It might not be very special for an RPG, but the game has its moments.
And of course the hero (which you name, but is refered to as Ryu online) has spiky hair with an unnatural hair-colour.
It is one of those games where the moment you step into the overworld, you can tell that this game is so similar to other games that if you have played those games, you won't find anything new. And the first time you enter a random encounter and dicovers that the first enemies are green slime monsters, it feels like you get that confirmed.
Breath of Fire II is not a game for you if you want to get through it quickly. The game has some balance issues that makes sure that on many occasions you need to take some time to level up before you continue your journey. However, I guess that is some of the RPG charm of the game, which is kinda what I bought it for and at least I find the overworld music to be rather enjoyable.
The game has several characters that you will need in your party, only three of which you can have in your party at any given time. Of course this means you need to make a decision whether to favour certain characters or not. This can be a bit frustrating when at a few points you will have to use only one character, which is not the main character (who otherwise have to be in your party), but another character who you may or may not have spent enough time leveling up. You might use a couple of hours in one dungeon just to get the character leveled up enough to reach the end. In one particular dungeon it is especially frustrating because one of the enemies you meet in random encounters has an attack called "Death" - which does exactly what it sounds like. Yes, in a dungeon where your party consists of one character, the enemies have an attack that can one-hit you no matter what your level is.
Despite having to at some point save the world from evil, the game is very light-hearted. The friends you pick up on the way all seem only half human, with the first friend being a dog named Bow (who is also an archer, so clever name), another being a cat named Katt (which happens to be the Norwegian word for cat) and also a horse, frog etc. The most human is a character named Nina who is like an ordinary person, but with wings. There are some scenes with those characters that you will find funny at best and wacky at worst, and the part about the evil forces is rarely present except from the beginning and end of the game.
Gameplay-wise, the game is of course turn-based combat. All characters have one normal attack, one unique attack (like Bow's "Shot" which either takes one or all the HP of an enemy) and several special attacks (that required ability points), including healing, thunder, fire, etc. The combat is pretty simple, and often it is enough to only use normal attacks, in which case you can just choose "auto" and the characters will use normal attacks until the battle is over. In some of the boss fights and towards the end, the battles might require putting some more thinking into it, but it is still not that great.
The story has a rather strange pacing. At the start of the game, Bow gets into trouble and it takes many, many hours to reach the point in the game when you have proved him innocent. Later on in the game there are also moments when you need an item to progress in the game, but the guy you are supposed to get it from can't help you before you do him a favour, and before you can do him that favour, you need to do a favour for another guy... In short, the story doesn't move along very quickly.
In most areas, it is safe to say that while the game is fair, it has flaws and nothing special to enable it to compete with other games in is genre, even from its time. However, while they are few and far between, the game has some really memorable moments that to me raises it from being a 5/10 to a 7/10. Among memorable moments (hopefully without spoiling too much) is being magically transported into someone's body to fight fat-enemies to get the person slimer, and climbing up a tower which is inside the memory world of a wise tree (and you could enter his memories because you have the therapy pillow). However there are even more memorable moments, which I do not want to spoil. For instance, the game has at least one moral choice that will affect the ending, and it is delivered in a way so that you might not even notice you had a choice (I wouldn't have if it wasn't for a walkthrough). If you don't want it spoiled, skip the next paragraph.
In one of the last dungeons you find a man strapped on to a machine, begging you to kill him. As you enter the battle, you will fight against him and three mechanical eyes in a boss figt. Now, if you don't use any spells that target all enemies, but instead just attack all of the guys individually, you can rescue the man. However, if you assume that the man is beyond saving or you pity him so much that you kill him like he asks, he will of course die. Now, if you choose the first one, you will discover that this man is in fact the main character's father. This will not just make for a happier ending, your father can also help you turn your town into a flying ship, which is necessary if you want to get to some places that has some of the best weapons in the game.
While the game have some great moments and some annoying moments, most of the time it is an alright and pleasant game, that is a nice way to spend your time if that is the kind of experience you are looking for. And if it is, then getting at least twenty hours of gameplay for 800 Wii points is not a bad bargain.
One warning: This game sometimes seem to think you have read the manual. At one point you can waste a lot of time if you haven't yet learned how to use special moves outside battle. The game will not teach you to press Y to use a characters special move or R and L to change which character is in the lead of your party. Neither will you discover this by randomly pushing all the buttons at the start of the game, because for most character, special moves can only be used at very specific places. You have hereby been warned not to do anything stupid.