Breath of Fire is one of the greatest RPGs of all time. (Breath of Fire (PC))

Member Name: DragonLord

Product:	Breath of Fire (PC)
Date:	16/03/02 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long and intricate storyline, in-depth characters with realistic personalities, good battle system with lots of spells and abilities.

Disadvantages: The sounds and music are a little out-dated, translation at times can be a little confusing.

Breath of Fire was the best RPG when it came out for the SNES, and now it's back and better than ever on the GameBoy Advance. The Breath of Fire series has always been an amazing RPG series, now up to 4 games. This is the adventure that started it all.

You start the game as Ryu, the main hero of every Breath of Fire game, while his village is under attack from the Dark Dragon tribe. Ryu's sister Sara turns him and the other Light Dragons into stone while she attempts to stop the attack herself. She fails, and Ryu vows to avenge his sister. Along the way, Ryu will meet up with 7 other people who want to help him in his quest including Nina, the Fae princess of Windia; Bleu, a beautiful arch mage with the lower body of a snake; Gobi, a member of the Manillo tribe that rule water commerce; Mogu, a silent and shy Earth-Eater who has a strong sense of responsibility; Ox, a warrior of the Creation tribe that is a master at creating weapons and armor; Karn, a scion of the tribe of thieves; and Bo, a reliable, cool-headed forest hunter. All of the characters have varied personalities and reasons for joining up with Ryu, but all of them are in-depth, and make you believe that these characters could really exist. Each character has a unique personal action that allows you to do many things, such as Nina's ability to turn into a giant bird and fly you to places you couldn't reach otherwise, or Bo's hunting ability which allows you to get animals to use as items. Ryu's personal action of fishing adds a very nice mini-game to the already exciting RPG. Fishing allows you to catch fish that can be used as various items, and can even help you get equipment!

Battles are turn-based, and allow you to have up to 4 party members fighting at a time. Each party member can be placed into either the front or back row. Characters in the front row deal more damage physically, but also take more damage from enemies' physical attacks, whi
le characters in the back row have a higher defense against physical blows. Each character has his or her strengths when it comes to battle; Nina is a master at healing magic, while Bleu is a powerful magical attacker. As you progress in the game, Ryu will obtain the ability to transform into his dragon form during a battle, and will gain new forms as you get deeper into the story.

The storyline is very nice, as are the characters. The sounds and music aren't too bad, but they were kept from the SNES version, so they are a little out-dated. Bottom-line: Breath of Fire is a very awesome RPG that will delight any gamer, and is a must for any RPG fan.

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