Breath of Fire II - Secret Character

Breath of Fire II has a secret character who you can get as soon as you are able to travel the seas.

From the beachspot south of Hometown, head south, following the coast line.  Keep following the coastline until you curve around to the north, and land there.  You should be on a desert, with brown mountains to the northwest, and the Thieves Tomb visible just past them.  Walk around here until you end up in a secret room.  Be very careful - these battles are way out of your league, if you do this as soon as possible.

The secret room is a little north-east of the beach spot, and is visible if you look very closely.

Inside, you'll meet three spirits.  Speak with them, then head back to Hometown.  There, head to the magic school, and speak to the girls on the second floor.  One of them will join your party.

Breath of Fire II - Wildcat Cafe

Wildcat Cafe is a very strange subquest in Breath of Fire II.

You'll first need to find the cave by the waterfall, southwest of the Witch's Tower and west of Simafort. Once inside, read all the signs and follow the directions. Your party will end up replacing their weapons and armour with napkins, plates, and forks, and rubbing salt and pepper on themselves. Finally, choose "rare".

Your party will now have to face a battle with a Wildcat Chef. Even without your weapons, this doesn't have to be difficult. I used Ryu's FireDragon, and had Katt and Sten attack. Nina didn't even get a turn.

Afterwards, follow the chef into the bar. He'll ask you some questions. Answer no, then yes, and he'll teach someone the ChopChop skill, which is very useful later, for levelling. I chose Katt, personally.  Any other answers will result in a raise of 16hp for all characters.

Breath of Fire II - Fishing for Fun and Profit

A quick way of getting enough money early on to properly outfit your characters in Breath of Fire II.

In Gate, grab the Treepole from the dresser in the church. When you reach Hometown, fight a few battles, then buy eighteen worms, for 72 zenny.

Outside of Hometown, fight a battle or two until the fishing spot to the west appears. Use your worms and the treepole rod to catch as many fish as possible (keep the line as short as possible to reduce the risk of it breaking. I'd also recommend watching these videos). When you have enough zenny, buy the Stickrod,which will make the process much easier. It shouldn't take you long to amass a few thousand zenny, enough to get you through the first part of the game.

Breath of Fire II - Storyline

I'm not going to list items or the names of bosses and things this time, just pure story.

Breath of Fire II begins with a giant eye opening, and a voice saying that it doesn't have enough strength, and pleading with someone, everyone, to pray to God.

Ryu and Gate

Ryu Bateson lives with his sister Yua, and their father, Ganor, a priest of St Eva. Yua runs away at naptime, so Ganor sends Ryu to fetch her. The other villagers talk about the death of Ryu and Yua's mother, three years before, and another, later, occasion, when monsters attacked the village, and Ganor and a dragon held them off. They tell Ryu that Yua often plays up at the back mountain, where the dragon now sleeps.

Ryu heads up to the back mountain. The dragon's claws protect doors to the east and west, while it's head protects the one to the north. There, Ryu finds Yua.

Suddenly, a monster attacks. Ryu tries to fight it off, but he isn't strong enough. Ganor appears, and uses his powerful magic to defeat it, before scolding Yua and praising Ryu.

Yua explains that when she sleeps by the dragon, she sees her mother, and Ganor laments his failure in protecting her. Yua and Ganor leave, and Ryu closes his eyes. He sees a huge eye.

Ryu's mother highly resembles Sara, the sister of the Legendary Hero.

Ryu follows his family back to the village, but quickly finds that no one recognises him, or has ever heard of his family. He heads back to the church, to talk to the priest there, and is given a bed for the night.

The night, the other orphan staying there, Bow, takes the candle and leaves to find a better village to steal from. Ryu decides to stay, initially, but then runs after Bow. The two head out of the village, and it starts to rain.

They head for a nearby cave, where Bow lights their way with the candle. In front of them, they see a weird snakey thing, and Bow insists on following it. They eventually catch up, only to find that it was the tail of a huge monster. The thing flings Bow into a wall, and babbles at Ryu. It asks him if he believes he is the one, the chosen child, and challenges him to prove it.

The monster easily breaks every bone in Ryu's body, but calls him the destined child, and challenges him to open the gate. It says that that is when he will know the strength of God.

It was like waking from a long dream...

But now his father and sister disappeared and no one recognised him.

He dreamt of a horrific demon who ripped his mind and body apart, but it remains just a dream.

Yet the vision remains strong.

Deep waiting in the corners of his mind he hears it calling...

"You are the one" the demon screeches, and he realises that it is true.

In his mind, he sees a tower.

Hometown and Bow

Ten years later, Ryu and Bow have grown up to be Rangers, people who can be hired for any tasks.  Bow begs the guild leader for work, and they are given the task of finding someone's pet.  Bow initially refuses, but agrees when he meets the owner of the animal, Windian Princess Mina.  Hoping that she'll reward him with a kiss, Bow and Ryu head to Mt. Fubi in the south, and to the ruins beyond it.

In Hometown, they find a statue of the old Dragon god, who laments that no one prays to him any longer.  They find another old statue in the ruins beyond the mountain.  On the way to Mt. Fubi, they run into a travelling circus.  The star attraction, the Grass Man, looks sad.  The workers tell them that they're heading to Windia next.

On Mt Fubi, Ryu and Bow fight three harpy sisters, who appear to have been picking off animals and travellers. They also ran into a hunter named Azusa, who'd gotten lost on the mountain while hunting an animal.

In the ruins, they meet an old man, Niro, being terrorised by cockroaches.  They save him, then rescue Mina's pet pig, Suzy, from his cookpot.

Returning to the guild, they find Mina, who thanks them, and ask them to visit her in Windia.  The guild leader pays them their 500 zenny, and, disappointed, Bow suggests that they return to their room.

In the night, a man, Kilgore, appears, to ask Bow to liberate his stolen Magic Hood.  Bow agrees, and decides not to wake Ryu.

The next day, Bow is still missing.  Their lady and the other people in the block have no idea what's happened, but, outside, Ryu hears people talking about Bow being wanted for burgling Trout's mansion.  On his way to the north of town, a blue-haired, bat-winged woman crashes into him.  Eventually, Ryu found Kilgore, who told him that it was his fault, and pleaded with him to save Bow.

Ryu headed back to their room, where Bow was now waiting for him.  Bow explained that he'd been trying to liberate the Magic Hood, but as he made his way through Trout's mansion, a girl with blue hair and bat's wings ran into him.  When he walked down the way she'd come, he found the place ransacked, and the guards right behind him.  The girl he'd seen had taken everything.

Ryu and Bow agreed that they needed to find her, to prove Bow's innocence - but to do that, they had to avoid the guards.  Bow hid in the trash, and Ryu carried him out of town, and all the way to Niro, in the ruins.

When they got there, Bow explained what had happened.  Niro agreed to let Bow stay in exchange for him hunting and repairing the building.  Niro also suggested that Ryu ask about the suspicious woman at Hometown or Coursair, to the east.  Ryu headed to Coursair.

Katt and the Coliseum

In Coursair's church, Ryu met a very charismatic man named Ray, and a doctor named Kay who wanted her own office.  In the bar, Ryu met a man named Poo, who wished someone would build him a house.  He waited in the bar till evening.

That evening, Ryu heard from the other patrons about a girl who would be fighting in the coliseum.  He also found that the tickets were sold out.  A large, odd-looking man named Rand suggested that he ask the lady's opponent, Baba, if he, Ryu, could take his place.  Baba lived in Tag Woods.  Ryu headed to Tag Woods.

Ryu eventually found Baba, who, offended at the suggestion, attacked him.  After being beaten by Ryu, Baba had a change of heart, and gave him his axe.  He also vowed never to fight again.

Ryu headed back to speak to Rand.  When Rand saw the axe, he assumed that Ryu was Baba, and was disappointed at how normal he looked.  Confident in his disguise, Ryu picked up a few herbs at the item shop, and headed to the Coliseum.

Inside, he was told that he needed to attend a final interview with the Dir. HR which turned out to be a battle.  After winning, Ryu went to speak to the manager, Augus.  Augus told him that he'd already decided on 'Baba' torturing and killing the girl, as the audience enjoyed that kind of thing.  Augus told Ryu that they'd be throwing a poison dart at the girl during the fight, and this Ryu''s payment was waiting in his dressing room.

Ryu took the 1000coins from his dressing room, then headed outside to put all his cash in the bank.  He didn't trust these people one bit.

After Ryu had spoken to the soldier in his dressing room, Rand came to see him.  Ryu explained the situation, and Rand agreed to go and buy two antidotes - if Ryu and the girl both took one, neither would be affected by the darts.

There was a flaw in this plan - the girl refused to listen to Rand.  Rand told Ryu to gently knock the girl unconscious and protect her from the poison that way.

As Ryu headed to the battlefield, Augus told his soldiers that he didn't care who the poisoned darts hit - either fighter dying would make a good show.

The girl...didn't have blue hair and bat wings.  Instead, she was a red-headed member of the Woren tribe, named Katt.  Ryu tried to tell her about the poison, but, again, she refused to listen.

Ryu managed to disable Katt, and pushed her out of the way of the poisoned needles., instead getting hit by them himself.  He woke in the inn, listening to her wondering how to apologise to him.

Ryu and Katt decided to join forces, and headed back into the Coliseum to confront Augus.

In Augus' office, Katt and Ryu ran into Rand.  Augus was babbling about God's approval of his "scenario".

"We make you fight each other...and hurt each other...we turn that into a show!  And, the enjoyment of all your warped minds becomes the strength of our God..."

Augus transforms into a monster, and attacks, decided that, if it can't be a show, at least they can be killed in style.

After being defeated, Augus groaned that the seed had still been planted, that they could not stop his God by knocking him down.

Rand asked him what he meant, and Augus laughed.  He told them that God's world was coming.

Rand and Katt decide to stick with Ryu, or "Baba", as they still know him.  Ryu decides that they can both help Bow and Niro, and they all head to the ruins.

At the ruins, the party splits up again.  Rand stays to help with the repairs while Ryu and Katt look for the thief.  Rand mentions that he's heard of a similar person in Hometown's Magic School, so Ryu and Katt head there.

Nina

As Ryu and Katt walked through hometown, they heard an explosion.  Running over, they saw a blonde girl with wings being pestered by a group of thugs who wanted to take her to their boss.  She apologised for hurting them, but said that if they didn't leave her alone, she wouldn't hold back.  Nina headed back inside the magic school, as the men ran away, and Katt, impressed, begged Ryu to let her learn magic too.  He agreed, and they headed inside the school.

From students in the magic school, they learned that Nina's black wings for unusual for Windia, where everyone else had white wings.  They also heard about the Joker Gang, who gathered at Mt. Rocko in the east.

Upstairs, they overheard Nina talking to an instructor, Yoji.  Katt interrupted, and begged Nina to teach her magic.  She told Nina that, if she did, Katt and Ryu would get the Joker Gang for her.

Yoji exclaimed at her braveness, but told her that it was impossible - Katt didn't have time to learn magic to defeat the Joker Gang.

Just then a member of the gang burst in.  He told Nina that they'd kidnapped her sister, Mina, the girl who's pet Bow and Ryu had saved.  Nina followed him.

Ryu realised that, if Nina was Mina's older sister, she must be a Windian princess, too.

Furious, Katt insisted that she and Ryu follow the gang, and rescue Nina and Mina.  The two headed to Mt. Rocko, to the southwest of Corsair.  They headed into the cave surrounded by mountains.  A hood challenged them at the interest, but he was no problem.

Inside, Katt and Ryu found that all of the Joker Gang were related.  They also met a man named Win, who said he only lived in the cave because he was homeless.

They told the guard that the bosses' nephew's name was 'Pain', and he let them through,  However, they failed the next test, and this guard attacked them, along with a poisonous spider.  After defeating him, they headed deeper into the cave.

After knocking out another guard, Ryu and Katt found the boss and Nina.  They hid and watched.

Nina demanded that her sister be returned to her.  Joker brought Mina out, but told Nina that he'd only free her if Nina vowed to become his slave.  He used his men to grab Nina, and keep her from escaping.

Disgusted, Ryu and Katt decided to quietly free Mina.  Katt snuck up behind the one guard holding Mina and knocked him out, before Nina gave her oath.  Joker set his other hoods on her and Ryu, but they were quite easy to defeat, although they did keep calling for backup.  After the battle, Nina hit Joker with a spell, and managed to bury him in rubble.  As Nina was thanking Ryu and Katt, behind her, Joker transformed into a monster.

After the battle, Mina told Nina that she'd left the castle because she wanted to see her.  Both sisters thanked Ryu and Katt.  Ryu and Katt agreed to help escort Mina back to Windia.  On the way out, they grabbed all of Joker's treasure.

When they reached Windia, Mina convinced the guard to let them through.  They had to make their way through the Dead Maze under the castle in order to reach the city proper.

Ryu spoke to the prisoners along the way.  One claimed that a child with dark wings had been born to the Royal family, and that this heralded disaster.  The man next to her told them that the old lady herself had cast a spell to cause disaster.

A nurse, in another part of the maze, told them that she'd once taken care of a dark-winged child, who'd been sent away, as her wings were a bad omen.

A little way through the maze, Mina said, "Nina, everyone will be shocked when we return, won't they?!"

Nina didn't respond.

Another person in the maze told them "According to legend, a person with black wings will ruin Windia."

A little later, Mina said "I wish you could come home...every once in a while."

Outside of the maze, the party ran into guards.  Mina ran into the Queen's arms, while the soldiers questioned the rest of the party.  Mina told them that she'd had her sister bring her back, but the Queen contradicted her, telling them that "Mina does not have an older sister."

Nina apologised, and said "your princess seemed to have been lost, so we..."

Confused, Mina asked what they were talking about.

The Queen asked the soldiers to thank the party and escort them out of the castle.  She added "Mina, you must also thank them."

Outside of the castle, the guard gave them directions back to the east.  Katt asked Nina what was going on, and told her she liked her wings.

As the party walked into Windia proper, they ran into a monkey conducting a magic show.  He convinced Ryu to let him make him, Ryu, disappear.

Katt and Nina demanded that the monkey, who introduced himself as Sten, return Ryu.  He claimed that he couldn't, and commenced flirting with both of them.   Behind him, Nina saw Ryu start to dig himself out of the ground.  As Sten decided he'd like to date both Katt and Nina, Katt saw Ryu and hit Sten with her weapon.  Sten wormed his way into the party, giving his life to Katt, and then they were four.

A few people in town mentioned recent burglaries by a blue-haired, bat-winged woman, who fled west.  The party decided to head to Capitan.

A few other people talked about the Great Bird, a transformation that Windians were formerly capable of.  It was rumoured that the Royal family still retained the talent.  Someone else mentioned a gap to the south, the one the guard had mentioned.  He said a highlander with long arms could probably cross it.  A lady named Barretta in the weapon's shop wished for her own business, while a man in the Inn wished to sell fish.

Outside of Windia, the circus was waiting again.  The workers told them that they were going to Tunlan next.  The Grassman looked even more depressed.

The party also passed a hunting lodge.  They were looking for an Uparupa, for which they were willing to pay 10,000 zenny.  They wanted it to sell to a circus.

One of the hunters told them that, when the owl fruits bloomed, a beautiful girl appeared, so he'd been waiting for her.  He told them that he intended to sell her, of course.  The party continued west, to Capitan.

In Capitan, the party met a travelling salesman named Leminton, and a painter named Locker.  They also learned that, after the well ran dry, all the village's children had fallen in.

The party went to investigate and fell in themselves.  Inside the well, they ran into Ray, from Coursair, who fought off a monster that attacked them.  He explained that the well was infested, and asked them to help.

The party rescued a child, and fought off some of the monsters.  Afterwards, the entire well started shaking.  They hurried back to Ray, who exclaimed that the dam must be bursting.  As they ran to escape, Ray managed to cast a spell to create a barrier, stopping the water.  He asked them to quickly save the rest of the villagers while he held it.  They did so, before heading back to tell Ray.  Luckily, everyone was able to outrun the water.

Outside, Ray asked to be taken to "where the members meet".   The party headed back to the ruins.

Once there, they found that the old house had been repaired, a new one had been built, and the ruins was now called the Township.  Ryu asked Ray to give the blessing to Nina.

The party headed back to Capitan, where a strange girl insisted on borrowing Ryu for a bit.  When she'd got him home, she explained that she and her granny were experimenting with the idea of uniting the power of shamans with other people.  However, Ryu's power was far too strong, and ended up setting the forest on fire.  Afterwards, she explained that this was Ryu's dragon power, and she was surprised to find it still existed in anyone.  Granny also insisted that Ryu now find them a house.  Back at the township, they insisted on taking the one that Bow had built for him and Ryu.  They also ordered Ryu to fetch a carpenter from Capitan.

In Capitan, Ryu learned that the bat-winged girl had taken a boat to the north, to Simafort.  He sent the carpenter to the Township, and the party got on a ship to follow the bat-winged girl to Simafort.

From the harbour, they headed through the nearby woods.  Halfway through, they came to a swamp, with a number of frogs sitting around it.  Suddenly, a voice spoke to them.  A giant frog arose from the swamp and told them he'd had a spell cast on him.  He asked the party to head to Witch Tower in the west, to ask the witch to remove the spell.

The party walked all the way around to the tower, stopping to rest with a man who was camping by the dragon statue.

Inside the tower, the witch made them fight for her amusement before she would open the gate.  After slaughtering three enemies, they were allowed through.  In the next room, they saw two statues, with a person inbetween them.  The person tried to warn them that the exits were closed, and that the witch was twisted and would do terrible things to them, but then he was turned into a statue too.  They saw many of these statues, on their way through the tower.  Finally, they ran into Nimufu, the witch.  She offered to turn the frog back if Ryu became her pet.  Ryu backed away in horror.

Angered at not being liked, Nimufu attacked, saying she'd kill him first, then play with him.

When defeated, Nimufu cried that no one loved her but a frog.  She told them that if a young girl kissed the frog, he'd turn back to normal.   Then she begged them to leave her alone.

On their way out of the tower, they noticed that all the statues were now people.  They also spoke to a water shamen, who had to hurry back to Granny.

Back at the woods, Nina kissed the frog, who transformed into a smaller frog.  He introduced himself as the Prince of Simafort.  While all this had been going on, the Township had been growing stronger.  The party headed back to take a look.  They then explored a strange restaurant that fed the strong and cooked the weak before heading to Simafort.

Once they arrived at Simafort, Jean was denounced as an imposter.  Stunned, the party were told to leave, but were stopped by Petape, the Princess of Simafort.  She told them that their Jean was the real one, and begged them to rescue him.

Asking around the castle, they found that, since "returning", Prince Jean had talked a lot about St Eva, and had been writing hymns about her.  They also found that the King had been acting oddly - he just mumbled.  They also heard about a thief who'd tried to take Simafort's Treasure Sword, who'd been put to work in the palace kitchens.

After defeating the Jailor, they found Jean, painting in his cell.  Jean told them that they could prove his identity with the Royal Ring, which he'd given to Nimufu, because she was lonely.

The party eventually found Nimufu at the Wildcat Cafe, attending a Witch School reunion.   After a little excursion which they all vowed never to talk of again, they had the ring.  Nimufu refused to believe that anyone would give anything so important to her.

Back at the castle, they challenged the imposter, but found that he had a ring of his own.  As a last resort, Petape challenged the imposter to a cooking contest against Jean, and Ryu was dispatched to find the ingredients.  The party headed through the castle dungeon, hunting down the ingredients.  It wasn't easy.  They saw a few of the imposter-Prince's guards die on the way through.

Although Jean cooked well, the Head Chef and the King both proclaimed the imposter-Prince the winner.  Petape appealed to the party to try the food, for a fairer vote.  Ryu tried, but he vomited.

Furious, Petape screeched that she would blow up the castle, and both Princes ran after her.  The Head Chef begged Ryu for forgiveness, and explained that the imposter had threatened him.  He asked Ryu to save Petape, Jean, and the castle.

The party followed them, and soon came across both Jean and Petape, who'd been attacked by the imposter.  The Imposter introduced himself as Kuwadora, transformed into a demon and attacked the party, for knowing the secret of the power under the castle.

Afterwards, the imposter called out to God, wondering how he could lose when he'd been granted special powers.  Then he tried to blow up the castle with the last of his strength.

Jean rushed in, and explained that it wasn't an explosion control - it was the hiding place of the legendary sword.  They'd told everyone it would destroy the castle to prevent burglars, but it seemed no one had informed Petape of this.

As the King thanked them, Petape gave them permission to take whatever they'd like from the castle, which was handy, as Ryu had already grabbed the Legendary Sword.  Instead of saying goodbye, Jean told them he was coming with them.

In Simafort's kitchen, the bat-winged girl was yelling about cockroaches.  The chefs begged the party to take her off their hands, and Ryu readily agreed.  The party headed back to Hometown, and took the thief to Trout's place.

Patty, the bat-winged girl, claimed, as Bow had, that Trout was a thief himself, and she was merely trying to get the items back.  Trout asked Ryu to check the basement for the thieves she claimed were there.  Ryu couldn't find any, and Trout thanked him for exposing the thief and asked him to leave.

Outside, the party ran into Kilgore, who asked them to bring Bow to him, so he could apologise.  The party headed back to the Township to pick up Bow, then back to Hometown.

Kilgore invited them all to dinner, where he asked Bow to steal from Trout's place again.  Ryu agreed to go with him.

Inside, they found a secret basement, which did indeed have a number of thieves locked up, including Patty.  Patty said that she told them so, and that she only stole from bad people.  Suddenly, Trout came back and caught them.  He asked Bow if he would steal for him; when Bow and Patty refused his offer, Trout decided to kill them, and transformed into a monster.

Afterwards, Trout whined that he'd just wanted to be rich - richer than anyone.  Patty gave Bow the Magic Hood before escaping.

Back at his mansion, Kilgore let Bow keep the hood, as a token of his appreciation.  He also wondered if Trout's greed had consumed his soul, and if something terrible was going to happen.  Bow agreed that a lot of strange things had been happening lately.  Ryu agreed that something bad was going to happen, and thought about all the people he'd seen who'd transformed into monsters because of their greed, or love of violence.  In his mind, he saw the eye again.


A young man's day...the voice of a demon...like a bad dream...The destined child.

He saw Gate.


Something...something evil...has begun to stir....this little stir is about to change...the world greatly.

On their way out of Hometown, another Ranger, Sylvia, asked Ryu and Bow to come to the Guild with her, for something urgent.

In Powell, the head Ranger's, office, a group of Rangers were talking about a huge demon they'd been sent to face, something far beyond their capabilities.  When Bow asked, they told him they'd been researching an incident in Gate, where a lot of the trees in the forest had died.  They also heard more about the large Demon, and realised it was the one that they'd faced as children.

The elder told them to look for the Grass Man, who could communicate with trees, and might find out what happened at Gate.  He warned Bow and Ryu not to be heroes.

The party headed south of Simafort, and soon found a hut which offered sight-seeing of the whale caves.  The owner was one of the thieves they'd freed from Trout, and he offered them a free trip.

Inside, they met a man named Maiyoru, and two dolphins, named Tree and Ton.  They explained that the party were inside the mouth of Grandpa the Whale, but Grandpa seemed to have been sleeping a lot lately, and they were getting worried.  It had all started when Grandpa had swallowed a big stone doll.  It was a scary doll that came out in a dream and said "sleep, sleep".

Maiyoru left then, riding on one of the dolphins.  He told the party to come and see him, in his to the west, if they had any questions.

The party headed down to the whale's stomach, until they ran into the stone idol.  The writing on it said that the person who woke it would be cursed forever.

The idol complained that it couldn't sleep, so it would put Grandpa - and Ryu - to sleep forever.

After the battle, the idol thanked them for letting him sleep and disappeared.  Grandpa was still sleeping, though, so the party headed back to his throat and kicked his adam's apple until he woke up.

In gratitude, Grandpa offered to show them around the ocean.  Tree and Ton suggested Tunlan, where the carnival was, and, remembering the Grass Man, Ryu agreed.

Spar

The circus was indeed near Tunlan, and the party headed there first.  They found that the carnival was much more popular in Tunlan, simply by showing monsters that were commonplace elsewhere but rare here.  Although Ryu could understand their speech, they couldn't understand his.

The party also learned that the Grass Man was going to be eaten by a monster, to try to attract more customers.  They went in and found the chief of the Carnival taunting the Grass Man, who responded civilly.  The chief told the party that he'd only stop the show if they were willing to bring him an Uparupa instead.

The party headed to the Uparupa caves, just south of Coursair, to try to catch one.   Along the way, they had to stop by Owl Woods for more Owlfruit.  While there, they took care of the girl the hunters had been talking about.

When Ryu finally caught an Uparupa, he couldn't bear the thought of giving it to the Chief.  The party let the Uparupa go, and headed back to the Carnival, to rescue the Grass Man.

Back at the Carnival, the chief transformed into a monster and attacked them.  Afterwards, the Grass Man let himself out of the cage, and told the party that he'd been waiting for them - or, at least, for people like them, people horrified by the atrocities in the world.  He introduced himself as Spar.

With Spar, the party hurried to the Great Sea of Trees, to the west, to ask the wise tree about Gate.

The Wise Tree told them that the information was buried deep within his mind.  He told them that, in order to find it, they'd need to fetch the Therapy Pillow - or, 'Bolster' - from Tunlan.  However, in Tunlan the party learned that they'd need a musical instrument in order to communicate with the people there.  They headed to Highfort, to the east, to see if they could borrow the famous flute.

When they reached Highfort, Sten told them that it was his hometown.  He told them that he'd never intended to go back.

Inside the castle, a soldier greeted him as Chief Sten, and told him that he'd thought Sten had died at the Goonheim war.  Sten told him that he'd run away, and that the hero of the Goonheim war was Trubo, who'd fought to the end.

The soldier told Sten that Trubo was looking forward to seeing him.  Sten said he couldn't face him, then left, telling the party that they'd need to get the famous flute themselves.  Talking to the other Highlanders, the party learned of Shupkay, a beautiful, bloodthirsty general.  They also learned that the castle had recently become filled with monsters.

Wandering around, the party ended up overhearing a war meeting, where Shupkay talked of taking over the world, and building an incredible weapon.  Realising that they'd heard her, Shupkay dropped them through a trapdoor.

Elsewhere, Sten wondered where Ryu and the others had gone.  He set off to explore.  One of the soldiers warned him about Shupkay.

Along the way, Sten ran into Trubo.  Trubo still held a grudge and challenged Sten to single combat.

After trading a few blows, Trubo revealed that he'd thought Sten was dead, and was angry at him for not coming home.  Trubo said he could forgive Sten leaving him - but not for leaving the Princess.  In his anger, Trubo then broke the bridge they were standing on, and told Sten he could only escape from it by defeating him.

Sten won, and fished Trubo out of the water below.  When he awoke, Trubo told Sten of how Shupkay was now controlling the Kingdom.  She intended to unlock the powers of the castle, using a member of the Royal family - the Princess.  Trubo and Sten decided to split up, and make their way to the Princess.

Eventually, Sten found himself in the Princesses room, where Shupkay was attempting to persuade her to help unlock the power of the castle.  Sten challenged her, but she dropped him through a trapdoor as well.

Sten met up with the rest of the party, and they all made their way upstairs.  Finally, they ran into Trubo, who'd been heavily injured by the security system.  The party smashed it.

Afterwards, Trubo told them that it had been guarding the control room - if they smashed it, Shupkay would be unable to use the castle as a weapon.  He told Sten that he'd take care of it, while Sten and the party rescued the Princess.

Shupkay intended to use a machine which took human emotions and turned them into energy.  She decided that the Princess's despair at seeing Sten killed would be enough, and attacked.

When she was unable to defeat the party - as a monster - Shupkay decided that she would use her own feelings in order to transform the castle into a flying fortress.  Downstairs, Trubo was unable to break the machine, and, upstairs, the party couldn't reach Shupkay.

Trubo had managed to do something, however.  The energy started going backwards, and Shupkay screamed that the castle would explode.  The party and the Princess ran to the elevators.  Unfortunately, they needed to be operated manually, and Sten offered to stay behind.

Afterwards, the Princess, Elforan, gave them the famous flute, and asked that, should Sten appear again, they take care of him.  She hoped he'd return someday.

The party found Sten on their way out.

In Tunlan, the party learned that the Queen was sick.  They'd have to cure her of her obesity before she'd help them.  They also learned of an old Magician, Gedd, who would be able to cure the Queen, if she hadn't banished him.  The party headed northeast, to the island Gedd had been banished to.

Old man Gedd insisted that he would only talk to women.  Luckily, he accepted the Seso-bonded Spar as female.  He still refused to help the Queen...unless, that is, he got a kiss from Spar.

With Gedd, the party returned to Tunlan.  Gedd examined the queen, and told the party that she was turning into a monster due to her greed.  The greed and selfishness in her heart made her vulnerable to demons.

Gedd gave the party a list of items to fetch from his mountain.  The party headed there, and brought back a Mirror and a Mushroom.  Gedd told them that they needed to head inside the Queen, to defeat her fat, and shrank them down with the mushroom. 

Once inside the Queen, the party used the Mirror to communicate with Gedd.  Once they'd finally gotten rid of all the fat demons, Gedd let them out.  The Queen agreed to let Gedd stay in Tunlan, and gave Ryu permission to take the Therapy Pillow/Bolster.  The party headed back to the wise old tree, Gandaroof

Once there, they entered his mind.  They found many memories there, including a prophecy of a dragon who would lead a brave group during times of trouble, and stories of a demon who took over one's soul when a person was vulnerable.  Ryu also learned that the dragon clan disappeared shortly after telling the tree that they had an important mission.

Finally, they ran into a creature that told them he wanted to destroy Gandaroof's memory, because he knew something that was inconvenient to the creature's God.  He also told Ryu that he was the one who'd caused everyone in Gate to forget him and his family.

Ryu destroyed him.

After the battle, the monster gloated that he'd already destroyed part of Gandaroof's memory before disappearing.  Speaking to some of the avatars inside Gandaroof's mind, the party heard of a Dragon who'd lead seven brave warriors to fight a great evil.  Outside, Gandaroof talked about the warrior again, as well as the horror of the devil-god who used such demons to control people.  He talked about a man who'd used the powers of the demon to possess people, but he couldn't remember his name.

Finally, Gandaroof talked about the demon destroying the trees, and people living to the south who would help them fight.

The Sims - Review

A repost of the review I wrote for the original Sims game, back in 2007.

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

The Sims is a life simulation game, essentially. More than anything, it's like virtual dolls and doll houses.

You create your family of Sims, choosing their clothes, faces and personalities. This early version has nothing like as many options as the later ones, but there are still several to choose from.

The personality system is simple; you assign a certain number of points to a number of categories, changing how active, social, clean, or whatever else your Sim is. Your Sim can be an adult or a child. Unfortunately, this state will not change, an oversight that was corrected in The Sims 2.

Once you've created your Sim or Sim family (up to eight Sims), you can move them into a house. There are various lots to choose from, and the game provides a few ready-made houses, some already furnished. Your family starts with around 20,000 simoleans. With this money, you can either buy a ready-made home and add items to it, or create something from scratch. You can move walls, redecorate, and add or sell furniture. Most people, however, find it much easier to live in a ready-made, or overly simple house for a while, until they have enough money to build the mansion of their dreams. Bills appear every three days, and are loosely based on the net value of your home.

Sims moods are based on several factors, which are shown in an easy to understand format. The factors include hunger, hygiene, fun, which is based on how bored or overworked they are, and tiredness. Each of these can be combated through the use of items – for instance, playing basketball or watching TV will raise the fun stat, while sleeping will make sure they're not overtired. You can either give your Sims a list of orders, or leave them to their own devices, which is really not advisable. If Sims are not cheerful, they refuse to study, and can be demoted at work if they are continually in a bad mood.

As for earning money, this involves a simple job system. Sims can get a job from the daily paper or by using a computer. Each job has set hours and wages. When it's time for work, a bus will come to take your Sim, and will return when they finish work. If they meet the requirements, they may also be promoted. Each career path has ten levels. Children attend school each day. If their grades are high, they sometimes receive 100 simoleans on their return to the family home. If their grades reach F and stay there, they are sent away to military school and are never seen again.

Going back to careers, the requirements for promotion usually involve a certain amount of family friends, and certain skill points, as well as having your Sim in a good mood when they go to work. Sims can earn skill points in various categories, including logic, and cooking. They can earn skills points by, for instance, playing chess, or studying cooking using a book from a bookcase. Most of these skill points are only used for jobs, but, for instance, learning how to cook means that your Sim is less likely to set the oven on fire. There are ten skill points available for each category, and each one is slightly harder to get than the last.

The Sims uses a basic relationship system. Depending on how your Sim interacts with other Sims, their relationship level rises or falls, to either +100 or –100. Positive interactions, such as talking, raise the relationship level, while negative ones, such as fighting lower it. The default is 0, and if your Sim does not contact the Sim in question, their relationship will slowly return to that level at the rate of 2 points a day. The relationship level is unique to each Sim – for instance, it's possible to love a Sim who hates you – although more often than not, each Sim's bar will rise by the same amount as the Sim they talk to. Some positive reactions, such as kissing, become negative reactions if the Sim in question rejects the action. Once the relationship level reaches 50, on both sides, the Sims are classed as Friends. Family Friends, which are needed for jobs, are the friends of any members of your family. Some promotions require a certain amount. Friendship can turn to romance, depending on the actions taken, but it is possible to reach +100, on both sides, without falling in love.

If your Sims do fall in love, however, and they live in separate houses, they can be married. The Sim proposed to will move into the family home, and if they are the last Sim living in their own home, they will also bring the cash equivalent of all their assets. They can then be murdered, if that takes your fancy.

Sims are born when two Sims who love each other very much agree to have children. Sometimes they'll be kissing, and a message will appear saying, "Shall we have a baby?" If you choose 'yes' a little bundle of joy will appear, near to where your Sims are standing. It will need constant care for three days, before it becomes a child. Sims can also adopt children, which will be heralded from a phone call from the adoption agency. Sims can be homosexual, and adopt children – it's a non-issue within the game.

Sims can also die, in a variety of interesting ways. They can starve, die in a fire, or drown, although that won't happen accidentally. One rather fun, but very sadistic thing that everyone does at some point is to create a Sim purely to be tortured. Mostly though, with care, your Sims can carry on forever.

There's nothing special to be said of the graphics. They're pretty good quality; your Sims will never be mistaken for live-action rather than pixels, but they're clean and realistic enough.

Loading times can sometimes be a pain, especially considering how addictive the game is. Playing it for seven hours straight is not good for your computer.

As pretty much every goal is player orientated, rather than decided by the game, the game will last just as long as you want it to. It's addictive, and compelling – my sister and I would fight over the computer – and is the grown up version of playing with Barbie dolls. The game does tend to be enjoyed more by females, although don't let that stop you.

In summary, The Sims is a fun addictive game, even in this early format. It's just as compelling as reality TV (before it was overdone so completely), only with an added control and involvement factor, which improves it immensely.

Koudelka - Review

A repost of the review I wrote three years ago for Koudelka.

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

The year is 1899. Through a horrible storm, a young woman makes her way to Neameton (also occasionally spelt Nemeton) monastery, somewhere out in Wales.

Finding no answer when she knocks on the door, she climbs to the roof, dropping her pendant into the monastery's magnificent courtyard in the process.

Finally, she kicks in one of the windows and climbs in through the roof. Therein, she finds a young man being menaced by a monstrous creature. He throws her his pistol, and you are plunged into the first battle of Koudelka.

After this short introduction to the battle system, you are further introduced to two of the main characters of the game; Koudelka Iasant and Edward Plunkett.

Koudelka, the title character, is 19 years old, and, as becomes clear throughout the rest of the game has had a somewhat traumatic life due to the manifestation of her psychic powers early on. Koudelka hears the voices of the dead; that's what brought her to the monastery, and what enables some of the game's creepier moments, as your party explores the darker areas deep within the old building.

Edward Plunkett, known in some versions of the game as Edward Brankett, is a 20 year old American/Englishman (again, depending on the version), who had heard about a rich man living in the monastery. Hearing about the amounts of money being spent and prostitutes being brought there, he claims that he decided to "put the poor man's fear of God into that rich bastard", which is the goal that brought him to Neameton.

Further on in the mansion, Koudelka and Edward run into the third member of their party - 45-year-old James O'Flaherty, a priest who, at first, does not reveal his intentions. Much of the conversation between the three characters consist of Koudelka and Edward arguing about James' varying prejudices. It's not like Edward and Koudelka get on perfectly, however - they argue a lot too. Unlike in most RPGs, the characters of Koudelka don't like each other very much. They are not together through choice, didn't grow up together, and don't even have to keep the peace because they were commanded to by some kind of superior officer. They stick together, at first, because they are three people in a scary monastery, where anything that moves is more than likely trying to kill them. They are together through fear, but this doesn't stop them sniping at each other, and, to be honest, it's fairly hilarious at times.

The voice acting is what holds this game together more than anything. It's amazing, particularly Koudelka and James. If you've played the sequels, I'd say it's better than Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Koudelka is a curious cross between an RPG, a strategy game, and a survival horror.

Your three characters are trapped within a small monastery. There are no shops; you are reliant on items dropped by monsters or found within the building. There are no inns, either, although your characters are healed at every save point and every time they level up. Then there are the creepy caretakers, the bodies littering the monastery, and the discovery of its history as a political prison; the ghosts are not happy about this, and lose no time in telling Koudelka so. Those that don't just attack, that is. Several documents can be found which add to the history of the monastery, and explain more of what's going on. However, in many ways, it seems their main purpose is to freak people out.

There are many cut-scenes and conversations which propel your characters through the plot, and several puzzles which tend to be either slightly too difficult, or slightly too easy. In essence, you run through the building, various battles, conversations or puzzles unlocking more areas to explore, much like in the later Project Zero (known as Fatal Frame in the US) games.

The battle sequences are an interesting combination of various genres. You are pulled into a separate battle screen, like in RPGS. Your characters move on a grid, like a strategy game, although the grid is always the same. Your characters can go no further forward than the enemy - you can't sneak up behind them. This allows for a small amount of tactics, such as having a weaker character hide behind someone else and use a gun. You can also pin your enemy up against the opposite wall, and prevent their moving while you pick them off. However, if they are strong enough to throw your characters back, they can do the same to you.

The stat system in Koudelka is also unique enough to be worth mentioning. Every level, your characters get 4 points to add onto any stat. Although the stat limit is 99, this means that, essentially, your eight stats only rise by a cumulative amount of four hundred points, assuming you level up as far as possible. This really isn't that many. However, many of the weapons and armour you can pick up raise your stats by a significant amount, considering the relatively low limit. If a weapon raises someones stats above 99, you will see the benefit - you just can't raise stats that high manually. The problem with this, or rather, the challenge, is that weapons break after a certain number of uses. This does go well with your limited inventory, but can be frustrating at times; for instance, when your best weapon snaps in half right before a major boss fight.

All of your characters can use the same spells and equip every weapon, and your skill with both weapon types and spells levels up with use. The spell levels affect the area of effect, and strength, while the weapon levels affect the strength and amount of attacks, rising up to three. The movements of the characters in battle look pretty good, considering the age of the game, and, to be honest, Koudelka is pretty gorgeous in a tough kind of way. However, getting back to the subject at hand, it's difficult to level your spells up enough to be really useful without some serious training. Weapon skills rise much faster than spell skills, and, luckily for some, bare-fist is a class; raising a characters skill either without a weapon or with a pair of knuckles equipped is a very useful strategy, and is easy on your inventory. The bosses in Koudelka are fairly tough, especially the final boss, and the optional boss, Gargoyle.

Released towards the end of the PlayStations life-span, Koudelka's graphics were pretty good at the time, and, in general don't look too bad now, although they're nowhere near as incredible as some more recent games. Koudelka, your on-screen character, moves fairly realistically, especially on stairs. She's also, as mentioned, very attractive in a tough kind of way. Not physically tough, but emotionally so; at first, she comes across as unnecessarily mean, but as you go through the game you come to realise why she is that way. At first, she's really kick-ass, and has some of the best lines in the game, but then you - or rather, I did, at least - really start to care for her. She's one of my favourite video game characters, right up there with my first love, Deis.

The movements could be compared most to the Project Zero/Fatal Frame series, which does seem to have borrowed a fair few elements from this game, while the in-battle movements most resemble the original Shadow Hearts. However, the game does have some loading problems, especially in battle sequences, which causes it to play slower. It's said that this is due to the style of the graphics.

Koudelka is a very short game, at around twenty hours for a slow play through. It has very few side-quests; there is the optional boss, Gargoyle, and the extra items. Gargoyle is amazingly tough, especially considering that he levels up with your characters, and the extra items are difficult to get. The game needs to be saved at a particular time - ie, 1 hour, 11 minutes, and 11 seconds - with a certain number of items in your inventory. If done properly, quitting the game and reloading will result in an extra item. This can be a pain.

There are three endings, and they mostly depend upon your actions towards the end of the game. If you don't find Koudelka's pendant, and have it in your inventory at the end of the game, you'll get the worst ending. Otherwise, it depends on how well you defeat the final boss, much like the Breath of Fire series.

The company behind Koudelka, Sacnoth, was originally made up of ex-square employees, and it's noteworthy to any Final Fantasy addict for that reason alone. Wikipedia states that;

"Hiroki Kikuta, most known for composing the music to Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu III (also known as Secret of Mana II) while working at Squaresoft, created Sacnoth in 1997 with funding from the video game company SNK. Unhappy with what he considered as the disjointed, juvenile, and stagnant nature of most RPGs, Kikuta had intended to take the genre in a whole new direction. Koudelka was to be his magnum opus, the game that would show the world just how far RPGs could go".

Although in a way, his vision did come to pass, with the next games released, the Shadow Hearts series, Koudelka alone is generally considered more noteworthy for being the prequel to that game, than a stand-alone. However, I played this game long before Shadow Hearts, and although not amazingly unusual by today's standards, it does have a charm all its own.

The game can be difficult to find now, and can be expensive; it's best bought second-hand from game stores who sometimes don't realise what they're dealing with.

In summary, Koudelka is a great game, although slightly let down by the short length and long loading times. However, the short play-time doesn't let down the amount of character development, which is a major part of the game. It's tough at times, but in my opinion, that kind of works. It's worth looking for if you enjoyed Project Zero/Fatal Frame, or the Shadow Hearts series (although, due to various plot links between Koudelka and Shadow Hearts, the games are best played in the order they take place.

It's difficult to define exactly why, but I guess what I'm saying is that Koudelka will always have a special place in my heart and on my shelf; despite its flaws, it's a great game. The plot is intriguing, and the occasional moments of humour are a welcome relief from the creepiness of the rest of the game. You really get to care about the characters, and when a few of them showed up in Shadow Hearts - which I wasn't expecting, since, although the games are linked, it's not in an obvious way - I was genuinely delighted.

Final Fantasy II - Review

A repost of the review I wrote for Final Fantasy II six years ago.

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

When the Death Emperor attacks Fynn, Firion, Maria and Gus are nearly captured. They manage to get away with the help of the Altair Resistance, although Maria's brother, Leon, is missing.

Still, they have more important things to worry about. Firion, Maria and Gus are roped in to help the resistance, with various other characters helping them along the way.

Your three basic characters are Firion, Maria and Gus, while the fourth character place is occupied by a constantly changing selection of characters. You have no choice as to when they join you, as it's based on plot.

Firion, Maria and Gus are all friends, whose parents were killed in Fynn. As there is very little plot in this game, compared to later Final Fantasies, there's very little character development, although Gus is able to talk to animals, and it's sometimes clear how much Maria misses her brother.

Gameplay is essentially the same as in many other Final Fantasies. There is a basic world map, with many more detailed town and dungeon maps. You are able to obtain a variety of vehicles, including chocobos, ships, canoes, sleds and airships.

Somewhat noteworthy is the fact that the world map is, like the world map at the end of Final Fantasy V, completely joined together. In other words, you can access almost any location fairly early on in the game, with sufficient grinding.

Speaking of grinding, the battle system of Final Fantasy II has lead to it being known as the bastard child of the series, and it's easy to see why that is. Unlike the other Final Fantasy's, II does not use an experience system. Instead, your stats increase or decrease based on how much they're used. For instance, a character's hit points will go up if they lose a lot of them in battle, as will their magic points. Their strength and weapon proficiency will increase as they attack, while their intelligence and the strength of their individual spells will go up as they use magic. Magic and Weapon proficiency levels work much as they do in Disgaea. Another similarity is the Inn system, which charges you according to the amount of hit points and magic points that need to be recovered. Unfortunately, you are unable to choose which characters to heal – it's all or nothing.

Essentially, what this means is that, rather than being able to wonder around and gain levels effortlessly, you must put some thought into training your characters. A glitch enables you to raise weapon and magic efficiency at a faster rate, which helps a little, although, still, much of the game will consist of training. Any character may equip any weapon or armour, and although at first, there is a slight difference between your characters stats, there is no reason for it to last. Much like Koudelka, you can train your characters to be proficient at anything you wish.

As in the first Final Fantasy, collection lists are kept, which show which percentage of items you have collected, and which monsters you have defeated. This is handy way of ensuring you don't miss anything.

The graphics show no great improvement over Final Fantasy – characters are still displayed as sprites over 2D backgrounds – but the world itself looks less fantastical, and the colours used are much more drab.

There are no real sub-quests in Final Fantasy II, although there is a small mini-game, which is unlockable once you have the sleigh. It's a basic memory game, consisting of matching paired images.

Final Fantasy II makes an interesting change from the more common experience systems. The characters are detailed only slightly more than the first Final Fantasy game, in both looks and personality, although the background characters and plot are far more developed. The game also includes many recurring features of the Final Fantasy series, including Cid and chocobos.

Every Final Fantasy has something to recommend it to a certain subsection of players, and this game is no different. It doesn't have the mainstream appeal of the overly hyped Final Fantasy VII, or the quirky memories of Final Fantasy IX. It would, I imagine, appeal most to die hard Final Fantasy fans, and to people who enjoy complicated leveling systems (Final Fantasy X, or Disgaea for instance).

In summary, I personally enjoyed this game, but felt that many elements could have been improved upon, and can see why some would not like it as much as other Final Fantasies.

Final Fantasy - Review

A repost of the review I wrote for the first Final Fantasy game. I was sixteen or so when I wrote this, so about six years ago.

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

Princess Sara of Cornelia has been kidnapped by the evil knight, Garland, and the kingdom has no idea how to save her. Until, that is, four strange warriors are seen walking around the town. They are quickly identified as the four Light Warriors of legend, and brought to the King, where they are asked to rescue the princess in exchange for the completion of a bridge to the next continent. It seems that this is enough, and the warriors agree. When they have rescued Sara and the bridge is completed, the four warriors continue on their journey.

Final Fantasy is nowhere near as plot driven as the later games in the series. Much of it is merely exploring, with no real driving force behind your characters until near the end.

Speaking of characters, I'm not sure if the beings in Final Fantasy can be described as such. You have four warriors, and must choose which class they are. There are only six classes to choose from; Warrior, Monk, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage and Thief. None of them ever speak (think Ryu from Breath of Fire), and none are ever addressed by name, although you are able to give them names.

Warriors fight with swords, and wear heavy armour. They are fairly strong with good attack and defence. Monks equip very little armour or weapons, making them fairly cheap, and their unarmed attack is high. Thieves, unfortunately, can't steal, but they are quick. Their speed is really their only redeeming factor, as the rest of their stats remain pretty low.

Red mages use white and black magic, although not the higher forms. They are also more limited than White or Black mages, as they have the same amount of magic points, but have more spells to choose from. Red Mages can equip light swords and armour, giving them decently average stats.

White and Black mages use white and black magic, respectively. White magic limits itself to healing, and a few holy spells to damage the undead, while black magic is the attack magic Final Fantasy have players come to know and love. Both Black and White mages have low attack and defence.

Final Fantasy is very simple, gameplay-wise, and is pretty much what you'd expect from a traditional Final Fantasy. There is a world map, and various towns which can be visited. Most towns contain weapon, armour and item shops, as well as Black and White magic shops. For each level of spell, there are four White magic spells, and four Black magic spells. Each character can learn three of each level of spell.

For example, the level one White magic spells are Cure, Dia, Protect and Blink, while the level one Black magic spells are Fire, Sleep, Thunder and Shape. The White mage can learn any three White magic spells, while a Black mage can learn any three Black Magic spells. The Red mage must choose three spells out of the options of Cure, Protect, Blink, Fire, Sleep and Thunder. Higher level spells are more expensive than lower level spells.

There's nothing really noteworthy about the weapons and armour systems; as a general rule, each town has slightly more expensive and better quality weapons and amour, which can be equipped depending on your characters class.

Battles are turn based, although your character and the enemies don't move in any specific order. Final Fantasy characters move in their own sweet, variable, time, which can mess up any attempt at strategizing.

There are very few sub-quests or mini-games to be found here. There is a puzzle, which is accessible once your party gets ahold of a ship. If you hold the X button, and hit Circle around fifty times, a new screen will appear with a basic sliding puzzle game. If you beat the best time (which is defaulted at around two minutes), you win several items, and 10,000 gil. Just to put that into perspective, one of the best weapons in the game costs 50,000 gil, and this mini-game is accessible very early on. Defeating it within two minutes is ridiculously easy – my record is 26 seconds – so unlike in many other games, earning money is never really an issue.

Another sub-quest involves Bahamut and results in a class upgrade for your characters – Warrior to Knight, Thief to Ninja, Red Mage to Red Wizard, and so on. This changes your characters look slightly, and enables them to use more varieties of spells, although they are still limited to three per level.

The graphics consist of sprites, on 2D, plainly coloured backgrounds. They have been improved from the SNES, but are nowhere near the quality of the PS2 or even the Playstation in its prime. Still, they're simple and clean, and if not impressive, at least free from the dreadful Final Fantasy VII arms.

One nice touch is the inclusion of collection lists. These detail how many items you've found in each location in a handy blank out of blank format. This allows you to check what percentage of treasures you've found, and exactly where you've missed something. There's a similar list for the bestiary. Filling both of these in unlocks several pieces of original artwork. Somewhat annoyingly, the fact that you get the airship so early on means that many field monsters will be missed in a normal play-through, so you'll need to go out of your way to get most of the normal monsters.

Also annoyingly, the only way to save permanently is when resting; in other words, whenever you wish to save, you must either rest at an Inn, or use up a sleeping bag, tent or cottage item. You can quick save at any time, even in dungeons. Quick saves will disappear when the machine is turned off, although you can use the traditional Final Fantasy soft reset (R1+L1+Select+Start) if you need to. A handy use for this is to avoid any and all battles – you simply save every few steps, and reset when you run into anything.

Gamers shouldn't go into this expecting anything like the depth of plot of the later Final Fantasies, which is unfortunate, considering it's what the series is known for. Still, the game is fun and simple, and fairly short. I completed it in around twenty hours on my first play-through, and I didn't miss a single item. The game has two modes, normal and easy. The main difference is the enemies hit points, and the cost of weapons, armour, spells and items.

In summary, it's a fun, simple game, and a must for any Final Fantasy fan. It's not a great introduction to the series, but, considering it's said to have saved Squaresoft from going under, they must have done something right. You might, however, wish to bear in mind that that was almost twenty years ago.

Breath of Fire III - Review

A repost of the review I wrote for Breath of Fire III. Again, this was around five years ago.

Warning: The following contains spoilers.

Breath of Fire III begins with a strange young dragon, who is found in a mine. Panicking, the dragon makes its way to the exit; unfortunately, it is caught, and caged. While being transported, the dragon manages to rock its cage to such an extent that it pulls itself off the vehicle being used to transport it.

Shortly after this, Rei, an orphaned boy who lives in the woods, finds a young boy, with no memory (or clothes) lying unconscious near a cage. This is your main character, Ryu, and this is where Breath of Fire III really begins.

Rei, Ryu, and another lost orphan, Teepo, live happily in the forest, until, after drawing unwanted attention to themselves, they are attacked and separated. Ryu begins to search for his lost friends, and soon discovers many things that change the objective of his quest.

It soon becomes apparent that, unlike in earlier Breath of Fire games, the Dragon Tribes - both Light and Dark - no longer exist. A large part of the plot consists of finding out why this is. It seems, from various hints given, that this game is a direct sequel to the previous games, although the time frame involved means that the world bears very little resemblance to that of the other games.

The plot isn't as strong as in other games in the series, and to be honest, that begins to drag the game down. If you've played the other games before, and consider this a sequel, you may feel drawn forward in order to discover why the world changed the way it did. However, this means that, during much of Ryu and his friends angst ridden conversations over the claimed evilness of the dragons and the mysterious events of the past, you may find yourself screaming at the screen. If you don't consider the game a direct sequel, you're more likely to accept things at face value, which means that certain other parts of the plot lose their poignancy.

Although the plot is dragged out more, I feel that the characters are not as developed as they could be. In Breath of Fire II, most of the characters had home towns and secret pasts which they had to face throughout the game, giving them more depth. Five out of six characters in this game are orphans, and only two out of the six have hometowns.

Your main character is, obviously, Ryu, the blue-haired swordsman. At the start of the game he seems to be around ten years old. About a third of the way through, several years pass, and Ryu is suddenly in his late teens or early twenties. Unfortunately, the older version is nowhere near as attractive as Ryu of Breath of Fire II, and has even less personality. As always, Ryu doesn't talk, and with no personal history whatsoever, he's not an overly endearing character. There's nothing to dislike about him, but then there's nothing to like either. As well as his obligatory Dragon transformations (about which, more later), Ryu learns some fairly useful healing magic, although the high AP cost related to the dragons means you won't want him as a main healer.

Nina, the blonde Wyndian Princess is another recurring character. Again, I don't like this version as much as previous incarnations, either. As a child she's sickeningly girly, and as an adult, somewhat annoying. She does, however, learn some fairly useful black magic, and the skills system allowed me to fill her inventory with spare healing and stat raising spells, too.

Rei, the young man who rescued both Ryu and Teepo is an interesting character. Early in the game, he's stronger and more agile than the other characters you can access. However, as an adult, Ryu surpasses him in almost all aspects. Although it's never commented on in the game, it's rather sad to see Rei, the boy who looked after Ryu and Teepo, who was once your strongest character, become a shell of his former self as an adult. He's a member of the Woren tribe, like Katt from Breath of Fire II and Cray from Breath of Fire IV. Throughout the game, he will probably be your fastest character, and he always has the rather useful "pilfer" ability, allowing you to steal from and damage monsters, much like the mug ability in the Final Fantasy series.

Momo is another interesting character. She's a red-haired engineer, who comes in useful at various parts of the game. She's also able to shoot through walls, which help you find some pretty interesting items throughout the game. Engineers occupy an odd place in Breath of Fire III's world; the only machines are rebuilt ones that come from some mysterious place across the ocean, so most of Momo's work is fixing machines, rather than building them. Momo also has a tiny robot named Honey, who makes herself useful in a variety of ways throughout the game.

In battle, Momo's another healer, and she also learns some useful stat boosting spells. She'll probably be your main healer throughout longer dungeons, since you may wish to save Ryu's AP for bosses.

Garr is a character made purely for strength. He's big, he's mean and he's ugly. He enters your party in an unusual way, and although he's a large part of the storyline at first, I found I'd almost forgotten him by the end of the game.

Peco, on the other hand is much more interesting. A mutant onion (yes, a mutant onion), Peco is normally neglected by players, which is a real shame, because, when used right, he can gain the highest HP and defence of anyone in your party. He's also an integral part of the plot at the end of the game. And he's cute, too.

The game play of Breath of Fire III has changed a lot since the previous games. The world map is unusual. There are no random battles. Instead, sometimes a '!' will appear above Ryu's head, signalling a random battle field, a small area which includes random battles and an item. It's possible to ignore these completely, when running through areas, or to purposefully hunt them down when levelling. This can mean that your characters end up underlevelled, but the joy of having no random battles offsets that. That's also handy because there's no airship, flying Princess, or similar device within the game, although there is a complicated underground transporter system unlocked fairly late. The battle system itself is almost identical to Breath of Fire II, although there are far more choices with regards to formations. You are also only allowed three characters out of your six in battle at once.  The drop rates are annoyingly low compared to some other games, and the exp/zenny to enemy difficulty ratio is a little too low early in the game.

Somewhat annoyingly, the camera angle in Breath of Fire III is offset slightly; it faces north-west. Since your character can only move in the four standard directions (you can't use analogue, only d-pad) this can make movement awkward. Another another feature is that you can only save while camping, or at an Inn. Camping itself is, however, a useful feature, as it allows you to replenish your whole party's HP and AP, much like save points in Final Fantasy X and X-2. If a character has died in battle, however, and was not revived by the end of it, their maximum HP will remain lowered until they rest in an Inn.

The amount of towns and the size of the world in this game is much smaller than in previous incarnations, which allows each town to have a more unique feel to it.

This game includes many ways to strengthen your characters apart from levels and equipment as in the previous games. Players are now able to apprentice under Masters, who will affect how their stats rise when they level up, and who will teach them their spells. Two of these masters are Ladon, the Dragon God, and Deis, the recurring character, and my favourite in the Breath of Fire universe. Although Deis isn't an active member of your party this time, she does play a role in the plot.

Another way to strengthen your characters is by learning skills from enemy monsters. This rather resembles the blue magic in the Final Fantasy series, except, in this case, any character has to a chance to learn various skills simply by guarding when the enemy uses it. Each character can have several skills at once, or skills can be moved between characters. This is useful, as it allows you to use characters in new ways; for instance, by giving Nina all the healing skills I found, I was able to use her as a spare healer as well as the attack mage she was designed to be.

Ryu and another companion also have the ability to transform into new forms. Ryu, as always, is a dragon. In this game, you can collect eighteen different Dragon chrysms, and, in battle, combine up to three of them in various ways, to tailor your forms to the enemy. This costs AP to set up, and more AP each turn to stay in that shape.

Another character also has the ability to transform, but this is far more risky, as, although the character is immensely strong, they are also berserk in this form. A third character can use a certain skill to control them, but since that is only in effect as long as the character remains alive and doesn't transform themselves (so you can't designate Ryu) it does have limits.

Breath of Fire III's graphics aren't amazing, and I doubt they were anything too special at the time. The characters look a little more polished than FFVII, but the backgrounds are far plainer and less exciting. Some effects, particularly in battle are rather interesting; for instance, there are no separate battle screens, the battle merely starts exactly where the characters are standing, almost like in FFX-2. Sometimes this means things can be difficult to see, such as when there are walls in the way. Ryu's dragon attacks can be impressive too (although none are as interesting as his final Dragon in BoFII), as are the other transformations in the game. The attacks of the final boss stand out too, particularly one which involves her stomach swelling to resemble pregnancy, before exploding outwards in a shower of red tentacles. Gross, but very cool.

This Breath of Fire is the first to include the Faery village subquest which appears in both sequels. Basically, you need to tell the faeries what to do in order to create a successful town; set some to hunting, some to building houses, then have some of them research jobs. The jobs are the most useful part, and the main reason for helping the faeries. There are six merchants, which carry some of the best pieces of equipment for your characters, as well as such things as a Casino (which allows you to win some rather good prizes) and a music store, which allows you to listen to the various game music whenever you like. The most useful part of the village, in my experience, is the Copy Shop. You can ask faeries to copy an item in your inventory. Although the success rate isn't amazing, you can keep resetting until you get the result you want, and by completely abusing this system (ie, with such items as the Ivory Dice, which doubles the experience and zenny given by enemies) you can raise your characters to amazing levels or simply get rich by copying and selling expensive items.

Breath of Fire III also greatly expands on the fishing mini-game from Breath of Fire I and II. There are many fishing spots, many more types of bait and rods, and much more skill to it. There are also Manillos which will trade you some pretty good items for certain fish, and the game keeps track of the size and types of fish collected, adding a competitive aspect. You gain points for catching fish of certain sizes, and gain a rank based on that. Although long and ardourous, the fishing game is also absorbing and enjoyable.

There's also a section of the game that involves a battle tournament, much like those in other games such as Tales of Symphonia, and Final Fantasy VII to name a few. Unfortunately, it isn't expanded beyond a plot-related section.

In summary, I didn't enjoy this Breath of Fire as much as the previous or even later games. This is the game where a lot of the features and concepts used in the later games originated, but the drawn out plot and lack of interaction between the characters means that it suffers quite a bit. All in all, this is probably my least favourite of the Breath of Fire series, which isn't to say that it's a bad game. Just that the others are better.

Breath of Fire II - Review

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.

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.

Breath of Fire II - Manillo Shops and Fishing Spots

A basic guide to fishing in Breath of Fire II.  I've embedded some videos which show you the basics of fishing here.  There are four different kinds of bait you can get, three of which are available in Hometown - worms, urchins, and shrimp.  Different fish go for different kinds of bait.  The fourth kind of bait is Coins, which can be found in some treasure chests, and are dropped (rarely) by K.Goblins near Windia, Mimics near Namanda, and Poltergeists near Simafort.

 There are eight different kinds of fish you can catch, as follows.

Fish	Lure	Description	Use
Sardine	Worm	A small, slim fish that stays close to the surface.  It's blue, if you look very closely.	Heals some HP.
Unagi	Worm	A small slim fish that stays close to the surface.  It's a pale lilac shade, but, again, it's hard to tell.	Heals some HP.
Bait	Worm	A medium sized fish, that lives at a medium depth.	Described as "look[ing] awful".  Reduces HP to 1.
Mackerel	Worm	A slim, grey, fish that lives at a medium depth.	Described as "look[ing] tasty".
Minnow	Urchin	Description	Recover AP.
Tuna	Urchin	Description	Treatment for poison.
Porgy	Urchin	A large fish that stays at the bottom of the sea.  A kind of grey shade.	Use
Snapper	Urchin/Shrimp	A large fish that stays at the bottom of the sea.  It's pink.	Recover bad status.

It's theoretically possible to catch all of these before you head to the Witches Tower, but it's a lot easier to do it with a better rod.  There are four in the game - the Treepole, which young Ryu can take from his chest of drawers in the church, the Stickrod which can be bought in Hometown, the Delux Rod, which you'll be able to find in the bookcase after Petape rescues you from drowning in Simafort, and the Charm Rod (more accurate details once I reach that point).

Certain fishing spots in Breath of Fire II contain Manillos, who will sell you special weapons and items. In all fishing spots, you can find fish, and in some, you can also find treasure.    It's generally best to wait till you've got the charm rod to go for these.  It's possible to fish them up with Coins as bait, it's just insanely hard.  I've mentioned where the manillo and chests are in the list below, and I'll include a more direct list either below that or in another post.

These fishing spots are in the order in which you can reach them.

Near Hometown

This fishing spot is just to the west of Hometown, and will pretty much always appear after a battle in the area. You can catch sardines and unagi here, using worms.

I'd highly recommend buying a lot of worms, and catching a lot of fish here, enough to buy all the good equipment in hometown and the StickRod from the item shop.  Worms cost 4 zenny, while Sardines and Unagi sell for 30 zenny each.

Near Coursair

This fishing spot is just to the northeast of Coursair. You should be able to see it when you're standing near the town.

A lot of people have trouble making this spot appear. Generally, fishing spots will appear after random battles, or after reloading the game from a quicksave (although, admittedly, that may have been an accident - I may not have noticed the spot was there when I saved).  Just be really patient.  I had some luck with it appearing when I fought directly to the west of it, where the land narrows, but, from there, you need to walk all the way south and then back north to reach it.  Using a Smoke might help.  Again, you can find sardines and unagi here.

There is a Manillo here, with equipment from Simafort.  To catch him, you'll need the Coin from Tag Woods.  Be very careful - like with all other bait, the Coin will disappear once the Manillo is caught, or should he escape.  Make sure you have enough zenny to purchase whatever you wish to.  I'd recommend about 5000 zenny per character.   Personally, I spend a happy few hours slowly fighting my way up to Windia, for the levels and the cash, which helped quite a bit.

His stock is as follows;

SilverDR - 1200Z
IronSH - 1200Z
SilkGL - 1200Z
IronML - 1400Z
KnightHT - 790Z

I generally just go ahead and find him after completing Tag Woods, to equip Ryu, who can use everything except the SilkGL.

Northwest of Windia

This one is pretty easy to find.  It appeared right after my first battle in the area.  The K.Goblins in this area sometimes drop Gold, for catching treasure chests and manillos.

You can catch Tuna, Minnows, and Porgies here, all with the urchin bait.  You can also catch Sardines and Unagis, but you're probably sick of those.  There is Bait here too (which is a kind of fish), who like the worm bait.  You have to let it sink a bit.  Porgies are very strong, and difficult to catch with your current rod.  There was also another fish in here (that looked a lot like the Bait, and was probably a Mackerel) which wouldn't bite at all.

If you run out of bait, then head south.  If you put Sten in the lead where you see the broken bridge, and hit 'A', he'll pull you over to the other side, and you can walk back to Hometown to buy some.

North of Capitan

Again, this one appears easily.  You can catch Sardines, Tuna, Unagi, Bait, Porgies, and Mackerels (I think they're Mackerels) here.

East of Simafort

South of the woods to the west of the harbour, where you first meet Jean, that is.  Northeast of W.Cape, east of the hut where you can rest for free.  This is another one that appears easily.

There's only one fish here, the Snapper, who will bite on a shrimp or an urchin, eventually.  I found him pretty easy to catch, when he did.  They sell for 1500 zenny, so it might be worth hunting down a few of them.

South of Wildcat Cafe

Wildcat Cafe being the cave near the waterfall, near Simafort and the witches tower. You can catch several varieties of fish here, which I won't list.  You already know at least one place to find all of them.

You can catch a manillo here, whos stock is as follows;

BusterSD - 2200Z
WiseRB - 3000Z
NationHT - 1800Z

You can easily do without these, especially if you invited Hekeller to live in the Township.


Northwest of W.Cape

There's just a sardine here. I gather there's also a manillo, but I have no gold atm.

Tunlan