Breath of Fire

"A must have for any Rpg fan with a GBA"

Crystal Knight Mog's Breath of Fire Review 12/24/01

The Breath of Fire series has always be known for its great storyline, interesting charactors, and for its excellent gameplay. Breath of Fire was originally released by Capcom (Square also played a part in the release) in 1993 for the Super NES/Super Famicom, and had three more games made after its success. Being one of my favorite Rpg series'(next to the chrono series), I was excited to hear about its port to the GBA. Well its finally here with some beefed up graphics, and is now portable, but is it as good as the SNES version ?

Graphics - 9/10
The graphics are amazing. Everything from the charactor sprites to the details on the buildings.Capcom beefed up the graphics, and the charactor sprites look better than ever ! I feel that Capcom could have improved on them more, but they still out-do the SNES's graphics.

Story - 9/10
The story of Breath of Fire is the same as the SNES version, but thats not much of a surprise, is it ? You play as a young boy named Ryu whose village gets burned to the ground by an unknown evil. And of course you cant sit on your butt, you've got answers to find. I dont want to give too much of the story away, but you end up going throught multiple towns, and meat countless people some of whom help you out in your quest. Of course like all Rpgs, there are a few story twists, that spice things up. The story doesn't seem very original, but when this game acme out it was pretty unique.

Sound - 7/10
Onto the sound. I was kinda dissapointed with Capcom when I first played this game. The sound isn't very crisp, and some sound effects dont sound as good as the SNES, probobly because the SNES played on a stereo T.V, where the GBA has two little speakers. The sound is much more enjoyable with headphones, but still doesn't compaire to most other GBA games. This is the only real problem with this game. But sound doesn't make a game, gameplay does.

Gameplay - 10/10
This is where Breath of Fire excells. The gameplay is much impoved sinse its SNES days, everything from the Menu screen, to the Battle Menus have had a makeover. There are a few added options in the Menu that makes managing things much easier. The battles are like most standard RPG's ( Final Fantasy), and are quite easy to get used to. The Battle menu is prettymuch the same with some small improvments (like the H.P bar,and some menu options). The bigest improvment in the remake is that you can now RUN in this game by holding down the B button, even on the world map. In the SNES version you walked so-ooo sloo-w, luckily Capcom realized this and made it easier for gamers to explore towns, ect.. All in all the gameplay is what makes BoF stick out as one of the best RPGs on the GBA.

Replay Value - 8/10
This game is very enjoyable. You'll be playing this game nonstop the day that you get it ^_^

Rent or Buy ?
I think that you should definitly BUY this game. This is one game that will take you 40 + hours to complete, and it one that one will want to have in there GBA collection.

Overall - 9/10
This game is awesome, and the only thing preventing this game from perfection is the sound =( so go out and get this game, you definetly wont regret it ^_^

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/01, Updated 12/28/01