BREATH OF FIRE 3 IS AWESOME!!!!!!

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***DO NOT CAUSE ME ANY SPOILERS PLEASE***

I'm really far, close to the end. I just beat the elder brood. I'm a little behind the curve having not beat this game yet, I know. My main party is Ryu obviously, Rei or Nina and shockingly, Peco is a main stay. Sure he cant attack multiple targets and cant heal other then using items and he is slow, but he is REALLY strong and has REALLY high HP and DEF. I have him mainly working with Bunyan and Fahl. I also gave Peco Jump, which honestly is one of my most damaging non-Ryu attacks. I was supprised that Peco is as useful as he is. Even though it doesn't heal much, he gets back a pinch of HP each turn. I can't tell you how many times that saved my ass.

EDIT: My primary skills for Peco are Super Combo, Jump and Charge
It's okay. I prefer II and IV, myself, but for a cute bright RPG it works. It's also got some pretty neat side stuff thrown in, too, like training up that one person at the light-house and the dragon genes.

IV is a (much) darker story and II is more traditional system RPG (though still darkish). Oh, and the original was decent for its era, too. Not very polished - it definitely suffered from the 'where do I go next/what do I do now'? syndrome but it had an interesting story... what there was of it.

But, yes, III was pretty good.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, Peco is a mainstay for his power. Bunny-girl ain't too bad, either, thanks to her cannons. I preferred switching my team around a lot when I last played, and I never really bothered too much with Masters. Loved Rei, though. I've a soft spot for fast characters (as evidenced by my love for Katt from the second game.)

Three guesses which is my favourite, though. Hint: my avatar should make it an easy guess.
There are several reasons I didnt like 4 nearly as much. The dragon system is way dumbed down, i hated how all the dragons looked the same that he transoformed into and I really didnt like there were so little of them. The world map, dont get me started on that. The story wasnt as engaging as three was, not by a long shot. I did however, like the overall battle system in 4 better.
And the characters were all practically clones of prior games in the series, weither it be fighting style or design. Ryu and Nina obviously, but they dont count. Cray (Rei Bof3, still a tiger dude ands same overall personality.) Ershin (Peco Bof3, both slow, strong, fat, short and round.) Scias (Bow Bof2, a dog. Come on really, you couldnt pick a different animal. You already used a cat, dog, frog... how about a rabbit.) Ursula was the only one I couldnt off the top of my head, come up with a comparison for. I didnt HATE Bof4, I just couldnt get into it. Call me crazy, but its my least favorite in the series. I had to drag myself through the game just so I can say I beat the game.
BoF4 was my favourite in the series BY MILES.

Good sir, we are now mortal enemies.
the biggest thing i didnt like in 4 was the dragon system. Had that been how it worked on the snes, I would have been ok with that, but this was the 32 bit playstation. It just seems like they could have tried harder.
author=Jparker1984
And the characters were all practically clones of prior games in the series...

BoF1's furry characters I think were inspired by animal groups: Nina (Bird), Bo (Mammal), Deis/Bleu (Reptile), Gobi (Fish). But they also have two other mammals, the imposing Ox and the small Mogu. Carn is the group's black sheep and can fuse with the more useless characters: Gobi, Ox and Mogu. These three are only needed for their map abilities, really.

BoF2's have to do with magic elements: Nina is Wind, Sten is Fire, Jean is Water, Rand is Earth. That much is obvious. Also Spar represents Nature, Katt can only fuse with Shin so she might represent Darkness, and Bow is a kindhearted fellow who dabbles in criminal activities = Holy + Dark = Seny + Shin fusion. This is how I always thought about it anyway. I always liked this cast.

I haven't played 3 and 4 yet. According to what I can read on the BoF Wiki it seems the developers either lacked inspiration for the new furry characters' designs and/or wanted to set a few races in stone.

In BoF3, Rei is the tiger/feline furry like Katt, Momo is a rabbit (which is new) and her race is called grassrunner, Peco is the nature fellow like Spar and Garr is the bird-related one. I think Nina has more in common with angels at this point.

In BoF4, Cray is again a feline and looks a lot like Rei, Scias is the dog and Ursula is a wolf/fox thing, both being grassrunners, and Ershin the armor is the only original one. This group definitely lacks originality but that didn't seem to be of concern.

I've once thought about what kind of furry characters I'd pick if I were to make my own BoF game. Considering you want to pick animals who could make great warriors and have believable map abilities, it IS rather difficult to come up with an original, unique set of interesting characters.
Polka the Ladybug? Sandy the Antlion? Smelly the Skunk?
Actually, the developers put thought into the creation of the world when they created the series - bar Dragon Quarter.
That is to say, from 1-4 the series is set in varying periods of the same planet. As such, they retain the same species all the way through. Let me get my research notes:


Clans
There are many clans in the world of Breath of Fire. Each look quite different or have different skills and vocations.

Clanless
The Clanless are usually made up of 'humans' or inter-bred races who have lost their special clan skills. They are the most common and wide-spread race in the world.

Brood
Also known as the Dragon clan, they are very few and far between, one of the rarer races in the world. They're able to access great power in the form of transforming in to dragons, but the more interbred, the weaker the gene is, until it finally dies out - see Ryu from Breath of Fire II. The only known town of Brood is currently buried deep under the ruins of Gate. Full-blooded and some Half-blooded Brood have leathery wings on their back, especially the females of the clan - Patty, for example.

Dirt-Eating clan
Also known as 'Mole people', this race disappeared into the annals of time, rarely heard of in recent years. Some scholars speculate that they have underground cities where they dwell, but most believe them to have died out. There are some who believe that the Shell clan is an off-shoot of the Dirt-Eater clan, but this is unverified.

Creeping clan
Lovers of water and looking like anthromorphic frog people, the Creeping clan are genteel, refined and lovers of art. They usually don't spread beyond the borders of Sima Fort. All members of the race are great swimmers, but are weak to dehydration. They come off as snobbish and uninterested in other people, often speaking with strong accents and using foreign turns of phrase. Their cuisine is noted by other clans as the worst in the world, but saying so to a chef of the clan will result in heated debate.

Forest clan
A nomadic group of swift, wolf-like people, the Forest clan are a clan of hunters who dwell in the forests and revere nature. They keep mostly to themselves, rarely going into populated areas.

Grassmen
The Grassmen are one of the longest-living clans. Emotionless and guided only by logic, they travel the world when they are young gathering as much knowledge as possible and transform into wise trees in their old age, never to move again. They are few and far between due to their slow maturity cycle and usually there will be only one or two born from any one tree, so numbers are slow to grow. They have a special affinity with nature and can call apon its power to aid them in battle. They can easy move through the thickest and densest forests.

Grassrunner clan
There is very little known about the origins of the Grassrunner clan, except that they have been around for thousands of years and look akin to canines - the males of the tribe throwing more to the dog side, whilst the females looking more vulpine (yes, Bow, Scias, Ursula and Momo are all Grassrunners). The Grassrunners are thought to be a highly intelligent tribe, but not all members seem to follow suit (lawl, Bow). They have no known homeland and there appears to be very few of them left in the world, though they are usually found in populated areas, being of friendly nature.

Highlanders
The Highlanders are a clan of monkey-people who reside in the highlands. The people of this clan are incredibly gifted in terms of athletic ability, like quickness and jumping. They are a warrior clan, and train both the mind and the body. They usually don't travel much, preferring to stay in the highlands, though there have been the odd few who left the clan lands behind.

Iron Ogre clan
The Iron Ogre Clan are a clan of anthropomorphic oxen, both men and women having horns and amazing strength. Warriors of the Iron Ogre clan are immense and powerful, able to lift large loads easily. Members of the clan are also known for their metal working and engineering skills, though many prefer to work with mines and metals instead of engines and sciences. The clan is not very widespread, though they will travel on occasion.

Manillo
The Manillo are a race of bipedal fish who are able to breathe while on land. A clan of traders, they boast that they will one day control the world's commerce. Their trade territory is any place that touches the sea and they are territorial about established trade routes. The Manillo are notorious for their greed, often being caught up in fish lines, mistaking lures for some kind of treasure. There are rumours of a great underwater city where they live, though none have seen it.

Shamans
Shamans are a race with the ability of uniting and can fuse with someone to upgrade their powers by infusing them with their elemental energies. Though they look human, Shamans have a close tie to the elemental energies of the world and are considered to be magical beings, rather like ghosts or spirits.

Shell clan
The Shell Clan are a race of large bipedal armadillos who live in the southern hills around Farm Town. They differ from each other slightly in size and colour but always generally have the same features and characteristics. They don't tend to mix much with other races, though they're typically a friendly lot. They spend most of their lives working with their hands, either on construction sites or as farmers. Teams will sometimes be hired for specific building jobs, mainly because of their trustworthy natures, great work ethic and friendly dispositions.

Wing clan
The Wing Clan, sometimes referred to as Fae or most commonly, Windians, are one of the main races in the world and pretty wide-spread. They are human in appearance, except with wings that are almost angelic. Interbreeding with other races has made their clan powers dwindle. Where once they could fly and transform into giant birds, now they can only glide short distances. Transformation is only attainable through a special ritual, but once one becomes a giant bird they lose their intelligence and can no longer transform back into their human forms.

Woren clan
The Woren Tribe is a race that appear part human, part feline. They are powerful fighters, and very quick on their feet. They vary slightly in appearance, possibly due to different tribes, but they are always recognizable as a cat-like race. There are very few Woren in the world, with no common town where they live. (Except in 4) Solitary people, they appear to be better at taking action than thinking, but are loyal, if clingy, friends. Most Woren know little about their own tribe, and it's very rare for them to meet another of their own race. Thankfully, their genes are strong and most children born to a Woren clan member tend to be Woren clansmen and women themselves, regardless of the other parent's clan.

Endless
The Endless are a group of ageless creatures which many refer to as Gods, as they seem to be immortal and are peerless in their mastery of magic.


Now, let's do some assigning, shall we?

Breath of Fire
Ryu - Brood
Nina - Wing
Ox - Iron Ogre
Bo - Forest
Gobi - Manillo
Karn - Clanless (possible male Shaman due to his ability to fuse)
Bleu - Endless
Mogu - Dirt-Eating

Breath of Fire II
Ryu - Brood (half-blood, hence his inability to physically become a dragon)
Nina - Wing
Katt - Woren
Rand - Shell
Bow - Grassrunner
Sten - Highlander
Bleu - Endless
Jean - Creeping
Spar - Grassmen

Breath of Fire III
Ryu - Brood
Nina - Wing
Teepo - Brood
Rei - Woren
Momo - Grassrunner
Peco - Grassmen
Garr - Special - Guardian. There were only four of these created by Tyr/Myria so they don't count as a race but instead are artificial beings.

Breath of Fire IV
Ryu - Endless
Nina - Wing
Ershin - Endless
Cray - Woren
Scais - Grassrunner
Ursula - Grassrunner
Fou-Lu - Endless

Now, keep in mind that characters of the various races can be found through all the games.

Also, a note on Breath of Fire IV - a lot of people speculate that chronologically it's the first of the series due to Ryu and the dragon clan actually being Endless. The thought is that after the end of the game, those who were Endless became mortal - thus becoming Brood instead of Endless. The only ones seemingly left as normal is Deis/Ershin/Bleu and Myria.

The fact that the Woren clan is quite a bit larger seems to hint towards IV being set before I, II and III.

Oh, and the residents of Tunland count as an offshoot of Clanless, just with a different language. ^.^

Also, about clanless - they're basically made up of all the interbred children of the various races. After a generation or two of breeding between each other a child will end up with barely no traces of their parent's lineage. So, a child of a Wing clan and Grassrunner would throw to one side or the other, but not have both. However, a child of a Classless and another Race would lead to a child with the powers of the other race, but if they had a child with a race different to their powers then their kids would most likely be clanless.

The more interbreeding occurs, the larger the base of the Clanless and the smaller the purebred races. This is what happened with the Wing clan. Between Breath of Fire I and II there was a lot of interbreeding with other races, leading to the weakening of their powers. They lost the ability to transform into a giant bird at will as adults due to this. (The blame is laid on the original Nina's shoulders thanks to her choosing to be with Ryu, which probably - this is a guesstimate - led others of the clan to breed with other races since their princess was doing so.)


Anyway, hope that clears a few things up about the races! ^.^
@Liberty:

Wow, you did your searching. What I'd like to hear your thoughts on, is the story in a little more detail. I just felt bored with 4, like it didn't really grab my attention.
Actually, the developers put thought into the creation of the world when they created the series - bar Dragon Quarter.

Dragon Quarter very much has its place in the series timeline as well! it's just much, much further in the future compared to the others than any other sequel has taken things. from 1 to 4, there's this subtle theme of the world's decay -- over the course of the series, you see technology improving, magic (and dragons) dying out, and the world's races growing more homogenized and human-like from interbreeding (this is most obvious with the Woren -- they went from full-on bipedal tigers to regular people with ears and tails).

this gradual industrialization is most obvious if you compare 1 and 4, naturally. while 1 is fairly typical fantasy with little in the way of global infrastructure and practically no technology more refined than the wood oven, 4 sees widespread use of motor vehicles, heavy equipment, and horrifying massive-scale weapons. Dragon Quarter takes this trend to its logical limit -- the magic has all but faded, the world has been ruined, and society treasures the last remnants of Brood heredity as a mark of social status. it's really a brilliant way to say goodbye to a setting, even if it wasn't what people had been expecting.
@Liberty: Very informative. Thanks!
author=mawk
Actually, the developers put thought into the creation of the world when they created the series - bar Dragon Quarter.
Dragon Quarter very much has its place in the series timeline as well! it's just much, much further in the future compared to the others than any other sequel has taken things. from 1 to 4, there's this subtle theme of the world's decay -- over the course of the series, you see technology improving, magic (and dragons) dying out, and the world's races growing more homogenized and human-like from interbreeding (this is most obvious with the Woren -- they went from full-on bipedal tigers to regular people with ears and tails).

this gradual industrialization is most obvious if you compare 1 and 4, naturally. while 1 is fairly typical fantasy with little in the way of global infrastructure and practically no technology more refined than the wood oven, 4 sees widespread use of motor vehicles, heavy equipment, and horrifying massive-scale weapons. Dragon Quarter takes this trend to its logical limit -- the magic has all but faded, the world has been ruined, and society treasures the last remnants of Brood heredity as a mark of social status. it's really a brilliant way to say goodbye to a setting, even if it wasn't what people had been expecting.

While that may be true, the game itself just doesn't feel like a Breath of Fire game. It's like they took a story and game they already had and retextured it to fit the series. Frankly, I'd have liked it better if it wasn't part of the series but I will admit that for the most part it had a lot of grand ideas that work together nicely.
(Still hate having to die/restart in order to proceed, though. It feels like a cheap way to force replayability and increase time length.)

Oh, but the only issue with comparing 4 and 1 is that 4 is believed to be set before 1 due to Ryu and the then Brood being Endless, not Brood at that point. It's only after the end that the Endless (bar Myria/Tyr and Deis/Bleu) are made mortal - thus the Brood are created. That's the beginning of degeneration of the dragon genus from a mini-god to mortal beings.

4 is hard to place because of the technology, though if you look at 1, there's also hints of ancient tech - the Goddess Keys, the Giant...
Then we look at 2 and see that Highfort is built on the ruins of an ancient power that they are trying to resurrect, HomeTown is also built on some of those ruins (as evidenced by the best ending) as well.
And 3 also has said ruins, though the technology has advanced thanks to them. It's almost like the world is going full circle - they keep destroying themselves and almost becoming one world of the same race, but something happens (I'm betting Myria/Tyr) that regresses them and they start rebuilding and dig up the old technology.

...huh. Interesting.

author=Jparker1984
@Liberty:

Wow, you did your searching. What I'd like to hear your thoughts on, is the story in a little more detail. I just felt bored with 4, like it didn't really grab my attention.
I had to do a lot of lore-checking for the fangame that might never come to complete fruition (even if I really, really want to complete it). I find it interesting that II is the one with the most varied cast. 3 has a small selection compared to it (and 2 Brood), 1 has a few less characters, 4 has two grassrunners and not that many characters either.

Anyway~
The stories are interesting, true, but I don't really want to post much in the way of spoilers for them in case anyone here wants to play them and... well, the one I remember best is II because I played that one to death (about 20 times - no joke). The others I've played once or twice through and don't remember too much of beside the main plot points and the annoyances - like, oh, those freakin' plains in 4 or the freakin' desert in 4 or the freakin' lack of direction in 1 and the freakin' dying to succeed in 5 or the freakin' grinding in 2. XD

I will say that while I really enjoyed the story of 4 I have a major issue with playing the game thanks to my mother. I love the idea behind having a split-story, especially when playing as Fou-lu. If there was any game where they needed to drop the silent act for Ryu, it was this one because frankly, Fou-Lu just stole the show with his story.
Don't get me wrong, but when the main cast are less interesting (for the most part) than the villain and side-story character, you have a problem. >.<;
Add in that my mother spent 400+ hours on the game - enough that I'm so very sick of the graphics and sound of it... I can't play it even though it's been over 10 years now. I just can't. It's a pretty good game, I liked the art and sound direction before she broke my mind with them. (FYI - the in-game timer only goes up to 400 hours. After that it stops counting. She far exceeded that because she wanted fish. All of them. All crowned. >.<; )

As for 3 - I enjoy the game and the characters quite a bit. It's a very light-hearted adventure and while there's some darkness here and there it doesn't weigh you down. There's a few hard bosses (Sunder and that asshole bro of his >.< ) but overall it was neat. I enjoyed the cast a lot, even if I didn't really like chibi-nina that much. At all. (Which is odd, I usually like Nina a lot.)
One thing I loved was the upgraded dragon gene system. It was really neat to have the illusion of control over your dragon use, and I loved learning new skills by watching enemies, too.
There was some pretty nice information about Myria/Tyr thrown in, too, which helped fill in some of the bits and pieces we were missing about her and the world in general. Garr and his story was a neat addition and it was nice to see another Grassman in Peco. (Or should I say, the return of Spar's shamanized form. ^.^)

Five was... I'll admit I never finished it because I rage-quit after dying over and over thanks to dragon usage. I guess it was my fault at that - I was expecting a very different game and just couldn't adapt to the new system, nor grow to like it, so I eventually just gave up.
I will say I liked the graphical style a lot, and the setting was interesting, but I wasn't a fan of the whole 'journey to the surface and.. the end' thing. I was hoping that the journey would be half the tale and the other half would be adventure. So, yeah, I was very disappointed in the game being more action-based than traditional. :/
That said, it had decent systems and I think if I went back and played it now I might enjoy it a bit more.
I'm also not a fan of Nina being a kid. Ever. A helpless one, at that. Especially given my favourite incarnation of her as a kick-ass magician (II). I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters, even Ryu, and couldn't like them even though I did try.
Again, my fault since it was/is a matter of taste. I still maintain that it would have been better if it had been a game without the BoF nametag slapped on it.

III is my favorite one. I even love is jazzy soundtrack that everyone likes to hate on.

IV was pretty good, but I thought it messed up a few of the things I really liked about III, such as the dragon gene system and the world map. Fishing also wasn't quite as fun.

I is pretty dated now, but one thing about it still sticks in my mind: that goddamn spinning floor dungeon.

II, I actually never finished... someday I'll need to do that.
Thanks to nostalgia I'll always remember 3 and 4 extremely fondly, and when Dragon Quarter was released I hated it like a lot of other fans because it was such a drastic departure, but as I've gotten older it's grown on me. A lot. It might even be my favorite now, or at least tied with 4. It's just such a unique breath of fresh air, and the atmosphere and art direction is really well done. I understand if a lot of people don't like the game for being too different or because it doesn't match their personal taste, but the world-building is top notch for what it is and the game's take on the dragon transformation is really interestingly integrated into the story and gameplay, if a bit frustrating for fans of the more traditional games who just wanna turn into a dragon and tear stuff up yeah!!

Breath of Fire 4 definitely has the strongest story of the earlier installments, in my opinion, but it's disguised by the horrible, awful, terrible pacing. I won't go into spoilers because so few people seem to have gotten very far (thanks to the aforementioned bad pacing) but it has my favorite cast of characters, and probably the best villains of that era of RPGs. It's super pretty too, but I hated the way it mixed beautiful pixel art and clunky 3d models for the dragons and some bosses. It was pretty jarring and ugly in an otherwise great-looking game.

Breath of Fire 3... was also paced badly and with sort of a barebones story too, but I have to love it for the weird but fun jazzy soundtrack, amazing pixel art, and the gene system. The gene system was so much fun!! It had some really memorable bosses too.

I've played the first and second ones too, but I found them kind of unpleasant and tedious to the point where I don't even really have anything to say about them.
BurningTyger
Hm i Wonder if i can pul somethi goff here/
1289
I definitely enjoyed playing II back in the day, but didn't finish- i think I got stuck somewhere in the final dungeon during Momo's bit. BTW don't forget "Revisit" mode after completing the game once; you can unlock the "Dragon Tyrant" in that mode. Also there's fan re-translation of II out to fix all the typos.
I'm pretty certain that the "revisit" function simply does not exist. It's a rumor which spun out of an error in the old strategy guide to the game, which stated that it was possible to beat Balio and Sunder in the first fight. It's not, but people created increasingly far fetched rumors to justify it.

The conditions described on that site aren't even plausible on the face of it. The amount of time it would take to reach level 99 in Breath of Fire 3 without simply hacking the game would be absurd. Way back when I was playing it on the original console, I once spent somewhere over 15 hours killing Goo Kings in the final dungeon trying to get the Goo King Sword, and by the time I finished my level was only in the 50's. The reward for all that effort is ridiculously trivial, unless you're someone who's already sunk huge amounts of time and effort into trying to beat Balio and Sunder in that first fight on the basis of that rumor from the guide book, and expect some kind of catharsis from finally accomplishing it. The story progression of the game doesn't even make sense if you simply scare them off.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Oh man, I recall a FAQ that went through a mess-ton of motions (raw math, using cheat codes, etc) to disprove the rumor about Bailo and Sunder being able to be defeated at Cedar Woods.
author=mawk
Actually, the developers put thought into the creation of the world when they created the series - bar Dragon Quarter.
Dragon Quarter very much has its place in the series timeline as well! it's just much, much further in the future compared to the others than any other sequel has taken things. from 1 to 4, there's this subtle theme of the world's decay -- over the course of the series, you see technology improving, magic (and dragons) dying out, and the world's races growing more homogenized and human-like from interbreeding (this is most obvious with the Woren -- they went from full-on bipedal tigers to regular people with ears and tails).

this gradual industrialization is most obvious if you compare 1 and 4, naturally. while 1 is fairly typical fantasy with little in the way of global infrastructure and practically no technology more refined than the wood oven, 4 sees widespread use of motor vehicles, heavy equipment, and horrifying massive-scale weapons. Dragon Quarter takes this trend to its logical limit -- the magic has all but faded, the world has been ruined, and society treasures the last remnants of Brood heredity as a mark of social status. it's really a brilliant way to say goodbye to a setting, even if it wasn't what people had been expecting.


I recall Capcom saying that 5 is explicitly separate from the BOF universe and is its own story. IV's place is tenuous at best too, most likely a separate universe as well.
I think of Breath of Fire IV as following Zelda Continuity, which basically boils down to "It's a series and shares elements because there's some kind of continuity relationship, but hell if we know what it is."

I've never seriously considered making a fangame before, but I wrote up a synopsis once for how I'd prefer to continue the series, and given the announcement about the next game being a mobile phone release, maybe something to soothe the angry masses is in order.
Breath of fire is a series that I played but can't hold it dear because i've been perma-stuck in them, not knowing how to advance in the game.

On breath of fire 2, i was stuck forever at a certain point where you needed a transport to reach ryu village behind some mountains.Went around backtracking and couldn't find anything. I believe it wasn't even half in the game yet.

On breath of fire 3, I remember being stuck forever at a certain point where the party was inside a dream facing somewhat "their inner demons/dobuts". I supose is must have been close to the end.

Of course i'm talking about classic snes and psx gaming, not emulators and fancy save states.
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