I played the original Breath of Fire about a month ago, and while I did enjoy it, I found it to be a bit average, and at times unpolished. However now getting around to Breath of Fire II, I really enjoyed it! It improves a lot upon what the original did, especially in gameplay. However it definitely feels like for every 2 steps, they go one step back.
Gameplay still feels quite similar to the original Breath of Fire, but it's massively overhauled to feel more balanced, while also just more polished. The major rebalancing I want to mention are the Dragon Abilities and Fusions. In the original Breath of Fire, Dragon Abilities are in-battle transformations that change the main character's form and abilities in battle, while Fusions combined multiple party members together to create powerful new characters. Though these were fun, they were way too powerful, and removed any challenge the game originally had. Breath of Fire II improves upon these mechanics though! The Dragon Abilities now take the form of powerful spells, though I personally wish they didn't require ALL of the Main Character's AP. While on the other hand, the Fusion, in the guise of the Shaman System, doesn't require specific combinations to create the more powerful fusions, and even then they aren't as powerful as the ones in Breath of Fire I.
The story is also a lot better than the original, I feel. Breath of Fire I's story is a typical fantasy story, and I'm gonna be honest while I'm typing this, I can't remember many specifics. Breath of Fire II's story is a lot darker than its predecessor, and especially the later half of the story was really remarkable.
But as I said prior, for every 2 steps forward, Breath of Fire II takes one step back. I think the biggest issue with this game relates to managing your party members. In Breath of Fire II, you can only change your party members either at the TownShip, or at certain Dragon Statues. The problem is that the game requires you to switch specific party members into your party to do certain actions only they can do. One example is that only one character can traverse through forests. This would be fine enough, as it would be an annoyance sure, but only that. The other issue though is that in this game, characters not in your current party do not gain XP, which means while your main team may be level 40, the one character you need to progress may still be level 10. I feel like the issue is that while the game requires you, it doesn't incentivize you to switch party members, so you come across this situation multiple times, which I found to be an issue. And I wouldn't be making a big deal out of this if it wasn't for a fact these issues were not present in the original Breath of Fire.
I also want to mention, I did a bit of research before deciding which version of Breath of Fire II. I heard that the GBA version gave triple the regular amount of XP, that's the version I chose. And believe me, I can't imagine how grueling the grind on the SNES version could be, the battles are already quite lengthy as is.
But with that aside, I still really enjoyed my time with Breath of Fire II. While it still has its issues, it's definitely a step up from the original. I really can't wait to get into Breath of Fire III though, I've seen screenshots of the game and it looks gorgeous.
Gameplay still feels quite similar to the original Breath of Fire, but it's massively overhauled to feel more balanced, while also just more polished. The major rebalancing I want to mention are the Dragon Abilities and Fusions. In the original Breath of Fire, Dragon Abilities are in-battle transformations that change the main character's form and abilities in battle, while Fusions combined multiple party members together to create powerful new characters. Though these were fun, they were way too powerful, and removed any challenge the game originally had. Breath of Fire II improves upon these mechanics though! The Dragon Abilities now take the form of powerful spells, though I personally wish they didn't require ALL of the Main Character's AP. While on the other hand, the Fusion, in the guise of the Shaman System, doesn't require specific combinations to create the more powerful fusions, and even then they aren't as powerful as the ones in Breath of Fire I.
The story is also a lot better than the original, I feel. Breath of Fire I's story is a typical fantasy story, and I'm gonna be honest while I'm typing this, I can't remember many specifics. Breath of Fire II's story is a lot darker than its predecessor, and especially the later half of the story was really remarkable.
But as I said prior, for every 2 steps forward, Breath of Fire II takes one step back. I think the biggest issue with this game relates to managing your party members. In Breath of Fire II, you can only change your party members either at the TownShip, or at certain Dragon Statues. The problem is that the game requires you to switch specific party members into your party to do certain actions only they can do. One example is that only one character can traverse through forests. This would be fine enough, as it would be an annoyance sure, but only that. The other issue though is that in this game, characters not in your current party do not gain XP, which means while your main team may be level 40, the one character you need to progress may still be level 10. I feel like the issue is that while the game requires you, it doesn't incentivize you to switch party members, so you come across this situation multiple times, which I found to be an issue. And I wouldn't be making a big deal out of this if it wasn't for a fact these issues were not present in the original Breath of Fire.
I also want to mention, I did a bit of research before deciding which version of Breath of Fire II. I heard that the GBA version gave triple the regular amount of XP, that's the version I chose. And believe me, I can't imagine how grueling the grind on the SNES version could be, the battles are already quite lengthy as is.
But with that aside, I still really enjoyed my time with Breath of Fire II. While it still has its issues, it's definitely a step up from the original. I really can't wait to get into Breath of Fire III though, I've seen screenshots of the game and it looks gorgeous.