Breath of Fire

"Breath of Fire from SNES with a few minor improvements."

Breath of Fire is a fun rpg for the Game Boy Advance, which I recommend any rpg fan buys. Although the game is definitely not revolutionary, it is still very fun and has a lot of cool things in it that most rpgs don't. (The main characters are each able to use a certain ability on the world map).

Plot:
The plot was average. It was mainly a evil vs. good/revenge type of plot, but it did have some twists in it that I wasn't expecting.

Graphics:
Just as good the the SNES graphics. Since this is supposed to be a basic replica of the SNES version, this is the best graphics this game could have.

Control:
Just like most rpgs, Breath of Fire had good controls that work well.

Fun Factor:
Do to certain different characters having certain different abilities, a lot of the puzzles were different than most games, and some of the objectives different. This made the game fun. Also, finding secret Dragon transformations for the main character and a bunch of other secrets added to the fun factor a lot. The game was pretty fun, but the battle system got a bit boring once you neared the end of the game, and the beginning was sort of slow. One problem I found was the game wasn't very hard where, it was basically just attack, heal, attack, heal strategy for the battles.

Sound/Music:
The sound/music was ok. There were a few good traks, but most of them were average or ok.

Secrets:
Secrets were the main reason why this game was good. The game had a lot of secrets which were fun to earn. There were plenty of different transformations you could earn for the main character, and the last one was very hard to find. Also, the transformations for the thief character were cool, and useful. There were also a few secret items.

Character Abilities:
The character abilities ranged from fishing to flying. While none of them were necessarily amazing, they did add to the puzzle system. For example, if there was a rock you couldn't break, and none of the characters you had could break it, you would know there is a character you need to advance in order to get further. The problem about most of these puzzles is, they aren't very hard. You see a certain object, you switch to the character you need, continue on, then just switch characters again whenever you need to. It actually becomes a bit of a nuisance after a while.

Additions to the GBA version:
I found the additions very useful. The ability to run, helped not get bored of walking so slow, and made the game progress faster. The quick-save feature (ability to save where ever, and whenever you want) was very useful, especially for a portable game.

Conclusion:
My statement stays as I said above. If you are not a rpg fan, don't buy the game. If you are a rpg fan, give the game a shot. It just might be thing you're looking for.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/02, Updated 03/18/02