Breath of Fire

[FelixSH]

The search function didn't spit out a thread, feel free to point me to one, if there is one already for this series.

BoF III was my first real RPG (I'm not counting Sword of Hope, even though it is one - just too different, I feel). I got to play it at a friends home. The graphics blew me away, and I enjoyed it immensly, being immediately hooked. I soon borrowed the console from him, playing it for a few days obsessed. But a few days later, he got the game (left me the console with other stuff like Spyro, so it was still great to have), to sell it away. Just when I got through the Balio and Sunder arc.

I got to play through it some time later, when another friend bought the game. I enjoyed it a lot, though the rest of the game never grabbed me quite as much as the start.

So, after nearly two decades, I started a new file. Wanted to replay this for ages, but always had something else to play. I just got Ryu his equipment, so I barely started, but I already understand why this game captured me immediately. It's incredibly charming. The music in the woods, where you start, gives the place a dreamlike feel. The sprite-work is amazing. You meet two non-aggressive monsters immediately, and they look incredibly adorable. The goo monsters are so cute, I love them. But even now, especially Rei got so many fun animations, it's a joy to watch him. Like when he runs away, after stealing from the armor shop. Or when he carries Ryu to his home, having his tail wrapped around him for balance.

And we immediately establish how:
1) Rei is a super nice guy, just taking in orphans, despite being just a teen himself, only able to get by by stealing.
2) Everyone is in a bad place, because the harvest was bad. So stealing doesn't work out, but farming and hunting also doesn't give off much.
3) Rei and Teepo don't quite get that, even without violence, stealing is still hurting people.

Dunno, maybe it's just the charm, but I feel this goes a bit deeper than RPGs, going a bit more into details. Might just be the writing. In any case, I'm immediately charmed.

My brain might not be filled with nostalgia, like I would have expected, but the game starts of so cozy, I feel right home. Want to spend more time there.

 

[Beowulf]

I started this series with the first game and have always adored it. I look forward to your thoughts!

 

[Lokii]

BoF3 is pretty special imo

 

[Peklo]

If Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG, then Breath of Fire III was the second. I'm sure Felix and other Europeans can relate to the circumstances that would allow that, because as much as the North American console-based curation and localization for the genre that occured was merely a fraction of the total output of the industry, then the selection that trickled to Europe was a small piece of that limited context in turn. That I was very young of course played a part in a game like this having a heavy impact, but also that lack of perspective in knowing what it even was gave it an outsized sense of importance in my personal estimation that wasn't reflected in how the rest of the world perceived it--for years, Balio and Sunder may have been as iconic villains as Sephiroth ended up becoming, for all I knew how to react to them. Impressions like that were magnified by the understanding and interaction of a child in front of a relatively complex video game, so the childhood boogeymen in the narrative--really just starter bullies and pathetic petty criminals--loomed over my experience with how I saw the game, or how much I saw of it: I didn't make it much further after their exit from the story, and certainly never reached the adulthood sections. Breath of Fire III was bigger than I could comprehend or surmount, trying to pick up the language it told its story in as I went along, both the language of a roleplaying game and the literal language it was written and adapted in.

It's a game I love for many reasons, but that sensation of novelty and mystique at the time has been reaffirmed and transformed into a more enduring appreciation because returning to it--having finished it a few times later on--makes it clear that its strengths weren't just because of a narrow individual perspective, but because few others ever did things in the same way that it sought to do. It ignited a love of digital diorama in myself, in ways that hasn't been captured elsewhere. A contemporary like Final Fantasy Tactics is handsome as anything in its own right, but its medium necessitates a kind of impressionistic intimacy to the scenes it depicts; a fragmentary worldview. BoFIII's advantage lies not just in the excellence of its sprite artistry (representative of a peak period for Capcom at large) superimposed on its 3D model backdrops, but the way that presentational context is utilized in the tradition of RPG world abstraction to convey scale, where you don't get a flat map to represent the environment, nor a text-based narration shepherding from one location to next, but the same kind of tactile isometric tableau everything else in the game is built with, just in grander scale. It makes for a tremendous difference in selling the world as a place, in painting a picture of how disconnected maps might fit into a larger ecosystem, and bestows exploring its borders and hidden nooks and dead-ends a kind of immediate physicality and precision because you are still interacting with a slanted grid. It's the number one reason this game is singular in my mind for how it treats environmental design, despite its common tenets being so ubiquitous in its contemporaries otherwise.

I also return to the game for its music, for which it should receive accolades that in my experience it has never gotten. Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki staged a mini-revolution in RPG music in their collaboration, and it's significant that they did it via Breath of Fire, which was an established series with an associated aesthetic by the point they were assigned to work on the third game. Kaida sought to change the image of RPG soundtracks by eschewing traditional orchestration and classical influences (as much as those stylings were present with the sound hardware in use up to that point) and looked to jazzy dance pop as her preferred direction to shake up convention. Kaida and Aoki are one of only two instances I'm aware of where a video game soundtrack was handled by a composer duo of two women (the other being Yoshie Arakawa and Takayanagi on the first two Tekkens), and all these circumstances colliding at once make the end result and that they were seemingly given free rein to pursue it unlikely and special--especially for two novices in their early to mid-twenties. Enthusiasts like ourselves who wax poetic about quarter-century old RPGs may have stronger associations with the work than it was really considered in its time by its creators, and so there was still room to experiment with its identity, which has greatly benefited the work as it's remembered, because there isn't another RPG that sounds like it even now--not even its immediate follow-up which Aoki took on solo, and managed to create a wholly separate and fresh soundscape for, as confidently iconoclastic as when she followed Kaida's lead.

Is this one of the better casts an RPG has had? My gut says yes, and it's not necessarily anything deeply felt or rooted in standout characterization or especially unforgettable concepts. It's more so based on the better qualities of Capcom staff at being skillful cartoonists of colourful personalities, and making their little quirks and nuances materialize through painstaking attention to detail. Like, yes, I love Momo conceptually--a rabbit person, a nerdy scientist lady who is not put through the sexualization or victimization ringer, as a change of pace from the usual Capcom treatment--but why I really remember her is for her little Haniwa assistant and her huge goddamn bazooka she can't hit anything with. If storytelling is broached, I appreciate the game for committing maybe half of its runtime to being a story of kids, with the archetypal Ryu and Nina at the center, and it's for the commitment to this aspect of them that these incarnations track as some of the most compelling the series ever pulled off. Even Dragon Quest V didn't devote itself to a childhood perspective beyond setting a stage, and that BoFIII does so for such an extended duration says a lot about its willingness to portray children in focal roles, in ways that often aren't reciprocated by the willingness of audiences to "endure" kid characters. A simple moment of Nina wordlessly managing to make Ryu burst into tears horsing around in the background while the adults are discussing Grave Plot Developments does so much to instill affection for protagonists who are clearly way over their head but sticking it through regardless, while clinging to childhood for as long as they're allowed to.

It's a game so good that just thinking about it is a kind of small happiness, so maybe it's time for a replay.

 

[Bongo]

I like 1 and 2 better than they deserve, but never made it far in 3 or 4 for reasons that I can't explain to myself, let alone others. I'll try again at some point. That gorgeous 90s Capcom art and character design is a world-beater.

 

[Aurelia]

I’ve never actually played these games I’ve had 3&4 on my Vita for a really long time and like maybe I should play them on the PS1 with my CRT

 

[Falselogic]

Axe of the Blood God just did a podcast on BoF3 led by TT alum Nadia Oxford. It was good. I've played all the BoFs but Ive only ever completed the first.

EDIT: Oh this might be coming out in a week or so... I'm a patron I might have got it early.

 

[FelixSH]

How exciting! I love it, when Nadia talks about this game. But yeah, it's not out yet on the regular feed. The last one that came out was about Terranigma.

 

[YangusKhan]

I think I've landed on liking 3 more than 4 despite 4 being more of a... traditionally "better" game in almost all ways? I don't know how else to phrase that, but I hope you know what I mean. I've still never gotten too terribly far in either game (I believe I at least made it to adult time in 3 which is a decent chunk). In fact, the only BoF I've completed is 1... though I'm not sure how to qualify Dragon Quarter as "completed" what with its multiple endings.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I never played the first, but my friend and I played the heck out of BoF2. That one will always hold a special place in my heart.

I tried BoF3 when it came out, but I couldn't get into it, but I always wished I liked it more than I did. I remember one thing that really bothered me was having only a 3-person party, but still being forced to take along certain characters to certain places; if they didn't happen to be leveled, it really fucked with the difficulty. I think there was a desert that really sucked, too?

 

[Beowulf]

BoF3's biggest weakness was that it was long and relatively slow-moving, particularly compared to the two SNES games that preceded it. (It was on par for a PS1 jrpg, I thought.) But it really took the time with the kids era and meandered through a lot of sidequests and subplots without really pushing towards the overall plot. In BoF1 you always knew you were trying to beat Zog to the Goddess Keys. In BoF2 you could tell from very early on that everything was leading back to your hometown and the mysterious conspiracy surrounding it. In BoF3 it's all very nebulous for a good chunk of the game. That said, I think BoF3 paid off the plot better than any other game in the series. It asked the kind of big questions BoF2 wanted to, but had the writing and the translation to actually pay them off.

The systems are the game's real weakness--they got too creative without quiet working out how to make them suitably fun. The dragon transformations are the only thing game-mechanical thing that didn't get better in BoF4--the skill system, the masters, the map, the battle combos, the fishing game, the random encounter "battlegrounds"; so much was tweaked for 4 to make it actually fun. Unfortunately, BoF4 also got a little up its own ass with the plot and a few problem translations (and some censorship, and probably time constraints near the end) weakened the final product. It's still solid, but not as strong as BoF3 is.

 

[Poster]

I was able to appreciate BoF2 more when I played it via the fan translation that came out some years ago, but it remains the one I liked the least of the series. It's been a while since I have played any of the games, though.

 

[Kirin]

I remember liking both BoF3 and 4 a lot, but it's been so long since I played them I couldn't tell you which I like more. I do remember really really liking the art in 4 particularly, though. I know I played at least some of 1 and/or 2, but I don't think I finished them or owned my own copies.

 

[estragon]

The search function didn't spit out a thread, feel free to point me to one, if there is one already for this series.

I'm linking the prior thread just for the purposes of continuity.

https://talking-time.net/index.php?threads/capcoms-other-ryu-talking-about-breath-of-fire.1459/

 

[FelixSH]

I'm linking the prior thread just for the purposes of continuity.

https://talking-time.net/index.php?threads/capcoms-other-ryu-talking-about-breath-of-fire.1459/

Thanks, was interesting to read through it again. I completely forgot about BoF IIs problems. Well, it's my least favourite of the series anyway, so it works out, I guess.

I didn't intend to write a novel, but I want to talk about so many things. Sorry, can't help myself, I guess.

I reached the part where Balio and Sunder first attack. Considering that none of the three kids they try to kill actually dies, they are really bad at their job. Granted, all three of them have hidden powers behind them, but still - these jerks are really sloppy.

But when you play this the first time, you don't know this yet. Instead, it's a brutal wake-up call. You get your first job, killing the Nue, and it works. And everyone loves you. Then, the group wants more of that, and they don't consider that things aren't as easy as they appear. Evil people can have powerful friends. When you get back to that awesome hut, and you see it burn, it's a brutal shock. And then you try to fight these jerks, and just get destroyed. It's very powerful, waking up alone. Well, not completely - Bunyan took care of Ryu.

Bunyan is a great character. He sees the potential in Rei, Teepo and Ryu, and gives them a chance to prove themselves. Not ideal, as he should taken care to keep Ryu and Teepo away from the Nue, but he cared. And really, it's a rough world in which we find ourselves here. But he saw the potential, and offered help. Which Rei, Teepo and Ryu take.

I really like the structure of this whole prologue. There is no urgency, at all. Sure, there is the problem of getting something to eat, but this gets better when spring comes around. We could spend years in these woods, the small family enjoying each others company. It's cosy, until it isn't anymore. I love that start, and how laid-back it feels. It's a joy, to find an RPG, or a game in general, that just lets you feel the relatively simple live at the start, before making you go on the adventure.

But I also really like how the dungeons work. First, you get this simple mountain that you climb. Maybe you explore a bit, and find some treasure. Or you just go straight up, where a simple boss waits for you. And when it flees, you follow into its cave, which is mainly just more of a dungeon. With the added points, of having the Nue bleed from being hurt. And the kicker - when you kill it, it uses up the last of its strength to stand in front of the most hidden part of the cave. You can ignore that. But if you don't, you see that it was a mother. Though the cubs were dead. They hadn't enough to eat. If you go in there, you get an extra scene with Bunyan, who is confronted by Rei. He didn't tell us, intentionally. Because if we had known, Rei might not have killed the Nue. As I said, it's a harsh world.

The Nue wasn't evil. It was just hungry, like everyone else, so it came down the mountain. It's the little details, which make this game special.

The second dungeon then, goes all out. It's an excellent dungeon. At the start, you don't fight. You make your way through the garden, meeting guards who are slacking of, because they don't get paid enough. One lets you through, if you give him 50 bucks. The other, if you just find his purse. They don't care, because McNeal, the mayor we want to steal the taxes from, is paying them not enough, so they don't care.

We also enter a chicken hut, where we are greeted by a giant monster chicken, who just attacks us (we didn't hurt any of the chicks, so I guess if you are the new guy to feed the chickens, you are in for a bad time). It's just really goofy. And it has this ability to turn characters into adorable eggs. Reis egg form still has the striped tail. It's super cute.

I really love, how this dungeon isn't just another cave, or starts you inside the manor. That the starting area has no random encounters, and you have to explore and talk to people. It's so great. But even inside the manor, which is a more traditional dungeon, you at least meet mini-bosses throughout. And you explore a weirdly-built mansion (which is text, one of the employees complains about how weirdly the rooms are laid out).

Even though it's ages since I played BoF II, this still feels like such a step up. There are so many little details that make it special. Not just things like with the Nue, or how fun the second dungeon is. But also the amazing spritework. Just how Reis tail moves all the time, our how these guys shake themselves, to get dry, after swimming for a bit. How Rei is not only just really cool, but also someone with real values, who is so strongly behind the idea of family (found, not blood), but who is also a big goofball in some situations. The characters and world have just a little bit more care than I would expect.

Man, I'm really looking forward to turn into a DRAGON. I also found out that people have OPINIONS on which masters to use for whom (mainly Ryu) - that way lies madness, I think.

 

[Beowulf]

This thread inspired me to also start a replay of BoF3; I defeated the Nue last night. I had forgotten how much the game hits you with endgame foreshadowing right off the bat: Teepo basically tells you who he is in his first few lines, but you don't have the context to understand it or Ryu's subsequent dream until 40 hours later.

 

[gogglebob]

I'll put this behind spoilers just in case...

And does Twitter still work on here?

Spoiler: Breath of Fire 4 Spoilers

It's a quiet kind of nasty

 

[SpoonyBard]

Having never played BoF4 I don't get it.

Do I want the context?

 

[Peklo]

It's a woman being introduced after having spent the entire game as a distant rescue object, only to be killed to further a dude's manpain development.

 

[Beowulf]

It's a woman being introduced after having spent the entire game as a distant rescue object, only to be killed to further a dude's manpain development.

But tell us how you really feel!

 

[gogglebob]

It's a woman being introduced after having spent the entire game as a distant rescue object, only to be killed to further a dude's manpain development.

Or if you don't want to be reductive about one the most horrific, affecting reveals on the Playstation 1...

To elaborate (and this is basically "the plot" of a significant chunk of Breath of Fire 4):

Spoiler: Spoiler Time Again

The inciting incident of BoF4 is that Elina, Princess of Wyndia, has gone missing. Cray, her cat-boy lover, and Nina, her little sister, set off on a quest to find her. At the start, they find Ryu, who is your RPG amnesiac protagonist du jour. Ryu is the "real" center of the plot, but Cray and Nina searching for Elina is the driving force for much of the adventure. While it is assumed Elina ran away on account of an arranged marriage to a non-cat boy, it is eventually found that she was kidnapped by a rival nation. Yuna, a scientist from said rival nation, has been experimenting on humans (or whatever we call intelligent life on a planet with sentient vegetables), and attempting to create an artificial "Endless"/capital-G God. It is assumed that an immortal creature would be... ya know... pleasant to look at...

So you eventually reach the rival nation, and have to scale this tower that is a pulsating mess or organs. You have to slice entrails in half as you go. It is a fairly typical "you are inside a giant body" dungeon that has been appearing in the Breath of Fire franchise for a while, but with the added messy fidelity of the Playstation 1. It is palpably disgusting, and you have to wreck sections of it to make progress. But it is a videogame, so you are used to pounding uvulas and dicing intestines to move forward. Typical Abadox area. And when you reach the top, you find a surprisingly lovely room housing dear Elina. It is the first you have ever seen her. And she's in bed. And she's not moving the sheets. And what you can see of her looks fine. But given everything you just saw to get there, everything leading up to this room... when the covers are thrown off the bed, you pretty well know what you're about to see...

So, yada yada yada

I could get more into it how this situation ties to the deeper themes of "life" in BoF4, and how Elina being "unknown" is essential to this whole scenario (because "you" are supposed to be Ryu, who has never met Elina. But your trusted party members know and love her, and literally half the world has an opinion on who she is [and they will tell you!] because she is celebrity royalty. This is deliberately staged for nearly the entire game like oh boy one day you're going to get to hang out with Magical Taylor Swift), but suffice to say, it made an impact on me as a player, and I still think about it randomly to this day. I personally found unknowingly slicing through someone's organs on the way to meet her more affecting than a number of "press X to do sad thing" events in more modern games.

Oh, and the whole thing also deliberately feeds into the greater arc of Breath of Fire 1-4, thus somehow making the entire franchise more tragic. Dragon Quarter aside (which is a whole other [good] thing), if the Breath of Fire franchise had to wrap up 20 years ago, it definitely went out on a high (horrible) note.

 

[Peklo]

Elina is a MacGuffin and a prop who doesn't get to exist in the story except as a source of sacrifical tragedy to make her fiance sad, so no, it is not "reductive" to call her treatment as such, in a series and individual game that's prone to displaying callous attitudes about how it should write women. You can dress it up in Big Themes or find some kind of more palatable angle on it, but it's wielded for hollow shock and violation of an idealized, "pure" femininity by specifically transforming her into its opposite. It's really hackneyed as a supposed emotional fulcrum to tie much of the game's narrative and characters to.

 

[Becksworth]

Peklo, I don't think your opinion was reductive, but in respects to SpoonyBard's request for story context, how you presented your answer was reductive, if that makes sense.

Just my two cents trying to defuse the situation.

Edit: Like, I agree the trope is sexist, but I didn't understand the story context either, so I didn't know what you were talking about until gogglebob explained it.

 

[Peklo]

Sure, which is why it's useful to have more than one voice commenting on this stuff. My takeaway-driven pithy summary focuses on what I've gotten out of the writing emotionally and what actually matters to me about it, while how gogglebob elaborated on it is no less opinionated a stance on the same material, just filtered through thinking of it more highly.

 

[FelixSH]

This thread inspired me to also start a replay of BoF3; I defeated the Nue last night. I had forgotten how much the game hits you with endgame foreshadowing right off the bat: Teepo basically tells you who he is in his first few lines, but you don't have the context to understand it or Ryu's subsequent dream until 40 hours later.

Great! I hope you have fun with it.

And yeah, I completely forgot the dream Ryu has at the very start. Funny.

I just did the lighthouse and will soon face the dolphin. Balio and Sunder, as incompetent as they are in the end, are really effective antagonists, for the following part of the game. When I first played the game, I never realized how bad they are at their job, just that I couldn't get away from them, no matter what I did. I know, that's somewhat a sign of them not being really bad, but they are too scared to jump down a mountain, like two little kids do, they don't actually kill Ryu as was their job (because they want to get money out of him). And probably more I'm just forgetting.

Nina, though, is a treasure. She is super adorable, especially when she is just doing stuff in the background, but she is also tough. On her own, she goes into the dungeon to free a criminal (maybe she is just not a complete idiot, like her father, who thinks the little, crying boy in the cage that gets kicked by the two punks, is actually helping them with their scheme). She isn't scared to go on an adventure, obviously dangerous (granted, she doesn't have much of a choice later on). She decides to jump down a mountain. Just isn't scared of anything, that little girl. And at least until you get to the tournament, her magic is pretty useful (especially in the tower).

Momo is great. Sweet, adorable and just the nicest person ever. "You are hunted by scary people? No thing, I'll bring you home." Just the best nerd. And yeah, her getting out that big bazooka is always funny.

I always liked the tournament, with the different gimmicks. Not too much to it, but I remember having a lot of trouble with the first fight, the first time I played this game. Not much trouble now, Ryu did everything on his own. The first time, I defeated the platform guy, because I couldn't survive Patrio, the third guy who often gets critical hits.

The scene afterwards, where Garr decides to take Ryu, and where he just scares Balio and Sunder into accepting, is pretty great. As is the surprise, when we find them waiting at the bridge, with all their goons. I also remember getting Garr the first time, thinking how amazing it is that I have this super powerful guy now in my team...and then realizing that he is way less powerful suddenly. The first time I ever experienced this. Lame. Especially with how Balio and Sunder are super scared of him, when they would easily defeat him in a battle. I'm not even sure if Stallion is stronger than them individually, no idea if I would be able to deal with their thunder spell.

It was a tough fight. Had it gone on a bit longer, I would have probably died. I was really lucky, in that they only made themselves invincible one time, and only used their super attack one time. Honestly, that attack feels unfair. If they spam it, I don't see how you can win this fight.

Then, I got a bunch of enemy techniques, and played around with a few masters. I put Ryu under Mygas, at the start, so he would get more MP. After learning all of Mygas stuff, I put him under Giotto. I know, bad idea or something, but I want him to have a ton of MP, so he can use his dragon forms longer. I do notice, how his power falls of already. Momo and Garr are both stronger then him. Whatever, dragon!

Rapala is clearly just padding, but I had fun there. Training Beyd was nice, and it only took three sessions. Then, his defence was so high that Zig couldn't really hurt him. The lighthouse was annoying, with the ghosts that put you to sleep, and the other ghosts that steal your MP (come on, that is just mean). The boss was surprisingly dangerous, especially when he started confusing my characters. I actually died here, because of this. Second time went way better.

I love this world. I want to spend more time in there. It feels cozy and warm. The spritework continues to be amazing. Great game.

 

[Beowulf]

I've caught up to just after the Tower, on my way to the Plant. I had forgotten how much they took character designs from both of the previous games and made 3D versions of them to use as NPCs: The monkey-people, the armadillo-people, the little cloaked desert guys.

I also am always delighted that Ryu's attack animation changes after you get to Wyndia: While he's with Rei and Teepo, he's uncertain and waves his sword wildly. Once he's with Nina, he switches to a more standard chop.

I've used Examine to collect a lot of skills (which I then remembered to use to hit "weak points" for extra XP), but haven't actually apprenticed to any Masters yet. I remember obsessively following guides in early play-throughs; now I'm trying to decide if I particularly need Masters at all.

 

[Torzelbaum]

I like 1 and 2 better than they deserve, but never made it far in 3 or 4 for reasons that I can't explain to myself, let alone others. I'll try again at some point. That gorgeous 90s Capcom art and character design is a world-beater.

All games are good so it's OK to like 1 & 2 as much as you want to.

 

[FelixSH]

The little touches in this game, the amount of sprite animations, used in only fitting contexts, are so good. The change in Ryus attack animation is a favorite detail of mine, too.

I think I didn't use masters much, the first time. Probably put Nina under Mygas, and then forgot about them. This time, I'm giving Ryu to masters who raise his MP. First Mygas, then Giotto. I want to stay a dragon for all of battle. It works (just beat Mikba, mainly as a dragon, but outside of dragon forms, Ryu is kinda weak. Usable, but not great.

I'm using Garr for the first time, and he just destroys everything (put under Bunyan, front of attack formation).

I also use Rei, because he is a cat guy, just wished I could use Weretiger always. So cool. But too much work in regular battles. But stealing is pretty great here, I already found monsters which had Multivitamins, which heal HP full, for one person, and I can't buy them yet. Will put him under Bunyan.

Don't think you need masters. Maybe put Momo under D'lonzo, so she can hit stuff? Elsewise, they should work fine.

 

[FelixSH]

I love this world. I enjoy my time in it a lot. I even spent a bit of time grinding for abilities (leveling Peko up to level 9, to get all of Merryleeps abilities), something I normally don't do in RPGs. It's not necessary, the game is very easy, even with my way-less-then-ideal Ryu. Garr is like a truck, destroying everything in his path, and with the new formation (chain, I think?), everyone will be as fast as Rei. I'll be wrecking everything.

Anyway, the chill vibe of this game, together with the bright colors, is a joy. I love that there is a cafe, just in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain with a nice view, like you might find on a hiking trail in real live. The lovely details never stop - I just freed Deis, who decided to punch Garr down. She is very naked, and when she stands directly in front of Ryu, he looks away, his head deep-red. Details.

It also feels like, in the end, it might be pretty short. I know, there is still stuff to do before getting the boat, but it feels like that is already the halfway point of the adult section. Not that that's a problem, playing as slow as I do, I imagine I will need between 40 and 50 hours. I really wished there was some dumb, excessive side-quest for the post game, that makes me search for stuff in the whole world. I love how the perspective lends itself to doing so, and how stuff is often hidden in some corners, hard for the player to see. I just wished there was an excuse to continue after Myria. But there is still a long way to go, so whatever.

Is there another RPG with this lack of urgency? It's great. Sure, we have a goal, but if the way is blocked? No biggie, we'll deal with the stuff, but also just take our time. It's perfectly ok for Ryu to fish out all the fish in all the places, if he so chooses. There is no meteor coming down, no enemy hunting us.

I love how this world has so much history, even if it isn't anything new. Great society, but fallen apart. Why? Who knows? All the heavy stuff has happened before. The world is at peace, even if it is slowly decaying.

 

[FelixSH]

As mentioned yesterday, I beat the BoF III. I don't even want to say "defeated Myria", because it doesn't feel right.

Spoiler, of course.

Maybe it's me, maybe it's the game, but as I walked up to Myria, listening to the words of her programs (?), about how she wanted to just protect the world - she did get through to me, a bit. Maybe it's also just the state of the world right now, but let's not go there. Point is, that this is the first game that did this, where I honestly believed what the antagonist told me. Myria, as portrayed here, isn't selfish, at least not in the general way we use the word. She tries hard to protect he people, she feels resonsible for. She doesn't want to kill. She want to conserve.

I'd go so far as to say, that I feel like the final fight against her rings untrue. I don't really believe, that she would attack, try to kill us. The way she was portrayed, up to the very last point, read to me as, for once, she meant what she said: She doesn't want to kill. All life is precious to her. And I feel like, she would rather step down, when Ryu just doesn't want to give in. Dunno, it probably makes no sense. In her mind, the Brood is really dangerous, so she probably has no other choice than to fight Ryu, when thinking as she does.

Maybe it doesn't matter. It made me think about this, about her position maybe being a fair one. She experienced the tragedy of freedom. She wants to make suffering stop.

This doesn't work that way, of course. In the small part that still exists, where people can live, horrible things happen. Children can get enslaved, you have assassins, monsters roam the land. But still, she just feels so honest, in only wanting to help and protect.

It's great, how, when she decides to fight us, and shows us her true form, it is horrifying. At least to a mortal. Maybe they could have gone even more weird and creepy, but I just like that her true form is just scary to look at, even in a world of animal-people.

A favorite touch was near the very end, when Deis comes to her side, so that Myria doesn't have to die alone. Ryu, Nina, the whole group doesn't really understand her. To them, she is this person who took on a control over everyone that no one gave her. She is just an enemy. But she feels very human, and it is nice, that her sister still has clear sympathies for her. And I only realized just now, that of course Myrias true form is that of a snake lady. She is the same race as Deis, after all.

I know, people don't like Rappala. I enjoyed my time there. Yes, it slows the game down, but this is a slow game in its essence. And while I get that the childhood part there is filler, the adult part is not. Making it such a frustrating ordeal to cross the ocean is an essential part of this game. Myria doesn't want anyone to find her. And the ocean is the first frontier for that. It should be hard, it should be frustrating and annoying, making one step forward and immediately another one back. And when you get to the other side? The same thing, the next barrier.

The desert is amazing. And insane. Like, it is basically a minigame, except that it takes an hour with nearly nothing to do. You just walk, sometimes you fight, and look at the stars. The friend who introduced me to this game couldn't make it through. He gave up there. Which is so, so fitting for this game. The desert, even more than the ocean, is the final frontier. The game makes you feel, what the characters feel. Like this enormous ordeal, boring and frustrating. Again, it's kinda insane to put this in an RPG. But I feel like it fits this game so, so well. I certainly enjoyed my time with it. It wasn't really FUN, it just fit so well.

The characters are great. Part of that is the incredible spritework, the animations that are used one or two times in the whole game. There is so much love, so much care there. Just the first monster, the Eye Goo, is so wonderfully made, with them letting their eyes bump onto their body, only to whoop them up again. You have animations for characters shaking off water, or running. There is Garr being speechless, and I think it only comes up in a single moment, that you might not even see. Just so amazing.

But also, they are lovable, and their stories, the ways they develop, are interesting. Momo, to be fair, never does, but she is perfect when you meet her. This genius nerdy airhead, not even with a heart of gold, just this pure kindness and curiosity. She is the best kind of nerd, wanting to learn about machines, but it also felt like she simply enjoyed spending time with these people. She uses a weapon that she can't even really control, which is just great. There is a scene, where she repairs a ship, and then is all "am I the greatest, or what?". And all I could think was "Yeah, you are. Go fish for compliments, you've earned it." I love Momo. I didn't use her in my party, because I wanted to try out Garr, but she is a clear favorite.

Rei is a catperson, so I love him. He was always in my party, giving me superspeed. I never used the Weretiger, which is kind of a shame, but it was just too much of a hassle. He was my support unit. It broke my heart a bit, how he had changed, when we found him as adults. As a kid, he is the great, big brother, bolsterous, sometimes goofy, ready for jokes. And then he gets nearly killed, and loses his family. When you find him, he is basically a wild animal, until you defeat the leader of the mafia that was responsible for everything. But he never changes back. He is scared of his power, and he feels lonely, even when traveling with us. He clearly cares for Ryu, that is obvious. He just stopped laughing.

Garr was a great member of the team. If I needed Momo (which you do relatively often), I switched him out for her, but elsewise, he was a brick wall, smashing everything to bits. People act like he sucks, and that you should use Peco instead of him. Don't know about that, maybe Peco is even better, but Garr was perfectly awesome the way he was. Once again, a sad character. He was created to kill, wasn't he? That was his purpose. "Guardian" feels a bit like a euphemism here. And it's not just him, Gaist is also in a sad state. These people where never created to enjoy their live. Only tools for Myria, who didn't get that, either.

Peco, Yggdrasil, was interesting, for the short time he talked. He feels like the counter to Myria, the idea that trying, working on it, taking risks - it can pay off. He trusts in the heroes, he trusts in the Brood. It is pretty epic, when Myria sends everyone away, and he gets them back. And it's relevant, that even in the desert, one of his trees can create live.

Speaking of, I feel like it's very relevant, that even behind the desert, the last wall Myria had set up, this place where you just die and nothing grows - there are people, and they are very kind and helpful. I feel like this alone destroys Myrias argument, even if I couldn't articulate how.

Ninas arc is also great, and I love her as a character. Always headstrong, always trying to do what is right, seeing the good in people. Unlike her father, she knows that Ryu isn't a bad person when she first sees him. I mean, she has a basic trust, which results in her being kidnapped by Balio and Sunder. Still, even when Ryu transforms into a dragon, she keeps trusting him. That bond is never broken. And you have the multiple layers, of her wanting to be a good daughter, but also to see the world, to experience live. Like a micro version of their struggle against Myria, she also tries to experience more, than just the golden cage her mother wants her to stay in.

I wished Ryu weren't a silent protagonist, because he clearly has a personality. Like all dragons, it seems, he is a gentle giant, incredibly powerful, but not wanting to use this power to destroy anything or kill anyone. He will use it, when he needs to protect his friends, or also himself. But it's not like he wants to fight. Stallion just wouldn't let go, so he burned them to ashes. As an adult, he wakes up from a nightmare, where he kills people as a dragon. That's his nightmare! Killing people with the power he has. But when Myria sends his friends away? He gets angry, clearly shivering.

There is more to say, because the game offers so much. But this has gotten too long already, and it's late. It's a great game, and I enjoyed my time in this world a lot. Certainly one of my favourite RPGs of all time, and now that I replayed it, I can say that again with certainty.