This, like ActRaiser, is another white whale of mine that I bought long ago on Wii Virtual Console but never ended up completing. I even gave this one a second try years later when I tried to get through the GBA port, but I ended up putting it down then too. I pledged to myself that this WOULD be the time I finish Breath of Fire II, and I wouldn't let myself give up. I certainly did kinda wanna give up at some points, but after 30 or so hours and getting the best ending, I finally have beaten this game from my childhood.
Breath of Fire II is a 1994 JRPG made by Capcom and released in America in 1995. It follows the story of Ryu (not that one), who grows up in a small village until the day his father and sister disappear, and the entire village forget who he is. He escapes with another orphan, a dog person named Bow, and go to a nearby cave where they're attacked by a horrible monster. Following a time jump to Ryu and Bow as adults, they live in a completely different town doing odd jobs as "Rangers", and after trying to clear Bow's name when he's framed as a thief, a cascading series of events reveals that there is more to both of their destinies than either of them ever could've imagined.
Breath of Fire II on the SNES is pretty infamous for having a pretty terrible English translation, and boy howdy is that reputation ever deserved. Characters whose names don't stay consistent, poorly localized place names, basic spelling and grammar mistakes, constantly mechanical and unnatural dialogue. They don't completely prevent either understanding or appreciating the story, but they constantly get in the way and they really made me with I had picked up the Japanese version of this on VC instead. That all said, the story that's there is pretty good. It has very strong themes around sacrifice and what it means to be a good leader. There aren't many musical tracks, but the emotional ones really stick their landing when they're used (and what's there ranges from alright to pretty good, especially some of the unique boss themes). While I certainly wouldn't recommend the game wholly on the merits of the writing, I think it really speaks to the quality of the narrative that the story manages to be quite good despite the poor localization. For what it's worth, the GBA port does improve the translation, but from what I remember, that version's translation is still bad (although there has been a fan re-translation that apparently does a pretty good job of fixing things).
The mechanics are pretty basic for a JRPG. You have a party of four for battles, you have members that leave and join as the story goes on, you can swap out your favorites but sometimes you need one specifically for one section, Ryu always has to be in the party. There's a shaman-fusing system that can give certain characters big stat boosts that last until they're either killed or knocked to low health, but it's easy to miss a lot of those shamans and the game is still overall an experience that shouldn't feel very foreign to anyone who's played RPGs before. However, this game has its fair share of rough patches that can really test your patience at times.
In addition to some routinely very vague signposting (whether that's an effect of the localization or if the game has always been that way is anyone's guess), the game has a really uneven difficulty curve. Sudden difficulty spikes of normal enemies and bosses are quite common, and the XP and gold you earn is relatively low overall (they even made you earn 2 or 3 times as much of each per battle in the GBA port). You will very likely need to do some grinding at some point through the game, especially if you realize too late (like I nearly did) that only Bow can learn multi-person healing spells (don't make my mistake and leave him by the wayside! XD). It's certainly not Final Fantasy III-levels of vindictively hard, but the last dungeon or two of the game is pretty damn long and can really test your patience after a while.
The visual design and presentation of the game are quite nice. Given this came out the same year as FFIV, it's certainly not the best looking game on the system, but it still has some nice character and monster designs and some very fluid battle animations (especially on the big, pretty character sprites during battle). As previously mentioned, the music can get a bit repetitive for overworld and dungeon themes (to the point the game even has an option to just turn off the music, as if it expects you to put on your own music while grinding XP), but they do change after certain story events for a nice change of pace.
Verdict: Recommended. Even though I really was struggling at certain points to keep my motivation up during the difficulty spikes, the fact that I'm still considering doing a playthrough of this in Japanese to see that version of the script makes me think that I liked this game more than that initial emotional response. It certainly isn't Final Fantasy (although I'd' say I definitely enjoyed this more than FFIV last year), but it's a commendable effort by Capcom that has really piqued my interest in checking out the rest of the series. If you really want a SNES RPG and want something a little bit different than SquareSoft's stuff, Breath of Fire II may not be the best out there, but it's certainly not a bad choice.
Breath of Fire II is a 1994 JRPG made by Capcom and released in America in 1995. It follows the story of Ryu (not that one), who grows up in a small village until the day his father and sister disappear, and the entire village forget who he is. He escapes with another orphan, a dog person named Bow, and go to a nearby cave where they're attacked by a horrible monster. Following a time jump to Ryu and Bow as adults, they live in a completely different town doing odd jobs as "Rangers", and after trying to clear Bow's name when he's framed as a thief, a cascading series of events reveals that there is more to both of their destinies than either of them ever could've imagined.
Breath of Fire II on the SNES is pretty infamous for having a pretty terrible English translation, and boy howdy is that reputation ever deserved. Characters whose names don't stay consistent, poorly localized place names, basic spelling and grammar mistakes, constantly mechanical and unnatural dialogue. They don't completely prevent either understanding or appreciating the story, but they constantly get in the way and they really made me with I had picked up the Japanese version of this on VC instead. That all said, the story that's there is pretty good. It has very strong themes around sacrifice and what it means to be a good leader. There aren't many musical tracks, but the emotional ones really stick their landing when they're used (and what's there ranges from alright to pretty good, especially some of the unique boss themes). While I certainly wouldn't recommend the game wholly on the merits of the writing, I think it really speaks to the quality of the narrative that the story manages to be quite good despite the poor localization. For what it's worth, the GBA port does improve the translation, but from what I remember, that version's translation is still bad (although there has been a fan re-translation that apparently does a pretty good job of fixing things).
The mechanics are pretty basic for a JRPG. You have a party of four for battles, you have members that leave and join as the story goes on, you can swap out your favorites but sometimes you need one specifically for one section, Ryu always has to be in the party. There's a shaman-fusing system that can give certain characters big stat boosts that last until they're either killed or knocked to low health, but it's easy to miss a lot of those shamans and the game is still overall an experience that shouldn't feel very foreign to anyone who's played RPGs before. However, this game has its fair share of rough patches that can really test your patience at times.
In addition to some routinely very vague signposting (whether that's an effect of the localization or if the game has always been that way is anyone's guess), the game has a really uneven difficulty curve. Sudden difficulty spikes of normal enemies and bosses are quite common, and the XP and gold you earn is relatively low overall (they even made you earn 2 or 3 times as much of each per battle in the GBA port). You will very likely need to do some grinding at some point through the game, especially if you realize too late (like I nearly did) that only Bow can learn multi-person healing spells (don't make my mistake and leave him by the wayside! XD). It's certainly not Final Fantasy III-levels of vindictively hard, but the last dungeon or two of the game is pretty damn long and can really test your patience after a while.
The visual design and presentation of the game are quite nice. Given this came out the same year as FFIV, it's certainly not the best looking game on the system, but it still has some nice character and monster designs and some very fluid battle animations (especially on the big, pretty character sprites during battle). As previously mentioned, the music can get a bit repetitive for overworld and dungeon themes (to the point the game even has an option to just turn off the music, as if it expects you to put on your own music while grinding XP), but they do change after certain story events for a nice change of pace.
Verdict: Recommended. Even though I really was struggling at certain points to keep my motivation up during the difficulty spikes, the fact that I'm still considering doing a playthrough of this in Japanese to see that version of the script makes me think that I liked this game more than that initial emotional response. It certainly isn't Final Fantasy (although I'd' say I definitely enjoyed this more than FFIV last year), but it's a commendable effort by Capcom that has really piqued my interest in checking out the rest of the series. If you really want a SNES RPG and want something a little bit different than SquareSoft's stuff, Breath of Fire II may not be the best out there, but it's certainly not a bad choice.