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Breath of Fire II

By Brian Lau

There’s nothing more relaxing to a gamer than returning to an old, beloved game from back in the day. If you’re a fan of classic role-playing games (RPGs), take a leap back into 20th-century gaming with Breath of Fire II. This recent release for the Game Boy Advance is a seamless translation of the original Breath of Fire II from Super Nintendo (SNES), which was released back in December 1995. It was quite an innovation at the time: a long epic quest consisting of over 25 hours of gameplay, eight useable characters, simple menus and commands — and the list goes on. This GBA version has everything the original had, plus a few more features. For one, there’s the ability to transfer items between two Advances using the unique Game Link capability. There is also the new “township” option, which allows players to create a town of their own.

Traditional RPG elements return to this game, with the usual turn-based system that classic gamers love and easy-to-understand menus that make this game as straightforward as the original. The battle sequences can be tedious at times, but this pain has been alleviated with Capcom’s new auto-attack feature. There is also an oscillating difficulty level, whereas at one point the game could be extremely easy, while at other points it can get excruciatingly difficult. There is also the weakness of the musical score, but what makes up for all of this is the traditional RPG gameplay that Breath of Fire II dishes out.

The exciting storyline is accompanied with an awesome style of gameplay that Capcom has integrated. Being one game out of a series of four, Breath of Fire ll also integrates the all-too-cool dragon transformations that Ryu can perform, adding some unique gameplay depth that no other gaming series can deliver.

If you’re a hardcore gamer like me, you’ll wind up playing this game for hours on end without any food or rest. Ever since I picked up a copy of Breath of Fire II, my sustenance has been nonstop gaming under my neat little desktop lamp for perfect Gameboy Advance lighting with no glare. Yummy.

AW rating: 85%
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Developer: Capcom

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