Breath of Fire

"A great, but underrated rpg."

Breath of fire (BoF) was originally one of the many rpgs on the Super Nintendo. But now Capcom has ported it over to the GBA which is a very good thing. In my opinion, a good rpg was something the GBA needed in order to improve its at the time rather limited game-library. But being a port, and released about the same time as long awaited Golden Sun it was unfortunately overlooked by the gaming crowd. But the people who bought it got a huge and engrossing quest to enjoy. While not as spectacular visually or sound-wise as Golden Sun, it is in several ways even better than Camelot’s finest.

Graphics: Not the best on the GBA, but it does the job. The landscapes are pretty sparse though, and the spells are primitive and simple looking. But the characters look good, so do the towns you’re visiting and you never get the feeling that it could be done on the GBC. Neat effects like sunsets and sunrises plus great-looking monsters and bosses make the overall impression of the graphics good.
8.0

Sound/Music: BoF has taken quite a beating for its sound which I can’t understand. It is much better in that area than many other games on the system (Rayman Advance sounded like a GBC game). The music is really great, sometimes strong and epic, other times dreamy and mysterious.
The music really enhances the experience of the game and helps you get in the mood for the adventure. The sound-effects are nothing to write home about, only functional, nothing more. But in the end, what can you expect from a handheld?
8.5

Story: A good story is more important in an rpg than in any other kind of game and that’s a fact. BoF’s story is not an amazing masterpiece, but it is better than the one in Golden Sun and includes several interesting plot-twists. It never gets predictable, but manages to keep you interested thorough. I’m not going to try to explain the story because I might do a lousy job and the persons reading this would think the story stinks and avoid the game because of that. But it really is truly a good story this game got.
8.5

Gameplay: The best part of the game. Travel from town to town, solve puzzles and battle monsters. You start with one guy and end up with a party of eight persons of different species. There are surprises at every turn so you’re never sure of what will happen next. Cool features like a night and day system is here and nicely integrated into the game. The difficulty level is medium, with some though bosses(one that took me 20 minutes to beat) and interesting puzzles. Most rpgs use the turn based battle system which in all honesty is getting a bit outdated, but BoF’s battles can actually be pretty entertaining all in all. The ability to chose auto-attack to make you characters continually attack is a neat little feature to. But there is one thing in here I hate, namely the random battles. A normal fight lasts about half a minute, which isn’t to bad. But when you’re attacked every five seconds or so, you start going a bit Mike Tyson . But that is about the only flaw in the gameplay that feels fresh, exciting and involving.
9.0

Lastability/Replayability: The game is really huge, about 40 hours long, which is a lot more than Golden Sun (20-25 hours). But unlike that game, you’re not likely to come back to start a new game once it’s finished because of the sheer size of it, and the frustrating random battles. But you’re still going to try to level up your party members and getting secret items though, which makes sure the game gets a good score here.
8.5

Pros and Cons

+
Pretty good graphics
Great music and acceptable sound-effects
Interesting story with surprising twist's
Okay battle-system
The gameplay makes you want to keep on playing
A night and day system included
Takes a long time to finish

-
Very inferior to Golden Sun technically
Extremely frustrating random-battles

To rent or buy?

Definitely a game you should buy unless you hate rpgs with passion. It is one of my favorite games on the GBA, only surpassed by Golden Sun and Yoshi's Island. A wonderful game that give you great memories and that deserves to be in your collection.

Overall: 9/10 (This is not an overall of the scores, it is what I think it deserves)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/03/02, Updated 03/27/03