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Re-discovering Ryu's destiny

  • Marrend
  • 05/18/2013 07:28 PM
  • 3110 views
Game Title: Breath of Fire 0
Engine: RPG Maker 2000
Status at review: In Progress/Demo

Background:
There's two reasons for this review. One is for the purposes of this event. Second, the Breath of Fire series is among my favorite video game series. I recall even going so far as to attempt my own fan-game in RPG Maker VX (based off Breath of Fire - Dragon Quarter, which I personally believe is under-rated), but it fell apart at the seems.
I did not see all this demo had to offer. I got as far as recruiting Spar Allon into the party before I decided that I was done with this demo.


Graphics:
Things are all over the place, in this respect. The character sprites are edits/rips from FF4/FF5. The regular attack animations for Ryu is an edit of Link's sword-swipe animation from Zelda 2. The tiles and mapping have a feel like they were inspired by early Dragon Quest, or Final Fantasy titles. Saying that, is there anything really wrong with this? Does it take away from the experience of the game? I can only speak for myself, but it didn't really bother me that much.


Audio:
With RPG Maker games, I usually listen to a game's music before playing. From what I can tell, a good portion of vgmusic.com's collection of MIDI's from the series are here. Darigaaz, do these songs produce all kinds of nostalgia. I mean, I don't recall the original game all that well, but for the other games in the series, it made for some serious flashbacks. While I'm aware that some people would count that as a point against a game, I count it as a point for a game.


Story:
Dragnier was razed when Ryu was but a child. The sole survivor of the catastrophe, he was forced to wander the land. Years pass. Now an adult, he finds himself in Synesta, looking for a job with the Rangers stationed there. After enough jobs, he gets an audience with the Queen of Windia. The princess (three guesses who this is, and the first two don't count) practically jumps off her throne, and starts talking about how Ryu's the last of the Dragon Clan.

That Ryu is the last of the Dragon Clan is not a totally unforeseen plot reveal for fans of the series. However, it seemed rather sudden to me all the same. In any event, the plot shifts from being somewhat unfocused, with Ryu doing fetch quests Ranger's work, to what a BoF game should be: discovering Ryu's powers, his destiny, and, in this game's case, who the mysterious army that sacked Dragnier was.


Playing the game:
Underneath the hide-tag is something akin to a gaming journal. If there was ever a place to warn for spoilers, it's here.
Show

The game starts out innocently enough. The player, as Ryu (of course it's Ryu!), is tasked to chase a girl around the starting town. After catching her twice, she asks to play hide-and seek. After Ryu hides is, of course, when an antagonist comes around, and puts the town to the torch.
After that, the game does a montage where Ryu crosses the screen, each time doing so he's a bit older than before. When the game "comes back", Ryu's trying to join the Rangers of Synsesta (this just makes me smile). Maxwell, the head honcho of said Rangers, considers the offer, then decides to send Teucer to go and test Ryu's strength.
After getting my butt kicked, Ryu's mentor, Teucer suggested that I should train at the forest south of town, but first to report to Maxwell! So, what do I do? I decide to visit the forest to grind out a few levels before talking to Maxwell. I didn't grind terribly hard, though. I had Ryu hit level 3 before seeing what, exactly, was going to happen. Evidently, the level 10 Teucer would be essentially exchanged for the level 1 Cybil. I considered loading my game to grind out a few more levels, but, I figured I might as well grind with the "newbies". In any event, I spend quite some time in that forest. Quite some time indeed.
I didn't quite realize that advancing the plot involved talking Minnie in the Ranger HQ. She gave me a few fetch quests before she informed me that Maxwell wanted to see me. It was time for my first "real" quest. That one involved escorting a girl who speaks only through her flute (I'm pretty sure the original BoF had a race like this?) back to where she belongs. Nobody knows where, exactly that is, but it's mentioned that there might be a grasslander in a forest by Windia (of course there's a Windia!). My intuition is telling me that this is leading to a larger side-quest that involves finding an item that allows whoever holds it to understand all languages, but I could be wrong.
...And, of course, the new character starts out at level 1. Why? Well, okay. Story-wise, I understand this. As a player, this is a huge pet peeve. I'll speak of it later.
Meeting Nina at Winda Castle was... interesting. That there was a Nina in this game doesn't surprise me. What I might not have seen coming was Nina absolutely insisting that Ryu meets Windia's guardian dragon P'ung Rong (BoF4 reference, if I recall). Maybe it's just me, but the sequence felt rather forced. Like, the story wouldn't, or couldn't, move forward were it not for this. Very Dues Ex Machina-y. Er, I think I made my point!
Welp, I met P'ung Rong, beat the boss he sent out, and got the Whelp ability. Pun totally intended!
After going through east TagWoods (BoF2 reference, if I recall), I see a circle of trees. Is the game going to introduce a fairy village!? That'd be pretty neat! Also, is there a fishing mini-game? It might not be in this demo, but I'm assuming it would be in the full game.
No, it's a boss fight, and a new character. Somewhat disappointing, but I'll take it. Oh, hey, he starts at level 8! That's not far off from where my other guys are. Huh.



General Observations:
I hate the fanfare that plays when a new character is acquired. Call me crazy, but even if the pause for the music to play out is five seconds, I'd rather play the game than, well, not playing it!
A also hate new charters that enter the party at level 1 when the rest of your party is, to be blunt, higher than that. As a writer, I can understand the story reasons underlying this tactic. However, that doesn't mean it's inherently fun to train those characters to where the rest of the party is. Since this is a BoF fan-game, I might suggest something like the master/apprentice system in BoF3/BoF4. Levels gained while being an apprentice provide various benefits, depending on the master. It would be a viable alternative to "just leveling". However, since we're talking RPG Maker 2000, how feasible such a system is beyond my humble knowledge.
This game uses a "by step" random encounter system. This fits within the bounds of most BoF games as only Dragon Quarter had on-touch encounters. Saying that, it's totally possible to get an encounter practically right after a battle just resolved. It wasn't really that bad, but it is of note.


Summary:
With a game like this, the most important question is, "Does this succeed as a Breath of Fire fan game"? This is a demo, and from what I've seen, I believe it ultimately will. The music is spot-on and the story has that "BoF" feel, even if things seem a little forced at times. Even if one is not a fan of the series, the old-school sensibilities should attract it's own audience.


BOTTOM LINE: N/A

Posts

Pages: 1
LoDebar
81
05/19/2013 11:22 PM
Thank you very much for taking the time to play and write a review! As this is still a fairly early demo, I'm open for criticisms on all levels. Let me adress a few of your concerns.

Regarding characters joining the party at level 1, I should probably change Teucer's dialog so that he doesn't recommend you going to the forest right away or make it so you can't go in there at all with him in your party. Then Ryu wouldn't have any levels over Cybil. Debora joining at level 1 is for story purposes, as she's by all accounts a normal person and not an experienced fighter.

The "new party member" fanfare is directly from BoF1, and other than that reference it serves the purpose of distinguishing permanent party members from non-playables that join you briefly (eg. Caleb in Windia). I suppose I could make just a message appear instead.

As for random encounters, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, I mainly draw inspiration from BoF2 (my favorite game of all time) which is notorious for its encounter rate. Second, this is attempting to be an 8-bit game, and those tend to have greater encounter rates than the BoF series at large. Third, RM2k truly offers random encounters. Sometimes you get a single step, sometimes you clear a whole room. There is little I can do about it, but the next revision will have a slightly lower encounter rate. My aim is that you should never have to grind as long as you fight most random battles.

I will admit the story might seem banal from how frontloaded with exposition it is, but I intend to keep up the pace throughout. Lots of character development and such all throughout the game.

I hope you will amend this review as you play further. I'd like to hear thoughts on some of the later dungeon designs, particularly the dark room in the cave. You'll know what I mean when you get there.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21806
05/20/2013 05:44 PM
With Cybil joining the party, my main thought is you could still have Teucer suggest that Ryu do some training in the forest south of Synesta (players might try to do it, or want to do it, anyway), and set it up so that she would join one level lower than Ryu. It might take a bit of variable shenanigans, but it's possible.

As for coming back to this game, I can see me revising this when the game is tagged "complete". Or, at the very least, signs of substantial progress to that end.

*Edit: I know Debora's not supposed to be a trained warrior, and having her in the party at level 1 reflects this. Does it piss me off regardless of this knowledge? Yes. Like I said, this is a pet peeve of mine. It's not necessarily something you need to act on.
Pages: 1