Finished Breath of Fire!

And boy what a slog to fight Zog! The game has not aged well, and carries itself like a professionally made RPGMaker game. It was released in '93, of year before the best RPG ever made (Final Fantasy VI) pivoted the genre to new horizons, so it's still a part of the "Dragon Quest clone" category of RPGs. That isn't to say it's a bad RPG (like Niji No Silk Road or Ganbare Goemon Gaiden), and it does some very interesting things with a limited amount of resources. However, it remains a "press A to win" kind of RPG in most cases, and the backtracking necessary to finish the game would be extremely frustrating without a walkthrough (the game is sparse on plot progression clues). One thing that intrigued me that I haven't seen done before: one boss's weaknesses would fluctuated between physical attacks and magic attacks depending on how many times you hit him with each (more magic attacks made him stronger to magic but weaker to physical hits and vice versa) and his appearance changed accordingly. That's a neat idea, and should be implemented/explored more often in RPGs.

Visually, the game was very pretty, but very vanilla. The soundtrack was varied, but lacked anything particularly rockin'. Any fan of older Capcom games will appreciate the nods to and inspiration from MegaMan and Makaimura littered throughout the game in enemy and character designs and in scenery.

Overall, very mediocre and typical of an RPG made by a dev specializing in action games. In that respect, it's reminiscent of Ganbare Goemon Gaiden and Lagrange Point by Konami, but more fun and less frustrating than either of those games. 5/10, only recommended for diehard fans of RPGs made between '85 and '93.

#gamecomplete
#2024sofar
#BreathOfFire
#Capcom

@coolboymew