I finished Breath of Fire! This Capcom RPG has been haunting me for over three decades, but it's finally over and done with. There's nothing left to do now but for me to talk about my thoughts on the game and maybe get an understanding of why it took 30 years to finish. As always, I'll try to keep this read a light one, but no guarantees.
Allow me to get the most flawed aspect of this game out of the way early. By that I mean the battle system. Now, conceptually it's perfectly acceptable. Ryu, the protagonist is your standard "young man with a sword and mysterious powers". Over the course of his adventure, he recruits seven other heroes, all of whom have their own roles to play both inside and outside of battle. The first person he teams with is Nina, whose mastery of healing & support spells makes her an essential part of almost every battle. Then there's Karn, whose ability to merge with certain characters turns him into a nearly invincible chimera. Bleu casts powerful attack spells, and that's more than enough. Past those four is everyone else, whose purpose is limited to "hits stuff" or as morphing fodder for Karn. I can't say anyone is useless in a fight. After all, nearly a quarter of the game is spent with just three party-members, Bo the hunter being one of them. Going further, everyone is capable of the basics such as attack & item-usage. However, in the interest of efficiency, it's best to stick with whomever hits the hardest.
I say all of this because Breath of Fire 1 has an offshoot of the "reverse difficulty" problem. The monsters hit hard enough early on and will get stronger as the story progresses. However, the strategies necessary to eliminate them will eventually devolve into "Ryu turns into the strongest dragon and hits the 'I win' button". This problem isn't immediately noticeable, but let's consider the first and only brick wall in the entire game: The Gremlin. After a series of quests involving two neighboring villages, Ryu and his two pals must deal with a General who has taken control of a powerful golem. This game has a thing for Generals, as you're running into them constantly for the first 2/3rds of it. Anyway, this General becomes the Gremlin, a nasty foe who requires every last one of your resources to take down. That means all of those items that cast spells when used as well as the meats you've acquired from several boar hunts. You'll have to throw everything you have - which isn't much - at this boss. It's a brutal encounter, and actually not a sign of things to come.
Ryu receives his first dragon forms shortly afterwards, turning him from just another sword-swinging shmuck into a God of war. To add to this, one of the next areas he visits is filled with gold slimes, notable for the massive gobs of experience they leave behind when killed. This is the point where Breath of Fire 1 all but surrenders. You've already overcome its greatest challenge. If you ever find yourself struggling again, then you have two readily available means of dealing with the source of those struggles. Every boss after the Gremlin almost feels quaint, and I'm fine with that.
It's the post-Gremlin part of this game that's the most fun. Yeah, the fights are one-dimensional, but everything else is quite good. After recruiting Karn, players can return to various locations to unlock doors and collect the loot that lies beyond them. I love this sort of thing in RPGs. Receiving the KEY in Final Fantasy 1 still gives me the warm fuzzies. The early Dragon Quest games also had a few keys to play around with. This Metroidvania-lite feature extends to future recruits such as Ox and Mogu, both of whom have their own means for reaching hidden treasure. I wish that there were even more places to return to for more goodies, but maybe that's just the greed talking. Seriously though, this aspect of exploration does a lot to separate Breath of Fire 1 from its contemporaries. I know there are a few more modern RPGs that do something similar; Xenoblade Chronicles 2 immediately comes to mind. Still, I admit to being preferential of how it's handled in classic RPGs, particularly since the 2D nature of it all makes it easier for me to recall the locations of missed treasure.
Breath of Fire 1 also does a good job of avoiding the doldrums of the town -> dungeon -> town -> dungeon cycle. Just to clarify, it's still there, but the locales tend to differ, and the circumstances often change. Early on, the interactions between the aforementioned neighboring villages makes doing quests for them a bit more intriguing than just another game of fetch. At one point, the party will need to purchase an expensive gold bar. Luckily, the town of Auria plays home to multiple "mini-quests" that offer players ways to make money that don't involve monster mashing. One of the late-game villages is trapped in time, and you'll have to go through a small time-loop in order to solve their predicament. It's these scenarios that keep the game engaging.
Exploring dungeons is also fairly enjoyable. None of them are particularly large or convoluted. Typical of the era, they're linear with a few detours to acquire treasure. As the game progresses, they start introducing gimmicks, usually as an obstacle to keep players from rushing straight for the nearest staircase. The key word here is brevity. After a dungeon introduces its gimmick, whether it's teleportation tiles or spinning hallways, there's always a small test at the end to challenge a player on what they've learned. Some of these gimmicks are admittedly not the greatest, but the brevity makes them easier to stomach. Also, once they're dealt with, the chances that they'll be seen again are nonexistent. Better yet, dungeons never combine gimmicks into some kind of nonsensical super puzzle. Imagine if there was a castle that featured teleportation tiles, doors controlled by switches, and pits that had to be fallen through to reach new areas. Afterwards, breathe easy because there is nothing that absurd in Breath of Fire 1.
This play-through was done with the Definitive Edition romhack. Alongside the "War of the Goddess" rewrite and multiple QOL additions, there are changes to the mechanics to bring this entry in-line with subsequent BoF games. The leveling curve has been drastically overhauled. Level-ups occur at a much faster rate, but the catch is that the stat-boosts aren't as significant. It's a good chance, especially early on when levelling is required to survive The Gremlin. One of the other changes is that every attack Ryu makes while transformed into a dragon will cost AP. It's not a big deal, since most bosses will die before Ryu runs out. The few that survive? Just give Ryu an elixir and have him transform again. Do note that this isn't a difficulty overhaul. It's tougher in a few places due to the revamped leveling system, but that's about it. Simple but essential features like decreasing the encounter rate and letting the heroes sprint are more than enough for this romhack to live up to its name.
All I have left to say about Breath of Fire 1 is that I'm glad it's finally over. I know that doesn't sound quite right, but keep in mind I've had it stuck in the nether regions of my mind like a splinter for over 30 years. All of my previous attempts at completing the game stalled out in the second half. I won't mince words, the most common reason why I stopped is that I found another game that I'd rather play. This isn't a knock against Capcom's RPG, or at least I don't think so. Considering their relative inexperience with the genre, they did a solid job. That said, all of the best parts of the game tended to involve using each hero's power to find cool stuff. Once I'd exhausted all of that, there wasn't too much else besides overly frequent random encounters and a battle system that only got less engaging with time. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I wish Breath of Fire 1 was an action-adventure game. It'd be a cross between Megaman X and Super Metroid. Doesn't that sound like the coolest thing ever?
...You don't have to agree. I literally just thought of the idea a minute ago. My point is that if the fighting was as interesting as everything else, then maybe Breath of Fire 1 wouldn't get repeatedly shelved in favor of another RPG. Still, it's a promising start for Capcom. Surely the follow-ups will be even better... I mean... Oh, yeah... The only other entry in the series I actually finished besides this one is Dragon Quarter. I suppose I could attempt to rectify that, even if it means having to deal with the reasons why I quit entries 2 through 4 all over again.
It never ends.
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