A day or so ago I started playing Breath of Fire, the first one. I’m a big JRPG fan, but I haven’t played any of this series before, even though it seems to be one of the bigger ones that is always floating on the back of many people’s recommendation list. I wanted to talk about it a bit, though I wouldn’t say that this is a review or anything, just some thoughts as I’ve started.
First, I just wanted to mention HOW I was playing it. I’m playing a romhack of the GBA version entitled Breath of Fire Definitive Edition. As far as I’m aware, it’s not a big set of changes, mostly some quality of life stuff and updating some of the dialogue to be more coherent with later titles. I’m playing on a N3DS XL which has been modded, so it’s kinda close to original hardware? I believe it’s using Virtual Console to play it, though I sometimes forget whether I installed the mGBA version or not. (Random side note, I’m finding that the way I’m holding the N3DS is causing pain in my index finger somehow… not entirely sure why. I think I’m steadying the screen with my finger while I’m playing. Interesting side effect of a clamshell design?)
I’m not particularly far into the game and, in case you care, I’ll be spoiling some stuff about the game throughout the rest of this post. I’m up to just having beaten the first real boss… the frog guy in the castle. First of all, the fact that a slimy frog is the first boss of this game which is supposed to be about the war of dragons is hilarious to me. I’m supposed to be stopping some dragon, but I’m starting by stomping a frog.
I only have one party member, which I accidentally named Stev (I typed Steve and hit enter, but the game only accepts four characters) instead of the canon name Ryu (I learned this later on). And he doesn’t do much in combat other than hit things and eat herbs. I’ve died several times and found it interesting that the penalty for death is just 1/4th of your money being taken away. Combat is very uninteresting so far but I think it’s because I’m early on and only around level 7/8. There’s an auto button which makes things go quite quickly, so far it hasn’t seemed like a chore.
One of the standout things about this game is the UI / menus. I’m really impressed by the battle menu specifically and have been wondering how different it is from the SNES version of the game. The fade in/fade out menus and flashing bits to draw attention to the correct things… it’s all quite good.
I don’t have any nostalgia going on while playing this, but so far it’s been a very solid title. I most likely am going to do a bit of grinding just to be safe, though I have no idea if it’s necessary before heading off to the next town and figuring out whatever the next boss / quest is. I also quite like how linear the game has been so far… not been difficult to figure out what’s next without having to rely on a guide (though I have no problem doing so, since I have no desire to spend all my time wandering around lost in a game).
Enjoying it, is the final verdict so far, and I look forward to playing more as I go on. Though, with the index finger pain I’ve been getting, little less excited about playing on the N3DS which is sad. I have another hardware thing coming in the mail soon, but I’ll talk about that later and it might become my hardware of choice for GBA stuff.
Until next time, cheers!
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