Breath of Fire 1

 Recently my interest toward Old School JRPG series has seen some resurgence and I make use of the opportunity to visit an old friend once again. The old friend in question is no other than Breath of Fire series! When I was in Middle school I played this series quite alot on Gameboy Advance but only actually finished the 2nd Game at that time. Back in 90s era, Capcom was a well established Game Dev renowned for their quality 2D Sprites game until for they decided to crash and burn most of them by early 2000s. At very least during the Heyday they did make use of their 2D artistic talents to create a JRPG series called Breath of Fire which had a relatively good run while it lasted and this article will cover the first entry of this once popular JRPG series.

 Spanning over 5 Titles that ended in PS2 era, Breath of Fire is the Capcom's flagship JRPG series that had its humble beginning in Super Nintendo which had the first two titles later ported onto Gameboy Advance platform which were the ones that served as my gateway into the series. For the first entry, Breath of Fire 1 still doesn't have much things going as it tries to emulate the success of titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. However BOF1 had sufficient robust framework that allows the game to flourish in the JRPG Golden age.

Just like many other JRPGs at its time, Breath of Fire 1 is turn based RPG. But one thing that it did to diversify itself is the animated combat sprites which breathed some life on the monotonous combat. Compared to BOF2, BOF1 level grinding is quite tedious on the second half as the party level growth are relatively slow especially for Ryu as on average you will reach around level 30 by the endgame which will be doubled later in BOF2.

In terms of the playable party member roster. given this is the first entry of BOF series, the team party balance are still rather very unbalanced in BOF1. As by the time you reach midgame, only half of the party members are viable for optimum build while some of the members will be stuck as Fusion monster most of the time. BOF1 overall game difficulty falls on the easy side as long as you get the proper equipment, The only difficult part for me would be the Gremlin Boss fight due to limited party choice but from there on It is a smooth sailing except the one of the Jade Dream World Liutenant which were quite annoying. By the end game, BOF1 is quite easy as the game will offer powerful option for the party Members ranging from Nina being the most versatile Healer Support or Karn being Consistent Top DPS through Fusion Spell. 

 What sets apart from the Breath of Fire series with other JRPG series is the deep ties between Dragons and the protagonist of the titular series, Ryu. Having the blood of Dragons running in his vein, Ryu are depicted to be able to transform into Dragon Form to bring some major DPS into the party. In BOF1, Ryu Dragon Form is a permanent one throughout the battle which brings some massive DPS in theory. However due to bad in-game balance BOF1 Dragon forms are easily overshadowed once you reach certain point. In any case you will still need the Ryu's Final Dragon form to unlock the true ending of the game.

 Out of all BoF series, BoF3 probably is the one that had the best Dragon mechanics but until then, this particular selling point of BOF series are out of whack. In BOF1 apart from the less optimal DPS of the dragon form, the game gatekeeps the subquest with a very poorly designed clues for the required Key Item which is a Fishing Rod. BOF1 hints for the Fishing Rod 5 that is needed to fish out the Dragon Equipments from the Wells spread on the overworld are just plain utter crap. The problem is, These Dragon Gears are 100% Mandatory for Ryu's Strengthening questline including the final form Agni which is crucial for the true ending.

 So in order to acquire this shitty Rod5 you have to find it in a secret Trapdoor Dungeon in Tunlan which is very missable due to poorly given clues from a Single NPC instead of some epic questline which are quite frustrating without any guide. When I was in my first playthrough during my Middle School, I made it to the Final Boss having Ryu have no access to the advanced Dragon Forms whatsoever save for the Early forms. At very least the Dev team did fix this fundamental issue and later incorporated Ryu's powerful Dragon Forms as part of the main storyline.

 Being the first iteration of BoF series, BOF1 storyline is barebone and generic as it gets. Just like many JRPGs where the fledgling hero level up themselves and gather worthy companion, BOF1 follow the same route albeit with more Dragon Flavor. In BOF1 the main antagonists are the Dark Dragon Clan who used their power trying to conquer the World by reviving an Ancient Evil Goddess and only the Light Dragon clan can stand in their way. Being one of the few survivor of Light Dragon Clan, Ryu embarked on journey to defeat the Dark Dragon Ruler Zog while trying to save her sister Sara in the process who let herself kidnapped as distraction.

Having played plenty of JRPGs before, I can't say BOF1 Story is particularly memorable, save for two tragic moments which involve Cerl, one of Jade's Liutenants and Sara, Ryu's sister. At very least BOF2 did better job for me to get invested with its storyline.

 In BOF1 you will face Jade and Goddess Tyr/Myria as the Final Boss, If you grind the powerups properly, these boss fights are quite a breeze as nothing can withstand Karn's Puka Marbl1 Cheese. After you defeat Jade, you do get Empire SD on his throne which is Ryu's best weapon which I missed back then and had my Ryu stuck with Tri-Rang most of the time. As for Goddess Tyr, you do need Agni Form which then will be a straight forward slugfest otherwise you will face slighly difficult boss fight that can be cheesed with Marbl1 Puka but it still lead to Bad Ending nonetheless.

 Just like the storyline, BOF1 Ending is as barebone as it gets as Ryu's Party disband to their respective homeland once accomplished their great mission. The GBA port missed an opportunity for more romance storyline between Ryu and Nina as in BOF2 which was the direct sequel of BOF1 had BOF1 Nina cameo and it is hinted that BOF1 Ryu and Nina eventually got married which is hinted through BOF2 Nina little sister, Mina who inherited Ryu's Blue 

 Overall BOF1 is not a particularly enjoyable JRPG experience for me as the game still had plenty of flaws in the first iteration. However I am glad and relieved that I have fulfilled my long due obligation to settle the debt once and for all after almost 20 years have passed. While I might not really like BOF1, I do quite like BOF2 and more than happy to do another rerun for Complete playthrough which perhaps could happen in near future.