Breath of Fire II takes place 100 years after the original and expands on every aspect the original made. One thing that's nice to see is that Capcom had faith in this game. The first game was created by Capcom and released by Capcom in Japan, but when it came time to release over here in the States, they decided not to. Enter SquareSoft; SquareSoft publishes the game, and it sells pretty well. So Capcom publishes Breath of Fire II here. Enough of the history lesson and on to the review itself.

The game starts out with the hero as a little kid. You find out that your sister is missing and are asked to find her; you eventually find out she's in the forest by the strange dragon. A little background info is given and then you go back to town by yourself and no one knows you. You meet Bow who becomes your best friend, and your journey begins. The story in Breath of Fire is pretty intriging, but doesn't really get involving until you rescue Spar. The plot this time isn't against an evil Dragon Clan, but against a fake god who thrives on violence and hate. It seems that money, power, and hate are turning people into demons, and one by one new demons are coming out. After you get Spar the whole Church angle now really comes into play, and more and more people are showing up missing. Eventually you'll infiltrate the main church, and then find out who that mysterious dragon really is.

The graphics in Breath of Fire II are a great example of SNES graphics, they are clean and colorful, something Nintendo seems to be in love with. The spells have nice animations, and the 3/4 view of the battle field is a nice change. The soundtrack of Breath of Fire is great; every song fits every area. The music in Tunlan, Fort Sima, and Windia are great tracks. The map in Breath of Fire II is very diverse and has 6 means of getting around. Sten the monkey can use his long arms to stretch across gaps in land, Spar can walk through forests, Rand can roll into a ball and wisk you around, Jean turns into a frog and allows you to hop around and swim in lakes, and what RPG would be complete without sea and air transport? We'll this game uses the bird for air transport (Just like Breath of Fire) and a whale to take you across the sea.

There are innovations galore in Breath of Fire II, many of which are improved from Breath of Fire. The hunting and fishing are back, and this time offer more of a challange. Sadly though, the whole Market area is gone (For those of you who didn't play the original, the market allowed you to set up a store and trade/sell your items, and sometimes some very rare weapons were gotten) but Township makes up for it. Township is such a great thing, every RPG should have this! Township allowed you to pick a town layout (3 types of houses) and then allow 6 tenants to live in there. You can invite weapon dealers, bankers, doctors, artisits, you name it they can come. Also in the township is the great merging facility. After you find shamans who are spread around the world, you are allowed to merge with any two of them. Some combinations wont work, some will make you stronger and some will totally change your character.

Now like in any RPG, your going to have fight for a while to level up, and in this game it's no different. Many scenarios in this game make you use characters you hate and rarely use, so you must fight for a while to get them to an acceptable level. Another typical RPG element is found in here too, death and sacrifice. Numerous secondary characters will give their lives for you to survive, and if your one of those sentimental girls you might be shedding a tear while playing this game. Endings are one of the most important part of an RPG, and like many SNES games there are multiple endings, 3 to be exact. They are the 'Fairy Tale' Ending, The 'Average' Ending, and finally the 'I Let The Bad Guys Own0r Me' Ending (sorry, had to be 1337 there :P). The only problem I have with this game is the dialouge; some of the jokes and conversations, failed translation and look stupid in the English version, but you can get past that.

Overall this is a great edition to any SNES collection. The only problem is finding it, if you got an account on ebay you can probably get it for around $25 for the cart alone, but with the box, manual and map be expecting to pay around $40. It's worth it though, and will keep you wanting more until it's over.

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Review done by RpgRealm for EmulaZone Only! - !No text or graphics may be copied without my consent! -