This is a repost of the review I wrote when I first played Breath of Fire II. This was when I was seventeen, so around five years ago.
A direct sequel, Breath of Fire II begins roughly five hundred years after the first game finished. The story of the eight heroes who saved the world has been lost to history now. The geography of the world and many of the towns have changed (although some of the name changes may be due to translation issues rather than actual changes - for example, Gant has become Guntz).
Although Ladon the Dragon God is still worshipped by some, the temples have disappeared. The statues are out in the open, seemingly neglected in favour of the new God. The new God is worshipped by the members of the church of St Eva, a group which has grown vastly over the years to become the major religion of the land. Ryu's father is actually a priest of the church of St Eva, although his mother worshiped Ladon.
The story begins with Ryu's father, Ganor, and his younger sister, Yua. Not wanting to take a nap, she runs off into the woods behind the village. Ryu and Ganor find her there, gazing at an enormous sleeping dragon, a dragon whom, as Ganor tells them, helped protect the village years ago, sometime after the attack that killed their mother. Yua tells them that she likes sleeping on the mountain, because her mother sometimes appears in her dreams. Yua and Ganor return to the village, while Ryu remains behind for a while.
When he returns to the village, the story begins to take a dark turn. Yua and Ganor are nowhere to be found. None of the villagers recognise Ryu, and none of them have heard of Ganor or Yua either. The preacher allows Ryu to spend the night in the church, along with another orphan, Bow. That night, Bow and Ryu set off together into the big wide world, neither of them having anything to stay for. They grow up to become rangers, people with various skills for hire.
Various events happen, and Ryu ends up travelling further afield, noticing the taste for violence and death that appears to have grown in popularity. As he and his friends journey, they begin to meet people who seem overcome with greed and violence, people who eventually reveal their true colours as their desires take full hold of them, and they turn into monsters. Ryu and his friends travel onwards, to find out why this is happening.
The characters are far more evolved than those in the first game. Ryu is the same as always; blue haired and strong, using a sword to fight. In this incarnation, he learns healing magic, and is a much stronger and more independent character than he is in, for example, Breath of Fire's III and IV. He can fish, and the mini-game is most similar to that of Breath of Fire III's system. There are very few types of fish compared to later games, although there are Manillos which you can catch with gold like in III. There are also a few treasure chests at very fishing spots, and finding them makes for an interesting short sidequest. Based on speech, this may well be the most personable incarnation of Ryu, excluding V. You also get to learn more of his past and origins than in other games, including playing through a short flashback segment as one of his parents, similar to a sequence in Final Fantasy IV.
As I mentioned, Bow is Ryu's best friend, going back to their childhoods. Although he remains out of your party during the formative parts of the game, he's reasonably useful. He learns white magic as he levels up.
As always, there's Nina, the Winged Princess of Windia. Born with cursed black wings, she was cast out of the royal family at a young age, although she still tries to do what she can for the country. As is explained later in the game, the Windian's lost their ability to fly in the years between the first game and this one, so Nina's wings are purely ornamental. She's taller and older than her ancestor was throughout the first game, but, as always, she has the traditional short blonde hair. She's a black mage this time.
There's also Katt, a feisty red-headed Woren female. Although young and clumsy, she's an important member of your team and provides much of the comic relief, as well as participating in a rather sweet yet tragic romantic subplot. Although she learns some very powerful spells at ridiculously low levels, she won't have the AP to use them until the end of the game, if then.
Rand, similar to Ox from the first game, is another white mage. Although he doesn't learn the advanced spells Bow does (or at least, not at such low levels), he's almost as powerful as Katt or Ryu, making him a more generally useful fighter.
Jean is, literally, a frog prince. He fights with a rapier (Nina's now using a magic ring), and learns black magic, similar to Nina's. Spar is a mutant vegetable, similar to Peco of BoFIII. He learns generally useful spells, such as warp and exit, which are just as useful as they were in the previous games. He's not the only character to learn these spells, however. Sten is a Highlander, and resembles a monkey. When he first joins the part he is shown as a ladies man and a trickster, but upon reaching his hometown more is shown of his personality. He occupies the place of thief in your party. He can't steal, but he does have the quick speed and mid strength attack which marks thieves.
Every character gets their own mini subplot and back story, and although the sheer amount of characters is still slightly overkill, the personality of each of them is much improved over the first game.
There's also a secret optional character, the only one I know of in the Breath of Fire universe. It's Bleu/Deis, the immortal from Breath of Fire's I through IV, and my favourite character. She's exactly the same as she was in the first game, and I love her just as much. There are also cameos from other ex-teammates, namely Nina, Bo and Karn.
Once more, the battle system is turnbased. The random battles are, once more, annoyingly enthusiastic, although, yet again, auto battle helps (auto battle being a command that enables your party to keep on attacking without any input from you). There's also a new element to the battle system - as well as each character having their own special command (for instance, Ryu has 'guts' an ability that you can use to restore a few HP), certain characters, except for Ryu and the secret character can merge with Shamens, to evolve their powers and possibly change their appearance. This ability has its limits; while shamanized, some characters will not have access to their on screen abilities (such as Rand's ability to knock down walls and Sten's crossing over small gaps) which are sometimes necessary for getting around a map. Also, the shamanization will disappear when the character in question loses more than half of their hit points.
There's also a rather large subquest, similar to the faerie colony and ant colony of Breath of Fire III, IV and V. This time it's known as Township - you get your very own town, and you can recruit people to live there. Some are helpful, some are definitely not, and you have to choose carefully because you only get six houses to fill. You can also unlock the flying Township, depending on certain decisions and actions taken. Doing so will allow your township to fly, and will unlock the best ending.
Speaking of endings, there are three. Once more, it's possible to get them all in one playthrough, although it's far trickier than in the other games. All of the endings are believable, and none are disappointing.
There are many references to the first game, as well as things which could be linked to later games (which are not implicitly stated to be sequels). For instance, the final boss and main antagonist is related to the final boss of the first game. This is also the first game where Baba/Babadel appears. He is later known as Bunyan, and appears in Breath of Fire III and IV, occupying a similar role. The town of Tunlan remains largely unchanged. You still need the Magic Hood (or Cowl) to understand the citizens, and the Famous Flute (or Maestro) to understand them. Their national treasure is the Therapy Pillow, previously known as the Bolster, which can be used to enter people's dreams (a sequence which occurs in the first game with Mogu and the fourth, with Ershin). It's also somewhat ironic that while the previous Queen of Tunlan was obsessed with her looks to the extent that she didn't care about anything else, the current queen is obsessed only with food. The power of the Gills, which are used to walk underwater, are greatly reduced. You can know only use them in shallow water, or for a very short time in deeper water, unlike in the first game, where you could walk around on the ocean's floor to your hearts content. As I may have mentioned, the Windian's power has been reduced too. Their wings are now purely ornamental, and in III they have no wings whatsoever (except for Nina III, of course, a genetic throwback). The Light and Dark Dragon Clans appear to have disappeared, although it can be assumed that they merged together, as they stated they would at the end of the first game. The Thieves Tomb in the Arad Desert still exists, and Karn is now famous for having defeated its secrets. It's also said that Karn is responsible for the new traps and tricks, to test new generations of thieves. The Arad desert has expanded, and it's theorized that it's the Desert of Death from III. There are many other references, which I can't explain without spoilers. However, you can find a long list on Wikipedia if you wish.
I'm not sure what I can say for the summary. It's a great game, and I really enjoyed it, but if you're not an aficionado of the series then chances are, you won't. There's a lot of great features and likable characters, and although the amount of towns is smaller (which, incidentally, makes each one more unique) the world map appears to be larger. All in all, great game.
...there are a few new observations I wanted to add. Firstly, the whole game feels somewhat...snappier, for want of a better word, than the first Breath of Fire. The script and translations are also slightly better, with more bits of throwaway conversation and moments of humour. The general environment has more detail, and you can tell that the series is inching into the nineties.
Warning: The following contains spoilers.
A direct sequel, Breath of Fire II begins roughly five hundred years after the first game finished. The story of the eight heroes who saved the world has been lost to history now. The geography of the world and many of the towns have changed (although some of the name changes may be due to translation issues rather than actual changes - for example, Gant has become Guntz).
Although Ladon the Dragon God is still worshipped by some, the temples have disappeared. The statues are out in the open, seemingly neglected in favour of the new God. The new God is worshipped by the members of the church of St Eva, a group which has grown vastly over the years to become the major religion of the land. Ryu's father is actually a priest of the church of St Eva, although his mother worshiped Ladon.
The story begins with Ryu's father, Ganor, and his younger sister, Yua. Not wanting to take a nap, she runs off into the woods behind the village. Ryu and Ganor find her there, gazing at an enormous sleeping dragon, a dragon whom, as Ganor tells them, helped protect the village years ago, sometime after the attack that killed their mother. Yua tells them that she likes sleeping on the mountain, because her mother sometimes appears in her dreams. Yua and Ganor return to the village, while Ryu remains behind for a while.
When he returns to the village, the story begins to take a dark turn. Yua and Ganor are nowhere to be found. None of the villagers recognise Ryu, and none of them have heard of Ganor or Yua either. The preacher allows Ryu to spend the night in the church, along with another orphan, Bow. That night, Bow and Ryu set off together into the big wide world, neither of them having anything to stay for. They grow up to become rangers, people with various skills for hire.
Various events happen, and Ryu ends up travelling further afield, noticing the taste for violence and death that appears to have grown in popularity. As he and his friends journey, they begin to meet people who seem overcome with greed and violence, people who eventually reveal their true colours as their desires take full hold of them, and they turn into monsters. Ryu and his friends travel onwards, to find out why this is happening.
The characters are far more evolved than those in the first game. Ryu is the same as always; blue haired and strong, using a sword to fight. In this incarnation, he learns healing magic, and is a much stronger and more independent character than he is in, for example, Breath of Fire's III and IV. He can fish, and the mini-game is most similar to that of Breath of Fire III's system. There are very few types of fish compared to later games, although there are Manillos which you can catch with gold like in III. There are also a few treasure chests at very fishing spots, and finding them makes for an interesting short sidequest. Based on speech, this may well be the most personable incarnation of Ryu, excluding V. You also get to learn more of his past and origins than in other games, including playing through a short flashback segment as one of his parents, similar to a sequence in Final Fantasy IV.
As I mentioned, Bow is Ryu's best friend, going back to their childhoods. Although he remains out of your party during the formative parts of the game, he's reasonably useful. He learns white magic as he levels up.
As always, there's Nina, the Winged Princess of Windia. Born with cursed black wings, she was cast out of the royal family at a young age, although she still tries to do what she can for the country. As is explained later in the game, the Windian's lost their ability to fly in the years between the first game and this one, so Nina's wings are purely ornamental. She's taller and older than her ancestor was throughout the first game, but, as always, she has the traditional short blonde hair. She's a black mage this time.
There's also Katt, a feisty red-headed Woren female. Although young and clumsy, she's an important member of your team and provides much of the comic relief, as well as participating in a rather sweet yet tragic romantic subplot. Although she learns some very powerful spells at ridiculously low levels, she won't have the AP to use them until the end of the game, if then.
Rand, similar to Ox from the first game, is another white mage. Although he doesn't learn the advanced spells Bow does (or at least, not at such low levels), he's almost as powerful as Katt or Ryu, making him a more generally useful fighter.
Jean is, literally, a frog prince. He fights with a rapier (Nina's now using a magic ring), and learns black magic, similar to Nina's. Spar is a mutant vegetable, similar to Peco of BoFIII. He learns generally useful spells, such as warp and exit, which are just as useful as they were in the previous games. He's not the only character to learn these spells, however. Sten is a Highlander, and resembles a monkey. When he first joins the part he is shown as a ladies man and a trickster, but upon reaching his hometown more is shown of his personality. He occupies the place of thief in your party. He can't steal, but he does have the quick speed and mid strength attack which marks thieves.
Every character gets their own mini subplot and back story, and although the sheer amount of characters is still slightly overkill, the personality of each of them is much improved over the first game.
There's also a secret optional character, the only one I know of in the Breath of Fire universe. It's Bleu/Deis, the immortal from Breath of Fire's I through IV, and my favourite character. She's exactly the same as she was in the first game, and I love her just as much. There are also cameos from other ex-teammates, namely Nina, Bo and Karn.
Once more, the battle system is turnbased. The random battles are, once more, annoyingly enthusiastic, although, yet again, auto battle helps (auto battle being a command that enables your party to keep on attacking without any input from you). There's also a new element to the battle system - as well as each character having their own special command (for instance, Ryu has 'guts' an ability that you can use to restore a few HP), certain characters, except for Ryu and the secret character can merge with Shamens, to evolve their powers and possibly change their appearance. This ability has its limits; while shamanized, some characters will not have access to their on screen abilities (such as Rand's ability to knock down walls and Sten's crossing over small gaps) which are sometimes necessary for getting around a map. Also, the shamanization will disappear when the character in question loses more than half of their hit points.
There's also a rather large subquest, similar to the faerie colony and ant colony of Breath of Fire III, IV and V. This time it's known as Township - you get your very own town, and you can recruit people to live there. Some are helpful, some are definitely not, and you have to choose carefully because you only get six houses to fill. You can also unlock the flying Township, depending on certain decisions and actions taken. Doing so will allow your township to fly, and will unlock the best ending.
Speaking of endings, there are three. Once more, it's possible to get them all in one playthrough, although it's far trickier than in the other games. All of the endings are believable, and none are disappointing.
There are many references to the first game, as well as things which could be linked to later games (which are not implicitly stated to be sequels). For instance, the final boss and main antagonist is related to the final boss of the first game. This is also the first game where Baba/Babadel appears. He is later known as Bunyan, and appears in Breath of Fire III and IV, occupying a similar role. The town of Tunlan remains largely unchanged. You still need the Magic Hood (or Cowl) to understand the citizens, and the Famous Flute (or Maestro) to understand them. Their national treasure is the Therapy Pillow, previously known as the Bolster, which can be used to enter people's dreams (a sequence which occurs in the first game with Mogu and the fourth, with Ershin). It's also somewhat ironic that while the previous Queen of Tunlan was obsessed with her looks to the extent that she didn't care about anything else, the current queen is obsessed only with food. The power of the Gills, which are used to walk underwater, are greatly reduced. You can know only use them in shallow water, or for a very short time in deeper water, unlike in the first game, where you could walk around on the ocean's floor to your hearts content. As I may have mentioned, the Windian's power has been reduced too. Their wings are now purely ornamental, and in III they have no wings whatsoever (except for Nina III, of course, a genetic throwback). The Light and Dark Dragon Clans appear to have disappeared, although it can be assumed that they merged together, as they stated they would at the end of the first game. The Thieves Tomb in the Arad Desert still exists, and Karn is now famous for having defeated its secrets. It's also said that Karn is responsible for the new traps and tricks, to test new generations of thieves. The Arad desert has expanded, and it's theorized that it's the Desert of Death from III. There are many other references, which I can't explain without spoilers. However, you can find a long list on Wikipedia if you wish.
I'm not sure what I can say for the summary. It's a great game, and I really enjoyed it, but if you're not an aficionado of the series then chances are, you won't. There's a lot of great features and likable characters, and although the amount of towns is smaller (which, incidentally, makes each one more unique) the world map appears to be larger. All in all, great game.
...there are a few new observations I wanted to add. Firstly, the whole game feels somewhat...snappier, for want of a better word, than the first Breath of Fire. The script and translations are also slightly better, with more bits of throwaway conversation and moments of humour. The general environment has more detail, and you can tell that the series is inching into the nineties.
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