Board 8 > Breath of Fire I/II - worth playing?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It might have taken me around the same time. I started 12 days ago and probably invested 2-3 hours per day on average.

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I think the 3rd game is good, don't have much knowledge of 2 or 1

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Overrated and haven't aged well at all.

The first game is incredibly boilerplate and has very little to it, as others have mentioned--it was needlessly primitive compared to other JRPGs of the time that were pushing things farther. BoF2 is a bit more fun and nicer to look at, but the encounter rate is ridiculous and extremely unbalanced in certain areas. It also suffers from an infamously, hilariously bad translation that makes FF7's look like a masterpiece in comparison.

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To expand a bit - I don't think I would beaten this game without the Switch's ability to save state and rewind. I might have just quit outright the second or third time I'd have inevitably died in a dungeon. That's a stark contrast between CT and FFVI, both of which I tackled the old fashioned way (well, Wii Virtual Console, which I understand was identical to the SNES experience) and never thought of quitting. Especially CT, that game is timeless.

As for BoF1... it wasn't a bad experience, but there was tedium and at least some desire to just get it done with. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the information and progression was better conveyed. There were so many times where I had no idea where to go or what to do, such that about a third of the way through, I started keeping one eye on a walkthrough the whole time. Even when I was given some direction, progress was never smooth because I was lacking core tools that I take for granted (like a map with fucking words on it).

"The tool you need is in Agua."

"ok where's Agua, it's not a town that I can warp to and the world map has no labels on it"

It's honestly difficult to envision kids beating a game like this without a walkthrough 25 years ago. Savants.

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I actually decided to start playing through Dragon Warrior 1 yesterday...my original cart from the Nintendo Power giveaway...what...30 years ago now? I never played it long enough as a kid to get very far, but with the extra time nowadays, I finally decided to hunker down and try to beat it.

I played about an hour yesterday and got up to level 6. There is a grind...but having played many early-to-mid-2000s MMORPGs, this is nothing.

Strangely enough, my old battery in the cart still appears to work! I found two old saves on there from God knows when.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

It's honestly difficult to envision kids beating a game like this without a walkthrough 25 years ago. Savants.

Okay now try a text adventure

We brute forced it, thats how!
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

To expand a bit - I don't think I would beaten this game without the Switch's ability to save state and rewind. I might have just quit outright the second or third time I'd have inevitably died in a dungeon. That's a stark contrast between CT and FFVI, both of which I tackled the old fashioned way (well, Wii Virtual Console, which I understand was identical to the SNES experience) and never thought of quitting. Especially CT, that game is timeless.

As for BoF1... it wasn't a bad experience, but there was tedium and at least some desire to just get it done with. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the information and progression was better conveyed. There were so many times where I had no idea where to go or what to do, such that about a third of the way through, I started keeping one eye on a walkthrough the whole time. Even when I was given some direction, progress was never smooth because I was lacking core tools that I take for granted (like a map with fucking words on it).

"The tool you need is in Agua."

"ok where's Agua, it's not a town that I can warp to and the world map has no labels on it"

It's honestly difficult to envision kids beating a game like this without a walkthrough 25 years ago. Savants.

Wow I would never hold it against a game to not be a handholder, and it's not like BoF1 is particularly vague either. As I said before, BoF1 doesn't really excel at anything, but at the same time it doesn't fail at anything either, and there's more good than bad. An actual reason of it feeling possibly generic is that you always do what the game tells you and that's enough, no thinking out of the box which ould be the opposite of been vague, while the stats system does everything on autopilot.

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Someone mentioned phantasy Star in here. I tried playing Phantasy Star II about 8 to 10 years ago and it was so slow and directionless that I found it unplayable. How do Phantasy Star III and IV compare to II?

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Phantasy Star III is about the same as PSII. It was my first RPG but I can understand if people dont like to go back to these early JRPGs. Phantasy Star IV gives you directions for almost the whole game. I think theres one point where you have to sleep at an inn which isnt that obvious.

BTW how does the PsP version of BoF3 compare to the original?

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Phantasy Star II is indeed not good at this point. I'd say it's worse than Breath of Fire 1.

Phantasy Star III is probably less painful than II in that its (IIRC) less grindy and the dungeons less ridiculous but for good or ill Phantasy Star II's absurd dungeons at least make it stand out. Instead, Phantasy Star III is almost absurdly bland and unpolished. Don't play it.

Phantasy Star IV is great, would recommend. At this point, you'd be best off skipping I - III and going directly to IV. You'll miss some callbacks here and there but it's not really worth playing the earlier games so that you can spot them.

Breath of Fire III on PSP is near-identical to the PS1 version. There are some changes, they just don't really matter.

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Zylothewolf posted...

Phantasy Star III is about the same as PSII. It was my first RPG but I can understand if people dont like to go back to these early JRPGs. Phantasy Star IV gives you directions for almost the whole game. I think theres one point where you have to sleep at an inn which isnt that obvious.

BTW how does the PsP version of BoF3 compare to the original?

Thanks for the tips. I might just go back for that one.

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Only 3 and 4 are worth playing.

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MariaTaylor posted...

1 is really rough. it's very dated.

2 has some cool ideas but it can be a slog to play through. there's lots of issues with encounter rates and balancing, especially the further in you get.

I'd say to play 2 if you are actually ready to play a SNES RPG and not just look at it through nostalgia goggles. it's not something that a lot of people can handle when compared to the convenience and polish of modern games.

there's also a great patch that fixes a lot of translation issues. it's worth looking into this if you're going to play it.

Breath of Fire 2 was a hell of a fun time. When I played it back when it came out. I have no idea if it would hold up....

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cyko posted...

Someone mentioned phantasy Star in here. I tried playing Phantasy Star II about 8 to 10 years ago and it was so slow and directionless that I found it unplayable. How do Phantasy Star III and IV compare to II?

Personally I prefer 3... I liked the generational component. But again, I played it a hella long time ago...

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Phantasy Star I + II: Honestly they are pretty groundbreaking games that have unfortunately aged poorly. I still love both personally but I think Phantasy Star II probably one of the most difficult games to actually enjoy playing to completion within the category of games that have a lot of historical value to offer. Phantasy Star I can be a little easier to enjoy playing, but a walkthrough is damn near required because of how the plot progression makes no sense.

Phantasy Star III: Has a ton of good ideas and is honestly a master class in game development when you realize just how much information they managed to squeeze onto a fucking sega genesis cartridge. The execution leaves a lot to be desired, and the washed out color palette makes the game feel a bit 'sleepy.' The dungeons are easier to navigate than PSii but they aren't as memorable as a result. And the characters feel slightly less important and distinct because a lot of effort went into making a huge cast of multi-generational protags.

Phantasy Star IV: Already covered this one above but it's honestly a legendary game, and I legitimately do believe that it holds up even to the standard of today's games. I could compare this to any 'retro' indie RPG on steam and probably in almost every case I would choose to play Phantasy Star IV instead of the newer game.


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Breath of Fire actually doesn't game over when all your characters die, so rewinding might not have been as needed as you might think. It brings you to the last dragon statue, but if I remember right you keep all the experience/items you found (there might be a GP penalty).

I remember as a kid getting stuck in two places. The first was when they left you with just the fish character (Gobi?) to find some town. I died right away and it actually takes you to a dragon statue in the town, but I had no idea how to get back and spent an unusually long time trying to figure it out (I even went into the undersea volcano with just Gobi thinking I needed to).

The other place was when you temporarily lose Nina. You had to go hunt for certain items with very vague instructions and I remember being wandering around aimlessly for a week.

I have this distinct memory of the game being really really long and epic but I think that's just a kid's skewed perception of time (I was probably 9 or 10 at the time). I also remember it blowing my mind that the normal battle music would change as you progressed (even modern games don't do that very often!) and I liked that it had a day/night system. The worst part to me was the item names. I could never decipher what anything was supposed to be!

Still, I've never had the urge to revisit it (or its immediate sequel). The PSX games have probably held up better, but I've also never felt the urge to replay them.

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I have enjoyed every BoF game that I have played. 1-4, i haven't played 5 so I'm not sure why anyone is saying it is bad.

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