Retro Corner: Breath of Fire (Super NES) Review · 6:47am Jan 30th, 2020
A new edition of Retro Corner Reviews is up, and I continue reviewing another JRPG called Breath of Fire. As mentioned, Breath of Fire released in a time where RPGs started gaining popularity. Before Final Fantasy VII made strides for the genre in many ways, these B titles were like the backbone of JRPGs. Sure, they weren’t the same quality we often saw in the Final Fantasy series, but it still retains a level of interest. It’s because this genre made people a fan of these games that even a mid-tier RPG will satisfy them. Are games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star IV the best of its genre? No doubt they are, but you can still enjoy others even when these get scored in the 7s and 8s ratings.
The original BoF was Capcom’s first attempt at producing a JRPG after Square and Enix found massive success. The company wasn’t exactly known for these types of games as they always dominated with Mega Man, Street Fighter and Disney licenses. The closet experience is Willow on the NES that had more role playing elements then adventure mechanics. Even then they mostly developed action style games like Demon’s Crest or Final Fight. It makes us wonder how Capcom goes into this without proper experience except knowing what the leading companies were doing. Its obvious Square is the studio they tried to emulate from as I noticed several gameplay mechanics from the Final Fantasy series. It’s rare for them to do this as the publisher mostly brings their own style to any title. With limited experience in developing role-play mechanics and level designs, they had to look somewhere for inspiration. Does the first Breath of Fire hold up today despite Capcom’s lacking experience?
