![Breath of Fire (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 2] - NintendoComplete](/images/yt/1k/breath-of-fire-snes-playthrough-1-of-2-nintendocomplete-w1m4r.jpg)
Breath of Fire (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 2] - NintendoComplete
208A playthrough of Square Soft's 1994 JRPG for the Super Nintendo, Breath of Fire.
This is part one of a two part playthrough. In this segment, I play from the beginning of the game through recruiting Bleu, fishing for dragon armor, and winning Ryu's gold dragon transformation.
Part two: https://youtu.be/ex5ba1fsx_Q
Though Breath of Fire was localized for and published in North America by Square, they did not create the original game. The game is actually a Capcom work, and it's the first game in a successful series of five games released over the course of a decade.
Breath of Fire wasn't Capcom's first RPG - they had already done Sweet Home (https://youtu.be/n5JqOc-8zBU ) and Destiny of an Emperor (https://youtu.be/dDOg6yaFeHg ) for the NES - but this game represented their first wholly "traditional" JRPG, created in the mold of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
You play as Ryu, a blue haired boy who survives the destruction of his hometown at the hands of the Dark Dragon clan, and like any good RPG hero, he takes off on a quest to avenge his people.
It's a very standard setup, but Breath of Fire does have some cool stuff going on to set it apart from the crowd. First of all, Ryu can turn into a dragon. That's a big selling point right there. Those transformations and attacks are cool spectacles that are something to look forward to.
He's not the only character with a shape-shifting ability, either. Even better is Karn, who can merge with other party members to create powerful hybrid characters with special abilities.
The town-overworld-dungeon gameplay cycle applies here, but grinding is made painless by the auto-battle option, and exploring the overworld isn't a totally mindless affair thanks to hunting, the day/night cycle, hidden items, and the use of character specific abilities to get past big obstacles. It all sounds a bit rudimentary today, and it is, but it provided more variety than many RPGs did in the early/mid 90s.
The story is good enough to keep things interesting (though it suffers in the translation) with its mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, the forgiving difficulty level keeps it engaging without forcing you to grind for hours on end. The dungeons are well designed and ramp up nicely in challenge over the course of the game, too, and they usually aren't overly long and maze-like. I appreciated that.
It's also overall a good looking and sounding game. The battle graphics are sharp and detailed, even featuring some limited animation beyond the usual screen flash or a sword icon bouncing up and down. Everyone in your party has a distinct manga-flavored design (a tell-tale sign that Keiji Inafune was here), and many of the towns have their own unique themes and graphic styles, nicely changing things up from the standard RPG parade of Ye Olde Medieval Hamlet variations.
The sound quality isn't a match for anything by Square or Quintet, but the music is absolutely excellent. The soundtrack was done by some of Capcom's best composers, and I have to say, it's among my favorite RPG soundtracks ever.
(I also really loved how you can hear the cracking sounds of the bones when you walk over a skeleton. Such a cool little detail!)
I played Breath of Fire not long after it came out, and I've played it a number of times over the years since. It's not as classic as the A-tier SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy 2/3, Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound, but it sits very comfortably among its excellent B-list peers like Lufia, Arcana, and Wizardry V.
It's also available on Nintendo's Switch Online service, so you can now curl up on the couch with it in handheld mode. Perfect setup for a 16-bit RPG, if you ask me.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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