Breath of Fire (USA)
Breath of Fire (Japanese: ブレス オブ ファイア 竜の戦士, Hepburn: Buresu obu Faia: Ryū no Senshi, Breath of Fire: The Dragon Warrior) is a role-playing video game developed by Capcom originally for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Initially released in Japan in April 1993, the game was later made available in North America in August 1994 by Square Soft, who handled the title's English localization and promotion. Recognized by Capcom as their first traditional role-playing video game, Breath of Fire would set the precedent for future entries in the series, and features character designs by company head of development Keiji Inafune, as well as music by members of Capcom's in-house sound team Alph Lyla. In 2001, the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance handheld system with new save features and minor graphical enhancements, with the English version being released in Europe for the first time.
Set in a fantasy world, Breath of Fire follows the journey of a boy named Ryu, one of the last surviving members of an ancient race with the ability to transform into mighty dragons, as he searches the world for his sister. During his quest, Ryu meets other warriors who share his quest, and comes into conflict with the Dark Dragon Clan, a militaristic empire who seeks to take over the world by reviving a mad goddess. The game experienced mostly positive reception upon release, and was followed by a direct sequel, Breath of Fire II, in 1994.
Breath of Fire is a traditional role-playing video game, featuring two-dimensional character sprites and environments presented from a top-down perspective. Players move their characters in four directions while navigating through a number of environments ranging from towns to dungeons filled with traps and monsters. In order to advance the story, the player must take part in story-based scenarios that require them to enter dangerous areas and defeat enemies while also interacting with non-player characters to become involved in the plot.
During gameplay the player's main character, Ryu, will meet other characters that join his party, each with their own distinct abilities in and out of battle. These include differing magic spells as well as unique Personal Actions that can be performed in certain situations that allow the player to interact with the game world, solve puzzles, or navigate environments more easily. A player's active group can consist of up to four members at a time, but may switch any of them with reserve members at any time, even in the middle of battle. The game uses an icon-based menu system that organizes the player's stock of items, equipment, and character information, with subsystem shortcuts than can be set to unused buttons on the game controller for ease of access. As the game progresses, players may purchase or find items and equipment that can aid each character and make them stronger.
Players advance the game by doing battle with enemy creatures. Combat in Breath of Fire takes place in hostile areas such as dungeons, with encounters occurring randomly every few steps. The game uses a turn-based system while in combat, where the player inputs commands for each character at the start of each round, which are then carried out by order of their "agility" rating. While each controllable character's health is indicated by numerical hit points, an enemy's vitality is represented by a colored bar that decreases as they take damage, and must be reduced to nothing in order to be defeated. Stronger boss characters have the ability to continue battle even after their health bar is depleted, with their true remaining health being obscured for the rest of the battle. Characters can cast spells to harm enemies or aid their allies, which require AP (Ability Points) in order to be cast. When a player defeats all enemies present, they are awarded with experience points that go towards leveling up characters, making them stronger and giving them access to new spells. Progress is saved in one of three slots using the game cartridge's internal battery back-up, which can be accessed by dragon statues at certain points throughout the game.
Set in a fantasy world, Breath of Fire follows the journey of a boy named Ryu, one of the last surviving members of an ancient race with the ability to transform into mighty dragons, as he searches the world for his sister. During his quest, Ryu meets other warriors who share his quest, and comes into conflict with the Dark Dragon Clan, a militaristic empire who seeks to take over the world by reviving a mad goddess. The game experienced mostly positive reception upon release, and was followed by a direct sequel, Breath of Fire II, in 1994.
Breath of Fire is a traditional role-playing video game, featuring two-dimensional character sprites and environments presented from a top-down perspective. Players move their characters in four directions while navigating through a number of environments ranging from towns to dungeons filled with traps and monsters. In order to advance the story, the player must take part in story-based scenarios that require them to enter dangerous areas and defeat enemies while also interacting with non-player characters to become involved in the plot.
During gameplay the player's main character, Ryu, will meet other characters that join his party, each with their own distinct abilities in and out of battle. These include differing magic spells as well as unique Personal Actions that can be performed in certain situations that allow the player to interact with the game world, solve puzzles, or navigate environments more easily. A player's active group can consist of up to four members at a time, but may switch any of them with reserve members at any time, even in the middle of battle. The game uses an icon-based menu system that organizes the player's stock of items, equipment, and character information, with subsystem shortcuts than can be set to unused buttons on the game controller for ease of access. As the game progresses, players may purchase or find items and equipment that can aid each character and make them stronger.
Players advance the game by doing battle with enemy creatures. Combat in Breath of Fire takes place in hostile areas such as dungeons, with encounters occurring randomly every few steps. The game uses a turn-based system while in combat, where the player inputs commands for each character at the start of each round, which are then carried out by order of their "agility" rating. While each controllable character's health is indicated by numerical hit points, an enemy's vitality is represented by a colored bar that decreases as they take damage, and must be reduced to nothing in order to be defeated. Stronger boss characters have the ability to continue battle even after their health bar is depleted, with their true remaining health being obscured for the rest of the battle. Characters can cast spells to harm enemies or aid their allies, which require AP (Ability Points) in order to be cast. When a player defeats all enemies present, they are awarded with experience points that go towards leveling up characters, making them stronger and giving them access to new spells. Progress is saved in one of three slots using the game cartridge's internal battery back-up, which can be accessed by dragon statues at certain points throughout the game.
Breath of Fire (USA)
Ajouter
Technique
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Affichage
- Orientation Yoko
- Résolution 255 x 225
- Fréquence 60.098476 Hz
Contrôles
- Nombre de joueurs 2
- Nombre de boutons 6
- Type de contrôle
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Screenshots de Breath of Fire (USA)
Les clones de Breath of Fire (USA)
Plot
Characters
Breath of Fire features a cast of characters originally designed by Keiji Inafune, also known for his work on the Mega Man series, with official artwork by Tatsuya Yoshikawa. Each character hails from a different clan made up of anthropomorphic animal-like beings or humans with fantastic powers, with their assortment of magic spells and personal field abilities that can be used out of battle to help the player progress through the game and find hidden items.
The main character is a young man named Ryu, one of the last surviving members of the Light Dragon Clan, who have been driven to near-extinction by their enemy, the Dark Dragon Clan. When his sister, Sara, is captured by the Dark Dragons, Ryu must travel the world searching for a way to get her back, as well as unlock his latent ability to transform into powerful dragons. During gameplay, the player can meet and recruit seven additional party members, including Nina, princess of the Kingdom of Windia whose race can transform into large birds; Bo (Gilliam in the Japanese version), a wolf-man held prisoner by the Dark Dragons after they attacked his homeland; Karn (Danc in the Japanese version), member of an ancient order of thieves with the ability to merge two or more party members together to create powerful fighters; Gobi (Manillo in the Japanese version), a fish-man and traveling merchant who can transform into a giant fish; Ox (Builder in the Japanese version), a large ox-man from a town of blacksmiths; Mogu, a mole-person with the ability to dig holes in certain areas; and Bleu (Deis in the Japanese version), an immortal sorceress with a snake-like lower body who commands powerful magic.
The principal antagonists are the Dark Dragon Clan, a militaristic empire made up of soldiers that can transform into dragons. They are led by Emperor Zog (Zorgon in the Japanese version), who seeks to take over the world by gaining the power of the Goddess Tyr (Myria in the Japanese version as well as the English version of the third game), who was sealed away centuries ago by the Light Dragons using six magic keys that have been scattered across the world. His main general is Jade (Judas in the Japanese version), who in turn commands his Four Devas: Cort (Kyura in the Japanese version), a mad scientist; Mote (Sigmund in the Japanese version), a wizard who has the power to terrorize people in their dreams; Cerl (Carla in the Japanese version), a half-breed magic user who resents her past mistreatment by humans; and Goda, an armored goliath.
Story
Breath of Fire takes place in an unnamed medieval world. In addition to ordinary humans, it is populated by various "clans" of anthropomorphic animals. The Dragon Clan—a race of humans who are able to transform into dragons—differ from the others in that their members appear (for the most part) to be human. The back-story of the game is summarized during its prologue: Thousands of years ago, a goddess named Myria (also known as "Tyr" and "Maria" in some English translations) sowed discord amongst the Dragon Clan by offering to grant any wish. Feuding over the goddess' favor eventually split the Clan into two feuding sides, the Light Dragons and the Dark Dragons, who engaged in a war. Myria encouraged the fighting and watched the war escalate. Just as the world was on the brink of destruction, the "Goddess War" ended when a heroic Light Dragon imprisoned Myria and sealed her away using six keys. Each key has a unique magical property which affects the surrounding landscape; the Light Key is hidden in the port town of Auria, providing boundless prosperity for its residents. Alternatively, the Dark Key resides near the slums of Bleak, accounting for that town's perpetual darkness.
The Dark Dragons continue to hunt their longtime enemies, the Light Dragons, and have driven them into isolation. Unbeknownst to the Dark Dragons, the Light Dragon Clan sealed away its dragon powers long ago. The game's protagonist, Ryu, is living peacefully in a village of Light Dragons survivors. Ryu was orphaned when he was young and was raised by his sister, Sara, a priestess who can summon powerful magic. One night he dreams of a dragon that warns him of impending danger; he awakens to find his village has been set ablaze. Sara uses her magic to draw the Dark Dragons away from Ryu and the other villagers, but is taken prisoner. The Dark Dragon Emperor, Zog, has announced that it is the birthright of the Dark Dragons to conquer the planet. Zog intends to release Tyr by assembling the six Goddess keys. Ryu leaves the village and embarks on a quest to collect the keys before Zog can.
Development
Breath of Fire was developed by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by designer Yoshinori Kawano and producer Tokuro Fujiwara, previously known as the creator of the Ghosts'n Goblins series. Keiji Inafune, Capcom's head of development, designed the game's characters. However, Inafune's supervisor took him off the project and replaced him with Tatsuya Yoshikawa. The latter artist respectfully kept many of Inafune's design features in the new illustrations. Capcom added easter eggs into the game in the form of cameo appearances by characters from other company franchises, including Chun-Li from Street Fighter. The game's English release in August 1994 was a joint effort between Capcom USA and Square Soft, who handled most of the title's localization and promotion in North America due to Capcom's lack of experience with text-heavy role-playing games. Square Soft would feature the game in the fourth issue of its North American newsletter, The Ogopogo Examiner, and would advertise the game as being "from the makers of the Final Fantasy series."Breath of Fire's English localization was handled primarily by Ted Woolsey, whose previous works included Final Fantasy Legend III, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and Secret of Mana. Because of space limitations in game's text fields, many items, as well as character and spell names had to be truncated in order to fit, resulting in numerous abbreviations.
In March 2001, Capcom Japan announced that Breath of Fire would be ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld system with new features and a more "intuitive" gameplay system. The new version includes re-drawn character portraits, as well as a re-designed menu system that resembles Breath of Fire II, along with updated cutscene graphics at certain points during gameplay. Additionally, Capcom added the ability for players to temporarily save their progress at any point using a new "quick save" feature, as well as a new dash button that allows for faster movement through the game. Using the Game Boy Advance link cable, two players may also exchange items between game cartridges using a new trade feature. Two months before the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Capcom USA announced that they would be publishing an English version of the game initially for release the following September.
The music for Breath of Fire was composed by four members of Capcom's sound team Alph Lyla: Yasuaki Fujita, Mari Yamaguchi, Minae Fuji, and Yoko Shimomura, originally credited under the pseudonyms "Bun Bun", "Mari", "Ojarin", and "Pii♪", respectively. Although no official soundtrack for the game was made available during its original release, the background themes from the title would later be included on the Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box released in March 2006, which featured music from the first five games of the series. To help promote the title, Capcom used the song "Running Wild" by Toshi and rock band the Night Hawks in the game's television commercial in Japan, with a re-recorded version featuring slightly different lyrics called "Breath of Fire" later appearing on the Night Hawks' June 1994 album The Midnight Hawks.
In March 2001, Capcom Japan announced that Breath of Fire would be ported to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld system with new features and a more "intuitive" gameplay system. The new version includes re-drawn character portraits, as well as a re-designed menu system that resembles Breath of Fire II, along with updated cutscene graphics at certain points during gameplay. Additionally, Capcom added the ability for players to temporarily save their progress at any point using a new "quick save" feature, as well as a new dash button that allows for faster movement through the game. Using the Game Boy Advance link cable, two players may also exchange items between game cartridges using a new trade feature. Two months before the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Capcom USA announced that they would be publishing an English version of the game initially for release the following September.
Audio
The music for Breath of Fire was composed by four members of Capcom's sound team Alph Lyla: Yasuaki Fujita, Mari Yamaguchi, Minae Fuji, and Yoko Shimomura, originally credited under the pseudonyms "Bun Bun", "Mari", "Ojarin", and "Pii♪", respectively. Although no official soundtrack for the game was made available during its original release, the background themes from the title would later be included on the Breath of Fire Original Soundtrack Special Box released in March 2006, which featured music from the first five games of the series. To help promote the title, Capcom used the song "Running Wild" by Toshi and rock band the Night Hawks in the game's television commercial in Japan, with a re-recorded version featuring slightly different lyrics called "Breath of Fire" later appearing on the Night Hawks' June 1994 album The Midnight Hawks.
Reception
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The game's re-release on the Game Boy Advance met with a similar overall response to the first, with a 76% review average on Game Rankings and a 79% on Metacritic. It debuted on the Japanese software charts as the third highest-selling game of its first week, selling 22,236 copies, and would go on to sell a total of 63,407 copies in the region by the end of 2001.
Play Magazine called the game's port job from the Super Nintendo console "flawed in execution", commenting on handheld version's high color saturation and lower sound quality.GameSpot felt that the game was overall a faithful translation of the original, but that the music sounded "tinny" when compared to its predecessor, also stating that "While it's not the best-looking or most technically impressive RPG out for the system, Breath of Fire is still a rock-solid game."IGN would also comment on the game's presentation, declaring that it was "not much more than your typical Japanese-style RPG" and that its graphics were outdone by titles developed specifically for the system, additionally lauding its high random encounter rate and simplistic puzzles, ultimately calling Breath of Fire "a decent diversion".Electronic Gaming Monthly took note of the conversion's shortcomings, but praised its new save feature that allowed players to stop the game at any time, declaring that "Overall, BoF exemplifies hand-held role-playing done right." Other publications such as Game Informer recommended the game to anyone who "likes RPGs", along with Nintendo Power who referred to it as an "excellent epic that still holds up".GamePro found the title to be "an enjoyable RPG that easily kills spare time" but that it was overall less involving than later games in the series, calling its narrative "lifeless". In 2002, Breath of Fire became runner-up for "Best Game Boy Advance Role-Playing Game" in IGN's Best of 2001 awards.
Legacy
Breath of Fire influenced two officially licensed manga which were first serialized in Japanese magazines. The first, Breath of Fire: Ryū no Senshi by Hiroshi Yakumo, is a re-telling of the events of the video game which was first published in Family Computer Magazine before being released as a two-volume collection by Tokuma Shoten. The manga embellishes on certain parts of the plot while omitting others entirely, and introduces new characters such as Bo's son Dele. The second, Breath of Fire: Tsubasa no Oujo (ブレス オブ ファイア -翼の王女-, lit. Breath of Fire: Princess of the Wings) by Kouji Hayato, takes place after the events of the game and focuses on the relationship between Ryu and Nina, and first appeared in Monthly Shōnen Jump before also being released in a two-volume compilation by Shueisha Jump Comics. Hayato followed up the manga with a side-story called Breath of Fire Part II: Chiisana Boukensha (ブレスオブファイア PART2 ~小さな冒険者~, lit. Breath of Fire Part 2: Little Adventurers), which featured the adventures of Ryu and Bo's sons, which was later released as its own single volume.
