Breath of Fire

"Dedicated to the mindless destruction of public property."

Way back in the day, when this game was first released I remember seeing this game for the first time when I was over at one of my friends houses. I enjoyed watching him play it so much that I decided I had to play it myself. So a short while later I rented it. I didn’t beat it on my first rental though. It took me several rentals before I actually beat it.

And then a few years later I bought the game and beat it again. I eventually ended up getting rid of it though.

But then when I heard that they were re-releasing it for the GBA, for some strange reason I felt that I needed to buy it. Even though I new it was pretty much just a straight port. (With the exception of swapping items with a fellow player and being able to quick save.) And I did. I bought it again and beat it for a 3rd time but I still enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time.

Gameplay:8 BOF is not necessarily anything groundbreaking when you compare it to some of today’s RPG’s, but back when it first came out, it did some thing’s that other games hadn’t done yet. Such as the ability for the hero to turn into a dragon & that each character that joins you has a special ability than can only be used outside of battle that will usually help you to get through the game in some way. For example, there’s Karn who is able to unlock any locked doors or disarm any trap. Or there’s Mogu who can dig holes in the ground to find treasure.

The battle system is turn based and it has all your basic commands like Attack, Defend, Run, Magic & Item. It is very easy to understand and even an RPG newbie should have no problem with it. But the difficulty may not be. For your first time going through this game it will not be easy. I now it wasn’t for me. I’m not saying it was exceptionally hard but some of the boss fights are pretty tough. Even on my 3rd time through I still had some difficulty.

One thing I always found very useful in a tight battle is that healing spells taking priority over everything else. So if any of your chars are using a healing spell, then they get to go before anyone else does. Even if the enemy is faster than you. Nina is someone you will always want to have in your party because she specializes in healing magic.

My personal favorite party members to have are: Ryu for his cool dragon spells.( In case you are wondering, yes you can actually take the main character out of your battle party.) Karn for his ability to fuse with other characters. Nina for here vast array of support spells. And Bleu for her big selection of attack spells.

The ability to be able to turn into a dragon is what always made the BOF series stand apart from other games. I have always found the ability very cool. As the games progressed though, they changed the way the Dragon system worked. I think that it probably works the best in this one and 3. 2's was just plain awful because using a dragon spell would consume every single drop of your hero’s AP no matter which spell it was.
In this one each spell just costs a set amount of magic and nothing else.

Another very cool thing is that this game probably has THE SINGLE most effective way to keep from running into an enemy. And that is THE MRBL3! No I didn’t misspell it. That’s how it’s spelled. These babies will keep you from running into enemies for a specific amount of steps, and then they wear off. And these work anywhere. It doesn’t matter how powerful the enemies are. As long as you’re using one you wont run into anything. You would think that items as good as these would be very expensive or very hard to find. But they're not. They’re one of the cheapest, most common items in the game. It’s best to always keep a good stock of them, because if you get sick of running into enemies just use one and your problems are solved. Remember, MRBL3's are your friends.

It’s hard for me to say exactly how long this game is, since it’s been so long since I played it the first time. But I would say probably 20-30 hours or more depending on your game pace. I’m very slow so it usually takes me awhile to beat anything.

Story:7 The story revolves around Ryu, a blue haired boy that is one of the last surviving members of the Light Dragon clan. His village is attacked by the Dark Dragons who are searching for 7 keys that will allow them to revive Tyr The goddess of destruction. After the attack he sets out to get revenge on them.

Yes I know the story is not exactly original. Even when it first came out it wasn’t very original. Most of the dialogue is nothing special either, but yet there is something about it that keeps me from not liking it.
I will say that this game has a decent amount of something that I love very much in a video game. People acknowledging your heroic deeds that you have done. One place is even so grateful that they erect a statue in your likeness. At one point in the game you will get to a place where the hero alone is the only one who can go in a place and rescue someone. This was always one of my favorite spots in the game, and it still is even today.

Graphics:8 The graphics really look no different than when the game was on the SNES. With the exception of the cut scenes being changed a bit. But they're still adequate for the GBA.

Sound:8 The sound for the most part is unchanged. But I must admit that I am a bit angry about one of the tunes because it sounds almost nothing like it originally did.
My personal favorite tunes have always been the 1st and 2nd world map themes.

Difficulty:8 As I said before in the gameplay section this game is fairly difficult even after the first time through. While it probably wont be as hard for RPG veterans, RPG newbie’s should have a fair challenge.

Replay:5 There is really no reason at all to play through this game more than once, but chances are that I will probably play through it again eventually.

Rent or Buy: I recommend that you rent it first if you’ve never played it before. You could even possibly beat it in 5 day rental if you played it enough. I was able to beat it within 4 days of renting it when I first beat it on the SNES. But if you're at all like me, then you should buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/02, Updated 11/10/03