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Capcom Breath of fire series worth playing? (1-4)

Filthy Sauce

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 26, 2016
Messages
614
I finally got around to getting a PS1 emulator to work on my computer for the main purpose of trying out the saga frontier games. I also checked out other.... 'RPGs' for the system, and breath of fire 4 seemed to come up on lists.

I have never played any of the BoF games as I never owned a SNES or PS1, but when I was a kid, I saw many ads for BoF1 which made it seem hardcore and bad ass. Anyone play the classic series (1-4)? Are they worth playing? Are they hardcore shit? I have nothing really against JRPGs if they have challenge.
 

MRY

Wormwood Studios
Developer
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
5,703
Location
California
I was mixed on BoF1 but liked BoF2 -- great graphics (with distinctive party member sprites), some interesting field powers for party members, and a better frog knight than Chrono Trigger!

46-Breath_of_Fire_II_(USA)038.png
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,306
I don't know how I would feel about it now but I have very fond memories of playing BoF 2 as a kid on SNES I borrowed from a friend. I even liked the fishing minigame.
 

Lahey

Laheyist
Patron
Joined
Jun 10, 2017
Messages
1,467
Grab the Codex by the pussy
I never played 1 or 2, but 3 and 4 were decent traditional jrpg fare with interesting hooks and twists. That era had stiff competition so idk if they'd make my top 10 list, but they're certainly worth playing if you like the genre.
 

Cromwell

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
5,443
There also is a fan retranslation of BoF 2 since the original translation was rather bad. I cant say if the new one is better though.
 
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
1,875,970
Location
Glass Fields, Ruins of Old Iran
"Rather bad" is an understatement, it's legendary in its badness. Though the horny witch Nympho becoming Nimufu might have been cenrsorship. The gameboy advance remake didn't change anything text-related, Capcom gives no shits.

The series tend to have some pacing issues but is generally fun. 3 and 4 are decent but a bit heavier on the anime tropes, if that bothers you. (BoF 2's "the church is actually evil" plot wasn't so overused at the time)
 

Hyperion

Arcane
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
2,120
BoF1 was great until about the halfway point. Bosses could be pretty challenging, as they all had a Second Wind mechanic. When their health bar reached 0, they would react differently, some would "start crying," others would "get up" or "get angry," and essentially have a second, invisible health bar. This also changed their AI, some of which would become very aggressive and get a stat boost. Early on, this could create some hairy situations. Unfortunately later on you got the big Dragon Transformation spells for Ryu, and Karn's combination spells, and both become walking death machines for very little cost.

Boss fights were still pretty long, and essentially amounted to using those spells, buffing the two of them and keeping the party topped off. Rather similar to some of the latter boss fights of Dragon Quest (Warrior) 8 in regards to the rote actions for pretty lengthy fights.

Still a pretty good game, and worth playing. BoF2 tried to fix the Dragon problem by making them single cast nukes, but they were still insanely powerful, and most characters were buffed up a bit compared to the first. As mentioned, the translation was absolute dogshit. I played the fan translation, and while it was an improvement it didn't help the story too much.

The first 15 hours of BoF3 pissed me right the fuck off, since you play as child Ryu who is a complete and utter pussy. The introduction of Masters for character customization was pretty good, but if you gained levels without one, your inner min/max autist may go a little haywire.

I didn't play BoF4, but my father did. He loved the original BoF and was a bit disappointed by it. All I got.
 
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Randomguy

Barely Literate
Joined
Mar 8, 2018
Messages
2
BoF1 was great until about the halfway point. Bosses could be pretty challenging, as they all had a Second Wind mechanic. When their health bar reached 0, they would react differently, some would "start crying," others would "get up" or "get angry," and essentially have a second, invisible health bar. This also changed their AI, some of which would become very aggressive and get a stat boost. Early on, this could create some hairy situations. Unfortunately later on you got the big Dragon Transformation spells for Ryu, and Karn's combination spells, and both become walking death machines for very little cost.

Boss fights were still pretty long, and essentially amounted to using those spells, buffing the two of them and keeping the party topped off. Rather similar to some of the latter boss fights of Dragon Quest (Warrior) 8 in regards to the rote actions for pretty lengthy fights.

Still a pretty good game, and worth playing. BoF2 tried to fix the Dragon problem by making them single cast nukes, but they were still insanely powerful, and most characters were buffed up a bit compared to the first. As mentioned, the translation was absolute dogshit. I played the fan translation, and while it was an improvement it didn't help the story too much.

The first 15 hours of BoF3 pissed me right the fuck off, since you play as child Ryu who is a complete and utter pussy. The introduction of Masters for character customization was pretty good, but if you gained levels without one, your inner min/max autist may go a little haywire.

I didn't play BoF4, but my father did. He loved the original BoF and was a bit disappointed by it. All I got.
I'm sorry but I'll agree up to the breath of fire 3 part, first off, he's basically a dragon orphan in need of a home so how is he a pussy? Breath of fire 3 is either the second best to third in the series man. If you think because that they show emotion, then that's really stupid
 

Randomguy

Barely Literate
Joined
Mar 8, 2018
Messages
2
I was mixed on BoF1 but liked BoF2 -- great graphics (with distinctive party member sprites), some interesting field powers for party members, and a better frog knight than Chrono Trigger!

46-Breath_of_Fire_II_(USA)038.png
I'm sorry, but repeat isn't as badass as frog until he unlocks his shaman form Tepeta.
 
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index.php

Arcane
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
875
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6413/

Identify is an ability in Breath of Fire IV which gives more information about an enemy during combat.

In both NA and EU releases of Breath of Fire IV, the Identify ability was cut out due to issues when translating the elemental resistances in English.

This hack gives the ability back to Scias. The hack uses icons of the elements instead of English text to indicate the element resistances, hence avoiding the issue of needing to translate the elements’ names.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
I've only played the first two games, but both are hampered hugely by a combination of excessive random battles and pretty crap combat.

The second one is a far better game all round, with some good moments and great presentation, but combat boils down to luck to much. I've sat there and run through the same battles with save states making the same decisions each time, and it's gone from being a clear, near-perfect win to a game-over and everything in-between with the same decisions made. It's just bad.

And the fact that they actually mixed up some of the C&C answer selections in the translation is very annoying. When I pick "yes" I mean "yes" not "no" or visa versa. It's not Dragon Age 2 FFS.

Want to try the 3rd though. The 2nd showed enough potential to snag me. It just wasn't much fun to actually play.
 

DJOGamer PT

Arcane
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
7,350
Location
Lusitânia
It's a very underrated series, worth playing as far as jRPG's are concerned

And by the way the 5th one, "Dragon Quarter" (for the PS2) is the best one in the series
So you shouldn't exclude it
 

Terra

Cipher
Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
896
It's a shame the fanbase had such a retarded reaction to Dragon Quarter, even if it was radically different, it was such a great experimental title that ended up killing the series. It wasn't even anything approaching a bad game though, just a challenging one. 3 & 4 are both great entries, too.

If Suikoden can live again in a spiritual successor as Eiyuden, BoF could probably succeed with another BoF3 styled entry, but I doubt Capcom has the faith in it or talent to pull it off after the most recent game to disgrace the series.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
I played BoF1 and BoF2 when I was a kid. BoF1 didnt particularly vibe with me, it felt very generic, and kinda furry. BoF 2 was a fair bit better. As Clockwork Knight said, "The Church is Evil" was a general surprise (maybe because I was 13) but...

that whole part about your little village taking up, and flying around was crazy amount of awesome, really

BoF3 and 4 didnt click for me.
 
Joined
Sep 1, 2020
Messages
979
4 had a very interesting combat system where you could chain combos between characters. Unfortunately the game is so easy that there's hardly any incentive to use it to its full potential (a general issue with JRPGs). I also liked the rather mature and melancholy story.

The earlier games didn't captivate me, as they seemed too typical of the genre. I didn't play them much.
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
Played 4 years ago and found it OK-ish, as far as typical jRPGs go.

Played 5 last year and was blown away - simple but great combat system / good atmosphere / gameplay. Highly recommended / I plan to re-play it (NG+) one day.
 

Zlaja

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,682
Location
Swedex
I played BOF 3 when I was a teen and really liked it. It both played and looked as a very traditional JRPG and I remember it having a lot of heart. Granted, I was more into JRPGs back then. I liked how you grew to learn to use dragon powers in combat with your main character. Also, one of the more memorable things I remember from the game is this onion-character called Peco. Thought he was adorable and I still remember him after all these years.

I regret selling my PSX copy of the game. If anything, it's worth a small fortune these days. :negative:
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,272
Location
Massachusettes
I played BoF1 on original SNES hardware but lost interest after an hour or two. I had just come from playing Zelda: Link to the Past and FFVI( (known as FFIII in the States) so it seemed quite a bit more simplistic than those games.
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
4,010
It's a shame the fanbase had such a retarded reaction to Dragon Quarter, even if it was radically different, it was such a great experimental title that ended up killing the series. It wasn't even anything approaching a bad game though, just a challenging one. 3 & 4 are both great entries, too.

If Suikoden can live again in a spiritual successor as Eiyuden, BoF could probably succeed with another BoF3 styled entry, but I doubt Capcom has the faith in it or talent to pull it off after the most recent game to disgrace the series.

I think the main Breath of Fire people still work at Capcom.

There are people that worked on that series as planners and combat designers (one of the directors of the RE3 remake is the combat planner on BoF3; looks like almost every planner listed for Dragon Quarter has a credit on a recent Resident Evil or Monster Hunter game) that are working on Capcom games. I remember hearing Makoto Ikehara helped on Dragon's Dogma at the beginning stages of that game. The character designer for 3 and onward has been freelance for a decade, but he (and Dragon's Dogma character designer Daigo Ikeno) also did character designs for 2019s DMC5.

If Capcom wanted, they could probably pretty easily put together a new Breath of Fire game.
 
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Mauman

Learned
Joined
Jun 30, 2021
Messages
906
BoF 3 had it's flaws....

But it doesn't matter because any game with Australian speaking dolphins can not be judged as anything less than a masterpiece.
 

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