Snes - Breath of Fire Review

Overview

Produced by Capcom which brought you Megaman, Streetfighter and the Resident evil series. This game was produced in the early 90's but was not translated fully and released until 1994. Breath of Fire is a typical turn-base strategy dungeon game and some people (actually most) will be bored to death with today's modern fast-paced games. It is not all doom and gloom however so read on. If you were looking for a long classic RPG, look no furthur.

Gameplay & Interface 6/10

Gameplay is as I have mentioned frustrating. During battle, you decide what attacks each of your characters (you can only have four actively battling) should use and then they are executed. You do have some spells but they are quite typical. Fireball, icestorm, blast and lightning are some examples, nothing great about that. The interface is easy to use and consists of only several buttons with pictures on them rather than words which is a relief (especially if you compare it to Breath of Fire 2). I suppose 5.5 is somewhat harsh but gameplay is not Breath Of Fire's strong point.The "world" of Breath of Fire itself is quite big and you can visit just about everywhere which is pretty good, even under water!

On the overmap and in safe areas however you do have alot of control. You can swap characters around, fish and even hunt amongst other things. As for the interface during this phase of the game it is absolutely great! You can customise it so with an easy press of the button you are transported to what ever submenu or main menu you are looking for. It is laid out neatly and hardly difficult to manuever. Perhaps the only bad thing is that sometimes you forget which keys actually shortcut to which locations.

Storyline 2.5/5

The story line is by itself quite uncreative but what is really annoying is sometimes the game is cryptic about what is suppose to be done. For those interested, you are a member of the now tiny Light Dragons. It seems the Dark Dragons have come to power and now want to conquer the world and decide to crush your clan. To protect your people, your sister Sara, turns everyone in the village to stone and sacrifices herself as a result (do not despair, she will be back but you will not like her). You find out that the Dark Dragons really want the Goddess keys which will grant the owner a wish by the Goddess. In this case I suspect its suppose immortality or power. Whatever it was the bad guys never gets to wish his wish for he is eventually defeated by you. Anyway, you go around with vengence and justice on your side trying to stop the Dark Dragons. You meet people of course, some of them even join you. Eventually you get the power to turn into Dragons which I think is really, really cool, the thought of a towering reptilian figure fighting side by side the other characters really is uplifting. Besides that, you get to travel in a wide range of areas and fight many different enemies.

Graphics 5/5

I give the animation a five out of five because they are unparalled in detail as far as I know. Other games like Chronotrigger and Secret of Mana 2 look about the same but have larger pixels.The movement of the characters is very smooth but annoyingly slow. All the items and terrain look crisp and sharp and actually look like they go together and that is just the overmap. During combat the same applies, good graphics and very smooth animation. This is probably the highlight of the game and what really sets it apart from most games.

As for the character design I have to say very good, as you can hopefully see below the monsters like scary for most part and the dragons fiercesome!

Level design 2/5

Probably one of the more frustrating games. All you do is walk around the dungeons and fight monsters. There are some puzzles and treasure chests to relieve the bordem but you cannot deny the bore factor. Thankfully the good graphics and music make it slightly tolerable.

Music and Sound 4/5

The music for Breath Of Fire is on the whole quite good and one of the best around, right up there with Chronotrigger. The only bad thing is some of the songs harmonics are wrong and come out annoying than inspiring.

For: Awesome character and background graphics, huge world and ability to travel anywhere, great music, great interface.

Against: Boring dungeons, storyline not original, boring combat.