Breath of Fire franchise

[Anonymous No.778398]

Don't know why but this I loved this franchise so much (1 through 4 to be exact) so I have never gotten over the fact that Capcom forgot about it existing.

What your favorite game in the series?

For me it was BoF II as it had the best overarching plot, characters and how it was the only of the games to be a actually sequel to the first.

[Anonymous No.778404]

1 & 3. 1 had cool characters, a fun battle system and kickass music, 3 had a great battle system and story.

[Anonymous No.778425]

>>778404
A lot of people say 3 is their favorite which I can understand why as the gameplay is great but the ending really killed it for me as Myria was a poor excuse of a final boss as she was not actually evil but really did care about living creatures.

1 had a the goddess of destruction and chaos.

2 had the remnants of her of a demon that created a religion to feed him energy to bring him back in order to kill all life

3 had her just go a little to far but trying to save most of life.

[Anonymous No.778438]

I hated the original BoF when I was a kid because I resented how they made you spent ALL THAT TIME playing the game just for that terrible anti-climactic ending. It wasn't until years later that I found out that was just the bad ending and if you get the good one it's actually pretty good. But the damage was done at that point.

BoF2 was my favorite since I'm a sucker for classic JRPGs and shit like the shaman fusion system and the Township stuff was so much fun. Plus Katt and Nina in BoF2 are still the hottest waifus of any vidya.

BoF4 had the best art design, but was too easy, and I didn't like how it pulled that alternate universe bullshit and wasnt connected to the previous games. Also the localized version was butchered with entire scenes taken out of the game, including one important one towards the end when Fou Lu murders the emperor and invades the capital. But in the western version it just fades to black and you don't even see what happens.

[Anonymous No.778462]

>>778425
So? Don't you think a non-evil villain makes things more interesting?

[Anonymous No.778471]

>>778462
No

A non-evil boss is fine but the way it was handled still gets on my nerves as I still think it could have been handled better.

[Anonymous No.778478]

>>778425
Myria is the same villain in all 3 games.

[Anonymous No.778496]

>>778478
Deathevan was born from Myria.

[Anonymous No.778526]

I liked 3, and to a lesser extent 4. 1 and 2 bored me, though I played the GBA versions, so maybe it was more I had to stare at that tiny screen for 30 hours each game. 5 was okay but pretty non-traditional.

[Anonymous No.778559]

>>778526
You need to play the Retranslation of 2 that was made.

It is much better.

[Anonymous No.778571]

I always liked the diverse characters. None were cut and paste. They all had their own functions, races,villages, and actions. They had purposeful uses leading the party. It was great. I feel like a lot of games nowadays are just boring generic rpg roles.

Also, 3 had the best fishing.

[Anonymous No.778575]

A list of the high points of each entry, as the series is something to be loved.

1
+ You can be a merchant and set up shop with Gobi. Damn straight you sell me that Mallet you found, filthy peasant fish.
+ fusion: turn those 4 other party members you never use into Puka and enjoy some rolling SLAM action.
+ Agni and Rudra: you know how balls it is that that's the name of the pair of swords in DMC III but they aren't the fucking dragons from BoF? BoF 1 had the dragons that made you feel that they were the fucking force of the universe, and damn if the last boss couldn't touch you when you use it.
+Second wind: how come they never kept this? Every boss had a secret amount of extra hp after you drop them to 0, ups the tension when you don't power level.
+ Mari Yamaguchi as composer: anyone that grew up with the series knows III and up were missing something special. The Breath of Fire overworld theme was the closest thing the series had to Final Fantasy's Prelude. Any revival of the series needs her back as composer.
Breath of Fire 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXjaOB-qh1Y
Breath of Fire 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWEduroOSg
Seriously give the rest of 1's soundtrack a listen, Cerl's theme, every overworld theme, Random battle music I are amazing. Sakimoto may have done the soundtrack to Dragon Quarter, but Mari Yamaguchi was Capcom's go-to for fantasy songs, just look at Ghosts and Goblins.

2:
+ Shamans: shamans turned your party from 9 to something over 20, what with the single fusions like fire Katt or green Nina along with those 4 full on changes Spar turns into.
+ Religion plot first: BoF did the whole religion is bad shtick before PS1 era RPGs made it all the rage. Sure it's played out now, but it predates Fallout, Xenogears, and FFT in this aspect
+ Town Building 1.0: Not only do you put people in your town, your damn town FLIES. Damn straight I'll park it in giant island where Karn and Bo are hanging out.

[Anonymous No.778580]

Nina II was the best Nina

[Anonymous No.778596]

Yeah, good series. I'm kind of glad it's dead. I'd hate to see how butchered a BoF6 would be with current Capcom handling it.

[Anonymous No.778613]

The Destined Child is still one of my favorite intro with how it leads after you fight Barubay.

[Anonymous No.778625]

>>778575
2 did the religious aspect right which needs to be pointed out.

For the most part it was not overplayed for most of the game as they never did anything outright evil for the most part. It was not until the last 3rd of the game that they are shown for what they are.

[Anonymous No.778630]

>that part in 2 where you have to climb into a toilet

[Anonymous No.778642]

I've only played One through to Four, with Four being my absolutely unchallenged favourite, but I must say every game covered its themes perfectly. In terms of atmosphere, the second game seriously struck me with how dark it was. Seriously, it's like there's NOTHING happy in that game - the entire political/religious intrigue of why the world was the way it was? Fantastic.
In terms of storytelling though, the fourth game really did it for me. The contrast of a villain fighting for a cause (Fou Lu) and a villain fighting for no reason other than to hurt people (Yuna) and all the other contrasts (Fou Lu as heaven, Ryu as earth) were great.

Gentle reminder that you will never get to kill Yuna

[Anonymous No.778681]

3:
What people don't realize was that III was the first major departure of the series. The overworld map became constrained to disallow exploration or flying, the art style had to be altered to something more simplistic for animation reasons (its was like when FF changed from Amano to Nomura), Deis was unplayable, the party size dropped to 3 with a reduced full cast size. Compared to how other series transitioned to PS1, the changes were either too minimal to care about or just pissed off a lot of fans.

+ Dragon genes: Did anyone ever use dragons in II? Taking the shaman system and refining where you get the next gene really turned the system from something never used to something they really needed to bring back for later iterations.

+ Camping/Faerie Village: fuck the inns, I'm going to plop down right here on the map and go relax. Also comes with a sweet faerie village that's leaps of improvements over that narrow selection from 2.
+ Masters 1.0: Finally a method to give other characters abilities and stat boosts they could desperately use.

4:
During time of release, Capcom's understanding of their place in the booming jrpg market was making a bed of familiar places for the general rpg fan. Their advertising included how they refined the fishing minigame of 3 to be able to be played with the PS1 fishing controller, and while everyone else was going polygons, sprite animation was overhauled.
+ Fou Lu: For once you actually play both sides, and damn if Fou Lu wasn't a relatable final boss. Guy got used and abused.
+ Everybody in this fight: Taking back the cheapness in party management from BoF 1 along with some snazzy improvements, the entire party is always in every fight, they just have to be swapped from the back. Even in the back, some still give a fight (you launch that fist, Ershin!)
+ Masters 2.0: the final iteration of the masters system, much easier to access and swap between characters.

[Anonymous No.778703]

3 had the best dragon system with the genes. I think 4 had the best Master system. 3 had a neat story but it definitely had a fair number of holes and just didn't feel as cohesive as 4's story, which is ultimately the better one for it.

Dragon Quarter, maligned though it was, had a pretty fun general battle system that could've gone places with some tweaking. Everything else was pretty much garbage though, and the way the dragon transformation was handled was a travesty.

A BoF game combining those elements would be a dream come true. It'll never happen though.

[Anonymous No.778706]

[Anonymous No.778732]

>>778580
She certainly seems to be the most popular Nina and I can understand why. She was my favorite too.

[Anonymous No.778741]

DQ:
BoF IV was viewed as playing too closely to the rpg standard to stand out in the market: Fou Lu was amazing but for the general public that never played the game he looke like a Sephiroth knock off, dragons were generally summons, and for fuck's sake there's a town with a giant cannon. With the transition to PS2, difficulty and pressure became the advertising factor, which Capcom as a company was known for, so it made sense.

http://www.rpgfan.com/features/creatorstalk/index3.html

The entry as a whole has to be understood from where Capcom was coming from - they couldn't compete in the jrpg market. It paid off in its own way: a lot of the features were refined and ended up on Monster Hunter.

+ Balls to the Wall: Bullshit if you believe you have to replay the game to beat it, you're doing it wrong. Lure enemies with the PETs system, get that first hit initiation in from a distance to toy with your prey, and be smart about your med kits and your saves.
+ A Customizably particular set of skills: Every attack in this game is no longer just a straightforward 'attack;' every character has a unique set of offensive skills that can be used singly or combo into each other for that huge boost in damage. Skills you found useless can also be swapped out anytime out of battle. Don't be fooled by the small party size: if you play to Nina's traps ridiculous offensive talent, Lin's ability to outrange and push and pull, and Ryu's tank and go-for-the-kill roles, the quality of each character truly shines.
+ Money-Making Faerie Village: For all the flack the Dragon Quarter gets for limited money and space, the Faerie village (or ant colony) makes up for it. Low on cash? Get a bank, play with the foreign currency system, buy low, sell high. Need to make room in your inventory? Sell crap in the village. While all the faerie villages are comparably the same in their function, no other iteration of BoF makes you feel the benefits of having a portable town in your pocket like DQ.

[Anonymous No.778742]

Probably going to start playing this series soon. What should I expect?

[Anonymous No.778768]

>>778742
Cool characters, good stories, some parts are grindy dungeon crawls, waifus, and fishing.

[Anonymous No.779175]

[Anonymous No.779478]

>>778625
Yeah, A lot of 2 still adhered to the old rpg focus of just having a general adventure. Half the game was some form of fetch quest which was only made bad because of the horrible amount of random encounters, the point and payoff of all of them were at least entertaining, whether its fighting that weird woman on a floating sphere in someone's backyard to beating up bouncers so you keep your equipment to fight the cook that lured you into a stove. Its that sort of crazy that made a lot of old rpgs still memorable.

[Anonymous No.779517]

>>778741
Man, the ant village seemed dumb at first, but I guess it was pretty fun, and also useful as fuck. I need to get around to doing that secret dungeon one day, I need more of that book cook combat system.

[Anonymous No.779891]

>>778706
Damn, BOF turned 20 this year and Capcom didn't even acknowledge the series' existence.

[Anonymous No.780759]

seems legit

[Anonymous No.780832]

>>779891
But they did, kind of.

[Anonymous No.780857]

>>778741
In some ways I consider Monster Hunter the spiritual successor of Breath of Fire.

I know this is an unpopular and weird opinion, but...

[Anonymous No.780901]

BoF holds a special place in my heart. First one I ever played was BoF3 way back when it came out and I loved it. It wasn't my first jRPG, but it did a lot of neat things, like the Dragon transformations, Growing older, the story was interesting, it all just worked so well. I'll never forget getting lost in that Desert near the end of the game for like a whole week. Just got it on my PSP like 2 days ago and sarted replaying it for the first time in forever, I'm already loving it again.

I never played the first one. I did play the GBA version of BoF2 a year or so back after trying it a couple times before then. I didn't finish it, I just tapered out somewhere near the end. If I can find it I'll get back and beat it. I've always wanted to play BoF4 but something always gets in the way. Couldn't find a physical copy at first, then when I tried to pirate the PC version a few years back it got all glitchy on my laptop. I tried getting a copy on my PSP a while back and it worked all right, but if I shut the system off it would shut the game off instead of putting it into sleep mode, which is a very big annoyance for me as I rely on that. I need to find a proper working eboot, because I feel like I NEED to play BoF4 before I'm done playing video games

[Anonymous No.780989]

>>780857
It is a bit of a stretch, but the thought process on how it could have come about is possible - time limits, PET system without actually calling it that anymore, and change the setup from tactical rpg to timing your shots. DQ's major problem was how expensive it was to move around in combat - make combat realtime and single character and it really does feel like an evolution.

In any case the visuals are there - creature designs have an obvious BoF roots.

>>779517
Now that's the part of the game that really breaks balls. Tried beating it on first playthrough - dragon at the bottom did an AoE party wipe in like 2 moves, that guy is ridiculous. The main game can be beaten in a single run, but Kokon Horay needs a second playthrough so you can power up that one sword that gets stronger every time you kill something with it, I think you get it somewhere passed the 40th floor.

[Anonymous No.781130]

>>780901
>I need to find a proper working eboot, because I feel like I NEED to play BoF4 before I'm done playing video games

Just use that "download games directly from PSN servers" trick. Those eboots are fixed to run perfectly on the PSP. They are official, after all.

http://emulation-general.wikia.com/wiki/Recommended_PSP_Emulators

Bottom of the page.

[Anonymous No.781421]

I started the first game earlier today, it's pretty fun so far. I hear the guys who did 2's retranslation are redoing 1 as well which is good because I've run into a handful of really weird dialogue. Probably won't be out for awhile though.

[Anonymous No.781567]

>>778425
Did you even play the game? Brood weren't evil, most of them laid down to die rather than fight, and at the end of the game you see plants sprout in the desert.

Myria halted the growth of most races by preventing access to new technology and the materials to create it, lied about protecting life from the desert, and exterminated dragons slowly over hundreds of years.

She only pretends to be kind in order to gain the trust of the ones she wants to destroy. She has pretended to be a wish granting goddess before.

[Anonymous No.781574]

>>780832
This looks like they put Nina 1's head on Nina 2's body, while giving her Nina 3's wing shape (but not wing color). Ugh I wish they would just bury BoF and leave it alone. I love it too much to see it be wasted like this.

[Anonymous No.781628]

For me 2/4>3>1>didn't play 5. Generally I'm more about a combination of story and gameplay, and overall I feel like 2 and 4 came the closest between both. The biggest issue with both was their translations, though thankfully 2 got a new one.

I get why so many like 3 to a degree but the story/characters were somehow not nearly as interesting.

[Anonymous No.781634]

>>781421

The retranslations are noble but it's not like breath of fire's dialog was butchered or good