Breath of Fire II: Not Great but Good

Old turn based style RPGs don’t get as much love as they used to. It’s a style of gameplay which is rather slow and less skill based than many games today. They still have a following, but their focus on grinding and turned based combat is a turn off in an age of first person shooters and slash-em-ups. But those RPGs of the Nes and Super Nes era helped turn Videogames into a story telling format and one of the better examples of this was Breath of Fire 2. 

For a 16-bit game BOF 2 offers stunning art, well written characters and a lot of depth with three different endings depending on your choices, or at least certain, very specific choices. The story in particular I really enjoyed. Ryu is an orphaned under mysterious circumstances. Once grown up he is drawn into a strange series of events involving monsters and the Church of St. Eva. It all sounds pretty generic—and it is—but its well-done generic.  It’s a simple, but long RPG from the nineties and if you go into it with that expectation you won’t be disappointed. 

For the most part the game is a pleasure to play. It is, with the exception of the last areas, paced well. It’s only difficult if you are under leveled or bad at item management. Its gameplay you have seen in some form a hundred times but it’s well done, which makes it fun.

Breath of Fire II does have some flaws. The dungeons can get frustrating and a lot of the plot elements are easy to predict. While the turn based combat is solid, it’s nothing compared to say, Chrono Trigger. And while most of the game is well paced, the last area; infinity is not. By the time  you get there you are seriously under leveled for even the first section, a large, unforgiving maze like dungeon.

Up until the optional last part of the game, the grinding had been tolerable. But even though I had worked to stay ahead I was still at least ten levels under where I needed to be and the grinding just got unbearable-- so much so I stopped playing and completed Link Between Worlds before I came back and forced myself to get those last few levels. Even then, it was a challenge not in the sense of difficultly but it the since of frustration.  Infinity is maze like, and effectively separates you from the over world. If you have to go back for something it means going through the maze again, which is agonizing. 

The flaws aside it’s a fun game and a classic RPG. I totally recommend playing it. That said while it is good it is not amazing, nor is it anything you haven’t seen before. But for what it is, a series RPG for the Super Nes, its good, and as long as you don’t expect more you’ll probably be satisfied.

7.6 out of 10 

-Gedaemon