Breath of Fire

This is a game that performs well in all categories but doesn't exceed in any of them. It's been outshined overtime for that very reason, which I find to be tragic. Breath of Fire isn't really special but it's so well done that it deserves to be remembered.

The combat system is more or less typical of the genre, but I found it to be fun. The transformations you can use in combat were probably the highlight to me - it added a bit of depth and was a nice option to have. There's nothing too complicated, though - it's mostly typical RPG fare. You do get a wide variety of party members with different abilities to pick from, which I appreciated.

Capcom typically shines in terms of graphics and music, and that's true here as well. In particular I like how color is used. The entire game is very vibrant and it makes the game an absolute treat to look at. There's some nice tunes in the soundtrack as well.

There's some annoyances in here as well. The random encounter rate is offensively high, even for the era, and the menu interface isn't the most elegant in the world. The story does send you to compelling locations and introduces you to fascinating characters but it's overlong and over-complicated. The narrative is built on a lot of minutia that's hard to follow and that isn't very compelling. I remember where this story took me, but not why I was supposed to go there - the actual plot points didn't really make an impact on me.

Most of the problems that Breath of Fire has are ones you'd find in other RPGs from that time in spades. Conversly, the strong points of this game aren't that it has some unique twist but that it simply performs well on the fundementals. These are the reasons that Breath of FIre blends in to the crowd, but they're also what I like about the game. I'd say Breath of Fire is almost the quintessential JRPG. It's a really strong and quality example of what the genre is. It's not going to present anything new to long-time RPG fans but that doesn't diminish it's quality any. If you're new to the genre or just want a fun game to play, Breath of Fire is a pretty solid option.

Breath of Fire was as stereotyped a JRPG can get, continuing the tradition of awfully slow combat and vague progression. However, the game offers a few meaningful ideas: Its transformations at least changes combat slightly, and the field skills unique to each playable character separates its world map progression from other games. Despite the middling world map sprites, the combat visuals are a step above the norm.

+ BGM is delightful, even filtered through the GBA MIDI decay.
+ surprisingly interactive overworld
+ sense of adventure
+ colorful and imaginative character design

+/- Characters have unique roles, which is pleasant, but some are substantially more useful than others.
+/- Enemy designs range from garden-variety to Lovecraftian. While the common enemies are pretty generic, some of the end game bosses are truly unnerving. Shout out in particular to Mote, whose design is cemented upon increasing/decreasing pixelization dependant upon the type of damage received. That was creative.
+/- Transformations are conceptually cool, but mechanically add very little.

- OK story utterly ruined by a pallid, lifeless script. The script is so poor it largely ruined the game for me. The original Dragon Warrior (NES) has a better script and by a huge margin, come on.
- characters are largely blank slates with very little diverging personality
- run-of-the-mill gameplay without any real substance; pales in comparison to even its SNES contemporaries
- despite the unique character roles, virtually every battle plays the same. Strategy is minimal even in the most difficult fights.
- absolutely brutal encounter rate that makes exploration and dungeons a real chore. I abused the hell out of the Marbl3 item just to make it tolerable, and that's just poor game design. Random battles are already a dated concept, but BoF's frequency is just ridiculous.

The terrible script and asinine encounter rate essentially killed the game for me. I pushed through to the end because I want to play the better received BoF games, and consensus dictates they get progressively better, but I really wanted to drop it many times.