Full Review

Strange things happen when you like RPGs as much as I do, I grew up with RPGs, they were like a babysitter that didn't charge an hourly rate. There is one thing that has to be said about RPGs though, they sure don't make em like they used to. I'm not saying modern RPGs aren't good, I mean Final Fantasy VII is my second favorite game of all time, they just feel different, I can't really describe it. I have often wished that I had picked up a lot of the classics that aren't available anymore, but that's where the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo's advanced handheld comes into play. Many game developers have found an easy way to make a buck or two, they simply bring their classic games from the Super Nintendo, and the Sega Genesis and simply port the game over to Nintendo's advancement in gaming. That's the main reason why I purchased the gameboy advance, for the classic RPGs, and the first classic RPG to be embraced by Nintendo's hot little handheld is Capcom's Breath of Fire game.

Breath of Fire was released on the Super Nintendo in the early 90s, it was a pretty long game and had pretty nice graphics for a game of it's time, Capcom thought it was so good that they even released 3 sequels, well so far. One of the first things you'll notice about this game is the bright colors Capcom used to detail the world with, especially the world map. The game's environments are lush, but the game's mood can change. The environments range from cheery green landscapes, to the serene underwater world. One thing is certain about this game, Capcom didn't fail to deliver an enjoyable role playing experience.

Breath of Fire is a turn based RPG, and is slightly reminiscent of the earlier Final Fantasy games. The battles in Breath of Fire (BoF for short) occur randomly, meaning that your party of characters wanders around and battles just pop up out of nowhere. This can become agitating sometimes, these battles often occur far too often, battles soon become long trials and lose their appeal. And what's a turn based RPG that has you actually dreading the next battle? It's something bad, I'll tell you that much.

BoF is a pretty nicely designed game, but next to something, like say Golden Sun, it doesn't look all that impressive. Sure, so maybe BoF doesn't use all those camera tricks like Golden Sun does, but BoF doesn't need to, it's main draw isn't it's graphics, but it's draw lies within the gameplay, just where it should. Prepare for a large journey with this game, as it will most likely take you much more than 25 hours to complete. It isn't the type of RPG that I could just sit down and play for hours upon hours though, especially on the GameBoy Advance screen, but BoF just feels so right on this handheld console.

Like a lot of RPGs from it's time, BoF allows you to traverse the land with not 1, not two, not even 3, but 4 characters in your party at once. This adds a layer of strategy to the battles, even with all those characters it's still hard to stay alive against some of the later monsters, so you have to plan your attacks out accordingly. Each character had his or her strong points, some may be better used for attacking, while others you might want to heal your party. Speaking of character's individual strengths, each character can learn magic, some magic is diverse to that particular person. A good example of this is with the main character named Ryu, he gains the ability in the game to morph into powerful dragons and attack the enemies, no other character has this unique ability. Character's usefulness isn't only limited to battles though, each character brings something unique to the party, this uniqueness is sometimes required to continue in the game. For example, the main character can fish outside of battle, while the character named Bo can use his bow and arrow to kill animals for food, and he can also travel through forests that no other character can pass. In order to use these special abilities of the characters you must select the person with the ability you want to use, and put them at the front of the group.

This game isn't only about the old tried and true stuff, there are a few slight additions that I haven't seen in many other RPGs. for one thing, you can hunt down animals for food on the world map, you can kill animals by either cornering them, or shooting them with a bow. Depending on what type of animal you kill, you will get different types of meat. This meats can be used as items to recover your hp, or even sold in the market. This can be very useful, if you're low on funds you can replenish your supply with this useful method of hunting, the only bad thing is that these animals only appear on the world map, so you won't be able to get meat whenever you will most likely need it, in the dungeons when you are far from any item shop.

In the beginning of the game you start out with only Ryu in your group, but you later acquire more characters to assist Ryu in his quest. The game begins when Ryu's hometown is aflame, he is awoken by a woman, and he escapes from the house in which he was sleeping. At first you don't have too good of an idea about what's happening, but it seems to make more sense as you progress in the game. The story isn't a breakthrough like, say... Final Fantasy VII, it's barely enough to keep your interest, but it isn't difficult to follow.

The game's interface is a bit of a problem, Capcom wasn't really thinking about how smooth the translation to English would turn out, so they left little room for English text in the text boxes. This isn't a huge problem though, but if you are planning on getting this game then expect quite a few abbreviations. I know that this isn't such a big deal, but it can get on the nerves of some, but it is still easy to tell what the word is supposed to be, so there shouldn't be any confusion.

The Battle System
BoF's battle system may have been a little innovative when the game first came out, but with the standards of today I must say that it can be a little boring. Veteran RPG players may feel a rush of nostalgia as the first battle in the game occurs, players are whisked away to another screen with an isometric view of the players, enemies, and some sort of a background. HP and MP data are shown in at the bottom of the screen, and as with most RPGs attacks are driven by the input of commands. You have a couple options when it comes to method of attack, you can cast a spell, attack or even use an item. Altogether the menus don't feel too clunky, but battles can become a bother due to all the random encounters you will experience.

Magic System
Typically RPGs allow the characters to use magic and other skills, well BoF is no different. Almost every character can use magic spells, they learn these spells by gaining levels, each spell has a required level for you to be at in order to gain the ability to use them at will. Spells consume power in the form of AP (Ability Points), but as with all RPGs this power can be replenished by staying at an Inn or using a special item. The magical spells are nothing much to look at in battle, BoF doesn't incorporate mode 7 graphics style to achieve those cool camera swirls that were present in Golden Sun, but some spells look fairly nice.

My Ratings

Graphics 7/10
In it's time, BoF had pretty good graphics, but they don't quite stand up to the standard set on the Gameboy Advance. This game is sprite based, and set on 2-Dimensional boards, I don't even think they use any mode 7, something that would have made this game look better. For a lot of people, graphics are very important, but BoF's graphics aren't actually that bad, they didn't change at all in the conversion to the GBA. Again, something you'll notice right away is that this is a pretty colorful game, this doesn't bug me at all, the colors help to set a particular mood. I especially think that some of the dungeons look nice, some areas of this game can be pretty detailed, but I do wish that Capcom had added a little extra to the game's presentation, but all in all the graphics are above average, and are pretty easy on the eyes.

The only character I particularly don't like is the leader of the group, Ryu. I don't know why, but he looks especially bad during battles, he may look cool on the cover of the game, but I really don't like him much. As a whole, the character designers did a good job, especially with the character named Nina, she's probably my favorite character in the game. The people you encounter throughout the land are typical unimportant characters, some of the designs were used over and over, which is typical of most 2-dimensional RPGs.

Textures and colors were done pretty nicely in BoF, everything is nicely textured and the colors help set the mood perfectly. The backdrops aren't too shabby either, the backdrops for the battle sequences change depending on the type of area you are in, if your in a cave then the battle will reflect that. BoF does contain cinemas that are a nice touch, they don't even come close to the quality of FMV, but they were pretty good for it's time, this is something that wasn't in Golden Sun, things like this make me glad that Capcom didn't change the game.

Story 6/10
I didn't really enjoy this game's story too much, it wasn't even all that great when it was released. A game's story has become pretty important in this day and age, players want adventure, but BoF fails to deliver most of the other things we all want. The storyline is simple enough to follow, and it feels a little like it was made with beginners in mind. The beginning of the game is the only part that should cause the slightest bit of confusion, it's typical in most RPGs to not let the player know what's happening at first, but to fill them in later. Predictably the story focuses around saving the world, something we're probably all familiar with.

Warning: This Paragraph May Contain Spoilers!
For thousands of years, the dragon tribe was supreme, but was very peaceful, they ruled the world with decency. The evil goddess Milia saw this, and worked to split the tribe into 2, and the two sides declared war on each other, and fought vigorously. The war looked as if it would last for centuries, but then a hero, and his seven companions began a quest, to kill Milia and restore peace. The heroes failed many times at destroying the goddess, but they finally managed to seal her away, where she could cause no more problems for the world. One of the tribes, the white dragon tribe has agreed to seal their power until the world is right again, but the black dragon tribe is a little reluctant. Could they possibly be up to something? Thus begins the saga of BoF

Control 9/10
If an RPG has bad control then it has a serious problem, especially if the only thing not driven by menus is walking around. The only real problem with this game is the fact that the GameBoy Advance has the smallest little directional pad I've ever seen, your thumb may get a little strained from hours of playtime. The directional pad is obviously the button you'll be using the most, and the directions are pretty self explanatory. It's really not that hard to memorize the controls, they could easily train monkeys to play this game if they wanted to. The menus are driven by use of the d-pad and the A and B buttons.

Sound 8/10
The music in BoF is pretty enjoyable, and it works perfectly to set the mood. The battle music is upbeat, and gives you a real feel for the game, but the boss music is downright great to listen to, I tend to get a little pumped while playing. The dungeon music is another favorite of mine, it takes a little strain away from getting lost. This is an instance where I would recommend headphones for this game, you could have the volume down to save batteries, but I think a couple batteries are well worth the cost of listening. The songs range from mediocre to great, the mediocre song being the music that plays when your characters are on the world map.

The sound effects aren't too shabby, even though the weapon effects don't sound how they should. At least they aren't as bad as those from Dragon Warrior VII. The sound effects aren't very special though, just something you would expect from a Super Nintendo game. Sound effects don't matter much though, chances are you'll be listening to the music, and won't be bugged by the slash of a sword, or the casting of a spell.

Fun Factor 8/10
Breath of Fire is a very fun game, but a lot of newcomers to the RPG genre probably wouldn't enjoy it much, they should just stick to Golden Sun. Capcom didn't try to make this game anything other than what it is, a port of an old Super Nintendo game, but this game does have a very nostalgic feel to it. I don't mind the story too much, but the random encounters can make this game just seem to drag on and on, thankfully there is an item in the game that makes you invulnerable to random encounters, and this item is fairly cheap in the shops. I can't of many other ways that I would rather spend 2 AA batteries on, so I recommend this game to you, even though its not for everyone.

Overall Score: 8.0