Breath of Fire II (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 3]
196A playthrough of Capcom's 1995 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, Breath of Fire II.
This is first part of a three-part playthrough, running from the beginning up through the Uparupa Cave.
Part 2: https://youtu.be/nfVKFNbXI4c
Part 3: https://youtu.be/Rw9dCjZUSAM
Here are a few timestamps to help you find your way around:
16:52 Ten years later
1:58:39 Coursair and the Coliseum
3:18:44 Entering Windia
4:23:03 Unsealing the dragon
5:50:36 Meet Jean
6:41:11 Simafort
8:11:48 Clearing Bow
8:46:40 Holy pulsating whale sphincters!
9:16:34 Lots of recipes and grinding
11:29:50 Uparupa Cave
Breath of Fire II was released in the states just sixteen months behind the English release of the first game (https://youtu.be/1KiW1m4r1gg), and this time, rather than again seeking Square's assistance, Capcom handled the English localization and publishing duties themselves.
Set five hundred years after the events of Breath of Fire, the story begins with a young blue-haired boy named Ryu who is orphaned and has to find his own way in the world.
Fast-forward several years and Ryu's best friend Bow, an amiable thief who also happens to be a talking bipedal dog, is set-up as the fall guy in a robbery, and Ryu takes it upon himself to prove his friend's innocence. And since this a JRPG, one thing then leads to another and things escalate in a reasonably dramatic fashion from there.
The game takes enough cues from Breath of Fire to feel familiar and cozy to fans, but the developers went to great lengths to expand and improve on the mechanics of the first game.
You can build your own town filled with unique NPCs that you've recruited in your travels, and many of them possess talents that come in quite handy in the latter half of the game. The shaman are among the most important thanks to their ability to fuse with your party members, and many of your party members can be dramatically "upgraded" with the right combination of shaman spirits. It's a neat twist on the approach the first game took, and it adds a good bit of depth to your options for party customization.
The graphics are also much better this time around, especially in the battle scenes. The animation is smoother, the quality of the art has been kicked up a notch, the spell effects are flashier, and the enemies are better varied.
There's a lot to like about Breath of Fire II, but it doesn't quite get everything right. The sound is a real disappointment: the compositions aren't nearly as memorable as the original’s tracks were, and the sound quality took a big hit. The music has the same horrible, tinny quality to it that Super Street Fighter II's did, and I found it grating.
Less forgivable is the quality of the translation. There are countless misspelled words and grammatical errors, menus are filled with indecipherable abbreviations, and sometimes you'll be left utterly bewildered by lines of complete nonsense. It's one of the worst localization jobs I've seen in an RPG, and it really hurts the game. (The fan-made translation is way, way better than this official one!)
The game's quality still shines through, though, and I really enjoyed playing through it again for this video. If you're a fan of the Final Fantasy or Lufia games, you'll find much of the same here, and that's a good thing.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!