Breath of Fire II

"An old RPG that still retains the fresh charms from the SNES days"

Breath of Fire II is the game that vastly improves upon the original game and adding elements that are to become consistent with the series. The story begins with Ryu, a young boy from Gate who undergoes an strange experience that results in him being a villager to someone who is a stranger to the people.

Gameplay
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For me, I feel that this is the Breath of Fire game that helps solidify the series and how the game develops in the future. The general battle system remains intact from the first game with the usual options of Fight/spells/items and so on, but with the added variation of being able to unite characters with shamens to enhance your characters. This is another feature that is to become unique to the Breath of Fire games.

Characterization has for the most case, improved with each character imbued with individual personalities that sets them apart from one another. For example, the character Katt is a feisty...well, cat-girl who is more than willing to smack any guy who is too upfront with her.

In this game, one of the sidequests is that of building your own town and finding a variety of different people to inhabit your town. This feature is great because it allows you to experiment with how you want to develop your town. This feature is to be kept for the later games where you help build fairy villages. Also with the dash option, it definitely makes the game faster-paced (for you) than the slow plodding of the original SNES version. The in-game save option which allows you to save at any point and to switch off your Gameboy makes it all the more convenient for you whenever you feel the need to stop playing but you're far from the dragon statue to save.

If there are any negative things to say about the gameplay is that the encounter rate is still as high as ever and the translation could have done with some brushing up. (Remember the awful translation in the first game!)

Music
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The music in the game generally fits the mood of the atmosphere of the situation and the action. The battle music has a nifty beat to it that doesn't become annoying after fighting your many, many battles in the game. The sound effects are decent and varied but nothing spectacular.

Graphics
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The graphics in the game resembles the original SNES version with some slight variations. As I always emphasize, don't let the graphics cloud your decision to buy a game or not. Breath of Fire 2 as a game that comes from the SNES era does not have great graphics as are normal for games of today's generation but are very decent all the same and are very easy on the eye.

Overall
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This is an excellent RPG that really paves the way for the Breath of Fire brand to be a special and unique series in its own right. A big improvement over the original shows that Capcom really do care about this series. It is a game that is worth investing your cash on and alongside with the original Breath of Fire and Golden Sun, you can be sure that you have a very healthy selection of RPGs for the Gameboy Advance. Have fun!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/02, Updated 10/07/02