Breath of Fire II [SNES] - Crimson

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Released: December 10, 1995

The first time I had ever played a Breath of Fire game was when I was a child. It felt like I had found something new, something enjoyable. Indeed, I was right. This is basically my first review... So yeah. Also, I'm horrible with exaggerating and explaining things, so, I apologize for the lack of length. Also, I want to get better at reviews, so any and all help will be appreciated.

Also, I didn't see another Breath of Fire 2 review, so... Let me get on with it and quit boring you here. :P

Gameplay: Not much can be said about a classic turn-based RPG in terms of gameplay. You have your random battles, dungeon exploration, overworld exploration and finally, a menu screen which is simple and easy to navigate, in and out of battle. However, what sets the game apart from others like it is the ability to 'shamanize' your characters, which is just basically fusing your characters to make a completely different being altogether.

Shamanization: After you reach a certain point in the game, namely
after you've reached the city of Capitan, and if I remember right, you'll have to do a bit of a rescue mission, but soon after, you'll be able to start a small side quest which will allow you to do fusions and give Ryu the ability to shape-shift into a dragon, much like in the previous game and is also a just a one-time attack as it completely drains your AP in the process. However, upon speaking to to an NPC that is conviently placed between two buildings as you enter the town, (she's between the inn and the weapon/item shop if I remember correctly) but after you've spoken with her, she'll lead you to her grandmother's home, and she'll attempt to fuse with you, after saying that it would benefit you, however, instead of changing your form, she'll awaken your ability to shift into a dragon, and upon doing so, burn down her house in the process. Being that you're able to create your own town, you're given the task of finding the old woman and her grand daughter a new home.


Fishing and Hunting: Aside from field actions, such as having Jean turn into a frog to get around, or using a whale to travel the ocean in place of a ship, there are two things that you'll be able to do after battle, and those are the abilities to hunt and fish. While you have two characters to use for hunting, Bow or Katt, Bow is the better choice as he has longer range, and has less of a chance of frightening the animal he's after.

However, as far as fishing goes, Ryu is the only character in-game whose field ability is to fish. While the controls for the minigame are simple, this is the only way that you can purchase some items not available anywhere else in the game. To do this, you'll need to equip a rod as your weapon, and the bait you're planning to use as an accessory, such as shrimp or a worm, some fish will go after different bait, however, on occasion, there will an NPC swimming along the bottom of the screen in which case you'll want to equip a gold coin in order to snag him and see what he has to sell.

One last thing I wanted to touch up on was the story. As an RPG gamer, aside from the gameplay, I find that a story can also make or break a game. There's quite a bit of religion mentioned in-game, but if you have not played it yet and intend to, then I'll say no more. However, in this case, this is easily the strongest point of the game.

Story: Capcom places you in the role of Ryu Bateson, the son of a priest in the town of Gate. When your younger sister, Yua, runs off, your father asks that you find her. Upon agreeing to do so, you begin your search for her, and it eventually leads you to her usual location, under the head of the sleeping dragon.

After she tells you that you may see your mother if you were to take a nap under the dragon, you decide to do so. When you awaken, you return to town, but no one seems to know who you are, and you find that your family has gone missing. However, the priest, Father Hulk allows you to spend the night.

During the night, you wake to find a young dog-like boy who introduces himself as Bow. After he pilfers the candle, you decide to head out into the world while it's still dark.
Once it begins to rain, you and Bow both decide that you need to take shelter in a nearby cave, and the story really begins from there...


Graphics: Sprites for the overworld/towns/dungeons differ from the battle sprites. They're what you would normally expect to see in an RPG of this era. There wasn't much, animation-wise, other then a few townspeople walking or standing still. However, you can find a couple of things to do after you've left a battle, such as fishing (which is indicated by a fish leaping out of the water) and hunting (which is indicated by a patch of grass sticking up out of the world map).*

(*See gameplay section...)


One other thing that impressed me was the graphics in battle. There is no slow down when you're attacking, casting a spell or guarding, and I could find nothing out of place in that respect.


Sound: While there are a few pleasant songs to listen to in-game, from the battle music to town themes, easily, the worse song here would be the dungeon theme. It's dull and monotonous. As for a couple of other songs, the battle and boss battle themes go quite well with their respective locations. As for sound effects, I could find nothing out of place, weapons and skills sounded as they should.

That doesn't look that fun lol

thats because you werent around when the classics were around dark lol, i mean, i was barely around when the PS1 came out, so im not into older games all that much, nice review though crimson

I used to play PS1 all the time. That was classic for ME lol.

lmao, i forget what the PS1 is like its been so long

BoF2 is a instant classic, download a Super Nintendo Emulator (I suggest Znsnes) and grab it. If you like RPGs it won't disappoint.

To add onto Rune's post, there is a retranslation for it to fix the various puncuation errors and what not. But I grew up with with the retro consoles and RPGs, so this was a given that I would play and review it.

Crimson wrote:

To add onto Rune's post, there is a retranslation for it to fix the various puncuation errors and what not. But I grew up with with the retro consoles and RPGs, so this was a given that I would play and review it.

I played a lot of retro games too, but didnt like this game that much either
My favorites for the SNES is most definitely Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy V