The use of religious defiance gives this game's story a name in its own right, Breath of Fire II cannot be missed.
User Rating: 9.4 | Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko SNES
Breath of Fire II, released in 1995, continues the series originally published by Square and developed by Capcom. This time around, Capcom has earned the right to publish their own franchise, and they have proven that a sequel can be better than the original. Despite the Roman numeral “two” in the title, this game is not a direct continuation of the first Breath of Fire. The games starts off with a blue-hair hero named Ryu—as it is with all Breath of Fire games—and the mystery of his hometown called Gate. Once again, Ryu is endowed with legendary dragon powers, which he must use to combat the evils of an ever-growing sinister force. The storyline is rather complex and it certainly takes the cake from many of the role-playing games today. The use of religious defiance gives this game's story a name in its own right; Breath of Fire II cannot be missed for this reason alone. As mentioned previously, the game starts with the hero Ryu in a town named Gate. One day, little Ryu ventures out into the forest to find a dragon sleeping in front of a door—he presumes, the dragon is guarding the door. When Ryu returns to town, the villagers do not remember him at all, and the entire visage of the town becomes haunting and rather dreary. Ryu then decides to go to the church: his home. There, Ryu finds his family gone, and his father had been replaced by another pastor. From there, the plot of little Ryu progresses and then the actual gameplay resides a few years after the incident at Gate. The gameplay involves the same turn-based system used in almost every RPG of the Super Nintendo era. Even though the battle system has not changed, the way to differentiate the character itself certainly has. Every character (9 in all) has a separate mood, which is determined by a Dragon’s Tear icon in the character’s profile. The mood is determined by the color that fills the Dragon’s Tear; pretty much like a mood ring. Black is the lowest color and the mood progresses starting with dark red and ending with rainbow as the best. This mood establishes certain functions, such as; new cutscenes and more character interaction. The Dragon’s Tear also helps determine whether a character may be a threat. For example, if you are talking to a random NPC, and the Dragon’s Tear shows and dark red, this character will most likely be an enemy of yours at some point in the game. Each character also has their own set of abilities, allowing for high levels of party customization and strategizing. Ryu, for example, has Dragon Powers but also has sub-abilities that initiate when certain events happen during battle. Like regular abilities, sub-abilities are different with each character. The sub-abilities are not powerful, but rather weak. This difference in power indicates that these sub-abilities should only be used for emergencies since no ability points are used. Overall, Breath of Fire II should not be missed if you are an RPG gamer. If you are looking for challenge, Breath of Fire II will keep your fire fueled.
