Breath of Fire

"Foray into the Dragon"

Breath of Fire the game that started the series the game that has had most of it's fans wondering if there will be a true true prequel to the game. Well with all tense and purposes Breath of Fire 1 is the beginning of the story about the dragon clan even though it foreshadows of a prior battle. Onward and upwards.

Story/Plot: The story was excellent outstanding so outstanding that 2 years later square did a spoof on this story and came up with Final Fantasy VI/III. Of course that's my opinion on it all. The differences between the returners and dragon clan is few. and Gestahl and Zog were played up as the bad guys but really weren't to evil. I gives this story 97/100

Battle System: I really enjoyed the battle system on the snes version more, really all we have here is an updated BoFII battle system Capcom should of went back to the symbolized Battle system of the Original SNES as even though at first i preferred BoFII's battle system and at first glance hated BoF1's (I played BoFII first) But then after placing 20+ hours into BoF1 I grew attached to it's battle system, and am disappointed it did not return in original fashion.
6/10

Music Score: I have always loved most of the music in BoF games and I have to say I love the music in this game especially the new music played on the title screen and the new music in the introduction. Besides that it's the same old soundtrack of the original which had a great soundtrack.
10/10

Replayability: Replay is low in BoF but for some fun you can trade items with friends and even receive some special items through the trading sequence but otherwise not much to do except for relive the excellent story over again.
6/10

Magic System: There's a few different types of magic here Dragon Magic which is learned through the Dragon Shrines. Fusion Magic which is learned from Ancient Thieves and normal magic which the other characters learn through level-up (Ryu learns through dragon shrines and Karn learns through the master thieves)
*Personal Note* I believe Karn's fusion spells were the best fusion system in the BoF games with the shamans coming a close second *End Personal Note*
12/10

Difficulty: This remake was alot easier than the original bosses no longer seemed like they would last forever after catching a 2nd wind, however some were a pain yet but not even near as bad as the SNES version.
6/10 as opposed to */10 of the SNES version

Graphics/Appearance/Presentation: The graphics are vastly improved over the snes version with all new character portraits which some look better and some like Karn look closer to how they originally did in the Japanese version of BoF. It was nice to see new portraits of the characters very nicely drawn to.
8/10

Disappointments: That we still get the same lame Tim Woolsey translation that even though better than most of his works left mistranslations and conceptions to come for the future BoF games infact Tyr/Miria/Myria, also you can tell Capcom must of forgot how Myria's name was translated themselves as in the instruction booklet they translate it as Milia with so much confusion I will never try to piece the BoF's actual storyline together.

Improvements: The run button and auto run feature were excellent additions, being able to see how much experience needed to the next level could be an improvement to the curious players wanting to level build.

Overall: 80/100
Breath of Fire Reprise was fun but it would of been cool if Capcom would of did a retranslation and also added a bonus dungeon like Enix did with their remakes of the various Dragon Warriors.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/02, Updated 11/15/02