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| Released in North America on August 10, 1994 and translated by Square Soft, and developed by Capcom, Breath of Fire fears traditional JRPG action |
I spent much of my early 00s college video gaming on the SNES, rediscovering my love for the system with a Dreamcast and a GameCube sometimes gathering dust on my shelf, and PS2 tearing up the sales chart. A good friend saw this and gave me a stack of his SNES games from storage, one of which was 1994's Breath of Fire, his name written on the cartridge in magic marker. I don't know why, but I kept that cartridge in a drawer for over 20 years and randomly decided to suddenly pull it out and play through the game in its entirety, just a couple of months ago. Should I have just kept Breath of Fire in the drawer?
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| Font of Fire |
Some 90's RPG's have simple storylines, but many do not, and Breath of Fire falls in the latter category. In fact, it's probably easier if I just quote the back of the box: In a distant land, peace was maintained for thousands of years by a fearful dragon clan who could transform into powerful monsters. One day they discovered a goddess who could fulfill their every wish. Greed split the clan into dark and light dragons, each battling the other to win her magic. One member of the light dragons, along with seven of his companions, emerged to keep the opposing forces from destroying the world. Using six magical keys, they sealed the goddess into another realm. Centuries have passed. The dark dragons are destroying the land in search of the keys. When they find the keys, they will once again release the magic goddess. Light Dragon -- the time has come to draw your sword and fight for the future of your people.
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| Uh...I don't know? |
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| Deep thoughts, brought to you by Capcom and Square Soft |
Obviously, you, the player, are that Light Dragon, Ryu. You've got to travel around the world, according to the above plot, while encountering, what do you know(!) seven companions from the land's diverse races of animal-like people, forming a party as you engage in turn-based battles to proceed through the plot and level up your characters. And what I found, early on, that holds true throughout the game, is that just about every aspect of Breath of Fire is very good.
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| Look, a very good view! |
The graphics aren't quite elite, but the game looks great. The sprite-work and animations are very good, and the environments and backgrounds are...very good. There are certain expected standards when it comes to SNES RPG's and Breath of Fire meets them. There are even some cool touches, like special animations when Ryu starts to learn the bigger dragon evolutions. The character design is fun and memorable. All eight of the main party members are highly distinct, original, and charming. Again, overall aesthetics and aspects like the magic attack effects don't stun, but Breath of Fire does certainly get the job done.
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| RAWR |
Likewise, the music doesn't reach the upper echelon of Super Nintendo RPG's, but it's still very good. It's like a lot of Capcom music from the SNES era: good, though not highly memorable, though perhaps a bit more memorable than some of Capcom's other work from this period. The overworld music in particular sticks, and has a nice autumnal flair, as does the overall game in general. The battle theme and the music for a few of the dungeons are also quite good. The sounds effects, meanwhile, get the job done.
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| Bout to "get the job done" against this crab |
The gameplay also falls in with the "very good," not quite upper echelon standard. In that regard then, the pros far outweigh the cons. Breath of Fire's world is huge and fun to explore. Visiting new towns and discovering the diverse races of intelligent creatures who live across thiis world is also fun. Each of the seven new party members Ryu gradually meets and wins to his cause throughout the game are fun additions. Some new members are better physical fighters, some are better with magic attacks, some are better healers. The fighting engine here is finely tuned and feels right. There's nothing highly complicated. The player either physically attacks, uses magic (also sometimes to attack), or uses an item. There aren't any cool combo moves the characters can do together--the fighting engine is fine-tuned, but rudimentary--however, there are some cool twists late in the game. For instance, Ryu learns different dragon transformations, allowing him to turn into that corresponding dragon, and perform its distinct attack for every turn until the fight is over (unless the player chooses to revert back to human form). One of the later party members can find and learn magic, which combines them with other party members in a fight or even out of one, creating one super-character in order to perform more powerful physical attacks. Again, this doesn't lead to combos--your characters just permanently meld into one (until the player chooses to revert), and can perform a stronger physical attack during fights.
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| "Fuse" lets you use everyone in one fight, but the little mole guy. Sorry, little mole guy. |
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| WarHog, I got a feeling your whole family is going down |
Those are some pros. There are some cons here, as well. The first are the dreaded RPG random battles, meaning that while the player is walking around on the overworld or in a dungeon, the screen will suddenly randomly go to a battle screen, and the player will be forced to fight. In Breath of Fire, random battles happen a lot...far too often. I unintentionally grinded so much due to the frequent random battles and leveled up so much (as in most traditional RPG's, the player gains experience points from winning battles, and levels up after gaining so many points, becoming stronger, getting more hit points, etc., the more leveling up is done), I rarely if ever struggled in any fight, even in the vast majority of the game's boss battles. I only died once, and that was my fault for multi-tasking during one boss fight and not paying total attention. An overabundance of random battles is certainly a feature of many RPG's from this period, but the best found ways around that, and unfortunately, Breath of Fire, for as good as it is, just isn't one of the best.
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| Pictured: the game, striking me with lightning for saying that |
Breath of Fire's other major con is the sometimes opaque nature of its story progression. Sometimes, it's nearly impossible to tell what is supposed to be done next. A guide is almost a necessity. Likewise, a lot of the game's extra content, like finding special armor and weapons, is absolutely esoteric. I'm not sure how the player is supposed to figure out some of these things without help, and on top of that, the random battles make exploring to find secrets a bit of a chore. This confluence of cons is the game's worst factor.
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| Like being stuck in a random battle cave! |
Thankfully, Breath of Fire contains enough extra touches of excellence to even out the cons and keep the game in "very good" territory. Like many games from this era that contain too many random battles (and some that don't), the player eventually learns a way to both fast travel (through warping) and quickly travel across the map (one of the characters learns to turn into a giant bird (SIDENOTE: Almost every character learns a special ability, like digging, or lock-breaking)). This makes exploring the map a lot more enjoyable. The time of day changes when the player is traversing the overworld, and this changes the goings on in towns (at night, people are sleeping). The side-quests, if the player can figure them out, are pretty fun. Each town in the game is well-designed and distinct, and the game features several of the SNES' common visual landmarks, like the SNES waterfall, as well as the SNES view from a high place (when the player reaches a mountaintop or cliffside and can see off in the background) and does them well. One of Breath of Fire's side-quests even involves that most pastoral of 90s video game side-quests, fishing. It's very good fun.
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| It is fun to fly around this giant map as a bird, high, where no random battle can hurt you |
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| Dopamine doesn't get much higher than fishing in a duck pond at sunset near a waterfall in a SNES game! |
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| Unless it is literally going under that waterfall to a secret passage at sunset! |
There's nothing like a SNES RPG. I think a particular SNES RPG is the greatest video game ever made. I don't think 1994's Breath of Fire is the greatest video game ever made, but it is a very good, very fun entry in the SNES RPG canon, and I am very happy that I've played through it, even if the random battles and winding story stretched the gameplay out to nearly 100 hours. If you ask me, that's a bit too long. Then again, for others, it won't be long enough.
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| I didn't know if I would survive long enough in real life for us to beat them...but I did!!! |
Graphics: 8.0/10.0
Sound: 8.0/10.0
Gameplay: 8.0/10.0
Lasting Value: 8.0/10.0
Overall: 8.0/10.0
