Breath of Fire II

"Why they re-released this god awful game on the GBA is beyond me."

Seriously folks...BoFII is by far the worst game in the series (and almost ever to exist). Save your money and buy something else.

Story: 6/10
Ryu is a ranger with a mysterious past. Together with his friend Bow, they get mixed up in a certain turn of events that reveals the truth about the world, Ryu, and a church called St. Eva. Along the way, they meet unique characters that help them along in their quest.

There is a nice twist in the game, but Capcom never ceases to amaze me when they translate stuff. This game has some of the worst translating ever. I would've thought that they'd learn from the SNES version...but I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. What I also don't like about the story is how the ''big scary demons'' talk their talk. For example, one boss said something along the lines of, ''I will rip your flesh from your bones.'' Seriously...they're freaking 2D sprites! What flesh and bones!?

Gameplay, Field: 5/10
Playing on the field is pretty much like the first BoF. The menus are very easy to learn, and there is a monster meter at the top of the screen telling you if monsters are active. It's all pretty basic. One neat thing is that you can build your own town and select who you want to enter it. Some guys open weapon shops, others paint your houses...it's pretty innovative. Now for the bad parts:

First off, there are so many items that are abbreviated it'll make your head spin. Here is an example: ''Whtfrt.'' What the hell is that?! Another thing is that sometimes you have to put in party members if you want to make it across a certain obstacle. For instance, if you have to cross a large gap, you need to put in Sten. But...Sten sucks...and if you have him in, he'll just get killed eventually. Also, the fishing mini-game has been humiliated and reduced to the ''Watch as Ryu's Fishing Poll Constantly Breaks'' mini-game. Did I mention that there are very few fishing polls? Oh yeah...that's always fun. Overall, this part of the game is full of bad.

Gameplay, Battles: 2/10
Battles wouldn't be so bad if you didn't get into them EVERY THREE STEPS YOU TAKE!!! And that's just the start of it. Just like the first BoF, you have four people in a party at a time. But, this time you can't change your party members in and out! Geez...Capcom takes out the GOOD things from a potentially GOOD battle system. Anyway, each character has their own special skill. While this may sound good, it's actually pretty worthless. For instance, Katt has the Dare ability. What does it do? It makes all the enemies focus on her. This wouldn't be so bad if she didn't have lousy defense. Some of the skills are good, but most are just worthless. You usually fight monsters that have the weirdest designs. While some are very unique, most of them are just an odd mixture of shapes. Also, your party gets a shared amount of experience...so leveling up is not fun in the slightest. Oh, and you WILL have to level up. And don't even get me started on what they did to the Dragon Transformations.

Gameplay, Characters: 4/10
Alright, now there are NO HUMANS that join you in this game. The only one close to a human is Nina, and she has wings. While the characters develop somewhat well overtime and have their own little side quests, they are just all so annoying! You have a pathetic monkey, a French speaking frog, an oversized armadillo, and Bow who looks like a beagle. What the hell is up with this?! If they want to use anthro characters, at least make them look cool! If they didn't look like such crap, this score would've been higher.

Graphics: 8/10
This is probably the only good part of the game. The spells are very dazzling, even though there are only about 20 of them. The dragons also look awesome, but you're going to want to use those only when you have full MP. The fields and dungeons are designed somewhat nice with plenty of color. The characters are also designed well, and look even better in battle. But we forget...most of them suck so even if they look nice, they're still bad.

Music and Sound: 2/10
My god...this is just awful! You will hear the tracks repeat over and over and over again! This wouldn't be so bad if they didn't suck so badly. I swear, after about three seconds of hearing that dungeon music, I was ready to scream ''SHUT UP!'' There are a few nice tracks, but overall the music just sucks.

The sounds in the game are fine, but you won't notice them. Because of the music, you'll probably hit the mute button and not here the sounds as a result.

Replay Value: 0/10
There are no extras in this game, so why would anyone want to play it again? For the great story? For the great characters? Hmm...nope.

Difficulty: Annoying
Usually, I rate difficulty as easy, medium, hard...stuff like that. But this game's difficulty is just annoying. Some of the dungeons just go on and on. The monsters will almost always strike first in battle. As I mentioned, you'll have to level up if you want to survive this game, but it'll be more of a chore than a fun way to pass the time.

Buy or Rent: Neither
Don't touch this game. It may have a pretty looking box, but don't go near it. BoFII games have a tendency to lure unsuspecting customers to RPG demise.

So yeah, this game is just the worst. Breath of Fire 1, 3, and 4 are all fun, but this is just the ugly duckling of the bunch minus turning into the swan. Looking for a GBA RPG? Don't get this, get something else instead.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/03, Updated 07/11/03