save quite near to the end of the game, meaning that it's adding a few extra hours of play, instead of tens of hours in repeating the game. Still, it's good fun to go through again, since one might want to check to make sure that they got everything that they could on the first time through, or maybe want clarification on an event they weren't paying attention to. In any case, a replay is still enjoyable, if not pressing.

In short, BoF II is a lot more like BoF I than BoF III. It's fun and entertaining, and a solid game, through and through. And, in the end, it's still the same fantastic experience that comes from the BoF games, no matter which game it is. I'd suggest this game to any RPG fan, as this is second only to the original Breath of Fire (IMO), and a worthy successor, with only a lackluster translation to tarnish a bit of the lustry wonder.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/03, Updated 01/22/03