he Breath of Fire series has never received the attention it truly deserves. With Final Fantasy basking in the spotlight year after year, these finely crafted adventures have been thrown aside and labeled as “the next best thing.” If you didn’t splurge for these games back in the day, I strongly recommend you invest in the handheld versions.
The first entry in the series is the perfect primer, but quickly shows its shortcomings when stacked up against the follow-up, Breath of Fire II. Like a fine wine, this superb title withstands the test of time and becomes all the more classic with each year that it ages.
Outside of the incredibly fluid combat animations and inventive battle system, the thing that hooked me the most was the dedication to constantly diversifying the quest. Minigames run rampant throughout every inch of this game, whether it be visiting a circus, or draining your GBA batteries within a fishing hole. Equally as notable, the plot is continually shifting and transforming, which of course creates an exciting and unpredictable story. To modernize the quest, if you will, Capcom added a run feature to the field map, touched up the facial graphics, and implemented a quick save feature. From the gameplay and balancing, to the visual content and story, you really couldn’t ask for much more from a 16-bit RPG.