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

GBA Cartridge Problems

I have a problem with my Breath of Fire II cartridge. It won't save.

Or, rather, it will save, but those saves get wiped when my gameboy advance is turned off. Apparently, this will eventually happen to all GBA carts. I gather from a quick google search that these cartridges have some memory inside, which will eventually wear out, and do this (the problem has been fixed with later things like DS games).

Oh hey, this explains why my old Super Marios cart for the SNES stopped saving reliably.

Anyway. The game plays fine, so I have a few options.

1. Buy a new copy.
   It's like £17 on amazon, with shipping, so I'd rather not.
2. Open the case, remove the (soldered in) memory, and solder in a new one.
   Again, I'd really rather not. Bartelmy does not do so well with the hot burny things. Plus, you know, I'd need new memory, and a soldering iron, and to know how to solder....
3. Give it up as a lost cause, and skip to Breath of Fire III.
   I'd rather not. It feels like cheating if I skip it. Plus, I ordered the official guide for III, and it hasn't arrived yet. I want to play it through with the guide (I already did it without one, not that it matters. Bite me).
4. Play the entire game without once turning my GBA off.
   This one is doable. I generally keep my GBA next to my bed, but I can hide it under my bedside table or something at night. I keep it plugged into the charger, so that's not an issue. The game seems to save okay as long as I don't turn the machine off, so quicksaves for the ending also seem like an option. We very rarely get power cuts, and if we did, it wouldn't be an issue, so long as it wasn't off for ten or twelve hours straight.

...so, yeah, I'll be going for option 4. Fun times.

Breath of Fire II - Fishing

I had some trouble with fishing, initially. It's a useful thing to do, early on, as you can sell the fish for what is, relatively, quite a bit of money. Watching this video really helped.

...and so did this one, because hunting is a little weird, too.

Kali's Completion Project Update - Breath of Fire and other things

So, I've finally finished Breath of Fire. I can't tell you how many hours it took me, but I started it on the 28th of July and finished on the 24th of September. Bear in mind that I was studying over this period, and didn't play every day. I must also confess that I also dabbled in browser based games like Frontierville on facebook, Alter Ego, and Dreamworld and Epic Battle Fantasy III on Kongregate.

Frontierville is heavily addictive.  It uses pretty much every trick described here. It keeps giving you goals, and items to collect.  It uses an energy bar that refills over time, making you come back and over, so you're not wasting energy.  It doesn't charge, but it tries to encourage you to buy items rather than earn them, and advertise the game to your friends by making success dependent on having lots of other people you know playing (many people circumvent this by friending strangers who are already playing, who advertise on the official fanpage for the game).  Your frontier continually grows grass, trees, wild flowers and stones, which you need to keep clearing, basically running to stay in the same place.  These and other activities give you random drops of rare items.

That last bit is what makes the game easy to quit.  Ignore it for forty-eight hours, and your frontier is so overgrown that it's just not worth it any more.

Dreamworld uses very similar techniques.  It has an energy bar that refills over time, and it encourages you to return every day.  It's not really a bad game, not fully text-based, but not really not, either.  It's a bit meh, overall.  No plot to speak of, really, just a series of repetitive missions, and some goals.

Alter-Ego is a text-based life sim.  You start off as a baby, and your character goes through various experiences as he or she grows up.  Often the game will let you choose how your character feels, and how they react.  Well, I say it lets you.  Actually, the game describes how you feel, then asks you, and rebukes you for contradicting it.

I found the game to be very sexist, in many ways.  Mostly, regarding sex.  Girls can't initiate it, or be eager for it, or feel ready for it at a young age - they always feel bad, after being pressured into it (despite the player choosing options like feeling good about it, and agreeing to it).  Your character will always feel bad if she chooses not to have children.

It's not a bad game, just quite close-minded.  The creator's opinions seem to come through very strongly, and they're not someone I would really like to spend any time with, to be honest.

 I played Epic Battle Fantasy III after someone complained about it here.  She's not wrong - the game does have all these things.  But, for some reason, it offends me much less than Alter-Ego.  I think maybe because Epic Battle Fantasy III knows it's silly and immature and sexist.  It's a very tongue-in-cheek, fourth-wall-breaking style.  I'm not saying that this makes it okay to be sexist, just that I feel it's better to know that you're immature and sexist, rather than having an overbearing opinion that this is the way people are, by some divine right.  At least that way, there's hope?  Maybe?

I may be biased though, I read Cracked for fun.

I may add the Epic Battle Fantasy series into my competition project.  I've got quite a while to consider it.  There's also a few other games I found in a friend's collection that I want to add, old psx games like Crash Bandicoot 2, and Spiderman, and so on.  We'll see.

Regarding Breath of Fire; I did manage to achieve my goals.  I finished the game, having found all of the Rod5 items, all of Puka's doors and Mogu's dig spots, and all of Karn and Ryu's transformations.  I also had everyone's best weapons, and possibly armour (I'm not sure, and don't really care).  Nina and Deis both had all of their spells learnt, unless they actually did have one left in that final slot (I really suspect they both have an odd number of spells).  I made posts listing where to find all those collectible and character-enhancing elements above, and I also wrote a post detailing the entire storyline.  It doesn't read terribly well.  I was trying not to embellish it too much.  I wanted to see how elements of the storyline show up in later games, and if I took too much artistic license, it wouldn't be an accurate representation.  That said, I wanted it to flow well.

At tricky points I referred to this guide  (to make absolutely sure I didn't miss anything), and to this one (when I got stuck in Obelisk, although it looks pretty thorough in other areas too).

I kind of feel the need to defend myself, here.  Firstly, I have defeated the game before, secondly, I used them to double-check.  Besides which, I don't think there's anything wrong with using guides.  There is a huge amount of satisfaction that comes from finishing a game yourself, but it's up to the player whether they want to use a guide on the first playthrough or not.  I generally try to get through a game once by myself, then use guides to complete it 100%.  If the level of frustration I feel at a certain part is ruining my enjoyment of a game, I will use guides to help me get through it.  Anyway.

I've also uploaded the maps I drew of the trickier areas (I wanted to be absolutely certain I didn't miss any treasure there), for future reference.  Once I'm done transcribing those into paint, I'll be ready to move on to Breath of Fire II.  For that, my goals are similar - best weapons, all dragon forms, and all unlockables/collectibles/enhancements/whatever.  I'm going to write out boss lists, but not a plot description.  I'll probably get started on that tonight or tomorrow, once I'm done with the maths coursework I need to finish.

Breath of Fire: Endings (Spoiler-free)

The difference between the good and bad endings, in Breath of Fire, is very simple.

To get the bad ending; ignore Sara's advice, and don't use Agni.

To get the good ending; transform into Agni. Bear in mind that, in order to use Agni, you must first have it, and, secondly, your party members must not be fused together in another form.

Breath of Fire: Endings (With Spoilers)

Warning: The following contains major spoilers.

There are two endings for Breath of Fire. To see both in one playthrough, I believe the easiest way is to quicksave the game after Tyr says "I haven't done anything. Don't hurt me."

You can then load from your permanent save, and head through the last dungeon again. Make sure you have Agni.

Speak to Tyr again. Agree to be her friend, and Sara will appear. Sara tells you, "Ryu, use the magic of Agni! She'll reveal her true self!".

Tyr replies "I am not! I've done nothing!".

Sara says "She'll fool you with her innocent looks. She's evil, but she'll hide it. Don't be fooled!"

Bad Ending

To get the bad ending, completely ignore Tyr's advice. Use Rudra and Puka to whittle away at her (approximately 21,000) hit points.

After the battle, Nina will say "it's finally over." Karn will agree, "it's about time!", and Deis will comment that "it was actually easier than I thought."

Ox says "We were much stronger, right Ryu? ...Ryu?"

Ryu is paying attention to Sara, who is fading away. She says "You've succeeded. The world is in your debt. Go! Warriors, Go!"

Karn asks "Go where?"

Nina tells him, "We've got to help people rebuild their villages and towns."

Karn says, "Oh, that's right!"

The party says "let's go!".

The screen fades to black, and you get to watch the credits.  Afterwards, you'll see Tyr again, who repeats "I haven't done anything.  Don't hurt me."    She then transforms into her creepy form.

Good Ending

Load your quicksave file. This time, when you battle Tyr, follow Sara's advice, and use Agni. After attacking her in that form, Tyr will stop the battle.

She says "You can't challenge me to a fight! You're only humans. I'll destroy you all."

She then transforms into her creepy form and says "I...don't believe this!"

After defeating Tyr as a six-headed snake goddess (with around 30,000hp), she'll say "You can't win humans. This is only temporary. I shall return," before disappearing in flames.

The sky behind her will transform into steel, which will begin to fall away. Ryu falls with it. Bird warriors from Winlan catch the party.

Outside Winlan, Sara's ghost says "I'm proud of you, Ryu. You turned the tables on the Goddess of Destruction. You and your companions completed the mission of the legendary warriors. This is the beginning of a new legend. I have watched you succeed. So, I have no regrets in leaving you."

Finally, Ryu speaks. "Wait!"

Sara turns back and says "Goodbye, Ryu. You made me proud. You are a true warrior."

Then she disappears. In her place, the Dragon Lord appears, who says "You have done well. I'll remember that you saved the world. This is the beginning of a new legend!"

Nina says "it's finally over." Karn agrees, "it's about time!"

The Dragon Lord told them "There is still much work for you. You must help those who lost much during the war."

Karn asked "Can't we take a break?"

Bo tells him, "A real hero doesn't quit until the job is done."

Nina adds "we're making history! We'll all be legends, someday."

Gobi says "that's right. Oh, don't forget, you still owe me money."

Karn moans "Again with the money! Is he worthy of hero status?"

The entire party says "let's go!"

A soldier says to the Princess, "Nina, we should return to the Castle. The king is waiting."

Nina tells him, "There's still a lot of work left to be done. Tell the King that I'll return when I'm ready."

As a giant bird, Nina flew all over the world. Mogu showed off his digging skills in Gramor. The party got lost in the desert, and Deis went back to bed. Ox celebrated the birth of his new child. Gobi set up shop. Karn returned to Bleak. Nina, Ryu and Bo mourned the stone robot at the volcano, before leaving Bo in Tuntar.

Ryu and Nina headed back to Winlan. Finally, Ryu returned to Drogen, where the light dragons were rebuilding. He didn't stay. Instead, he walked off into the sunset, thinking of his sister.

After this, you'll get a much better credit sequence, and you'll be thanked for playing.  Then you'll see a picture of Ryu and Nina, before seeing the words "to be continued" over a picture of Ryu from Breath of Fire II.

Breath of Fire: Weapons

Below is a quick list of the best weapons available in Breath of Fire, and how to find them.

Ryu - The tri-rang is easily his strongest weapon. It can be found behind one of the towers of the pagoda, as soon as Nina is able to fly. From Agua, head north until you see an island with two towers on it, and check behind the leftmost one.

Nina - PowerRP. Can be bought as part of Gobi's sidequest.

Deis - GlowCN. Can be bought as part of Gobi's sidequest.

Bo - HeroBW. Can be found in Mogu's digspot, to the southeast of Carmen.

Karn - The Icy Dagger can be found in Agua, as soon as Karn is available to unlock the doors. Check behind the pillars.

Gobi - The Sleeper can be bought as part of Gobi's sidequest.

Mogu - MystCW.  Can be retrieved from one of his dig-spots.

Ox - The Mallet can be bought as part of Gobi's sidequest.

Breath of Fire: Puka's Doors

At certain points in Breath of Fire, you'll come across strange doors set into the side of mountains. These can be opened by Karn's Puka form - simply place him at the front of the party and press A to breathe on them. The doors are located as follows;

North of Auria - you'll find a DarkBR here.
Southwest of Gust - you'll find a LoveBR here.
Southeast of Carmen - You'll find a WindBR here.

Random Repetition

What I really hate - and I suspect most people do - is the random repetitive element of certain tasks in RPGs.

Like fighting hundreds of a creature for a rare drop. Or, getting into hundreds of battles to find a rare creature. Or, opening a shop hundreds of times, waiting for someone to offer you the best weapons in the game. Or dodging hundreds of lightening bolts.

Speaking of which, I feel that Final Fantasy X is one of the worst for that. At many points, the game felt more like work than fun. Final Fantasy X-2 came as a welcome relief, after that.

Breath of Fire: Mogu's Dig Spots

In Breath of Fire, there are certain places on the world map where Mogu can dig down to find treasures.

Northeast of Camlon

You can obtain Karn's Doof form here.

East of the Stone Golem/Northeast of Tuntar

Here, you'll find an A.Ptn, an L.Ptn, a V.Ptn and a clog.

Island north of Winlan

Here, you'll find a V.Ptn, an S.Ptn and a Sash. Nina must be able to fly to reach it.

Spyre

The entrance.


South of Spring/Northeast of Carmen

You can find the HeroBW here (Bo's best weapon, if I recall correctly).

Southeast of Scande

You'll be able to reach this point after Nina learns how to fly. You'll find an S.Ptn, an A.Ptn, an L.Ptn, a MystCW (possibly Mogu's best weapon), a StarSH, an AgileHT, a LoveHT, and a Life2 here.

Breath of Fire: Karn's Forms

Karn is descended from a long line of shapeshifters, who will teach him their abilities if you seek them out.

These abilities will result in Karn merging with other party members in more powerful forms. As well as being quite powerful, and having useful map abilities, I like that these forms allow you to include most of the party in the battle party. It's sweet.

Karn must be leading the party to use the special abilities on the world map. Karn must also be the one to talk to his family members, and must not be merged in a special form in order to learn new ones.

Shin

You can gain Shin in Gant. Push a cabinet sideways, and head through the hole in the wall.

This form will merge Karn with Bo, and allow you to shoot arrows further on the world map.

Debo

This is a combination of Karn and Gobi. You'll learn it from an old man in Gust. Move an empty crate in the flute players house and head through the trapdoor. You can only use this form underwater.

Doof

This is a combination of Karn and Ox, and can move things that are too heavy for Ox. You can get it by having Mogu dig on a dragon mark to the northeast of Camlon.

Puka

Puka is a combination of Karn, Bo, Ox and Gobi, and is incredibly powerful. It has the map ability of being able to move those weird blocks set into mountains when it breathes on them.

You'll gain Puka in Bleak, by using Doof to push aside a cabinet in the fortune teller's house.

Breath of Fire: Mare Tower

In Mare Tower, there is a floor where certain panels will make the entire thing rotate by either 90 or 180 degrees. This makes it very easy to become disorientated. So, here's a map.  Grey squares are the spinning ones, red is the entrance and green is the exit.

You'll still need to manually figure out which way to head, by the way. Pro-tip - sometimes, it spins slow enough that you can just keep an eye on the branch that you want.

Breath of Fire - North Tower

North Tower is a strange little dungeon. It appears in Mogu's nightmare, and there are buttons on the floor. The grey ones make the walls invisible, while the red ones make them visible again.  I ended up sketching maps onto squared paper, and now I've transferred them to paint, so they're a bit clearer.  Blue is the invisible buttons, red are the visible ones, black is the stairway, and green is Moth.  You will initially need to speak to Moth, leave the tower, find courage, and then return and make your way to the top of the tower.

First Floor (entrance to the south).

I thought there might be treasure.  There wasn't.

Second Floor

You'll start this floor on the easternmost stairs, and you'll need to make your way west. If you head south, you'll end up falling outside of the tower.

Third Floor

As you can see, the third floor is much smaller. You'll start from the stairs in the centre, and need to get to the stairs to the east.

I didn't map the fourth floor. It's a tiny area, with many alternating buttons, making the walls blink on and off as you run through it. Again, there's no treasure. None. Anywhere.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Forms

In each Breath of Fire game, Ryu is able to transform into a dragon, or a variety of Dragons. His forms from the first game are obtained as follows;

Temple South of Tuntar

You will be able to reach this temple after the Stone Robot sacrifices himself. Ryu will be forced to go into the Dragon Temple and fight alone. It shouldn't be too tough. After the battle, Ryu will gain the forms of Snow, Thunder and Flame Dragon.

Temple South of Hidden Fort

You'll be able to reach this temple any time after making your way through the hidden fort. However, you won't be able to actually enter until you've found the Rod5, in Tunlan, and fished up the Dragon Sword from the well to the West of Agua.

From the northern side of the Hidden Fort, go west and follow the mountains around.  Once inside, you'll find a healing spring and a marble2, before battling Bain.  The Flame Dragon will do 115hp of damage a turn, the Snow Dragon will do 100 points, and the Thunder Dragon will do 130hp.  Use the Thunder Dragon.

Bain has a lot of hit points, but not many attacks.  After this battle, Ryu will gain the Fire Dragon, Bolt Dragon, and Gold Dragon forms.

Temple North of Gust

To reach this temple, you need to be able to fly.  From Gust, fly a little north until you come to the strange looking castle thing on an island in a lake.  You need the Dragon Armour (which you can fish up in the duckpond in Spring, once the water thaws) in order to enter.

Avian is a little tricky to defeat.  The Fire Dragon seems to hurt him most, with 300 or damage a turn.  Afterwards, you'll gain Rudra.

Cleansing Waters

The final temple is in the cave south of Romero, where you found the Cleansing Waters.  Head right down to the bottom, and, once you have the gills, you'll be able to walk right into the water.

If you have Rudra and the Dragon Helmet (which can be found by fishing in the well to the south of Arad), Agni will be unlocked.  Agni is necessary to achieve the good ending of the game.  There is no battle here.