Breath of Fire III is a charming,traditional JRPG with a story that's creative.
I have great memories of this game.I played it for the first time back in 1999 after I had beaten Final Fantasy VII.Final Fantasy VII turned me into an RPG fan(keep in mind,the NES/SNES versions of FF1-VI weren't released for PAL region)and I was looking for another great RPG to play and I came across this game and it's charming Japanese artstyle made it look appealing to me so I decided to give it a go.
I ended up loving this game for numerous reasons such as how it has old-school JRPG charm but it's story can be serious and disturbing at times when you see some of the evil things that certain humans and Gods do.I also love the game's charming artstyle and the character designs,such as a blue-haired boy who transformed from and can transform into a dragon,and I like Rei's combination of human and cat features,he looks humanoid with a cat-like tail and car ears and Teepo's long purple hair and Nina,the blonde-haired girl with wings.
The story uses quite a bit of mythology and has some surprising story revelations.
Basically,the story is about the blue-haired boy named Ryu who transformed from being a dragon into a boy and he can't remember much about himself.He meets 2 thieves(Rei and Teepo)and they get caught up in corruption in the world and pay the price for trying to help people and they become fugitives and like I said the story shows the evil things humans and Gods will do and it can be quite disturbing.Luckily,Ryu has the ability to transform into a dragon and scorch his enemies.
FFVII was the RPG that got me to appreciate RPG features such as being able to level up your party members and being able to travel to different towns and talk with NPCs and watching deep story scenes.Breath of Fire III was the next game after FFVII that fueled my appetite for RPGs with it's charming story presentation and deep story and the way it felt like an epic adventure as I was randomly attacked by monsters when I traveled between towns and the fact I could visit towns and talk to NPCs made it feel like I was part of a real world.
Breath of Fire III has a turn-based battle system,but what makes it unique is Ryu can transform into numerous types of dragons(which makes him more powerful)for periods of time.Your characters can also learn skills from enemies and NPCs too.
Also,Breath of Fire III was the second game(after FFVII)to make me feel the satisfaction of grinding my way through a forest in which a monster could show up at any time and attack me as well as making me feel rewarded after I defeat many,many enemies by making my characters very powerful after I do level grinding.
I also like how you can do a fishing mini game and use the fish you catch to replace MP or to cure poison status.
The cartoony artstyle makes the characters and world look charming,and the towns and characters and the way the world looks has a quaint style to them and nice use of colors.
It's hard for me to explain why I enjoyed the game's story so much without giving away spoilers but I'll finish this review by saying it's story is epic and can be quite shocking and this game has a lot of charm but a darker side to it and is an epic adventure.