When I first got this game, I was kind of curious as to how it would play out, considering that Breath of Fire 2, despite it's annoying-as-hell puzzle-like side-quests, played pretty awesomely as an RPG. Well, play-style in-game is quite similar to the sequel (obviously), so I thought "what the hell". It was only $10 when I got it (pre-played, of course), so yeah, what the fuck, right?

Graphically, the game was dark and moody, which was very fitting atmospherically. It also featured a time system, which I quite appreciated. It did not, of course, impact the gameplay like Aidyn Chronicles' does for the N64 (which I'll go into more in-depth when I review Aidyn Chronicles: First Mage, don't you worry), but it does add a touch more atmosphere. Capcom did an excellent job there.

"Capcom?!" you cry? Yes, it was Capcom that developed the game, but Squaresoft bought it out from under them to save their asses over a certain shyte-game called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest…man did that game ever pull a Lewinsky…Anyway, it was obviously a very wise move to buy BoF.

The characters are also all very unique, unlike many RPGs at that time (in FF3/6, ALL of the characters could fight without magic quite well, and despite that most characters had one special ability, it really didn't set the characters apart from each other very far besides Gau, Umaro, and the copy-attack dude.) for the SNES. Of course, that might also have to do with that by the time BoF came out (I think it was 1994 or 1995), most RPGs were single-character based, not party-based, so there was little necessity for individual characters with their own thing. The main character uses swords (the weapon system for BoF is more or less the exact same system that FF7 would use) and dragon magic, there are characters that have very limited magic abilities, as well as other abilities, such as shape-shifting, flight, and wickedly powerful black magic…if only I could remember the spells…meh, I always use lightning spells anyway…

The world, although not as diverse at it could be in some areas and more diverse than others (no mountain climbing, but there is some undersea adventuring), was enormous, which was part of the reason the game took no less than 30 hours to beat (keep dreaming, you won't do it buddy). The other reason was that your enemies could take a good hit, and the bosses could take so much damage they're sometimes almost god-like (the last boss of the game takes at least 45 minutes to beat, and that's if you're using Agni dragon magic. Without Agni, it's closer to 90 to 110 minutes). Kind of like that last boss, that actually happens to be god…goddess to be precise. Can't have those feminist gamers bitching me out, can I?

The only negative that I can say about this game is that it can really drag on if you don't know what to do next (which also adds to the length of the game), but at least you'll get into some huge fights and do a lot of necessary leveling up (and you will need to do a lot of that). A lot of the quests are actually easy, so you really don't need to do as much thinking as needing to wander around, kick some ass, get some gold, and level up (which will, by the time you hit level 40, take a very long time to do. Trust me on that. Actually, there is one other annoyance that I can remember: You can't see when your next level up is. You only know how many experience points you've got in total. I found that to be a real pain in the ass.

Meh. Anyway, other than that, the game is virtually bug free…well, except for my friend Dave getting so addicted to it I bought him his own copy of it for his 16^th birthday. He had me owned for levels, too…but I beat the game at a lower level than he did, so I'm better…hell, I almost beat FF1 at level 20…Anyway, if you want a very solid RPG with an excellent story that'll actually last you besides one of the Final Fantasy series other than that utter piece of shit Mystic Queer, this game is it.

NWC