SUPER NINTENDO (SNES) BREATH OF FIRE 2
"Breath of Fire 2 has a good story with classic game play."
Breath of Fire 2 is a direct sequel to classic role-playing game and fan-favorite Breath of Fire. It came out on the Super Nintendo, and features a diverse cast of characters and classic role-playing action. Here's what I thought of Breath of Fire 2:
Story: 8/10
As the hero Ryu, you start the game off being asked by your father to find your sister. You eventually find her north of town, sleeping near a dragon who guards a mysterious cave. After you attempt to rescue her from a monster (with your dad doing the actual work), she claims that she dreams of their mother when she sleeps by the dragon and advises that you should also try it. After you try and have a nightmare, you return to town where no one recognizes you and your family is gone! This is how you become an orphan and meets your best friend Bow.
Fast forward years later where a teenage Ryu and Bow are working as hunters for a guild in HomeTown (which is a nice original name for a town). After Bow is hired to steal an item for someone, he is framed for the actual robbery without doing. After narrowly escaping, you set out to clear your friends name, while discovering truths about your mysterious past in the process.
The story in Breath of Fire 2 starts off at an average pace, with enough unanswered questions to span the rest of the game. You'll soon lose your only ally and than eventually discover a diverse cast of characters. Almost all of these character's backgrounds will be fleshed out quite a bit, often forcing you to travel to their homes and support them. I only really liked half of the characters in Breath of Fire 2, though, as some of them were horribly weak. You'll eventually learn about Ryu's origin as you progress through the game and learn what happened all those years ago. Breath of Fire 2 also covers some touchy subjects, such as people being used by the church as well as different racial biases.
Game play: 7/10
The game play is fairly standard for an role-playing game, but has a few new tricks. You'll still fight to gain experience and gold, using the gold to afford better items if you can't obtain them through treasure chests in the game's numerous dungeons. However each character has a special ability in battle as well as a special ability outside of battle. The in-battle abilities are give and take, some characters are just better than others, however the outside abilities will often dictate who you will need in your party. That being said, it is dangerous to focus solely on your favorite characters, as you'll often need everyone.
Fighting in the game is made easier by the addition of an automatic fight command. Of course you can also choose to fight manually, use items, or use magic (only certain characters can use magic). The world map and towns are simply designed and navigation is natural to any video game fan. There was a tad too much backtracking throughout the game for my taste, though, and your current objectives always seemed secondary to whatever is currently going on in any given new location. I did like how involved the character's back stories were, though. You can also find several shaman around the world and attempt to fuse your characters with them to increase your powers. While this is neat, it will be taken away by your characters becoming weak, dying, or going through a cut scene. Also, I was disappointed to see that Ryu's dragon transformations aren't nearly as cool as the first Breath of Fire. Overall, Breath of Fire 2 offers classic role-playing game play with a smattering of good and useless characters.
Graphics: 8/10
While still set in a 2-D world, Breath of Fire 2 is very good looking. The towns and environments, while not being terribly varied, still have a good amount of detail. Character animations are impressive, as each of your allies move about occasionally during battle. The enemies are also designed well, but are reused constantly throughout the game. The world also constantly moves forward in time, and the use of background layers in certain areas is impressive. Spells look pretty good, especially the stronger ones, and the dragon transformations are wonderfully detailed. Overall, Breath of Fire 2 looks pretty good.
Music/Sound Effects: 7/10
The music in Breath of Fire 2 is mostly comprised of up-beat, synthesized piano pieces with a generous amount of drum pieces. The battle music is even faster, with a much darker tone. Sound effects are fairly standard and do their job well.
Re-playability: 8/10
There's no real reason to play through the game again, but there are plenty of extra things to keep you occupied in the game, including founding and building up your own town! You can also search for the best equipment, level up in two optional harder areas, and find a few references to the first Breath of Fire. So, Breath of Fire 2 offers quite a few things to do besides the main quest.
Overall: 8/10
Overall, Breath of Fire 2 has a great story with plenty of depth, average game play, and looks good doing it all. I would say that Breath of Fire 2 stays the course for the series, as set by the first game. Have fun and keep playing!
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