I came across BOF 1 & 2 on ZSNES and was wondering if they were the same games as BOF 3 & 4 on PS1? Like are they actually the beginning of the BOF series or are they actually the same games b/c of being on diff. systems? HoustonTX224
Breath of Fire 1 & 2 (on the SNES & later was remade on the GBA) are direct sequels of each other. Breath of Fire 1 was the beginning of the entire saga & Breath of Fire 2 is a sequel that happens several hundred years later. However the final bosses of both games seem to be unrelated at all. Breath of Fire 3 on the PSOne is also somewhat of a direct sequel to Breath of Fire 2 seeing as the Windian clan (the clan where every Nina in the entire series comes from) finally lost their wings in the generation of Windians Breath of Fire 3 is set. However, in the course of the game it will be revealed to you that Breath of Fire 3 is in fact a spin off sequel to the first game (when you reach the mural depicting the Final battle in Breath of Fire 1). Also when you finish Breath of Fire 2, there will be a prophecy saying that the hero (in Breath of Fire 2) was not THE REAL hero needed to finish the task of the remaining Dragon Clan & that it will be several hundred years more before the true hero will arise. Sadly this tangent is never touched in Breath of Fire 3, leading to the idea that it is not a direct sequel to the 2nd game. Breath of Fire 4 is a totally new take on the series with a story that has nothing to do with the three earlier games. And there's also Breath of Fire : Dragon Quarter for the PS2, sadly I haven't played this one so I do not know its plot. But a friend of mine who did play it said he hated a feature of the game which was the Dragon's curse thing where he said using the hero's dragon powers shortened your life or something.
I've played Dragon Quarter, but never beat it. Your friend is correct, the game is "different", but not in a good way. There is a multi-level dungeon. You work your way down into the depths of this dungeon to unlock the secrets. Like the other Dragon Breath games, you have visions and dreams of a dragon speaking with you. You and your friend are part of a group of rangers. New recruits, if I remember correctly. I believe the game is kind of Tactical-RPG styled, but it's been a while since I played. When the Hero unlocks the Dragon Powers, he gets a gauge. Using your Dragon Power's causes you to lose your humanity. If you lose your humanity completely, your powers cause you to change into a dragon, and it's game over. These powers are very powerful, but you can quickly use up all your gauge. Especially with your breath attack, which causes your gauge constantly increase the more you use it. This gauge cannot be reset, so you are limited to the amount you can use your powers. This is where the second "different" feature comes in. In order to play the game you have to constantly restart from the beginning. The game has a feature which lets you Save, Restart the game, but keep your EXP, Skills, and all the items you stored in your Locker. While this may sound interesting in theory, in practice it's just tedious and annoying. The game is pretty hard if you don't use the restart ability. And on the multiple play throughs, you get new cutscenes. So if you don't restart, you won't get to see all the cutscenes. All in all, I couldn't bring myself to finish the game.
@TirithRR: By the way you described it, the multilevel dungeon thing & the constant need to start at the very beginning of the Dungeon, I'm kinda thinking it's kinda like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Azure Dreams or even Chocobo's Dungeon or Dragon Warrior: Torneko's Adventures. Or even, Lufia's infamous Gruberik cave that lasts 99 floors long. If so, yes those kind of games does tend to get tedious & annoying fast.
Well, you didn't get game overs if you took too long to beat the game in those. Dragon Quarter had a lot of things I didn't like about it. The fighting was the best part about the game quite frankly and on those rare occasions you would actually use the dragon transformation, you were essentially God. There was pretty much nothing that could kill you in that form and if you wanted to, you could actually power up your attacks(you filled up the D-Counter at a borderline ridiculous rate if you went all the way with it though...) and you'd have Ryu one-shotting the final boss easily. I can understand why they used the D-Counter in this case, but I honestly would've taken a slightly nerfed Dragon transformation over having to rush through the game before the gauge fills up in order to avoid getting a game over. At the very least, they could've given you a way to reduce the D-Counter. I did pull a 1/4 D-Ratio though so while I wasn't exactly big on the game, I did beat it in a spectacular fashion. =/
You know aside from the Dragon transformations, my favorite element of the first three games were the fusion forms. First with that thief who combines with a few of your party mates to create another form that has other special abilities in the first game. Then the Shaman fusions in the second game, then the unique Dragon fusion forms that produces the dragon that has a shell (earth dragon), the gryphon like creature, the Techno Dragon & the great Windian bird from the third. Too bad they scrapped that in the fourth game, but Scias (that samurai dog) was awesome enough to have made up for the loss.
