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Recordkeeping: Breath of Fire 2 COMPLETE
Jan. 6th, 2016 06:56 pmI was discussing Dragon's Dogma with a friend, and cracked a joke about it being Capcom's ACTUAL Breath of Fire 6, since the real BoF6 is some phone-based nonsense. Then I realized, well... I've never actually finished a Breath of Fire game! I tried 3, but it tried to make me watch small children grow up in what felt like -real time- and I just couldn't handle that.
Instead I backfilled with Breath of Fire 2, and man this had Big Ideas that didn't all mesh together well. A huge world, lots of secrets, multiple endings, a build-your-township system, hunting, fishing, fusing party members into new party members... Yet, the town system was awkward and the hunting was basically Oregon Trail, but THAT'S OKAY because that's fun to play too...
...and Capcom dickboned it at release with a typical SNES JRPG translation of awfulness. It's okay though, we live in the future. People are willing to professional-style re-translate games for free out of insane fandom. As such, I played the Watercrown Productions retake of Breath of Fire 2 and absolutely loved the hell out of it.
ASIDE FROM the encounter rate (which is horrendous) and the way battles drift from "Spam physical" to "Spam the Death spell" to "Spam Dragon attacks on the bosses and hope" by the endgame, this was one of the better SNES JRPGs I've ever played? ... Yes, that feels accurate. I mean, you can tell I'm writing this on the fly, but "one of the better RPGs available on the system" FEELS accurate after I typed it, so I'm leaving it there.
...And hey, it actually manages to contain some nuance. I was prepared for the plot of this game to be "Religion is Evil, punch God in the face" like most SNES JRPG stories. Instead it was "Religious hypocrisy is evil, your religious tenets are okay but what you're doing is wrong, also punch God in the face" which feels at least complex enough to be a Playstation plot.
(Also, game contained big buff armadillo, sexy naga lady and catgirl with no pants. A++ Five Furry Stars.)
I guess now I have to play... well. I'm not going back to BoF1 probably. But ... I do own 4 and Dragon Quarter (yes I know, I know, I don't care what the fandom thinks of it). And maybe 3... deserves a second chance? But not right now, two long JRPGs in a row will probably actually murder me dead.
Instead I backfilled with Breath of Fire 2, and man this had Big Ideas that didn't all mesh together well. A huge world, lots of secrets, multiple endings, a build-your-township system, hunting, fishing, fusing party members into new party members... Yet, the town system was awkward and the hunting was basically Oregon Trail, but THAT'S OKAY because that's fun to play too...
...and Capcom dickboned it at release with a typical SNES JRPG translation of awfulness. It's okay though, we live in the future. People are willing to professional-style re-translate games for free out of insane fandom. As such, I played the Watercrown Productions retake of Breath of Fire 2 and absolutely loved the hell out of it.
ASIDE FROM the encounter rate (which is horrendous) and the way battles drift from "Spam physical" to "Spam the Death spell" to "Spam Dragon attacks on the bosses and hope" by the endgame, this was one of the better SNES JRPGs I've ever played? ... Yes, that feels accurate. I mean, you can tell I'm writing this on the fly, but "one of the better RPGs available on the system" FEELS accurate after I typed it, so I'm leaving it there.
...And hey, it actually manages to contain some nuance. I was prepared for the plot of this game to be "Religion is Evil, punch God in the face" like most SNES JRPG stories. Instead it was "Religious hypocrisy is evil, your religious tenets are okay but what you're doing is wrong, also punch God in the face" which feels at least complex enough to be a Playstation plot.
(Also, game contained big buff armadillo, sexy naga lady and catgirl with no pants. A++ Five Furry Stars.)
I guess now I have to play... well. I'm not going back to BoF1 probably. But ... I do own 4 and Dragon Quarter (yes I know, I know, I don't care what the fandom thinks of it). And maybe 3... deserves a second chance? But not right now, two long JRPGs in a row will probably actually murder me dead.
