Breath of Fire (video game)

Breath of Fire is a role-playing game from Capcom, originally made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It first came out in Japan in April 1993, and then in North America in August 1994, with Square Soft handling the English translation and marketing. This is the first game in the Breath of Fire series. Capcom considers it their first traditional role-playing game, and it established the style for later entries. The character designs were done by Keiji Inafune, and the music was created by members of Capcom’s in-house sound team, Alph Lyla. The game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in North America and Europe, adding new save features and small graphical improvements, and the English version appeared in Europe for the first time. It came to the New Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2015 in Japan, and to the Nintendo Switch SNES games library in 2019.

The story takes place in a fantasy world and follows a boy named Ryu, one of the last of an ancient race that can turn into mighty dragons. He searches for his sister, and along the way meets other warriors who join his quest. They come into conflict with the Dark Dragon Clan, a militaristic empire trying to revive a mad goddess and take over the world. The game was mostly well received when it came out, and a direct sequel, Breath of Fire II, followed in 1994 in Japan and 1995 in North America.

The gameplay is a traditional role-playing experience with two-dimensional character sprites and a top-down view. Players move characters in four directions through towns and dungeons filled with traps and monsters. To advance the story, players must enter dangerous areas, defeat enemies, and talk to non-player characters. Ryu meets other party members, each with unique abilities in and out of battle, including magic spells and special Personal Actions that help solve puzzles or navigate. The active party can have up to four members, and players can swap them with reserve members at any time, even during battle. An icon-based menu organizes items, equipment, and character info, with shortcuts for unused controller buttons. Players can buy or find items and equipment to strengthen characters.

Combat happens randomly in hostile areas like dungeons. It is turn-based: players input commands for each character at the start of a round, and actions occur in order of each character’s agility rating. Pla