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Saving the world, one random encounter at a time - Let's Play Breath of Fire!
Back to Let's Play
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#2
08-01-2012, 05:49 PM
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Chapter 1: The Razing of Drogen
 I'll be stitching screenshots together fairly often, to keep the post-count down for each update. That's not to say single shots are gone, but hopefully there should be less scrolling down for anyone reading these.   ♪♪The Dragon Warrior♪♪ I'll be linking to the SNES version of the soundtrack as we go along, both because the GBA version doesn't seem to exist on YouTube and because the SNES version has the better soundtrack anyway. The GBA soundtrack isn't much different, anyway - just tinnier, and generally of a not-so-great sound quality. Incidentally, the soundtrack for this game was actually composed by four different people, to various degrees - Yasuaki Fujita, Mari Yamaguchi, Minae Fujii, and Yoko Shimomura (along with one track by Tatsuya Nishimura, who went uncredited for some reason). I'll do my best to point out who composed what, but as a general rule, you can assume that Fujita composed whatever track is linked to unless specified otherwise.  ♪♪White Dragon♪♪ Before we start a new game, there's a prologue that plays if you wait at the title screen for a bit.  While I'm here, I'll mention that the localization for this game was done by Squaresoft at the time, rather than Capcom themselves. It was handled mostly by Ted Woolsey, who is known for translating things like Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy III/VI.  Due to the space limitations of the SNES cartridge, a lot of names were changed or abbreviated from their original Japanese counterparts. Still, though, it's a pretty serviceable translation all around, and really could have been a lot worse, considering what happened to the sequel.  During their short reign, the Dragons fought meaningless battles in pursuit of empty dreams. *A flock of birds flies across the screen once more.* Now, an ominous force emerges and to repeat the cycle.   ♪♪A Powerful Emperor♪♪ Ah, the old "evil empire" routine. That seems to pop up a lot, doesn't it?  *After conferring with the man in blue armor, the blonde man turns to his men and nods. With that, the group begins leaving the room.*  *The screen briefly flashes black. When it fades back in...*  Well damn, I guess they're called the Dark Dragon Clan for a reason, huh?  *More soldiers ride the elevator down and fly off the tower, respectively, as the scene changes once more.*  Huh, I wonder who this wolf-dude is?  Archer fight! Last edited by Albatoss; 09-28-2012 at 07:40 AM. |
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#3
08-01-2012, 05:51 PM
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 Well he can certainly hold his own, whoever he is. Being able to call down lightning on dudes must be pretty sweet.  Hah, look at him go. More like Dark Dragon Weenies, amirite guys?  By which I mean "Run away!"  Something tells me this goddess isn't exactly a pleasant one.  Who wants to bet we have to fight and/or kill her at the end of the game? Calling it now.  I should hope so. Otherwise this wouldn't be much of a game, you know?  Before the world is theirs... *The dragons fly offscreen.* Before the goddess is revived...  The game then fades back into the various company logos. Now would probably be a good time to start a new file, right?  Time to name our protagonist. The character limit is really harsh here - you only get four spaces to name this dude.  Luckily that doesn't matter, since series tradition dictates I name our blue-haired friend Ryu. Don't worry, you all will get to name party members later. Much later. Sort of. Uh... just don't worry about it right now.  Seems good to me. That Dash option is one of the new things in the GBA version - in the SNES version you had to walk everywhere, which probably got pretty annoying at times. To be honest I'm not sure why there wasn't a dash function in the first place, but then I'm not early 90s Capcom so what do I know?  Another new thing for the GBA release is the Exchange option, which lets people trade items between cartridges. I don't know how limited trading is since I've never used it myself, but in theory it sounds pretty cool.  That number next to the save-file is Ryu's level, rather than how many hours you've spent playing. Annoyingly, neither the first nor second BoF game has a timer, not even in the GBA ports, so it can be tough to judge how long it takes to beat the game. I'd say it took me maybe between twenty to thirty hours my first time through, but I can't be sure.  ♪♪Blood Relation♪♪ But screw all that, there's a giant dragon in front of us!  Dragon: We need the power of the Dragon! Last edited by Albatoss; 08-04-2012 at 08:36 PM. |
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#4
08-01-2012, 05:53 PM
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 What the hell? What's with the fire? *The dragon slowly disappears.*  Wait, what? Then that would mean-  Crap, our house is on fire! Wait, our village is on fire! What the hell's going on?! Old woman: We must go! *The old woman walks out of Ryu's bedroom and stands in the hallway, waiting for him to hurry the hell up.* And hurry we shall - but first...  We'll go over what this does later, but we need to grab it now - this is the only chance we'll have to get it.  With that taken care of, we really need to get out of-  Ack!  Old woman: Raba... DeCabra! Cohus... Cuspo!  Old woman: My magic was once strong, but at my age I can barely douse this fire. Well hey, you still put it out. That's gotta count for something, right?  In any case, we should get moving already.  ♪♪Quickening♪♪ I appreciate you waiting for us, lady, but you should already be heading out of the village, shouldn't you?  Wait, why are all these people in our house? Is it really that dangerous outside? Standing around in a burning building isn't exactly safe either, you know! Old woman: This building is safe from the flames for the time being. {If you say so...} White-vested villager: The fire is so intense! It doesn't seem natural! Overalled villager: Let's go! Esma's magic will hold the flames long enough for us to escape! Brown-vested villager: We woke up surrounded by flames! What have we done to deserve this? Purple-haired lady: This building is safe from the flames. But, for how long, I don't know! Old man: We don't know what caused the fire. Luckily, the people here are safe!  You only have to talk to this lady to advance the plot, to those of you who haven't played this game before. *From offscreen:*  *A woman with blue hair enters the building.*  ♪♪Black Dragon♪♪ Sara: We're surrounded! Elder: *steps forward* The Dark Dragon Family is scheming against the other dragon families! *One of the villagers walks up to the old man, who I'm going to assume is the village elder until proven otherwise.* Overalled villager: I hear that Zog, the Dark Dragon King, vowed to conquer the world. And his first target is the Light Dragons! Village elder: Zog is an evil fool!  Ryu turns to face the village elder just before this line is spoken, so he might be the one saying it, but I'm not really sure. There are a few moments in the game like this, but otherwise Ryu remains a silent protagonist. *Esma walks up to the village elder.* Esma: Zog fears us! He doesn't know that we've lost the Power of the Dragon! *The village elder paces for a bit.* Village elder: I won't sit by while they attack us! I say we act now! If we can't escape, there's only one thing to to! Fight! |
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#5
08-01-2012, 05:55 PM
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 We are so screwed. Still, better to go down fighting, right? *Everyone but Sara turns to leave the building.* Sara: Wait! *Sara walks in front of the group and looks at each of them in turn.* Sara: We are too weak. Our group will be devastated by their powerful army. Villager: We can't give up! Let's show them the spirit of the Dragon! *The villager looks at everyone.* Villager: C'mon Sara! Let's go! Sara: No... I must do my part on my own.  Petrificus Totalus! sorry  Sara: I've turned him to stone so that the fire will not affect him. Remember our mission as members of the Light Dragon. {...Clan. Light Dragon Clan. Not sure why she didn't say that when there was enough room in the text-box, but oh well.} Chief: Stone or not, they'll still find us!  Damn! I'm not sure how everyone was moved to the side a few feet, though. I guess Sara has telekinesis, too? *The chief, still not fully turned to stone, struggles as the music fades.* Chief: No! Why does it have to be you? Sara: We've suffered enough. I'll take care of the Dark Dragons.  Wait, what are you doing?! You can't take on the entire Dark Dragon Clan by yourself!  This is not going to go well at all... *Sara leaves the building.*  Soldier: *from offscreen* Hey! Someone's there! *Sara stands in silence. Two Dark Dragon soldiers walk a bit closer to her.* Soldier: She has the power of the Dragon! Take her to the commander!  Oh, I think I see what she's doing - if she can take out their commander, the rest of the soldiers might run away. It's risky, but it's not like she has another choice.  Let's just hope it works. *The soldiers escort Sara outside the village, where the blonde man from the prologue stands waiting.* Soldier: Sir! We've captured a Light Dragon!  Sara: You set fire to our peaceful community. What do you gain from this?  I said earlier that a lot of names were changed or abbreviated in the U.S. release; Jade here is an example of that. His original Japanese name is a bit of a spoiler for the plot, however, so I won't mention what it is just yet. I trust the rest of you will do the same. *Jade turns away from Sara.* Jade: My orders were to eliminate all Light Dragons. I always follow orders. *Jade walks back to his original position, and a soldier moves in front of Sara.* Soldier: I'm just doing my job. Please don't blame me.  ♪♪A Brave General♪♪ Thundaga!  It's hard to tell here due to his flickering sprite, but Jade is dashing across the screen. Jade: Wow! You're strong! Sara: Come on!  Jade: Nothing personal. Sara: We will stop you!  Sara: *turns to face Jade* The goddess keys?! *Jade walks closer to Sara.* Jade: You're a pretty good scrapper. Too bad you're on the wrong side. Sara: Don't come any closer! Last edited by Albatoss; 08-10-2012 at 12:40 PM. |
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#6
08-01-2012, 05:58 PM
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 Sara: What will you do with Tyr, the goddess?  That doesn't sound good...  Sara: Take this, slime! *The music abruptly stops as Sara launches her next spell.*  Sara: You didn't even flinch!  *As the flames whip around his body, Jade stands still, completely unaffected by them.* Jade: C'mon! Is that all you've got?  ♪♪Premature Death♪♪ Tyr encouraged the fighting and watched the war between the Dragons escalate. When the world was at the brink of destruction, a warrior stepped forward.  *The soldiers look around for a few more seconds, but find nothing. As they turn to leave, Jade enters the village.*  *Jade turns away and leaves the village.*  *The music fades away as the scene changes.*  *The villagers begin flickering. After a few seconds, the screen flashes white.*  ♪♪Fate♪♪ Villagers: Sara saved us! *The villagers all gather around the chief.* Villagers: Chief, don't you think that we should fight for Sara? Old Woman: We renounced the Dragons. Their battles aren't ours! {I'm not sure why the game suddenly decided to not use Esma's name here.} *Everyone turns to face Esma.* Villagers: We must fight for Sara and the pride of the Light Dragons! Old Woman: We must think of survival. Soon this place will be in ruins. Villagers: No! *Esma steps back a bit, and...*  I guess Esma's a little more powerful than she gave herself credit for. Old Woman: We must escape now! *Ryu walks in front of the chief.* Chief: I know that I should try to stop you Ryu, but I can't. *Esma turns around as the music fades.*  ♪♪Starting the Journey ~Breath of Fire~♪♪ (composed by Mari Yamaguchi) Chief: Take this! It's not much, but you can use it for equipment. Zog will be brought to justice soon! Good luck, warrior!  This scene confused me a bit my first time through, but in retrospect I think I like it. The chief and Esma already know that Ryu is going to go look for his sister no matter what they say, so instead of trying to convince him not to they just scrape some money together and wish him good luck. It loses a bit of impact in the translation, but I think the point is gotten across well enough. In any case, I believe this is a good stopping point for the first update. Let me know how you guys feel about my screenshot shenanigans; if they're too big or I'm stitching too many together, I'll be sure to work on that for next time. Next time: The start of Ryu's journey! ...But before I go, how's about I show you some pretty pictures? |
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#7
08-01-2012, 06:00 PM
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Artwork
After every update, I'll post some relevant concept art, both because a lot of it is pretty neat and to help make up for a lack of videos this time around.    Our blue-haired hero; that portrait is a new illustration for the GBA version. A possibly interesting note is that Ryu's hair is at its longest and most unruly in this game; it seems to get shorter and/or neater with each subsequent game, to the point that it isn't really long at all in Dragon Quarter. I doubt this is significant in any way; I just find it a bit interesting.  Here's Sara, priestess of the Light Dragon Clan and Ryu's sister. Fun fact: this game's characters were originally designed by Keiji Inafune, but he was replaced mid-development by Tatsuya Yoshikawa. The latter respectfully kept many of the former's design features in his illustrations, however, so it's all good.  Jade, Sara's kidnapper and second-in-command of the Dark Dragon Clan. We haven't gotten a good look of Emperor Zog outside of the prologue, so I'll hold off posting art of him until later.  Lastly, here's Ryu's hometown getting torched by the Dark Dragons. I don't know any Japanese, so I can't translate any of the stuff at the top; anyone who can is more than welcome to do so. In the U.S. release, this place is called Drogen, but in Japan it's called the slightly-more-obvious Dragnier. That's all for now; it isn't much at the moment, but I'll be posting more artwork as we go along. See you all next time! Last edited by Albatoss; 08-01-2012 at 06:35 PM. |
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#8
08-01-2012, 06:05 PM
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Goddamn I love Breath of Fire's 'Evil Empire' BGM, it's a shame it doesn't pop up much in the game from what I remember, and another shame that it doesn't loop continuously.
Here's a fun tidbit: Waaaaaaaaaay back when I was a newbie RPGMaker something like 15 years ago, I used the BoF Empire music as the theme for the villain in my RPGMaker 95 game. I used midis for most of my music, since I had dial-up back then and had to keep the size of the project as low as possible, but that track was one of the only ones I used as a WAV. Also Quote:
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#11
08-02-2012, 03:08 AM
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I don't feel like doing a translation because I'm not that interested in the material and it looks like an incomplete fragment of something longer so it's not satisfying for me, but since I type fast and can read the characters easily, here's a quick and mindless transcription to solve your furigana problem before I go to sleep. Not proofreading it, so may have typos:
right column: それは、数千年（すうせんねん）の月日（つきひ）を隔（へだ）てて再来（さいらい）した、忌（いま）まわし い悪夢（あくむ）の再来（さいらい）なのだろうか・・・？ left column: ひとはその一瞬（いっしゅん）に、幻（まぼろし）のごとくはかないものを求（もと）め、なんと愚（おろ）か しくも争（あらそ）いあうのか・・・。 ＊＊＊ 巨大（きょだい）な竜（りゅう）に変身（へんしん）する能力（のうりょく）をもつ、竜（りゅう）の一族（い ちぞく）。そんな彼（かれ）らが強大（きょうだい）無比（むひ）な力（ちから）をもって、世界（せかい）の 約（やく） |
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#14
08-04-2012, 08:56 PM
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Oh man, I'm excited about this. I could never finish this due to, well, it being BoFI. Shuffling characters around for their abilities was waaaaay more trouble than I signed up for. But I'm still curious about the game as a whole, though.
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#15
08-06-2012, 02:58 PM
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Welcome back, everybody! Let's get started.
Chapter 2: The Liberation of Camlon Castle  ♪♪Starting the Journey ~Breath of Fire~♪♪ We should probably put that 300G to use before we leave - but let's investigate that hut first.  ♪♪Memories♪♪ (composed by Tatsuya Nishimura) Nice statue. But since this is the last village of the Light Dragon Clan, I doubt it's here for decoration.  Dragon Lord: I protect those who take on the mission of the hero. I'm here to record your journey. *The screen briefly fades to black.* Dragon Lord: Your journey has been recorded. Good luck!  Well thanks, Dragon Lord! There's one of these huts in every town (as well as a few other places), and they act as save-points. Handy!  Right, time to stock up on what we can.  That Hair Band and Silk Gown are off-limits to Ryu, but everything else here is fair game.  We'll take the Arm Pad for now, since it provides the best boost to defense out of all the equipment here. The Sabre would be nice, but it's a bit too expensive and we can deal without it for now anyway.  The Trade option is pretty handy, since it lets you equip new weapons and armor that you buy and sell off old stuff at the same time.  I guess Ryu is pretty popular around the village, eh?  In any case, let's see what the item shop has for sale while we're still in the neighborhood. The Mrbl3 (Marble 3?) either decreases the encounter rate or wards battles off entirely for a while; I've never actually used one so I don't know. Herbs, Apples, and Cures are healing items, while Antidotes, T. Drops (Teardrops?), and Lives cure various status effects; more on that later. Of course, we can't actually buy any of these things since we only have 5G to our names at the moment; let's go remedy that, shall we?  I find it amusing that the female merchants bow while males blow hearts at you. But that's not important; we should probably be going, no?  Our first steps into the outside world. We don't have a map at the moment, but if memory serves we're near the center of the continent most of the game takes place on.  ♪♪Beginning of Battle♪♪ Shortly after crossing the bridge near Drogen, we run into our first battle! Yeah, this game has random encounters. It's in the thread title, what do you expect?  Here are our options. Change and Spell (or Special; not sure which) are meaningless right now, but Attack, Item, and Run should be fairly obvious. Pressing the L button lets us use Switch, which lets Ryu move from the front to back line and vice-versa; this isn't important now, but will be a bit later. The R button brings up the Defend command, which does what Defend does in almost every other RPG. Auto will make Ryu continuously attack each enemy in a battle one at a time until they're all dead, which is a handy time-saver later on but is pretty risky to use at the moment.  This is a Flea. They have a ramming attack which deals about 2 damage and they're slightly faster than Ryu since he's still at level 1, but other than that they're pretty easy to take down. That HP gauge lets you see the relative, well, HP of any enemies you fight, even ones you haven't run into before. This also holds true for bosses, to a point; more on that later in the update. |
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#16
08-06-2012, 03:00 PM
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 Here's Ryu's attack animation; it's nice and simple.  ♪♪Victory Song♪♪ Our first victory! The GP gain from Fleas is pretty decent for this area, especially if you encounter more than one in a battle. Speaking of battles, we'll be training around Drogen for a bit until we get a few level-ups.  ♪♪Starting the Journey ~Breath of Fire~♪♪ Sometimes after a battle, various animals will show up on the map. You can actually kill one if you manage to trap it on a corner of the map, but this is hard to do since animals are faster than Ryu even at running speed.  Slimes are the weakest enemies in the game and go down in one hit, even at level 1. They do give decent GP, though.  Ryu also has a chance to counter any physical attacks he receives. I'm not sure if this is random or governed by a specific stat, but it's pretty handy.  Strength up 2 Vigor up 3 Agility up 4 Wisdom up 2 Luck up 1!! Ballin'! Now would probably be a good time to look over our stats, incidentally.  Here's the menu, which you access by pushing Select rather than Start. Weird. In any case, these options should each be fairly obvious; SPEL and CHNG are still unimportant at the moment, though. SAVE is more of a quick-save function; normal saves can only be made with Dragon Lord statues.  Here's Ryu's stats. Let's break down those abbreviations a bit. HP, AP, and EXP: Pretty obvious. AP is MP in any other RPG. STRNGTH: Strength; no, I'm not sure why they couldn't fit an E in there. This plus the attack power of Ryu's currently equipped weapon and any accessory bonuses that apply determines his ATTACK stat; the higher it is, the more damage he'll deal with a physical attack. VIGOR: This plus the armor Ryu has equipped and any accessory bonuses that apply determines his DEFENSE; the higher it is, the less damage Ryu will take from a physical attack. In another RPG it might be called Vitality, Stamina, or just Defense. AGILITY: Derives ACTIVE. Active is Agility minus the sum of all armor penalties (i.e. weight) and any accessory bonuses that apply; having more Active than the enemy will allow Ryu to take his turn first in battle. WISDOM: Derives Intelligence and Magic Defense, not much else. Magic Defense is used when Ryu is defending against a spell; the higher it is, the less damage he'll take from a magic attack. LUCK: Derives FATE. Fate is Luck plus the sum of all accessory bonuses that apply. The higher Ryu's Fate, the more likely he is to dodge an attack, and the more likely he is to deal a critical hit. WPN: Ryu's equipped weapon. The better the weapon, the better his damage output. ARM and HLM: Ryu's equipped armor and helmet, which both contribute to defense. SHD: Ryu's equipped shield. Shields raise both Defense and Active. ETC: These slots are for accessories, which do various things depending on which one you have equipped. We'll worry about that later. Edit: Changed to give a better explanation. Thanks, recentteen14!  Okay, back to training. This game has a day-night cycle, which is why the screen is orangish right now; it's sunset. Enemies show up in slightly larger groups more often at night, but I think that's about all it effects, outside of a few story events.  This is what a critical hit looks like; the number above the Slime is actually 28, I just took the screenshot a little early.  ♪♪Dejection♪♪ We're almost at level 3, but Ryu is pretty low on HP and we don't have any Herbs yet, so we'll rest in town for now.  ♪♪Small Hermitage♪♪ Yeah, this game has separate music for when you're in people's houses (among other places). It's a nice touch.  ♪♪Sleep♪♪ Esma: Come back if you need a rest. I'll keep that in mind. For now, back to training!  HP up 6 AP up 3 Strength up 2 Vigor up 3 Agility up 4 Luck up 1!! Sweet. I think one more level-up should be good for the moment.  Whiff! It passes by really quickly, but Ryu will temporarily phase out of the battle if an enemy misses him. I guess Sara taught him a thing or two. Last edited by Albatoss; 08-10-2012 at 12:46 PM. Reason: recentteen14 gave a better explanation of stats, so I updated the post a bit. Thanks, dude! |
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#17
08-06-2012, 03:03 PM
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 I managed to trap a deer in between these trees while walking around. An Antler has the same effect as an Antidote... somehow.  ♪♪Beginning of Battle♪♪ Bullas are pretty rare around this area, especially two in one battle; they're also the toughest things around here, capable of dealing 3 damage to our level 3 Ryu. Luckily they're also pretty slow, so you shouldn't have to worry about being able to heal if you have any Herbs (which we don't). It was around this point where I finally remembered to use this:  It's not much, but every point counts, right?  ♪♪Victory Song♪♪ HP up 6 AP up 2 Strength up 3 Vigor up 3 Agility up 4 Wisdom up 2 Luck up 2!! Rockin'! I won't be documenting every level-up, since that would probably get pretty annoying, but I will show them occasionally, as well as important ones; you'll see what I mean later on.  The good thing about Herbs is that they're really cheap; I can almost buy two stacks of them. Speaking of which, your inventory space in this game is somewhat limited; you can hold 50 different stacks of items, with 9 of the same item taking up one stack. It's not really something to get too concerned about, though, since any equipment you're wearing doesn't count towards inventory space and key items mostly get their own separate category anyways. In any case, I elect to buy a couple of Antidotes and T. Drops, on the off-chance we'll need them; 9 Herbs should be plenty for now, since they heal 50 HP a pop and Ryu doesn't even have that much yet.  ♪♪Memories♪♪ (composed by Tatsuya Nishimura) Now that we're slightly more prepared than before, we'll save our game again and head off for the next town. Incidentally, the Dragon Lord's sprite flickers constantly while talking to it, so it can be annoying to screenshot sometimes.  ♪♪Starting the Journey ~Breath of Fire~♪♪ The next town isn't very far away from Drogen; just cross the bridge and head east.  ♪♪Sorrow♪♪ This is Camlon; it seems like the Dark Dragon Clan came through here, too. Maybe the locals can tell us where they went. Man at the entrance: Our home town, Nanai has been occupied by the Dark Dragons. Man: The Dark Dragon forces have invaded our land. They now control Nanai. {This Nanai place must be another town somewhere on this continent; we'll keep it in mind.} Green-haired woman: We've escaped one dangerous situation only to face another one! The castle has been occupied by putrid monsters. Green-shirted man: Ryu! We should fight! When I was in Nanai, monsters kicked me out!  We're going to have to take care of this monster problem ourselves, aren't we?  Well, we're in the neighborhood, and it doesn't look like anyone else is up for it. We should probably get some more details from the dude in red first, though; he looks like the ruler of this place.  King: I don't fear the Dark Dragons! Well that's great and all, but it doesn't help us any. I guess we're charging into the castle recklessly!  ♪♪Skyscraper♪♪ Ladies and gentlemen, our first dungeon. (No, I don't know why the music here is called Skyscraper.) This seems kinda familiar for some reason...  In any case, Camlon Castle is pretty linear - a lot of paths are blocked off by rubble, so there's only ever one way to go.  We'll be getting that chest later - for now we'll investigate this pool of water.  Handy! You could walk around this spot and grind for a while if you wanted, but it's not really necessary in this version of the game, so we'll keep going. Last edited by Albatoss; 08-10-2012 at 12:50 PM. |
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#18
08-06-2012, 03:05 PM
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 Free money is always welcome. Hey, is that another water fountain over there?  So it is. Seriously, this dungeon is pretty easy, navigation-wise; its enemies are slightly tougher, though. Speaking of which...  ♪♪Beginning of Battle♪♪ Now would be a good time to go over them, I suppose. This Beak here is pretty fast - it'll always go first unless you're at level 6 or so. Its attacks deal around 5 damage, which is more than the enemies around Drogen could do but still isn't that bad.  P. Bugs are essentially the Slimes of this dungeon - they only take one hit to bring down and deal a measly 1 damage when they roll into you. They also drop the most money out of all the monsters here, averaging from 35 to 40GP or so depending on how large the group is.  They can poison you, though, so they aren't total pushovers... except that they drop Antidotes sometimes, so it's not really a big deal if you do get poisoned.  Creeps are kind of rare, but they aren't too troublesome - while they take a couple hits to defeat, their attacks are about on par with a Flea's in terms of damage.  Glooms are the most dangerous enemies in the castle, because they have one thing the others don't:  The ability to occasionally cast T. Bolt for two-digit damage. There's not a whole lot you can do about it, aside from defeating a Gloom as soon as possible if you run into one.  ♪♪Victory Song♪♪ The enemies here drop items sometimes, so you probably won't be hurting for Herbs unless you use one after every fight. Which is a bad idea, because you might need those Herbs towards the end of this place.  ♪♪Skyscraper♪♪ In any case, we should keep moving. Fun fact: those bones on the ground make crackling sounds when you walk over them. Pretty neat!  I managed to get myself poisoned on the way to this staircase, but it's nothing an Antidote can't clear up.  Ooh, stuff. I wonder what we'll have to do to get that door open - it looks pretty heavy.  Uh... just walk up to it and press A, I guess. Good thing we didn't have to pick a lock or anything like that.  Sweet! That Bronze Sword is a pretty decent upgrade over the Dirk we started the game with.  Delicious loot. The Gauntlet is an upgrade over the Wooden Shield we have, boosting Ryu's Defense by 3 and his Active by 1. Last edited by Albatoss; 08-10-2012 at 12:54 PM. |
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#19
08-06-2012, 03:07 PM
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 Taking the stairs at the end of the hallway puts us on the other side of the first floor.  More stairs. We'll get that chest we passed by soon enough.  The Suede Cape sounds pretty sweet, but it's actually a straight downgrade from the Arm Pad we're wearing at the moment. We'll sell this later.  More armor upgrades. Somehow the image of Ryu in a straw hat amuses me.  We're almost at the end of this place - on top of being pretty easy, Camlon Castle is also pretty short.  This chest introduces us to the concept of traps - this one is harmless since Ryu isn't using his AP for anything, but some of the later-game ones are pretty nasty. There's no telling if a chest has a trap or not until after you try to open it, either, so you might be screwed if you encounter one - at least for now.  I'm pretty sure this is the only positive trap in the entire game, so don't get your hopes up for any more.  Hmm... this room looks slightly more well-kept than the others. I think we're in the throne room.  ...Seriously? You guys let your castle get taken over by this tiny frog? Granted, the fact that it can talk is kinda creepy, but I don't see how-  Oh. I guess "giant frog demon" is slightly more plausible, then. Giant frog: Slimeless humans! You think you can drive me out. Go ahead, try!  ♪♪A Brave General♪♪ Since it's the first boss and all, Frog isn't too tough.  It has a few attacks of varying power - the ram hits for around 8 damage, while the purple ball and tongue attacks deal around 5 or 6.  This isn't too bad to deal with, since an Herb will fully heal us at this point, but keep in mind that Frog is faster than us; if you feel you need it, it might be wise to use an Herb a little early.  Frog has around 130 HP, so you shouldn't be fighting against him for long. Just use your Herbs wisely and you're not really in any danger. It's not quite that simple, though...  You see, almost every boss in this game has a second, invisible health bar after you deplete the first one. This second wind of sorts also gives a lot of bosses new or more powerful attacks, so you might be caught off-guard if the first part of the fight drained a lot of your resources. |
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#20
08-06-2012, 03:10 PM
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 ♪♪Victory Song♪♪ Frog isn't any more dangerous, though - all it takes is one more attack to bring him down. He also gave enough experience to push Ryu up two levels, which is nice.  ♪♪Skyscraper♪♪ *The castle shakes, and the screen briefly flashes white.* Awesome, we single-handedly cleared out a monster infestation! We should probably check that chest before heading back out.  Sweet. We're sitting on around 850GP right now, so we should be able to upgrade our equipment a bit at the next town. *Some quick backtracking later...*  ♪♪Day and Night♪♪ (composed by Minae Fujii) King: That scar... It looks familiar. *The screen briefly shakes, causing the king to look around in a panic.*  They have the what?! King: There is a hidden palace in the Nanai dungeon. Find the Quake Control. Please go there and put an end to these quakes. Well I don't see why not since a) Nanai is probably where we were heading next anyway, and b) it'll let us stick it to the Dark Dragons a bit. But, uh... why would you ever build a machine that lets you cause earthquakes at will? Who the hell thought that was a good idea?  But I guess we probably won't get an answer anytime soon, so we'll talk to the townspeople before leaving. They might have some advice for us, like, say, where Nanai actually is. Purple-robed noble: Let's sneak into Nanai tonight, when the enemy forces are resting. Green-robed noble: The Quake Control can cause quakes anywhere. If it falls into evil hands... {Seriously, what possible practical use could this thing serve? Landscaping? There are less dangerous methods of doing that!} Green-shirted villager: I didn't know Ryu was such a great warrior. Maybe he could rid us of Zog. {Perhaps. And we're right here! Why refer to us in the third person?} Purple-shirted villager: Did you feel that? The ground shook! We've never had earthquakes before! Soldiers: I should've fought the monsters. It was my duty! But they were too strong! {If you were at level 2, sure. Otherwise... not really.}  Camlon looks a little nicer, at least. I guess the lack of monsters does some good for the environment.  ♪♪Memories♪♪ (composed by Tatsuya Nishimura) In any case, I think this is a good place to stop for now; we'll try to find Nanai and stop this Quake Control later. Next time: Finding (and sneaking into) Nanai! |
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#21
08-06-2012, 03:11 PM
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Artwork
 Here's the Gauntlet we picked up. Or just a gauntlet; not really sure.  The Beak; in Japan it's known as the Gonghead for some reason.  The Cloth Shirt for sale in Drogen. Pretty casual.  Frog, the first boss; in Japan it's called the Buribu.  The Bronze Sword we picked up in Camlon Castle. Looks kinda rusty.  Bullas are weird. Just look at that humpback! In the Japanese release they're called Biruburus.  Fleas (Ripas) are weirder, though; it's a pair of eyes with wings, for cryin' out loud.  This might be the Dirk Ryu started out with. Or it could just be a shortsword. *shrug*  The Pill Bug (Guraniddo). Silly bug, he thinks he's threatening. :3  Glooms (Thundercries) are kinda creepy.  Uh, oops, forgot to include the Slime at first. >_> They certainly are shiny. More next time, possibly. Last edited by Albatoss; 08-06-2012 at 03:22 PM. |
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#23
08-06-2012, 04:41 PM
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"Camlon!"
"Camlon!" "Camlon!" Quote:
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#24
08-06-2012, 04:45 PM
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Apparently, Beak's Japanese name is meant to be Gunhead. Still doesn't make much sense in this game, but it does in the Japanese/fan-translated versions of the second game, wherein its palette swaps are named after different types of guns.
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#25
08-06-2012, 08:37 PM
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Okay, so when the frog uses his tongue attack it's a line of circles...and in Chrono Trigger, whenever Frog uses a tongue attack it's a line of circles. Is this some trope in video games that I wasn't aware of?
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#26
08-06-2012, 09:15 PM
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"Saving the world, one random encounter at a time." sounds like the motto of some adventurers for hire group (or the sub-title of an RPG-themed webcomic).
Quote:
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#27
08-06-2012, 10:12 PM
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I can't think of any other way you could have any sort of tongue/tentacle/tendril strike at various points on screen with the technical limitations of the day. Hell, even today, if you want to do something like that with sprites, your only options would be:
- Make a separate (HUGE) frame for every possible step of animation to reach every possible location on screen. - Stack up a huge number of rotatable tongue-segment sprites and stretch/turn the chain of them out to, really, just do a slightly more sophisticated version of the sphere trick here. Pretty sure a couple Castlevania games have taken this route, and it's basically Vanillaware's schtick. The fact that this sort of thing is so hard to do without sprite-rotation is why I'm so incredibly impressed by the skeletal dragon Kayin has in Brave Earth there. |
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#28
08-07-2012, 01:38 AM
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Googled a page with the stats explained for ya, also I still have to get this game... I've got BoF2 but never have managed to get a hold of a BoF1 copy
Str (Strength) derives ATK (Attack). ATK is Str + Weapon + ATK bonuses (like the Ring) ATK is used against the enemy's defense to deal damage. Vigor derives DEF (Defense). DEF is Vigor + Combined Armor bonuses + DEF Bonuses (like the SkullRG) DEF is used against an enemy's attack to determine damage taken for the targeted character. Agil (Agility) derives ACT (Active or better called Action). ACT is the sum of all armor PENALTIES (in the form of weight) and ACT bonuses (like the Clog). ACT is used to determine a character's order in the battle. Having more ACT than the enemy will allow them to go ahead of them turnwise. Wisdom derives INT (Intelligence) and MAG (Magic Defense). It's hard to derive much more from both IMO. MAG is used when you are using the DEFEND command on a character for a magic attack. Having a higher MAG stat decreases the damage taken. Luck derives FATE. FATE is the sum of all FATE bonuses (DarkBR and Prisoner Clothes). Having more FATE increases your chances to deal critical hits and increase the chance to evade an attack. |
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#29
08-07-2012, 03:18 PM
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It's hard to get across with the barebones translation, but the Quake Control is likely a plate tectonics control system ala PSIV's for terraforming purposes. The first three (four? Can't remember if IV is explicitly linked to the first trilogy) all take place in the same "world" if at vastly different points in time, and it's inferred more in III that there was a super-advanced civilization that ruled the world (and the Dragons were the ones ruling it), until the ruling class fell to warring amongst themselves for control of some mysterious power (which may be pertinent to the backstory of this game
 ).
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#30
08-07-2012, 03:59 PM
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Also: Looks like menu text entries are limited to seven spaces due to, well, space limitations. I'm just irked that they tossed the pretty awesome original UI, though it's understandable given the shift to a portable platform.
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