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Episode 380: Breath of Fire I & II (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-24 12:00:01
Imported:
2026-06
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A patron-requested topic this week, but one that I think we can all agree was long overdue for the Retronauts treatment: Capcom's Breath of Fire series. Well, specifically, Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II, the Super NES games. As is our wont these days, this is an in-depth discussion of these two games rather than the breezy franchise summaries of yore. Fan wikis have really made that sort of thing obsolete! What fan wikis can't give you is the sparkling repartee of myself, Bob, Nadia, and patron Alex Meyers. So: Suck it, wikis. Retronauts still rules.

Look forward to follow-up episodes soonish.

(Say, between this and the Street Fighter episodes, this is really turning into the Year of Capcom on Retronauts. Someone please let them know they should be paying us for this publicity.)

Art this week by Steph Sybydlo; edits by Greg Leahy (along with musical inserts):

10:55 - Breath of Fire: White Dragon

21:33 - Breath of Fire: Fate

32:51 - Breath of Fire: The Dragon Warrior

42:14 - Breath of Fire: Battling

50:47 - Breath of Fire: Flying

59:52 - Breath of Fire: Black Dragon / Breath of Fire II: My Home Sweet Home

1:08:42 - Breath of Fire II: No One Knows

1:17:43 - Breath of Fire II: Fly Pudding

1:33:25 - Breath of Fire II: Our Journey

Closing - Breath of Fire II: Breath of Fire

Files

Comments

Nick Rothe

I have to admit I did not like Dragon Quarter, I loved the art style but the time limit turned me off.

Grant Baxter

Wow, great episode! I had always been curious about this series but had never heard much and since Capcom abandoned it, I figured it was just some cash-in attempt on RPG hotness of the era but Alex and Nadia really sold me on the series! The world-building sounds absolutely delightful and it seems like a lot of heart went into the games. They're right there on Switch Online, so I'm definitely going to check them out now!

Adam Odland

I can’t believe you guys glossed over the giant dick monster that is the final boss of BoF2.

Nina

Great episode! Breath of Fire's great. Just wanted to comment on a few things said in the podcast: While Yoko Shimomura was a composer on BoF1, she only contributed 1 track to it, the music for Prima / the underwater town. Most of the music was done by Yasuaki Fujita (known by most as Bun Bun). Although Breath of Fire II has no proper staff credits, some of the dev names are actually "hidden" in the NPC credits roll as NPC names. The Fandom wiki does have some names of the people who worked on it here (funny, it was Hideki Kamiya's first stint at Capcom): https://bof.fandom.com/wiki/Breath_of_Fire_II_Production_Staff Bob mentioned Breath of Fire IV as having come to PC in the US, but it did not actually come out on PC in the US, although there was a Japanese & an English European PC CD version.

Daniel Bradley

Just in case anybody is interested the Breath of Fire 3 PSP port was added to the North American PSN in 2016 so you can still play it on Vita if you want

John Simon

I really want to like BOF 1, in the 90s it was nice to play an RPG that wasn't Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest - but re-playing on an emulator I get itchy and tap the the speed-up button. Thing is, this is a game that can be played with that button held down and you really only need to pay attention during boss battles. BOF 2 - haven't thought of this in years but, I definitely remember a magazine commenting on the pantsless catgirl.... BOF 4 - looks like it has VERY NICE sprite animation with a flat cartoony art style not all that common in the late 32 bit era. > English European PC CD version. did some quick investigation, no changes to the sprite and texture assets, looks kind of like what you'd get if you ran a playstation emulator at a higher resolution, and the font rendering is better. It's ok, not available on steam, though. And I bought BOF: DQ on a recommendation from Retronauts or whatever and it's just sat on my shelf to bit rot because LOL Time and Attention in one's 30's, even during a pandemic.

nina matsumoto

What I'd really like to hear about is BOFA

Phoequinox

I wish I had known there was a mailbag for this episode. I have so much to say about the first three games in this series. I'm glad Nadia was brought in, because I enjoy her insights about the series on her respective podcast, so it's nice to give her free space to run (not unlike Nomura, eh, Nadia?). I'm one of the few people who preferred the first game over the second. I did play 1 as a kid and 2 as an adult, so that may be a factor, but I just feel like 1 carries itself better. I can see why Bob would say they're just middle of the road, but I have to disagree. For me, BoF1 was one of the best RPGs on the SNES. That's not to say it's on the same level of FFVI or Chrono Trigger, but I'd easily put it on the same level as Mario RPG, FFIV (blasphemy?!) and the Mana games. Capcom could have gone the Lufia route with it and made an RPG with outdated systems and poorly-structured dungeons, but they actually put love into the game. They set out to make a game with features that hadn't yet become the norm. Little things like the crackling sound of bones crunching under your feet when you walk through them and music/character changes as the game progresses, or bigger things like interesting boss designs, including a boss that starts as a mass of giant pixels, and slowly takes shape as you whale on it, or characters having unique abilities in and out of battle. There was a lot this game was doing that wasn't done, and still isn't done. Almost no other JRPGs on the SNES had a day/night cycle, and even today, it's not a sought after feature. I can't call it a masterpiece, but it is absolutely deserving of more praise than it gets. The last sliver of health for bosses was, and always will be bullshit, however. As for BoF2, I found it more of a slog. The horrible localization, the rate of random encounters and the removal of items to prevent them, awkward implementation of ambitious ideas, I just found it all very broken. Which is a damn shame, because it could have surpassed the original, if it just hadn't stumbled so much. Narratively, in spite of its localization, it was a very effective game. Bob mentioned the dragon tear, which is a significant element of one of the creepiest moments in the game. The fact that a character's opinion of you is made visible and can change at any time makes for a really effective narrative device. It just isn't used often enough to get the most out of it, so it gets thrown on the pile of great ideas not fully realized. The fact that the game's design team is unknown may correlate to the fact that the ports use the same localization. Hard to work in new credits and not credit the original team. Just a theory. Lastly, and most importantly, how are you all going to talk about the awful localization in 2, and not mention the most glorious sequence of text on the SNES?: "This monkey's gonna give you a spanking, Shupkay!"

Phoequinox

Oh, I forgot to say this earlier, but whoever did the artwork for this episode deserves a raise. It's gorgeous.

littleterr0r

Alex wasn't kidding with his 2.61M subscribers on YouTube.

Michael Castleberry

This made me want to play through the games on Switch now. I LOVED BoFII way back in the day but never finished it because I got stuck on a part where I needed to use a character I had neglected leveling up, so maybe now I'll actually not screw myself

Mahlon Wilkes

Wake me up when you talk about 3 and 4.

Rusty Wright

All the talk about BoF being Capcom's first RPG makes me sad no one remembered Sweet Home for the NES. Sure it was Japanese only, but it received an excellent fan translation and has since become better known as the inspiration for Resident Evil. Sweet Home's system included inventory management to simulate the survival aspect, permadeath for the player characters as well as split party management. Definitely a bit varied from the (great) RPG loaf that is Breath of Fire. Even though it was only one RPG, the quality of Sweet Home makes me say Capcom had a solid background when they approached BoF.